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Editorial

Congress should pass the PASS Act

Sen. Joe Manchin recently introduced the Protecting Athletes, Schools, and Sports (PASS) Act of 2023 with the help of Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) to standardize name, image and likeness (NIL) deals and establish certain protections for athletes. For as much party-line grandstanding as there is in Congress, it seems the one thing politicians might be able to agree on is sports. And the bill Manchin and Tuberville have crafted is well-done. The vast majority is designed to watch out for the best interests of student-athletes, though it does include an adjustment to the transfer ...

We should embrace chances to speak up

Too often, we forget that there are ways to participate in government outside election season. For example — particularly on the local level — there are town halls, open houses and public comment meetings that people can attend, where they can give direct feedback to elected officials about the things that impact them directly. This Thursday,  Morgantown residents will have the opportunity to learn about updates to the city’s comprehensive plan — a metaphorical roadmap of projects and improvements over the next 10 years. The “Morgantown 2033” policy document covers ...

Harmony Grove and the promise deferred

Five years ago, it was a dream to get large trucks off city roads in Westover and downtown Morgantown. Then it became a promise to a manufacturer that has long since been deferred. And now the long saga of the Harmony Grove interchange has taken yet another turn. The Dominion Post first reported the idea for a new interstate interchange connecting the Morgantown Industrial Park to Interstates 68 and 79 in September 2018, when it was the subject of a public meeting in Westover. In early 2020, the West Virginia Department of Transportation told Enrout Properties, the owners of the ...

WVU BOG right to extend Gee’s contract to 2025

The West Virginia University Board of Governors made the right decision Monday when it voted to extend Gordon Gee’s contract through June 2025. There’s a lot of turmoil in the university community — and, really, the community at large — at the moment. A change in leadership would likely have only caused more chaos. It also would have likely prolonged the academic transformation, as a new president would need time to learn all the background on the situation and then make judgments about how to proceed. With all the change and upheaval going on at present and into the near ...

Contracting with traffic service a good idea for future parades

The kick-off parade for the Mon County Fair Monday was a success. Unfortunately, that was not the case for June’s Pride parade, which had to be canceled due to too few police volunteers to staff the event. Which is why the City of Morgantown announced last week it would look into contracting with a third-party traffic control service for future parades. We’re going to set aside the dueling claims over why the Pride parade had to be canceled and over how much a traffic control service would actually cost. Looking at the plain reality of life in Morgantown, we think hiring a third ...

W.Va. National Guard a pawn in a political game

We care deeply about the devastating impact fentanyl has had on our communities. And the best way to address the very real fentanyl crisis is to address the source: Organized transnational criminal activity that works to smuggle the deadly drug through legal ports of entry, often done by American citizens. Which is why that flow of fentanyl into our state will not be stemmed by deploying 54 West Virginia National Guard volunteers to Texas to join Border Patrol agents. (Which will cost taxpayers $900,000.) Back in May, Gov. Jim Justice’s line was the deployment is “to help ...