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Editorial

It’s National Nurses Week

Imagine, for a moment, walking into any hospital or urgent care or primary care clinic and there are no nurses around. In our imagination, it’s either pure chaos as waiting rooms fill to bursting with patients who haven’t even made it to an exam room for initial questions and diagnostics or it’s eerily silent because the clinic is virtually defunct without any nursing staff on hand to provide and expedite medical services. Nurses are the lifeblood of health care, working tirelessly and endlessly to keep medical services going — the ubiquitous front line we may take for ...

What to know before you go vote

We are just over a week from the May 14 primary election, and early voting is already underway. If you’d like to know more about who and what will appear on the ballot, we highly recommend that you take a look at the Voter’s Guide (F section), which will give you a little insight into the candidates running for office, and sample ballots in today’s paper. (Sample ballots will run again May 12.) Pay attention to the top of each ballot: You should receive the ballot for the political party with which you are registered, so make sure you are looking at the correct sample ballot. ...

Cinco de Mayo: A brief history

As year-rounders (or “townies”) in the University City, most of us look upon Cinco de Mayo as a Latino- or Mexican-themed bacchanalia that leaves downtown uninhabitable for those under 18 and over 35, if we acknowledge it at all. Since Cinco de Mayo is tomorrow, we thought it would be interesting to explore what this holiday means beyond partying and a trip to your favorite Mexican-food joint. May 5, or Cinco de Mayo, is not, in fact, Mexico’s Independence Day — that’s Sept. 16 — though it does celebrate Mexican national pride. Rather, it commemorates a Mexican military ...

Don’t let hate take root in our hills

The YWCA Charleston Race to End Racism was this past Saturday. The 5K run/1 mile walk, now in its eighth year, raises funds for community engagement and racial equity and inclusion programming. The YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) has chapters across the U.S., and the one in Charleston runs a women’s shelter, complete with a career readiness program, and provides domestic violence services, child development services and support for seniors. More than anything, YWCA and its facilities are a safe place for women and children of all backgrounds. Unfortunately, the Race to ...

Federal dollars to give W.Va. internet a needed boost

West Virginia can now start drawing down the $1.2 billion — yes, that is “billion” with a “b” — in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program dollars. The federal funds are a big piece of the Biden administration’s “Internet for All” initiative, and of the three states already approved, West Virginia has received the largest allocation (more than Kansas and Nevada will receive, combined). This is exciting news, for sure, but access to the funds does not equate to an overnight fix for West Virginia’s persistent broadband issues. Rather, this is the ...

ABCA agrees to honor the spirit of PODA law; lawmakers must still fix the letter

The West Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Administration announced recently it would honor the intent of the Legislature’s 2024 update to the private outdoor designated area law instead of enforcing the letter of the law, as it had previously said it would. That’s good, but it’s not enough. A PODA is designed to allow individuals to purchase alcoholic drinks, in clearly marked cups, in one location and carry them to other locations within a designated area. The original PODA law limited participating businesses to those that could sell liquor, which excluded ones that only ...