So, I have been a tad perplexed of late, not that that comes as hugely revelatory to most of you and certainly not my significant other. But listening to our governor, Jim Justice, talk about the role masks play in battling the spread of Covid-19 – especially its more lethal and contagious v… Read more

To a pair of new funds at the Beckley Are Foundation. Dr. Seth and Mrs. LaRinda Kaplan have established the Kaplan Family Fund for Learning Disabilities in Southern West Virginia. The fund is designed to support educators who are pursuing training in reading programs with a focus on dyslexia… Read more

Gov. Jim Justice is delivering mixed messages at a particularly perilous time. Read more

Gayle Manchin, as Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) federal co-chair, toured the town that she once called home this past week and cut to the chase regarding economic recovery and revitalization in Beckley and across the coalfields in a powerful, simple and yet inpirsing message. Read more

Twenty years ago Saturday, on my morning drive to work at The News & Observer in Raleigh, NC, I was listening to Don Imus and his radio talk show cast of characters, as was my habit. Not sure what the outrageous topic du jour was, but I am certain it was at least a tad provocative, if no… Read more

I appreciate those who labor. Read more

Hurricane Ida, bullying its way across the eastern United States and killing nearly 50 people along the way, grabbed and dominated the headlines and newscasts in major American cities this past week as if we all should have been shocked and surprised. At the same time, wildfires along the Pa… Read more

Some business today. Read more

It was a few days before the stark contrast of the new hardbound book on the “reserved” shelf claimed attention. But after the final page of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” had been turned, it had absentmindedly been placed on top of a select row of old, worn books. Read more

If there are lessons to be learned from what has transpired with the Hatfield and McCoy ATV trails, there may be two that the city of Beckley would be advised to remember: First, do not believe rosy projections regarding robust job and revenue growth created by the expansion of any one of a … Read more

Thankfully, America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan came to an end Sunday. Unfortunately, it ended badly – as these kinds of wars do. For reference, see Vietnam. Taliban fighters, unimpeded in their sacking of provincial capitals, poured into the capital, Kabul, facing scarcely any resistance. … Read more

I cannot begin to imagine how many violations were broken the day my dad pointed to a giant pile of coal outside his mine, and told me to go pull the broken timbers out of it. Read more

In a discombobulating 2020-21 school year interrupted often by the full-bore effects of a pandemic, no one can be surprised that elementary and secondary students in West Virginia took significant steps backward in their learning and academic proficiencies across language arts, science and m… Read more

To the awarding of a bevy of grants ranging in size from $1,318 to $90,000 by the Greenbrier County Commission in support of arts, recreational and historical projects undertaken by the county’s nonprofit entities and municipalities. Every year the Commission awards funding which flows from … Read more

The bottles of cool water become warm in minutes under the rays of a hot August sun. Read more

Even before putting the final touches on the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that looks like a lock to pass the Senate, Sen. Joe Manchin was expressing misgivings about the size of a second and similar bill – $3.5 trillion, at last calculation – that Republicans want no part of and, to pas… Read more

Whether these Summer Olympics should have been canceled or, again, postponed until Covid-19 had left the stage is certainly worthy of a debate. But even with venues closed to the general public, we are happy to turn our attention from all that divides us – which, in these dispiriting days, s… Read more

The intruder likely crept into my kitchen during the late-night hours. Read more

If the votes hold on second reading at Beckley City Council’s next meeting, the die will be cast for the city to purchase the downtown building that formerly housed Zen’s restaurant and bring in Fruits of Labor, a nationally certified culinary and agricultural training center, to set up shop… Read more

Once again, Delegate Joe Jeffries failed to uphold the common decency required of public officials. When he ran for office, he preached family values. His behavior at the Capitol and on social media blatantly contradicts those values. Read more

What in the hell is wrong with the legislators in West Virginia? Read more

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gave all schools across the country a general outline and guidance on Friday, urging them all to fully reopen this fall by tailoring their public health measures to local coronavirus data. And in West Virginia, where vaccination levels lag… Read more

To a West Virginia Department of Education grant that enabled a school-run, no-fee STEM Camp in Summers County, which has ignited a firestorm of enthusiasm in its 107 student participants. So far this summer, campers have built oceans in a bottle, redesigned the Titanic to make it safer and … Read more

The city will be celebrating this Thursday, as it should, the retirement of the 30-year note on Historic Black Knight Municipal Park more than 26 years ahead of schedule. But those who gather should also applaud leaders who had the foresight and the temerity to envision the purchase for what… Read more

Teeth. They’re gross, yet there is such an importance placed on them. It might seem like basic hygiene but it’s a luxury that some are left out of. The fact is, caring for teeth and going to the dentist can be costly even with insurance. Read more

I miss lawn darts. It was a game of skill, laced with luck. And there was always the chance of impaling a sibling’s toe. Read more

There is renewed hope for federal and state funding for the long-delayed King Coal Highway and Coalfields Expressway projects in southern West Virginia. Read more

As politicos in D.C. debate the odds of President Biden seeing infrastructure legislation pass the Senate – via bipartisanship or reconciliation – there can no longer be any doubt as to the need to go big or go home. If you have not heard, climate change is not just knocking at the front doo… Read more

Blue meets green in a valley of Appalachian accents, mountain hospitality and hot biscuits on a Sunday morning. Read more

We have heard some reservations about Mayor Rob Rappold’s proposed purchase of the Zen’s building in downtown Beckley, but the multi-faceted deal hits many winning notes for us. Read more

Newsrooms, long ago, were a pretty noisy, fast-paced environment, humming with activity, front to back, through the ranks and eccentricities of reporters and assigning editors, assistants and deputies, and back into the photo department – always located closest to the exit so they could grab… Read more

Walking through the door and up a ramp I get a view of Bluefield’s former grandeur. Read more

This is the first year that Juneteenth on June 19, 2021 will be an official holiday in West Virginia. Read more

Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, is correct to shine a light on needed investments in flood mitigation efforts to prevent future disasters – especially at a time when substantial federal aid is flowing into the state to address infrastructure issues of this very nature a… Read more

Maybe a little state Democratic Party drama that played out in a contentious Democratic Executive Committee meeting this past Thursday is yet another reason why Del. Mick Bates switched political parties, joining the supermajority Republicans in the state Legislature. Read more

Apparently, there’s a new mascot for the vaccine in West Virginia and, really, he couldn’t care less if you get a shot or not just as long as there is food in his dish. Read more

The bend in the river just past the bridge was one of Billy’s favorite fishing spots. Read more

As we rush headlong into summer, eager to leave the pandemic behind, unlock the shackles of indoor solitude and leave the mandatory mask order in the glove box, please take care to be safe out there. Read more

I think I woke up and realized that parents and those older than me are humans. I mean, real life, breathing humans who are good at adapting and have lived the same life as I have. And sometimes, most of the time, they’re right. Like how they said that tomato sandwiches are good on a summer … Read more

As municipalities around the state and nation compete with one another in trying to attract remote workers to relocate to their communities, it is a fair and easy argument to say that there remains much work to do before the city is ready to strut its stuff. The state, with its Legislature l… Read more

As a young child in the ’70s, the annual showing of “The Wizard of Oz” on television was always a big deal. I’m sure it aired on NBC Channel 6, as that was the only station we picked up with any consistency. Read more

Sen. Joe Manchin’s hopeful view of Congressional bipartisanship is going to be put to a severe test in the months ahead as big pieces of legislation coming from the Biden administration will wind their way through the sausage making to critical, narrow votes where our state’s senior senator … Read more

The 10-speed bike was a blue beacon of what I knew would be immeasurable summer fun. It represented freedom to be spent on quiet country roads surrounded by friends from our neck of the woods. Read more

At some point after his election as president and prior to his inauguration, there was some hope that Joe Biden’s long service in the Senate and prior working relationship with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., could prove beneficial to moving the two to craft and pass legislati… Read more

Voltaire, the 18th century French writer-philosopher, preferred an enlightened aristocracy to democracy yet he eloquently embraced one of the latter’s most sacred tenets, the right to free speech. Read more

The next culture war is making itself known in state legislatures around the country, on one side strengthening vaccination requirements for school children. But on the other, efforts are headed in the opposite and wrong direction, to an off-ramp from sound medical practices. Families would … Read more

As April’s sunbeams stream through windowsills and ornery greenbrier bushes display a first blush of scratch-worthy thorns, I am feeling a hint of a seasonally induced malady. Read more

Gov. Jim Justice, somewhat belatedly, has come around to admit that the state’s vaccination effort has hit a wall and that, at its current pace, we will not reach herd immunity anytime soon.  Read more

From basement to back porch, I make my way through a timestamp of history. Decades are traversed with each step – old coins uncovered beneath basement floors; pop culture headlines unveiled in newspapers stashed in the back of a closet. Read more

If Congress is ever to take up gun control legislation with any hope of putting a dent in the number of senseless gun deaths recorded each and every year in the United States, any proposal will have to appeal to a cross-current collection of lawmakers on Capitol Hill with common sense soluti… Read more