Opinions
Medicaid unit adds punch to AG’s fraud fight
CHARLESTON – West Virginia gained a huge advantage in its fight against waste, fraud and abuse with the transfer of the state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
U.S. Senators need to support Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act
West Virginia has borne the brunt of rising prescription drug prices. As a working-class state, many of our neighbors can’t afford their needed medications after the pharmaceutical industry has hiked the prices of common prescription drugs.
House should pass bill establishing appellate court
The most compelling argument in favor of establishing an intermediate appellate court may be the trial bar’s opposition to it.
The judge's side of the asbestos story
WHEELING – I hesitate to disagree with the Feb. 19, 2020, view of The West Virginia Record because the paper has morphed into a valuable resource for the legal community and for the general public, and because I have to assume some responsibility for causing the paper to take the position it did in the editorial “Those plaintiff’s attorneys who push too far.” However, I need to disabuse the paper’s editors of the backhanded compliment that I have finally learned to stop overestimating the maturity of plaintiff attorneys in asbestos personal injury case.
Those plantiff’s attorneys who push too far
It seems like Judge Wilson assumed too much. He gave the plaintiff attorneys too much credit. He overestimated their level of maturity. To his credit, though, he seems to be losing his patience, and it’s about time.
Scare-mongering films are not evidence
We’ve had enough of this nonsense. Let’s put the kibosh on emotional appeals and re-embrace reason. Give us the unadulterated facts and let us analyze them. Then we can determine if there is a problem, and what to do about it.
'Good News' not so good for Richwood students
The “good news” in Manchin’s tweet is not so good for Richwood High children and families, most of whom do not live in the city of Richwood, but in outlying communities like Fenwick, Craigsville and Nettie.
The insanity is over: ‘navigable’ now means ‘navigable’ again
Let that be the end of the nightmarish, Humpty-Dumpty world where words can mean whatever any meddling, overzealous bureaucrat says they mean.
Maybe Jim Justice should take care of the counties he has before he gets any new ones
The problem in West Virginia isn’t that we aren’t gaining territory. The problem is that our attention-seeking governor has lost interest in the hard problems the state has and isn’t working on them. Like a kid with an aging pet, he’s gotten bored with West Virginia and he’s off looking for new toys to play with, alongside his fellow trust-fund kid, Jerry Falwell. It’s a shame, but we shouldn’t be that surprised. What’s a job to people who were born rich?
It's about protection, not politics
I challenge everyone to stop playing politics. Let’s step forward and pass this legislation, which would put West Virginia out in front and help those people with preexisting conditions.
Everyone else has an intermediate appellate court!
Maybe 2020 will be the year we finally establish an intermediate court for West Virginia – not because most other states have one, but because it’s a good thing to have.
Is Hoppy Kercheval right about why Democrats are losing?
It’s time to stop repeating ourselves. Neither the Puccios nor the Justices, nor the committees or the union bosses – not any of the powers that be or have been – are going to break the cycle. West Virginia has waited for change long enough, and West Virginia can’t wait any more.
Why the opioid crisis is being blamed on big pharmacy chains
The plaintiffs don’t seem interested in going after smaller outfits.
Unnecessary intermediate court of appeals 'would serve no purpose'
I must respectfully ask why in the world do some of our West Virginia legislators again want to waste taxpayer dollars by creating an intermediate court of appeals, particularly when every litigant on either side already has the right to appeal from every circuit court ruling directly to the West Virginia Supreme Court in every case?
When so-called solutions are worse than alleged problems
It behooves us to ask who’s benefiting from all the activism, and who always gets stuck with the bill.
Justice gets out from under federal investigation
MORGANTOWN – Being under federal investigation is the legal equivalent of having a dormant virus; You are never quite sure when or if anything is going to come of it.
Right-to-work, if you can get it
Four years ago, West Virginia became the 26th right-to-work state in the nation when our Legislature overrode former Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s veto of a bill prohibiting workers from being required to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment.
Unrigging our society to unleash our state’s potential
CHARLESTON – The U.S. economy is booming, resulting in the lowest unemployment rate in fifty years. That’s great news for families across the country looking for economic opportunities that will make their version of the American Dream a reality.
On the watch list once again
Four years ago, West Virginia managed to climb out of the judicial hellhole we had wallowed in for more than a decade, but we’ve remained on the American Tort Reform Association’s “Watch List” ever since, perilously close to the hole’s edge and perpetually in danger of slipping back in.
Leonhardt, department working towards a better agricultural future
CHARLESTON – A turn of the calendar calls for revision of individual ideals and new goals to avoid any complacency we may have fallen into over the holidays.