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The what and who of West Virginia First Foundation

Last week, Gov. Jim Justice finally announced his five appointees to the 11-member West Virginia First Foundation board of directors, though they must still be confirmed by the state Senate. The other six members were elected by county and municipal representatives from each of six regions in July and early August. The WV First Foundation will be in charge of distributing nearly three-quarters of the hundreds of millions of dollars in opioid settlements the state has collected. A little less than a quarter will go directly to counties and municipalities, while 3% will be held in ...

First Ascent is a good first step

From the moment Ascend WV — the remote work program offering cash and recreation incentives to out-of-state workers — was revealed, people (including us) asked, “What about West Virginians who want to stay but can’t afford to?” WVU and Marshall seemed to have listened. At the annual Chamber of Commerce Conference last week, leaders from the state’s two largest schools announced the First Ascent program. First Ascent is similar to Ascend WV but will be open to WVU and Marshall students in their last year of school and/or who have graduated within the last year; and who are ...

LIV event ‘great’ for W.Va. or for Justice?

Gov. Jim Justice seems to have had a grand ol’ time at the LIV Golf tournament when it came to the Greenbrier in early August. “I thought the event was great,” he said during a news briefing, “and I thought the event was great for West Virginia.” Many people are taking issue with the fact that an active candidate for U.S. Senate hosted an event for an organization that is directly funded by the Saudi Arabian government (which isn’t exactly known for its stellar human rights record) and may or may not have spoken with important Saudi officials. And if Justice were to win a ...

The importance of reliable sources

A Wisconsin Supreme Court judge recently made headlines for editing her own Wikipedia page to remove links to news articles she considered critical of her, instead replacing some of the page’s content and citation links with her own judicial decisions. On the off chance you are unfamiliar with it, Wikipedia is a “free encyclopedia” on the internet. Often the top search result for any given topic, Wikipedia offers webpages dedicated to virtually every subject under the sun as well as notable objects, events and people. The thing about Wikipedia that makes it both a font of ...

Moore needs to hold his horses on Hope expansion

West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore is pushing to quickly grow the Hope Scholarship. He’s asking for a year-round application period, which currently only runs March 1 to May 15, and for scholarship funds to be dispersed quarterly instead of twice a year. He’s also advocating for the Hope Scholarship to be available to all West Virginia students. Right now, only kids leaving the public school system or just entering kindergarten are eligible, but existing legislation contains the option to expand the scholarship to current private and home-schooled students as well by 2026. Moore ...

Tarr would let WVU flounder so he can own the libs

Recently, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, sent a letter to state and university officials objecting to the drastic cuts at West Virginia University and imploring the state to help. Sen. Eric Tarr (R-Putnam), the Senate Finance chair, responded last week in a rebuttal filled with name-calling and right-wing buzzwords. Reasonable people can disagree about whether the West Virginia Legislature should have kept up funding levels in the past and whether the state should provide financial assistance to WVU now. But Tarr’s comments reveal that he ...