Local Columns

To The Moon

If you're reading this today, I am in George Town, the capital city of the Cayman Islands in the middle of my third Royal Caribbean cruise. I'm writing this column before shipping off from Port Canaveral in Florida along the Space Coast, a short drive away from the launchpad where the Artemis 2 mission to orbit the moon took off. It seems every time I leave for my annual vacation, which sometimes is a cruise but usually is a week’s stay at my mother-in-law's timeshare in Kissimmee, I miss witnessing a rocket launch of some sort. These days, it's usually a SpaceX launch. In fact, ...

Pope Urging Leaders To See Wisdom Of Christ’s Words

Columnist Cal Thomas fired his guns at Pope Leo XIV for his comments on the armed conflict going on in the Middle East and the Pope’s preference for negotiation over war (The Intelligencer, April 10, 2026). A rebuttal is in order. First, this Pope or any Pope’s comments on a political situation are not infallible. Papal infallibility in Catholic practice is very rare and is carefully circumscribed to deal only with matters of faith and morals that can affect the eternal welfare of the faithful. Pope Leo has not claimed his views are infallible. Second, Mr. Thomas seems to think ...

Reporter’s Notebook: The Action Of Inaction

We can now put a bow on the now-completed 2026 regular session of the West Virginia Legislature now that Gov. Patrick Morrisey has acted on most of the 306 bills passed during the 60-day time period between Jan. 14 and March 14. Morrisey had 15 days, not counting Sundays, following the sine die adjournment of the Legislature at midnight March 14 to decide to sign bills, veto bills or let bills go into law without his signature. And that is exactly what he did with 10 bills, choosing not to sign or veto those bills. The question some have is why? You can make some assumptions about ...

The Action Of Inaction

We can now put a bow on the now-completed 2026 regular session of the West Virginia Legislature now that Gov. Patrick Morrisey has acted on most of the 306 bills passed during the 60-day time period between Jan. 14 and March 14. Morrisey had 15 days, not counting Sundays, following the sine die adjournment of the Legislature at midnight March 14 to decide to sign bills, veto bills or let bills go into law without his signature. And that is exactly what he did with 10 bills, choosing not to sign or veto those bills. The question some have is why? You can make some assumptions ...

On Lilies, Empty Tombs And Faith This Easter

Most authorities agree that a missionary, Mr. Roberts, first introduced the lovely Bermuda Easter lily, which so many of us enjoy today. Many of the Easter lilies which symbolize the Resurrection in churches everywhere are Bermuda lilies. Thousands and thousands of lily bulbs and stems are exported from Bermuda each year. They were first introduced to Bermuda about 1850 when Mr. Roberts, whose ministry coincides with that date, was returning home from Japan. The lily is a native of Japan—the Ryukyu Islands to be exact, a chain of islands stretching from the south of Japan to ...

Bringing Down The Gavel

The two leaders of the West Virginia Legislature came under scrutiny last week for different issues, though one is being more transparent than the other one. First, my friend Brad McElhinny with West Virginia MetroNews reported last week that a political action committee connected to Senate President Randy Smith, R-Preston, began putting up ads attacking a rival, state Sen. Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, as he faces a contested GOP primary. The PAC, Mountaineer Conservative Coalition, pushed an ad taking Takubo to task for a 2021 vote on the bill now called the Save Women's Sports Act. That ...