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Mooney votes for disaster; Manchin votes for pork

A debt ceiling crisis and global financial disaster was avoided late last week when the House of Representatives and Senate passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023; President Joe Biden signed it into law on Saturday, 48 hours ahead of the x-date the U.S. Treasury had set for running out of money.  Of West Virginia’s D.C. delegation, three voted in favor of the bill and one against. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and Rep. Carol Miller voted along the (moderate) Republican Party line. Rep. Alex Mooney proudly voted against raising the debt ceiling, taking the extremist stance, ...

Do Justices always pay their debts?

Early last week, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against James “Jay” Justice II (Gov. Jim Justice’s son and current CEO of Bluestone Coal Sales Corp.) and 13 of the Justice family’s coal companies for roughly $7.6 million unpaid fines and fees.   From 2018 to 2022, the Justice family’s coal companies racked up 130 citations from the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement for environmental and safety violations. The SMRE also issued the companies 50 cessation orders (to stop operations until violations are fixed) that the companies ignored. ...

Fun things to do this summer

There’s no denying Morgantown becomes much quieter in the summer. With public schools out and most university students gone for the summer, the city almost seems like it’s gone into hibernation. On the contrary — in many ways, it’s just waking up.  With Memorial Day marking the unofficial start of summer, we thought we’d remind readers that there are fun opportunities abound in the Greater Morgantown Area throughout the next few months.   If you want to splash around, Marilla and Krepps pools are officially open and will be every day from noon-6 p.m., with ...

Pride 2023: A look at LGBTQ+ people’s place in history

When you’re constantly struggling, it can be hard to see how far you’ve come.   Such as it is with the progress made by the LGBTQ+ community. Every push forward has been met with resistance, and some fights were harder and lasted longer than others. And it seems like every step that has been taken forward is about to be shoved two steps back.   But as Pride Month begins, we want to take a moment to celebrate how far the LGBTQ+ community and its allies have come since the first Pride march on June 28, 1970 — the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall ...

Even if you like the third party idea, No Labels is not ideal

The idea of a centrist, third-party candidate for 2024 is an appealing one. But the reality might not live up to the ideal.  The lobbying group No Labels — which markets itself as bipartisan — is pursuing ballot access in as many states as possible to run a “Unity” ticket for the 2024 presidential election, with at least $70 million at its disposal for the effort. According to its website: “Since 2009, No Labels has worked tirelessly to give a voice to America’s commonsense majority. We’ve made a notable impact in Congress by creating the bipartisan House Problem ...

‘New option’ for Pleasants plant is the best option for everyone

When it comes to the Pleasants Power Station, so far there have only been two options — neither of them good. Either Mon Power/Potomac Edison buys the plant and jacks up the prices for ratepayers to do so (and possibly close Fort Martin), or Energy Transmission & Environmental Management’s planned closure of Pleasants goes forward, putting 150 people out of work.  But, as Brad McElhinny reported a few days ago, it looks like there may be a third option for the Pleasants power plant: Omnis Fuel Technologies has shown interest in running Pleasants Power Station on the ...