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Sometimes the best choice is right in front of you

When it comes to leadership, organizations (public or private) often look far and wide to find the best candidates. But sometimes the best choices are in their own backyards. Such is the case for Maria Smith, the new CEO of Mountain Line Transit, and Josh Eilert, the interim WVU men’s basketball head coach. Both Smith and Eilert worked for years for their respective organizations under the individuals whose positions they have now filled. These in-house promotions bring the advantages of institutional knowledge and loyalty: They already know how things work (and what hasn’t ...

Mooney chose politics over W.Va.

This past weekend, U.S. Representative Alex Mooney proudly voted to shut down the federal government — once on Friday and again on Saturday — which would have put the majority of West Virginia’s 30,000 federal civilian employees out of work for however long the shutdown lasted. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, roughly 10,000 of those live here in Mooney’s District 1. Federal employees would have been furloughed (not allowed to work) or forced to work for the duration of the shutdown. None would have been paid until the government reopened; ...

Nothing brings you local news like a local paper

Oct. 1-7 is pulling double-duty this year. Not only is it Banned Books Week, it’s also National Newspaper Week. Like Sunshine Week in the spring, which celebrates the work news organizations do to shed light on everything from crime to government to events, National Newspaper Week also celebrates the work reporters do to keep readers informed and up-to-date. But more than that, National Newspaper Week is a reminder that the best way to get local news is from a local news source — like your hometown newspaper. Too many communities are losing their local papers, putting them at ...

The fear of books has a long history

Book banning and burning is nearly as old as civilization itself — with evidence of manuscripts being burned dating back to the B.C.s — and is often done for the same reasons: politics, religion and “morality” (in quotes because its definition is so subjective). In 200s B.C., Chinese emperor Shih Huang Ti is said to have killed scholars so he could control the historical record and burned nearly all the kingdom’s books so the empire’s history would start with him. In the 1500s, when conquistadors invaded Mexico, they burned manuscripts, thereby destroying Aztec history ...

For the buckwheat cake inexperienced

On the very slim chance you didn’t already know, it’s Buckwheat Festival weekend in Preston County. Festivities started Thursday, but they continue well into today and tomorrow. There’s live music, carnival rides, parades, livestock shows, arts and crafts for sale, bingo and food down at the fairgrounds in Kingwood. And just about anywhere you go in Preston County this weekend you’re liable to find someone/some place serving up the main attraction: buckwheat cakes. The festival’s namesake dish is surprisingly polarizing — people either love them or hate them. Very few ...

WVU believes what it says, but some things have been left unsaid

A couple weeks ago, West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee sat down with The Dominion Post Editorial Board to discuss the ongoing academic transformation and to answer some questions. Gee was adamant that the transformation is necessary, and it has been in the works for several years. He reiterated that the university is not facing a financial crisis. Rather, WVU faces a structural deficit (in Gee’s words, a decrease in students but no decreases in faculty or programs) of $45 million, which is not a crisis in and of itself. However, if left unchecked, it could snowball ...