Opinion

West Virginia Math Scores Need Improvement

Editorials

As the school year gets rolling in West Virginia, teachers and administrators throughout the state are once again tackling a persistent problem — the drop in math proficiency from elementary school to middle school to high school. Once again, West Virginia Department of Education data show a consistent decline in math proficiency as students get older. It’s a problem the Northern Panhandle is not immune to. Department of Education information shows that, in Ohio County, 58% of fifth-graders were proficient in math last school year, which fell to 43% of eighth graders and 27% of ...

Stay Alert for Scams

Editorials

Across the country, scammers continue to find success — particularly with older residents and their families — with a seemingly endless supply of techniques for separating people from their hard-earned money. Among the latest efforts is a scam in which a person receives a phone call, email or text that says they need to pay a fine, but that they should do so with Bitcoin, a gift card or other virtual currency. And yes, the wording is confusing and aggressive enough that people continue to fall for these scams in droves. In Ohio alone, between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, ...

Road Tripping

Local Columns

One of the great things about being a news reporter is getting to sometimes hit the road and explore parts of the state I’ve never been to, as well as meeting the people who make this state go. Last Wednesday, I hopped in my car and drove from Charleston to Mason County. I’ve been reporting about the impending sale of West Virginia’s state-owned long-term care facilities, so I wanted to take some photos of the one closest to me, which is Lakin Hospital a few miles outside of Point Pleasant along W.Va. 2. I was only a few miles away from Lakin when there it was: a pothole right ...

Be Safe, Be Sober When on the Road

Editorials

“If you feel different, you drive different. Drive high, get a DUI.” That’s the theme of an effort by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to help local law enforcement be highly visible from now through Labor Day as they crack down on those taking the risk to drive impaired. Even in states such as Ohio where (despite lawmakers’ best efforts to subvert the voters’ will) adult-use cannabis is legal for recreational use, it is still illegal to drive under the influence. It doesn’t matter what substance is to blame. But, ...

A Wonderful Partnership

Editorials

Since WVU Medicine entered the picture at Wheeling Hospital, the health system and the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston have worked wonderfully together to keep pushing medical care in the Ohio Valley forward. That partnership was on full display Friday when WVU Medicine and the diocese jointly announced a $10 million gift through the Wheeling Hospital Foundation for WVU Medicine’s upcoming regional cancer center. That gift also led to the center’s name: The WVU Cancer Institute St. Joseph Regional Cancer Complex. The money for that gift came from the Wheeling Hospital Foundation, ...

Publicity Stunt

Letters to the Editor

Editor, News-Register: Once again, our wayward Congressman Riley Moore has introduced a misguided proposal—this time co‑sponsoring legislation to create a campaign medal for military personnel stationed at the Southern Border. At best, this initiative is ignorant; at worst, it amounts to political theater, reducing our troops to props in a publicity stunt. Campaign medals carry deep and specific meaning in the U.S. military. Historically—from the Spanish‑American War to the present—they have been reserved for service members deployed to combat zones on foreign shores and ...