Local Columns

Senate Seat Chase

Attention is already turning to the midterm elections next year, which will determine whether Republicans can continue to hold the majorities in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. In West Virginia, that means that U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., is up for reelection to a possible third six-year term after winning election to the seat held by former senator Jay Rockefeller in 2014. I say “possible,” because she is beginning to get challengers to her right and no elections are sure things. The latest person to throw their hat in the ring is freshman ...

March for Freedom Is Not Forgotten This Memorial Day

Sometimes on one of those late spring days when Memorial Day comes, you can almost see them, marching, marching onward, the legion of the forgotten dead. In the soft stillness and solitude of a country graveyard in the evening hush, occasionally you can hear the muffled beat of a drum as the endless ranks of that forgotten legion slip by, file after file, in ghostly procession never ending. They materialize, these war dead whom we honor Memorial Day, somehow, when the eye wanders idly across old grave markers to halt at a small obelisk with worn carvings making the words almost ...

In West Virginia, Public Health Should Not Be Optional

I applaud the Ohio Country Board of Education for their commitment to follow the law of the state of West Virginia in regards to vaccination exemptions for children entering public education. This is not a political issue, not a religious issue, nor even human rights issue. This is a public health issue! Vaccination mandates over the past decades brought a major decline in the number of cases of diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, and hepatitis B among children and adults across the state and the country. There have been medical exemptions ...

Marshall Memo: Relay For Life Set for May 30; Summer Food Programs; and Golf

Relay for Life of Marshall County will celebrate “40 Years of Impact” on Friday, May 30, at the John Marshall North Parking Lot. This event marks 40 years since Dr. Gordy Klatt, a colorectal surgeon from Tacoma, Washington, walked for 24 hours around a track to support his cancer patients, launching the Relay for Life initiative for the American Cancer Society. Locally, Relay for Life of Marshall County has contributed to finding cures and new treatments for over 20 years. The event begins at 6 p.m. with an opening ceremony, followed by a first lap for cancer survivors and a ...

West Virginia: Built on Hard Work and Energy Production

West Virginia has always been an energy state. Our story is one of labor, resourcefulness and resilience. But it’s more than a story of energy production. It’s a story about people, jobs and the backbone of American manufacturing. For more than a century, West Virginians have fueled not just homes and industries but entire economies. Energy in West Virginia isn’t an abstract concept. It’s real. It’s dirty boots, 12-hour shifts and a job you can build a life around. And those jobs don’t just exist at the wellhead or the coal mine. They stretch across supply chains into ...

America Has Resources To Confront China’s Mineral Extortion

It is no secret that China has weaponized control of the world’s mineral supply chains. We’ve already seen this when both the Biden and Trump administrations challenged China’s unfair trade practices. Beijing has responded by simply restricting or banning the export of minerals needed for America’s economy and defense industrial base. China’s ever-growing chokehold on mineral supply chains—and U.S. reliance on imports—has been America’s Achilles’ heel for more than a decade. According to a government analysis, the U.S. is import-reliant for 40 critical minerals, with ...