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Editorial

The Good, the Bad and the Stupid 3

Good: SB 175 — updates offenses of extortion and attempted extortion. It specifically adds “or other thing of value” (understood to include sexual acts) to the list of things that, if threatened, would qualify as extortion. It also adds that “threaten[ing] to publish in any manner images of another person’s intimate body parts” to the list of acts that qualify as extortion. This bill passed the Senate and currently sits in House Judiciary. Based upon the discussion surrounding the bill, it sounds like lawmakers are targeting a specific phenomenon known as “sextortion” ...

Stop self-serving party switches

As we said last week, we aren’t fond of the idea that candidates should have to run as the party on their voter registration, because that could disadvantage candidates who are registered Independents. (Even though Independents make up about a quarter of West Virginia’s registered voters, candidates running as Independents or on a third-party ticket tend to struggle in partisan races.) That said, we’re tired of politicians switching parties to help themselves get elected. Don Blankenship, who has long been involved in Republican politics and who has run for office as both a ...

A garden for a garden

One of the ongoing controversies surrounding the Green Bag Road/Kingwood Pike roundabout project is that it would require the destruction of the Hastings family’s community garden. Despite the family’s efforts, it seems there will be no way to save the garden, but there is a silver lining: As a requirement for Phase I of the roundabout project, the Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization and City of Morgantown will administer $15,000 in grants to assist other community gardens in the area.      This solution does not and cannot replace ...

Our immigration problems require humane solutions

Gov. Jim Justice and 24 other governors of (mostly red) states have signed a letter of support for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s so-called “self-defense” tactics to guard against migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Those tactics have included, but not been limited to, lining riverbanks with layered coils of razor wire and installing a “wall” of large rotating buoys with nets underneath. The U.S. Supreme Court recently decreed U.S. Border Patrol Agents may cut through the razor wire, since it can hinder their ability to do their jobs. Abbott has seemingly accepted the ...

PRESS Act: What it means for journalists & America

There must have been a strange and rare alignment of stars on Jan. 18, because on that day, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying (PRESS) Act with bipartisan support. The PRESS Act protects journalists from being forced to name their sources in federal court or disclose “any records, contents of a communication, documents, or information obtained or created by journalists in the course of their work” that could otherwise identify the source; and would stop the federal government from spying on journalists through their ...

Rainbow House a welcome addition

This month, Rainbow House celebrated its grand opening. As Monongalia County’s first LGBTQ+ shelter, it’s a welcome addition to our community. Historically, emergency — and even long-term — shelters have not been LGBTQ+ friendly. Sometimes because the shelter was hosted by a religious group that does not accept LGBTQ+ people or lifestyles. Sometimes because the rules governing the shelter were designed for heterosexual, gender-conforming individuals and didn’t have the flexibility to comfortably accommodate LGBTQ+ people. And sometimes because the other people in the ...