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Meta smear campaign co-opted local papers

The Washington Post was the first to report that Meta (Facebook’s parent company) had hired the right-wing consulting firm Targeted Victory to run a smear campaign against rival TikTok. Targeted Victory describes itself as “digital first agency built for the mobile age” that “bring[s] the best of campaigns and a right-of-center perspective to solve marketing challenges.” It’s biggest customers are Republican political campaigns and PACs, including America First Action and even Capito for West Virginia, which paid the firm $52,000 between 2019 and 2020, according to ...

Biden says to ‘buy American’ to build new infrastructure

On Monday, President Joe Biden announced that beginning May 14, all infrastructure projects using federal funds (specifically, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act dollars) will have to abide by the Build America, Buy America standards. The objective is to keep as much of the supply chain in-house as possible, from the base materials, to the manufacturing, to the labor.       As part of the infrastructure bill’s rules, iron and steel must be produced in the U.S. (this applies to products that are “predominantly iron or steel”), foreign components ...

Can Gen Z save the Earth? Or will we destroy it first?

The first Earth Day was April 22, 1970. In the 52 years since that first celebration, we — all of humanity — have actively done more to harm the environment than we have to protect it. If that weren’t the case, climate scientists wouldn’t be ringing the alarm every other month that our planet is on a crash course with catastrophe, with some of the worst impacts of climate change becoming apparent by 2050. Concern about the impending global doom tends to be generational. In the U.S., Baby Boomers (born 1946-64) and the Silent Generation (1928-45) are the least concerned ...

Congress must pass the STREAM Act

At the end of March, Rep. David McKinley cosponsored the House version of the Safeguarding Treatment for the Restoration of Ecosystems from Abandoned Mines Act (STREAM Act). The bill is simple, but important. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (usually referred to as the infrastructure bill or act) gives $11.3 billion in funding to reclaim abandoned mine lands for 15 years, and West Virginia is expected to receive $700 million over the next five years. As The Dominion Post previously reported, traditional Abandoned Mine Lands funding allows states to set aside up to 30% of ...

BOPARC Foundation will be a welcome addition

Late last week, BOPARC announced it will launch a new fundraising arm, simply called the BOPARC Foundation. This is an exciting development for the county’s recreational future. At the moment, BOPARC’s budget is limited by what it earns in levy funds. While levy funds create a fairly steady source of revenue for about five years, the county has to be careful not to ask for too much from taxpayers and it must always be prepared to lose that funding if a levy doesn’t pass. Being able to supplement — or, worst case scenario, replace — that revenue puts BOPARC in a better ...

Don’t like Drag Queen Bingo? You don’t have to participate

There’s no need to ruin it for everyone else There are few things more disheartening than seeing hatred and bigotry win. And, unfortunately, hatred and bigotry did win in Preston County last week when the Bruceton-Brandonville Volunteer Fire Department had to cancel its Drag Queen Bingo fundraiser due to threats against the organizers and the scheduled performers. Perhaps most discouraging about the whole thing was how so many people responded with rancor and rage to an event that was supposed to be fun and that was supposed to fund an essential part of the county’s ...