Local Columns

Sen. Shelley Capito Is Bipartisan Leader for Seniors

When our leaders in D.C. accomplish something bipartisan that helps people, it is worth talking about. Earlier this year, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito led a group of 60 of her colleagues to sign a letter in support of Medicare Advantage. In these political times, getting more than half of the Senate to agree on anything is a real achievement. The fact that the agreement was around a program as important as Medicare Advantage makes it even better. Medicare Advantage is a public-private partnership to provide high-quality and affordable health care coverage to seniors like me. I get to ...

Is West Virginia’s Higher Education Market Saturated?

I was probably a bit harsh in a lead I wrote for my story last week where I accused Gov. Jim Justice of inserting himself in the attempt by the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission to pull the degree-granting authority for Alderson Broaddus University in Barbour County. However, I didn’t really know any other way to accurately describe it at the time. I was also mildly annoyed I had to write about the issue to begin with. My beat is state government, and while I do cover the HEPC from time to time, I usually only cover it as far as its broad actions overseeing the ...

Senate Bill Saves W.Va. Money and Promotes Health

As a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates representing Brooke and Ohio counties, I am always looking for ways to improve healthcare outcomes for people in our state. We did this last legislative session by passing Senate Bill 476, which opened the Medicaid Managed Care program to additional insurance providers. This bill not only improves healthcare outcomes for those on Medicaid, but it also saves the state money, and saving taxpayer dollars is something that I also take very seriously. This bill was a success because it introduced the free market into the Medicaid Managed ...

W.Va.’s Hope Scholarship Offers Hope to Students, Families

West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore has announced his office approved more than 5,000 Hope Scholarship applications for the 2023-24 school year, with another 1,000 pending applications in the pipeline. Supporters of educational choice celebrate this as an opportunity for those Hope Scholarship recipients to access a learning environment that best meets their needs via this robust education savings account program. For families who utilize these scholarships — which are publicly funded, government authorized savings accounts that may be used on multiple, but restricted, ...

New Twist in West Virginia Attorney General Race

I have to admit, when I first heard the rumors last week that State Auditor J.B. McCuskey was going to jump out of the Republican race for governor of West Virginia and into the attorney general’s race, I didn’t believe it. I was told last week by sources there was a poll out in the field with the hypothetical scenario of McCuskey as a candidate for attorney general, but I just couldn’t believe it. For one, I had been on the phone with McCuskey on July 19 arranging for an interview for a series I’m working on the Republican candidates for governor. While several people had ...

Charting Wheeling’s Accomplishments

As Mayor Glenn Elliott concluded his seventh and final State of the City address on July 25th, I couldn’t help but be grateful and thankful for the community we live in. Over the last seven years we have seen significant progress take place all over the city of Wheeling. Around 450 streets and alleys have been paved, almost 30 parks and playgrounds have seen investment and there are currently around 30 projects taking place in or around downtown, representing more than $200 million of investment. We have new housing options planned for downtown to meet the demand developers are ...