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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 ...

Candidates for gov. are anti-trans. What else?

Remember the good ol’ days when political attack ads discussed real issues facing potential constituents? Based on the current state of Republican campaigning, those days are long behind us. Three of the top GOP candidates for West Virginia governor have been running almost exclusively anti-transgender ads for well over a month. Patrick Morrisey and Chris Miller — and their not-technically-associated PACs — have been trading televised blows trying to paint each other as pro-transgender and themselves as anti-transgender; then Moore Capito put himself in the fight with an ad ...

Is civilian review board best one to conduct survey?

The Morgantown Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board is looking into conducting a community survey, expected to cost around $10,000 to complete. The purpose, according to the review board, is to get a better idea of how the whole community — not just specific stakeholders or groups — perceive policing in Morgantown. That would include members of the police department itself. We have no problem with the idea of the survey. In fact, we think it’s a good idea to take the temperature of the broader community and to get feedback from people who wouldn’t normally show up to a ...

Make sure measles case stays an outlier

Monongalia County has the first measles case in West Virginia in 15 years. That alone could stand as testament to the effectiveness of West Virginia’s vaccination policies over the years. So far, this seems to be an isolated case, with no indication that it’s the start of an outbreak like we’ve seen in other states. The last we heard, the adult patient didn’t require hospitalization and was quarantining at home. We hope they recover quickly and only experience mild symptoms. If there is any silver lining in this case, it’s that the afflicted is an adult; in general, ...