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Editorial

Gov’t agencies, officials owe us more transparency

Gov. Jim Justice has made an art form out of speaking much but saying little, and his meaningless verbal abstractions were on full display at a news briefing earlier this month as he non-answered questions about West Virginia jails’ myriad problems. If you sifted through enough of the ramblings and Justice-isms, you could eventually come up with what amounted to “We’re still looking” or “We’ll keep looking.” Justice’s administration has been equally opaque. There were, of course, the missing emails and records that brought the wrath of a judge down upon the state. ...

DOH fails first test of winter

North-central West Virginia — Morgantown, in particular — ground to a halt yesterday as the last traces of Monday’s flurries mixed with below-freezing temperatures and early-morning snow squalls to hide a sheet of ice beneath a white dusting. Wrecks backed up the interstates and main thoroughfares; cars got stuck on inclines; vehicles spun and slid into ditches and medians; schools closed and adults got halfway to work before being forced to turnaround (though some had no choice but to power through). All in all, not a good day to be on the roads. To say that the Division of ...

WVU oddly quiet on voluntary give-backs

West Virginia University has been strangely quiet about something that, from a public relations standpoint, it should be shouting from the rooftops. A few weeks ago, it was announced that top administrators had been asked to voluntarily “give back” up to 10% of their annual salary. According to a WVU statement, there was 100% participation, resulting in $772,772 (yes, that is a weirdly specific number) being given back to the university. On a macro scale, this nearly three-quarters of a million dollars doesn’t even put a dent in the $41 million deficit WVU faces. But on a ...

Editorial Encore: Gratitude should not be reserved for Thanksgiving

Practice being thankful for the good things — big and small — year-round It’s as much a Thanksgiving tradition as turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce: Naming the thing — or things — you are grateful for. (After all, it is Thanksgiving.) It can be hard to pin down what we’re grateful for in a normal year, but after nearly two years of upheaval and illness, chaos and loss, it can be even harder to find something to be thankful for. There are the big things, of course, for those lucky enough to experience them: Adding a new family member — two-legged or four — ...

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 ...