Opinion

Consider Donating Blood This Year

Editorials

If your New Year’s resolutions included finding small ways to do good more frequently, the American Red Cross has some ideas for you. You — yes, you — are needed, right now. A glance at the organization’s website reveals an alert that there is an “EMERGENCY NEED for type O blood” because winter weather has caused a decline in donations. There’s even a pitch that if you donate by Jan. 4, you will receive a Red Cross long-sleeved t-shirt; and if you give blood before Jan. 31, you can earn points to be used toward rewards. Local opportunities to give blood include ...

Pats on the Back

Editorials

- To the winners of the Wheeling Elks Scholarships for 2025-26, Wheeling Park High School students Grace Tamburin and Owen Dobrzynski Hines. Their commitment to their studies and their community is worthy of recognition. - To the Ohio Valley community that gave the Zhu family a hand after a house fire and supported them through buying meals from their St. Clairsville restaurant Zhuzi. That’s exactly the spirit that makes the Ohio Valley a great place to live. - To Community Coffee & Tea Shop in Bellaire and friends of World War II veteran Wayne Hill, who surprised the 98-year-old ...

Getting Healthy in 2026

Editorials

The calendar has turned to 2026. The Christmas desserts are long gone. The New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day celebrations — and the calories that often come with them — are over. Now many of us are looking in the mirror and wondering how we can shed some of the holiday pounds we packed on over the last few weeks. The solution comes not just from thought, but from action, as in getting up off the couch, getting mobile and burning some of those added calories. Some people might already have started on detailed regimens to whip themselves into shape. Good work, guys. For ...

Growth Tops Needs for the Ohio Valley

Editorials

As the calendar turns to 2026 in the Ohio Valley, it’s fitting that we all look to the future. What is it that this region needs in the new year? What will push it into a better place? There’s a short, but important answer: growth. It’s not growth in any one specific area. It’s growth in every area — population, economics, you name it. For decades, the Ohio Valley has been shrinking with no real evidence of an upturn. Take Wheeling, for example. The 2000 census had The Friendly City at 31,419 residents. In 2010, that total dropped to 28,486, and then to 27,062 in 2020. ...

By Embracing Growth, West Virginia Comes Out a Winner

Local Columns

As a proud West Virginian who is completing his second year as the leader of our state’s Manufacturing Association, I am looking forward to what our collective future holds. West Virginia is now home to billions (with a “B”) of dollars of investment in manufacturing that will come to fruition in the near future. In addition, we can anticipate future investments that will follow this growth in manufacturing as these new West Virginia companies will be making steel and titanium, which are the necessary building blocks for airplanes, automobiles, and essential infrastructure to ...

Responsible Data Center Development a Win for West Virginia

Local Columns

Some argue that data centers are incompatible with conservation. I understand that instinct. Large facilities, heavy use of energy, and deep community footprints can raise legitimate questions. But turning away from an entire segment of the modern economy will not protect West Virginia’s environment, nor will it keep our young people here or help us fund the conservation priorities we care about. Instead, West Virginia can build a model that shows the country what responsible development looks like. We have the chance to align growth with stewardship. We can protect forests, ...