Opinions
Manchin and Goodwin are the ones who should be worried
Story CopyPicture Joe Manchin and Booth Goodwin on the day that Don Blankenship was sentenced to a year in prison and assessed a $250,000 fine: what a flurry of back-slapping, fist-bumping, and high-fiving there must have been!
Everyone involved should be punished
Ten years ago, two case technicians for the Social Security Administration in Huntington noticed something they apparently weren't supposed to notice: that an SSA appeals judge, also in Huntington, habitually was approving the disability claims made by clients of a particular attorney.
EPA 'leadership' hurting families throughout America
WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency has finally admitted that their relentless war on coal is not about fighting climate change but rather to show "leadership." EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said so in recent testimony before the Energy and Commerce Committee in the House of Representatives.
New EPA rule seeks end to auto racing
Nags and scolds. They think they know everything, that they're smarter than everyone else, that they have the right to tell their inferiors – us – what we should and shouldn't do. They worm their way into positions of authority and start issuing prescriptions and prohibitions for our “betterment.”
Governor's Internship Program prepares students for success
CHARLESTON – Over the past several years, we in West Virginia have worked hard to create a strong education system and new opportunities for our students while developing workforce training programs to give our people the skills they need to find good-paying jobs.
The end is near for Obama's bullies
One of the great joys in life is getting the chance to tell a bully off, but the timing and the circumstances have to be just right or you're liable to suffer the consequences.
Praising Benjamin: When saying the least says the most
BECKLEY – I had not been practicing law very long when I first met Justice Brent Benjamin, but longtime observers of the state Supreme Court have told me him taking a seat on the bench in 2005 brought a refreshing perspective to the Court.
Blankenship vs. the Manchin-Goodwin connection
It doesn't seem fair that Booth Goodwin must run for governor. The position should be his by right. He thinks he’s earned it. He and his family have been staunch Democrats for decades, loyal supporters of Gov./Sen. Joe Manchin and of Gov./Sen. Jay Rockefeller before him.
Legislature helped its corporate backers, failed to tackle real issues
CHARLESTON – The 2016 West Virginia Legislative session has been called one of the worst ever by media outlets and organizations statewide. West Virginia is facing real challenges right now. Our roads are bad. We have a huge budget deficit. Millions of dollars have been cut from our schools. Coal is in decline and West Virginia workers need to be retrained for 21st century jobs. A financial crisis is looming.
Outside counsel policy ends cronyism, saves millions
CHARLESTON – West Virginia taxpayers deserve transparency, competitive bidding and millions of dollars in cost savings, all of which my administration delivered with its implementation of an outside counsel policy.
What do the Foxes say?
“I thought the rabbit droppings in your backyard were Cocoa Puffs and I experienced intestinal distress after eating them.
Legislature continues focus on needed lawsuit reforms
CHARLESTON – As the curtain falls on this year’s legislative session, we all should applaud the members of the West Virginia Legislature for their abilities to tackle big issues, particularly lawsuit reforms, which will move our state forward and into the national mainstream.
Another problem with public financing
“[T]he public financing of elections – for judgeships or any other positions – is a boondoggle we all should deplore.” That's what we wrote six years ago in an editorial opposing Gov. Joe Manchin's proposal of a public financing pilot project for the two state Supreme Court seats to be contested in the 2012 election.
West Virginia's comeback begins now
CHARLESTON – Historic and unprecedented. Those words illustrate West Virginia’s seismic victory recently at the U.S. Supreme Court – a victory that reverberated across the nation instilling hope in the state’s coal industry and forcing bureaucrats to think twice before using executive regulation to bring about radical change. The ruling, issued Feb. 9, immediately stopped President Obama from implementing the centerpiece of his coal-killing agenda. It limits further economic damage by freezing t
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?