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A home run for youth baseball

Editorials

Oftentimes, it takes a community to get things done. No better example of this was in the launch of this year’s season of the Wellsburg Baseball and Softball Association, which was in danger of not being able to have a season at all after the discovery of missing funds – allegedly the result of embezzlement by a former league official. When word got out, the community came together, with parents and coaches reaching out to area residents and business owners for support. Donations came in with the hope of refilling the league’s coffers before it was time for the youthful ...

Keep up with a safe workplace

Editorials

While, these days, we’re all used to efforts to keep workers safe, no matter the environment, we also remember that it wasn’t always that way. Today, April 28, is observed as the World Day for Safety and Health at Work, and it would be good for all of us to take time – today and every day after – to remember the efforts to protect ourselves and our coworkers, and just how far it’s all come. We live in an area prized for its industrial past, where steel mills, glass factories, potteries and more dotted the landscape. Weirton Steel, along with its successors, has witnessed ...

Learning some new tools of the trade

Local Columns

I had the great pleasure to go to the Media Innovation Center at West Virginia University last week and attend an enlightening presentation on the use of AI (artificial intelligence) in new reporting. You hear a lot today about artificial intelligence, or AI. Just about every digital product or electronic device advertises some AI feature. There are AI-generated news stories now, AI-generated images, videos, and even podcasts. AI has the same problem that many different phrases have in that it has become an empty bag one can put whatever they want into it. Ask five people what AI is ...

Spreading the green around the valley

Local Columns

Growing up in the Ohio Valley, I don’t recall much of an emphasis placed on the idea of Earth Day in my youth. Perhaps it was because the observation was still in its own infancy, having been created in the 1970s and, at the time, those involved were focused primarily on governmental policies, such as the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of various environmental laws, such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. Myself a child of 1979 and raised in the 1980s and 1990s, I don’t remember too many instances of school or community activities ...

Fast work not always best work

Editorials

As efforts from Washington, D.C., to reduce the size of the federal government continue with a sense of urgency that has yielded mixed results, U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., was right to urge U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reverse course on a reduction in force effort that has affected the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Morgantown. “I believe in the president’s vision to right size our government, but I do not think eliminating the NIOSH coal programs and research will accomplish that goal,” ...

An anonymous Easter letter that required my response

Local Columns

Today, I am going to reply to a recent letter I received at work. Kind of like an Ann Landers thing ... minus the fact she is dead and this person never even asked for my opinion. So, in reality, it isn’t anything like an Ann Landers thing at all. To Whom it May Concern, I received your Easter card in the mail the other day. The Bible scripture you enclosed was nice to hear. We all need a reminder sometimes that God is with us always. The hand-written letter inside the card really did get my attention. Hence, the reason I am writing this column. I honestly hope you ...