Opinions
A bandwagon West Virginia should be on
Our parents taught us as kids that the mere fact that everyone else is doing something is insufficient reason to justify doing the same thing. It may even be the very reason not to do it. On the other hand, just because everyone else is doing something doesn't mean it's wrong or inadvisable. Everyone else may actually be onto something and merit imitation.
Drawing a line in the sand
CHARLESTON – The West Virginia House of Delegates sent a unanimous message last week to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: stay out of our homes. We’ve had a lot of healthy, robust debates this session on issues that lawmakers have had strong disagreements on. They’ve attracted a lot of headlines, and sometimes give the appearance that lawmakers in Charleston can’t agree on anything.
The aged politician who won’t go away
What a glorious day it was, that January day three years ago when Darrell “Quick Draw” McGraw rode off into the sunset, metaphorically speaking.
A new plan to get West Virginia moving
CHARLESTON – There is no doubt that West Virginia is facing an economic and a fiscal crisis. We are reminded constantly of our troubled times. Miners being laid off because of President Obama’s War on Coal. A majority of our adults not working. High unemployment. Dead last in job growth because we are the most over-regulated state in the nation. A $353 million state budget deficit that is only going to grow in the short term because of the dramatic decline of severance taxes and the ripple effec
Thank you, Justice Scalia
One of the last acts of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia before his death last week was to explain high court’s majority view in granting a stay of the implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan, pending the outcome of a challenge now being considered by the U.S.
Workplace Freedom Act moves the state forward
CHARLESTON – By now I’m sure most West Virginians have heard the talking points: “Right-to-work is wrong,” and, “Right-to-work is the right to work for less.” But are these oft repeated phrases accurate?
If it was such a hazard, how did everyone else avoid it?
Story CopySomething's been puzzling us for some time: Where are all the class-action slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall lawsuits?
More taxes sought to balance the budget
Ever seen a balance scale with just one side? That would be pretty stupid, and useless. After all, a balance scale has two sides – two equal-length arms with equally weighted pans suspended from each – so you can compare a mass of unknown weight to one whose weight is known, thereby determining the weight of the former.
Nothing simply symbolic about defeating asbestos lawsuit fraud
Some may dismiss it as merely a symbolic gesture, but symbolic gestures can be powerful. They're often prerequisites for subsequent, substantial change. Without those seemingly futile efforts, no genuine reform would follow.
Could be the last year of the War on Coal
One more year. That's all we've got to endure. One more year of the recklessness that has characterized the current presidential administration. One more year of the long-running war on coal, national prosperity, the U.S. Constitution, and American exceptionalism.
Congress reasserts its authority over the EPA
“This week we will join together with the House to send President Obama and the EPA a strong message: No more attacks on coal. No more attacks on domestic energy. No more attacks on the people who produce energy.”
A letter to Secretary Kerry
Sending a letter to a public official is a good way to let him know how you feel. Sending copies of that letter to other officials is a good way to let him know you mean to be taken seriously.
Good gravy!
America's most gravy-crazy holiday looms on the near-term horizon, so the warning couldn't have come at a better time. Gravy, whether the object of your appetite for breakfast, lunch or dinner, is hot.
Perhaps 'the end of the beginning' of Obama's War on Coal
The Allied victory over Rommel in North Africa was, indeed, a turning point in World War II, but Winston Churchill was determined that his countrymen should be realistic about it. Yes, it was a triumph, a great triumph, but it was one of many triumphs that would be necessary to defeat the enemy once and for all.
What happens when a judge loses credibility?
We observed in an editorial last month, “Judges should recuse themselves not only from cases in which they have a conflict of interest, but also from ones in which there may be even the appearance of impropriety.” We noted that State Supreme Court Chief Justice Robin Davis seems oblivious to such concerns and that her cavalier approach has attracted national attention, securing her the starring role last year on ABC's World News Tonight and Nightline in a story headlined: “Lear Jet J
Obama and his EPA Grinches
“Just this morning, nearly 200 West Virginia coal miners in Randolph County were informed that their jobs would be gone by Christmas,” Republican U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito lamented last Tuesday as she discussed the bipartisan resolution of disapproval that she and Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota had introduced in response to the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed Clean Power Plan regulations for existing power sources.
What is AkinMears hiding from Judge Joseph Goodwin?
As he presides over seven Multi District Litigation cases in Charleston involving more than 80,000 claims against manufacturers of transvaginal surgical mesh, U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin might want to keep a close eye on one plaintiffs firm in particular.
We won a battle, but the EPA war against West Virginia continues
Remember how Charlie Brown felt each time Lucy assured him that, this time, she really was going to hold the football for him to kick – and not pull it away at the last moment, causing him to fall flat on his back once again?
Sixth Circuit puts a hold on EPA water grab
Our backyard plastic kiddie pools and Slip 'N Slides are safe, for now, and we can continue to enjoy them unencumbered by bizarrely broad interpretations of the federal government's regulatory powers.
Robin Davis is a conflict of interest
Judges should recuse themselves not only from cases in which they have a conflict of interest, but also from ones in which there may be even the appearance of impropriety.