For months now, West Virginia’s severance tax collections for energy production — primarily coal and natural gas — have been running way ahead of estimates. The state finished the fiscal […]
Hoppy Kercheval
Manchin’s miscalculation
Joe Manchin took a chance. He signed off on the partisan Inflation Reduction Act, and even appeared with President Joe Biden at the bill signing ceremony, knowing it would cause […]
Senior scammers fake romance, steal millions
An investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of West Virginia revealed a romance fraud scheme that defrauded 200 victims, many of them elderly, of at least […]
Hearing help is on the way to West Virginia
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the over-the-counter sale of hearing aids to adults without a prescription. They should start showing up on the market by the middle […]
Remembering those who ran to the fire 21 years ago
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a commentary I wrote one year ago on the anniversary of the attacks. Fear is an invaluable human instinct that perpetuates our survival. Without fear, we […]
West Virginia sees positive economic growth
For years, the economic news in West Virginia has too often been bad. Coal mine shutdowns, plant closings and layoffs have been painfully common occurrences. However, at long last that […]
Manchin’s side deal faces attacks from the left
Sen. Joe Manchin’s support of the controversial Inflation Reduction Act hinged on a critical side deal. President Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have all […]
How ‘quiet quitting’ discourages work
The hot new trend in work is to, uh, not work, or at least not work very hard. It is called “quiet quitting,” and advocates, who are mostly from Generation […]
Teachers deserve our respect, support
Recently, I wrote a commentary about how our public education system in West Virginia is failing to achieve the state constitutional requirement of providing a “thorough and efficient” system of […]
West Virginia’s ‘not proficient’ public school students
The latest standardized test results show that the vast majority of West Virginia high school students who are about to graduate are considered not proficient in math or science. Just […]
