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Positive development or another problem?

"Today isn’t about a guarantee for (a) campus or a specific number or a specific promise for future investment,” Gov. Patrick Morrisey said last week, as he announced the U.S. Department of Energy had done him a favor and added West Virginia as the sixth state on a list of those being considered for a nuclear lifecycle innovation campus. "West Virginia wasn’t originally part of that group, but we wanted to be, so we started working the phones, we started engaging more and more," Morrisey said. Idaho, Tennessee, Utah, Oklahoma and Louisiana were chosen as part of a process that ...

West Virginians need opportunities to earn way to financial security

The U.S. Census Bureau has released new figures on poverty in America, and for West Virginia the findings are mixed. I’ll get to those numbers shortly, but first here is some context: The data come from the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics. The agencies look at poverty two ...

Tourism momentum worth maintaining

Last month, Travel + Leisure released its list of the most naturally beautiful states in the country. While most of us here know West Virginia is unbeatable on that front, the Mountain State placed second in the rankings — behind only New Hampshire. “Researchers noted (West Virginia) was the only state in the top 10 to perform consistently well across all measured categories, thanks to its extensive forests, more than 6,600 miles of rivers, six national parks, and nearly 200 waterfalls,” the magazine said. Work done over the past decade or so has certainly gained the attention ...

Medal of Honor recipients earned ‘best site’ in D.C.

Those who have earned Medals of Honor, gave all they had to the rest of us — to this country we call home and they were willing to defend. Military veterans, Gold Star Families, Medal of Honor recipients … all those who sacrificed so much in their service to this country had no greater champion than West Virginia’s own Hershel “Woody” Williams, who died in 2022. And this week, just ahead of the observation of the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, a bill was signed that will create the Hershel "Woody" Williams National Medal of Honor Monument on the National Mall in ...

9/11 reminds us of our common purpose

Editor's note: This is an updated version of a past commentary written several years ago around the anniversary of 9/11. Has it really been 25 years since the September 11 attacks? Consider this: Nearly half the U.S. population—45 percent—was either not yet born or too young to remember ...

‘Never forget’

“Never forget.” What did we mean, when we declared as a country that we would forever remember the events and lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001? What do those words mean to the people born afterward? They are Gen Z and Gen Alpha, now. All they know is what they read in history books, what they hear from us, and how they see the rest of us living after we declared we would forever honor the memory of those who died in attacks by a small band of religious extremist terrorists. “The attacks of September 11th were intended to break our spirit. Instead, we have emerged stronger and ...