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Editorial

Don’t forget to shop local this holiday season

It’s the day before Thanksgiving, and we know it’s asking a lot, but we’d like you to look ahead to the weekend. (You can save this editorial to read later with your cup of coffee and slice of pumpkin pie if you need to. We know how hectic the holidays get, so we certainly won’t judge.) Just on the other side of Turkey Day and Black Friday is Small Business Saturday. We know that in the holidaze of November and December, the ease of online shopping and big box stores is a temptation that’s hard to resist, but if you can take the few extra minutes to shop local, we promise ...

Warming shelter pushback crossed the line

As we saw nights dip into freezing temperatures, we were so relieved that someone had stepped up to host the warming shelter that we offered our thanks and support a little too soon. We are, of course, still grateful to Sabra United Methodist Church and the private individuals who volunteered to take on a task no one else had been willing to do. They accomplished in a handful of days what others hadn’t been able to do in months. It seems, however, that Sabra UMC will not be home to this winter’s cold weather shelter. At the time of this writing, it is most likely that the warming ...

The importance of vaccinations

It’s late fall and all the seasonal illnesses are making their rounds: colds, flu, COVID, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and other respiratory viruses and infections. Unfortunately, modern medicine doesn’t have a preventative vaccine for everything that ails us, but it’s important we get the vaccines they do have. New dominant strains of COVID mean it’s time for a booster shot, especially as cold weather forces us indoors. Flu shots are imperfect, but it never hurts to get one. And most pharmacies will let you get the COVID and flu vaccines in one shot (metaphorically, ...

Justice set us up for financial crisis

Recently, The Dominion Post Editorial Board met with Kelly Allen from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, and she taught us a few things about how the state’s budget works (or, as is sometimes the case, doesn’t work). Unlike many other states, the governor of West Virginia has the constitutional power to set the state’s budget for the coming fiscal year, which is based on its revenue estimates. It is up to the governor’s office to set the “size of the pie,” or the total dollar amount. The Legislature then decides how that money gets divvied up for the year. ...

It’s becoming more dangerous to be a journalist

Good reporting depends on the bravery of good journalists who are willing to venture into unsafe places in order to get real and real-time information. War zones have always been a dangerous place for journalists, but the battle between the Israeli government and Hamas has been a particularly bloody one for reporters. As of this writing, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports 42 journalists and media workers have died in Gaza and the surrounding region since Oct. 7. Of those killed, 37 were Palestinian, four were Israeli and one was Lebanese. Most of the Israeli journalists ...

Natural disasters unnaturally severe

At the time of this writing, there were 21 fires burning over 11,000 acres in West Virginia, according to the Fire, Weather and Avalanche Center. The four largest are the Steep Valley fire in the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, which has burned over 2,000 acres; the Coal Creek fire in Kanawha County, near the Boone County border, roughly 2,500 acres; the Left Fork of Long Bottom Creek fire, due north of the Coal Creek fire, around 2,400 acres; and the Glen Alum fire in Mingo County, near the Kentucky border, over 1,000 acres. The Steep Valley fire is the one garnering the ...