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‘Pro-life’ politicians sell a fantasy. Here’s reality

Pro-life politicians are the world’s best salesmen. They sell the fantasy of every baby born perfect, with 10 fingers and 10 toes and scrunched pink faces and chubby little fists. They sell the idea of perfect traditional nuclear families and paint women seeking abortion as young, reckless and irresponsible who need to live with the consequences of their actions without “killing” their babies. They’ll say that there are exceptions for rape or incest or minors — except when there’s not, like in the case of the 10-year-old Ohio girl who had to travel to Indiana to abort ...

At gubernatorial debate, no good options presented

If last Thursday’s MetroNews gubernatorial debate is anything to go by, Republican primary voters have no good options. None of the three participating candidates stood out as an overall good choice. On economic policy, Chris Miller proclaimed income taxes need to be cut further and faster: “Get rid of it day one,” he said. Obviously, government doesn’t work that way. A governor can’t walk in on the first day of office and re-write the state’s entire tax structure. We hope he’s just using this as a campaign slogan, but we’re afraid he actually means it. And even ...

Did that box just bark?

Giving pets as presents It’s a classic Christmas scene: The oddly large box under the tree (maybe with a few holes poked in it) that shivers and thumps, from which quiet barks or muffled mews emerge. The kids open it with a chorus of delighted squeals to reveal a puppy or kitten inside, a red bow tied around its neck. And no wonder it’s a classic holiday movie trope: A 2021 survey by OnePoll found about 74% of kids have asked their parents for a pet (on average, over 1,500 times), about 62% of whom double-down during the holiday season, begging even more often. About ...

Lawmakers ignored reclamation fund issues for 40 years

We’ve said it before: Coal companies would much rather go bankrupt and forfeit their reclamation bonds — a kind of security deposit — to the state than clean up their own abandoned mines, because the bonds are a fraction of the actual reclamation costs. Which is why it’s no surprise to hear West Virginia’s mine land reclamation fund is ill-equipped to cover all the work that needs done. However, we didn’t expect to hear the fund is one coal company bankruptcy away from going bankrupt itself, which would leave taxpayers with the bill. Nor did we expect to hear that ...

Mooney supports culture wars over national security

Monday morning, Rep. Alex Mooney proudly sent out a press release announcing his support for Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s months-long, single-handed blockade of hundreds of military promotions over the military’s policy of reimbursing traveling costs for reproductive care received in another state — including abortions. Tuesday afternoon, Tuberville finally capitulated to bipartisan, nationwide pressure and agreed to allow most military promotions to go through — except the highest-ranking positions, which he will continue to stonewall. Before we get into why this is both ...

Most of W.Va. has local news — for now

West Virginia is surprisingly lucky when it comes to local news: All but two of our 55 counties have some kind of local publication, according to recent research by Northwestern University and the Medill Local News Initiative. The good news: With the exception of Putnam and Marshall counties, all of West Virginia has access to at least one non-television local news source. A handful of places, including Mon and Preston counties, have access to two, and Kanawha County has three. By the numbers, West Virginia has 64 newspapers that print either daily or weekly, plus West Virginia ...