Local Columns

Session Is Just Around Corner

Wednesday begins the annual 60-day period when your elected delegates and state senators descend on Charleston to wade through thousands of bills and decide on what 10% of those bills will be sent to the governor. I typically look forward to covering the legislative session, but I’ve got some reservations this year. You’d think with one party with significant majorities in both chambers will be able to move bills through both easily and speedily. That is a concern from a transparency perspective, but I think the opposite could happen. With 31 out of 34 senators part of the GOP, ...

Congress: Expand Child Tax Credit To Support Families

News anchors and political pundits constantly tell us how incredibly divided we are. Social media platforms give instant access to atrocities and the harshest rhetoric. Recent election cycles have surfaced countless realities that those in power avoided for far too long. Despite what may seem like a tense environment, when I look around—especially here at home in the Mountain State—I still see my neighbors wave and smile as the kids play with the family next door, and local small business owners greeting customers with as warm a welcome as ever. We must not lose sight of our ...

Marshall Memo: Commission Reorganizes; Strand Theatre Continues To Grow

Michael (Mike) T. Ferro was elected to a two year term as president of the Marshall County Commission at the meeting held on Tuesday. He has been a commissioner for the past four years, and previously had served 10 years as a state House of Delegates member. Ferro replaces John D. Gruzinskas who has served as president for the past two years. As it turns out all three county commissioners will have served as president, as Scott G. Varner served in that position four years ago. Tuesday also marked the first day for Connie Howard as County Clerk, she was elected to that office in ...

Freedom of the Press

One of the purposes of this column space is to take you, literally, into my reporter's notebook, especially for big news stories. And one of the biggest stories I've written during my time here is this controversy over the alleged retaliation by West Virginia Public Broadcasting against one of its reporters. To summarize in case you haven't read my story last week: WVPB part-time health reporter Amelia Knisely alleges that WVPB parted ways with her the week before Christmas after the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources allegedly placed pressure on WVPB to pull Knisely ...

Sen. Joe Manchin: Historic Year in Congress Paves Way for W.Va.’s Future

When the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, 2023, it will mark the end of the longest 50-50 Senate in the history of our country. The narrow makeup forced compromise and ultimately the 117th Congress was the most productive Congress in decades. As Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural ...