Opinion

Remembering Rusty Jebbia

Editorials

The City of Wheeling lost one of its best public servants with the passing of Rusty Jebbia at age 71. Jebbia spent 44 years with the city in numerous roles, starting as part of Wheeling’s engineering department, moving to assistant city manager and wrapping up his career as the city’s director of public works. Those who knew him remembered him as a cherished wealth of information, someone always willing to help, even if it was in the dead of night. “Rusty was an incredibly dedicated public official who loved this city wholeheartedly,” Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron ...

A Winning Team-Up for a Key Concern

Editorials

It’s good to see Ohio County Schools and the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese come together for a cause, especially one as serious as with their latest collaboration. The two organizations had two of their most visible students ­— Wheeling Park High School football player Brennan Wack and Wheeling Central Catholic High School boys basketball player Eli Sancomb — unite for a video cautioning young men about the dangers of “sextortion.” It’s a growing issue in this age of technology, when a teen sends someone they just met online a compromising photo, only to find out it’s ...

Streamlining Ohio Schools

Editorials

Lawmakers who were sent by voters to Columbus to cut wasteful spending and unnecessary layers of government have an interesting idea in front of them in state House Bill 520. The measure, now sitting in the House Local Government Committee would “establish and convene a Blue Ribbon Committee in each county to review and assess each taxing unit within the county and each county program or department to identify duplication of services and generally to streamline and improve county efficiency and effectiveness.” One could point out the irony of attacking inefficient, multi-layered ...

Finding Ways To Make West Virginia Fitter

Editorials

As a few attempts to address West Virginia’s woeful health indicators and perpetually bottom-of-the-barrel quality of life rankings have made their way into public policy over the past year, lawmakers have continued to look for new ways to address the matter. As it seems these days everything must have a call back to some other well-known political slogan, the Make West Virginia Healthy Act of 2026 is meant to get ahead of some of our state’s worst health challenges. “We all know the numbers … West Virginia leads the nation in chronic disease, disability, preventable ...

Fixing Ohio Food Deserts

Editorials

Food insecurity may seem to many of us like a problem for someone else, somewhere else. For others, it is an urgent and very personal worry. A map produced by the Institute for Local Self Reliance shows there are food deserts in every state. In Ohio, they are growing. According to a report by the Ohio Capital Journal, the institute defines an urban food desert as a low-income census tract with at least 500 people or 33% of the population living a mile or more from the nearest supermarket, large grocery or supercenter; rural food deserts have the same parameters with the exception of ...

Inclusion on Ice Keeps Growing

Editorials

The smiles from hundreds of people who congregated at the Wheeling Park Ice Rink this past Sunday was evidence enough that Inclusion on Ice was another rousing success —and one that more and more people have enjoyed each year. The event, presented by Augusta Levy Learning Center, Easterseals Rehabilitation Center and the Wheeling Nailers and in its fifth year, allowed skaters of all ability levels to have fun in a safe, inclusive environment. This year was the events largest, with more than 600 people taking part in skating, bounce houses, face painting, food and more good times. ...