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Editorial

Tax cuts bring W.Va. to the brink

Gov. Jim Justice and the Legislature need to check their numbers before they send West Virginia into a financial tailspin. Right now, the state is looking at some very expensive new outlays at the same time tax revenue is decreasing, with new tax cuts about to be triggered and Justice requesting even more cuts. So far, the math isn’t adding up to anything good. Let’s look at revenue first: By the end of June, the state had collected $700 million less in taxes than it had by the same time last year, down from $6.48 billion in 2023 to $5.7 billion in 2024, thanks to the personal ...

Russian disinfo targeting elections

What do the recent elections in France and the upcoming election in America have in common? They’ve been the targets of a concerted Russian disinformation campaign. France has been the target of Russian bots and fake news sites for the last two years, but efforts to disseminate false information ramped up this past fall.  antibot4navalny, a collective that analyses Russian bot behavior, found that of 4,400 posts since mid-November, the majority targeted France and Germany. A slew of fake news websites have cropped up catering to French audiences — some of which were ...

It’s not voting for Biden. It’s voting against Project 2025

It’s no secret that neither President Joe Biden nor Donald Trump are popular candidates. The reality is, however, we are four months away from the general election and it isn’t feasible for either party to run a viable campaign for a new candidate. The most important thing for voters to remember, though, is that we don’t just vote for an individual when we vote for president. We are also voting for an entire administration and a plan for what the country will look like over the next four years. The Republican Party’s vision for America is summed up in Project 2025, a ...

Discussions about homelessness still front and center

The subject of homelessness and how best to handle it has been front and center in local discussions for well over a year now, but the conversation has taken a more urgent tone since winter. First, it was the struggle to open a warming shelter during the coldest months. Then it was the collapse of Bartlett House. And now, once again, the subject is dominating headlines and public discourse. Under new management As of the end of June, Catholic Charities of West Virginia is on track to take over the triage shelter at Hazel’s House of Hope — if it can get enough funding. And the ...

Congress must pass TAKE IT DOWN Act

A couple weeks ago, a bipartisan group of senators, including Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, introduced Senate bill 4569: the Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act — or, the TAKE IT DOWN Act. This bill takes aim at explicit images of, or that resemble, real people and are posted online without the person’s consent. You may be familiar with “revenge porn” — when someone shares, usually online, sexually explicit or nude images of someone else without the subject’s permission. Those images are ...

Granville should move elections in line with primary

Granville is considering moving its municipal elections in line with primary elections, following in the footsteps of Westover and Star City. We fully support the move — after all, the results from this past primary speak for themselves. With Star City’s local elections on the ballot in May, the town saw voter turnout triple compared to its past two standalone elections (jumping from a little over 100 to over 300). The change for Westover was even more drastic: 127 voters participated in 2022; almost 800 people cast ballots for municipal offices this past May. For both ...