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Editorial

Additions to Mon County prosecutor’s office sadly needed

Earlier this week, Monongalia County Prosecuting Attorney Gabrielle Mucciola updated the Mon County Commission on the two new hires she’s bringing on board: Larry Hasley as the coordinator for the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative and Samantha Elkins as an assistant prosecuting attorney handling abuse and neglect cases. Both are welcome additions to the prosecutor’s office, though it is reflection of the sad state of affairs that they are needed at all. The backlog of untested sexual assault evidence kits (commonly referred to as rape kits) is a nationwide issue. Some kits remain ...

Explainer: Ranked choice voting

Secretary of State Mac Warner recently released an op-ed taking a stance against ranked choice voting. Which is fine — except that he made some misleading claims. For our part, we’re going to give an overview of what ranked choice voting is and how it works. For more details, there are several great resources to learn more about ranked choice voting (often shortened to RCV) that you can explore on your own. Ranked choice voting is what it sounds like: You rank candidates running for office in order of most preferred to least. Say Mickey Mouse, Snoopy and Scooby-Doo are running ...

Want to see Tom Bloom get mayo-ed?

As the saying goes: Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.      And Mon County Commissioner Tom Bloom may just get his wish for $10,000 for Pantry Plus More — but it’ll come at a personal cost. As a reward for the WVU Mountaineers winning the Duke’s Mayo Bowl on Dec. 27, Coach Neal Brown graciously agreed to get 4.5 gallons of mayonnaise dumped over his head in exchange for a $10,000 donation to a charity of his choice — and he chose Pantry Plus More. Afterward, Bloom — one of the pantry’s co-founders — said, on the record, ...

Wriston must clarify interchange comment

Speaking of Tom Bloom — we’re joining him in calling on Department of Transportation Secretary Jimmy Wriston to clarify comments he made about the Harmony Grove interchange and the $70 million bridge meant to connect the Morgantown Industrial Park to the interstate until the interchange can be completed. Back in early December, Wriston said, “I would bet you a dollar against a doughnut that the minute we start that other bridge project, the federal agencies may take a harder look at the interchange.” Is he indicating that federal agencies will pick up the pace on the ...

How to keep your New Year’s resolutions

If you haven’t already seen a bunch of blogs, articles or op-eds telling you how to — insert synonym for “achieve” here — your New Year’s resolution(s), then you probably will. And it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the (sometimes conflicting) guidance. So we’re going to distill the most important advice for you here. ◘ Big dreams are good, but small goals are better. There is nothing wrong with shooting for the stars. For your resolutions, however, it’s better to set specific, achievable goals that can help you reach your big dream. Often, our resolutions are ...

Biden’s small wins on loan forgiveness

Despite the failure of his broad student loan forgiveness plan in the Supreme Court, President Joe Biden and his administration have found ways to deliver on his campaign promise with smaller, more targeted forgiveness efforts. In early December, the Biden administration announced another round of forgiveness: $4.8 billion in relief for more than 80,000 borrowers. When taken altogether, the targeted efforts have resulted in $132 billion in loan forgiveness for more than 3.6 million borrowers. If it feels like this happened under the radar, that’s because it did. The sweeping ...