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Donald Trump is undoing the global influence of the United States

The world is facing at least three crises today that cannot be resolved by any one country. Two are longer-term and arguably existential: the threat of uncontrolled artificial intelligence and the growing impact of climate change. One is shorter-term and damaging the global economy: the disruption of shipping lanes in the Middle East. All three require the kind of high-level international cooperation that helped manage other challenges, like the threat of nuclear warfare during the Cold War and the damage to the ozone layer. Yet almost nobody expects meaningful progress during this ...

Morrisey botched nuclear energy deal

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey has fumbled badly with the release of critical information about the state’s months-long pursuit of a federal nuclear energy hub. The missteps have contributed to concern and confusion over the state’s potential hosting of a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation ...

Register to vote because ‘every voice matters’

There are a disturbing number of intelligent, well-informed people who have taken a look at the state of our government and decided to wash their hands of it by removing themselves from the voting process. How often have you heard, “It’s all a mess. Neither side cares about anything but winning. No one represents me. I’m just not going to vote"? And so, elections are increasingly decided not by those who feel as though they are caught in the middle, but by those who are happy to fall toward one of the extremes. It is an understatement to call that less than ideal. “In West ...

Tariffs, trade wars have made farming in the U.S. harder

JD Vance was in Iowa last week, trying to shore up GOP support in the heartland. “We want farming to be easier in the United States of America, not harder,” the Vice President told the crowd in Council Bluffs. Farming is always hard, but what could be making it even harder these days? Hmmm. Could it be President Trump’s tariffs and trade wars that have raised farmers’ costs and lost them markets abroad due to retaliation? Asking for a friend in the Midwest. While Mr. Trump can claim all he wants that foreigners pay his tariffs, Deere & Co. said on an earnings call last month ...

Addressing W.Va.’s nursing shortage is a good start

Among the projects under West Virginia’s Rural Health Transformation Program is Mountain State Care Force, which is meant to address the shortage of healthcare workers in many of our communities. This week, the initiative awarded $201,403 to the WVU Medicine Center for Nursing Education, where it is expected to increase capacity for approximately 100 additional nursing students each year and increase access to nursing education for students from “rural and Health Professional Shortage Area communities, including Hancock, Ohio, Marshall, Tyler and Wetzel counties,” according to a ...

The harsh reality of W.Va.’s working poor

I wrote about West Virginia’s poverty level in last week’s commentary, based on U.S. Census figures. However, those numbers do tell only part of the story of the financial challenges in our state. The United Way’s ALICE report is more revealing. ALICE stands for asset limited, income ...