Elections in the United States — and in West Virginia — are free and fair. I have researched elections around the world for over two decades, and I have seen with my own eyes how elections can be falsified through voter intimidation, ballot box stuffing and other types of manipulation.
Few, if anyone, could have imagined just how much COVID-19 would change life in America when the virus first started spreading in a noticeable way back in February.
It’s too soon to say, but the people who want to overturn the Affordable Care Act, a group that includes West Virginia’s attorney general, are closer than before to getting what they want, even in the midst of a pandemic that has already killed over 200,000 Americans.
The world shifted cataclysmically in 2020, including right here at home. While all of us have been touched by the coronavirus pandemic and its rippling effects, our most precious residents — children — are the most affected yet are the least able to make things right.
Gov. Jim Justice sighed, voiced some folksy phrases of frustration, and dived into the answer again.
Presidential debates rarely change anyone’s mind and are further diminished by the lack of a scoreboard. Tonight’s debate probably will be no exception, so don’t expect a knockout. Here are some thoughts, however, to get us revved for the big game.
While West Virginians are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and trying to figure out if their kids can attend school, the oil and gas industry is working with the West Virginia State Tax Department to cut its property taxes by as much as $62 million per year.
Gazette-Mail cartoon: September 28, 2020
Gazette-Mail cartoon: September 27, 2020
The past few months should have forced even the staunchest climate-crisis deniers to yank their heads out of the warming sand.
First thing’s first: Kudos to Gov. Jim Justice and his administration for committing to again publicly reporting COVID-19 outbreaks in schools. There was no reason for West Virginia to stop doing this, especially when everything regarding COVID-19 in the state lately has centered around wher…
The novel coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic shutdown in response have sped everything up by about 10 years. Threats once on the horizon are now directly off the port bow, in firing range. And while some of these shifts might seem trivial, their consequences are not.
I am running for Congress in West Virginia because we need an economy that works for all of us, not just a wealthy few.
Gazette-Mail editorial: September 25, 2020
Blaming a lack of consistent data, Gov. Jim Justice and members of his administration have stopped reporting COVID-19 cases detected at public schools — the very places an entire mapping system has been designed to judge when in-person classes can be conducted.
Daily, I read about a government leader or public health official demanding more testing whenever there is an uptick in COVID–19 infections (symptomatic and asymptomatic). I wonder why? I could understand testing to learn more about the demographics of the population at increased risk, a sur…
U.S. Sen. Shelly Moore-Capito, R-W.Va., and other Republicans, tug at the fraying threads of their credibility as they join the president in a breathless dash to replace the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg prior to election day. Outsiders view their exertions as practice …
Every time justice is denied to a Black person in the United States, it seems the devil is in the details. We’re told the facts in this particular case don’t support prosecution of a police officer who kills a Black person. But it doesn’t mean the system is broken. It doesn’t mean we have on…
With political storms raging and the election just weeks away, here is a summary comparison for selecting our next president. Although we know the record of the incumbent, we must speculate more for his challenger.
As schools began to close amidst the COVID-19 chaos back in March, many institutions handed their students large educational packets, with work for the rest of the year and a seeming push out of the nest—you’re on your own.
What is going to happen when the influenza hits while COVID-19 remains a rampant problem in the United States? No one really knows for sure, according to a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In December 2001, the first of three films adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s opus “The Lord of the Rings” (my all-time favorite book, or series of books, depending on how you count them) had just been released in theaters.
Gov. Jim Justice is right that absolutely as many West Virginians as are able should be getting tested for COVID-19. It’s not only important for your own health and the health of those around you in the face of a global pandemic, but it also gives public health officials crucial data for dea…
President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wasted no time after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, immediately announcing their intent to nominate and confirm a replacement. Tempting as it is for Republicans to install a third Supreme Court justice during Trump’s first …
Some months before COVID-19 turned our world upside down, I was in the Underground Theater watching the documentary, “The Notorious RBG,” with about 30 other people. A good friend, retired from the legal profession, started to sob about midway through the film. I was also getting teary-eyed.…
Gazette-Mail cartoon: September 22, 2020
It is sad and rare an individual’s passing would plunge the nation into a broil of partisanship. Yet that is the confrontation presented by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., within an hour of the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Anxious for partisan advant…
It feels odd isolating with COVID-19 in my child’s old bedroom, surrounded by a giant stuffed fish, band awards and the pile of clothes left in the departure for college. As a public health physician, I knew a bit about this virus. I’m now learning more firsthand. Was I taking precautions? O…
Gazette-Mail cartoon: September 20, 2020
Lin-Manuel Miranda has given Alexander Hamilton a resurrection of sorts in his award-winning musical. Based on the monumental 2004 biography by Ron Chernow, Miranda’s treatment of Hamilton is quite different than the less-than-flattering, often critical view of his subject’s extreme national…
There has been a lot of conversation about the state of healthcare in the Kanawha Valley during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Evidence That Demands a Verdict,” by Josh McDowell, was first published in 1972. The book came when I needed a framework to distinguish between claims that are likely true, ideas that are probably false and assertions that are unsupported by evidence. Since then, I’ve tried to filter claims…
Gazette-Mail cartoon: September 21, 2020
It’s a good thing West Virginia National Guard Gen. James Hoyer was a part of Gov. Jim Justice’s coronavirus news briefing Friday.
Recent protests under the Black Lives Matter banner have generated a degree of collective outrage not witnessed since the 1960s. How best can that energy be mobilized for positive change going forward?
At a recent news briefing on COVID-19, Gov. Jim Justice came right out and told us what might be the most important thing about himself. He said something to the effect that he is the most impatient person in the world.
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic’s disruption, our desire for the pre-pandemic routine might transport our thinking to strange destinations.
The complaint process at the state, corporate and federal level apparently failed the people of Ranson, West Virginia, so badly that the Danish government is wading into the fight.
Our country is based on the principle of the “consent of the governed.” The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence states: “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The most common way we as citizens give that consent is…
Hello there, from (let me check this map thing), whoa, red Kanawha County. I guess red is as bad as it can get, as it relates to COVID-19 and whether schools can resume in-person classes or participate in sports. I didn’t catch all of the governor’s Wednesday briefing, so there might be some…
Gov. Jim Justice continued to talk out of both sides of his mouth Tuesday, citing the dangers of the coronavirus pandemic and his concern for the health of West Virginians, while also unveiling new metrics that will make it easier for schools that would be disqualified under previous state g…
