By the time this column appears in today’s newspapers, I will have this past Sunday watched the final theatrical production of “Mamie,” which I understand had already received pretty nice reviews by some folks who recently attended one or more of the shows in Logan.
Recent news and media remind me of a famous novel by British author Charles Dickens. No, not the Christmas story with Scrooge learning important lessons, but rather “A Tale of Two Cities.” The book was required reading in my seventh-grade class.
Sometimes it can feel good to be wrong.
Now that Joe Manchin has said he will not run for governor next year, potential candidates for governor and other state offices are announcing their intentions. Some are still in the trial balloon stage. They put their names out as possible candidates to see if there is any support, especial…
The West Virginia Legislature met Sept. 23-25 during its regularly scheduled interim meetings to discuss upcoming topics to surely be considered in the 2020 regular legislative session. Although several committees met over the three-day period, the meeting of the Joint Judiciary Committee, o…
“Let he who is without sin be the one to cast the first stone.”
Someone must have only read the first part of the statement, ”Take a Book, Return a Book” at the Little Free Library in West Williamson. They literally took ALL of the books. When I went out this morning to walk and looked at the library as I usually do, imagine my surprise when I found it empty.
With the production of “Mamie” being presented at the Coalfield Jamboree in Logan, and with Halloween coming up, I’ve decided now is the perfect time to relay some information concerning many factors involving not only Mamie Thurman’s gruesome death in 1932 but also some other matters that M…
With the release of National Parents Organization’s 2019 Shared Parenting Report Card, it remains clear that there is still much work to do in West Virginia. Many states are moving closer to shared parenting as the norm in family courts. However, West Virginia lags behind, receiving a grade of C-.
Legislators and state officials have been talking a lot lately about the condition of secondary roads and the future of the personal property tax on business equipment and inventory. They treat the personal property tax as something that must be taken care of immediately. They see the condit…
In his next-to-last year in office, President Barack Obama, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers altered a regulation pertaining to the waters of the United States, also known as WOTUS. The rule expanded the definition of WOTUS to include smaller streams, …
The town of Logan was once named for her and there remains a community that bears her name, a coal company which has borrowed her name, a drug store featuring her name, a monument honoring her name at the Logan County Courthouse, a former hotel in Logan named for her, and there even has been…
Some 1,600 years ago, in the A.D. 410, barbarian armies underneath King Alaric captured the ancient city of Rome, ransacking and pillaging the center of the Roman Empire. The fall of the once-great capital sent terrifying shock waves throughout the Western world, triggering Saint Jerome to l…
In recent weeks, two events have come out of the Marshall University community that are worth noting. They point to Marshall's future and its past.
I attended college from 1965 until 1989, acquiring three degrees as well as taking other postgraduate education courses. The total tuition for my undergraduate and graduate classes was approximately $10,000 during the "golden age" of a college education.
It took me almost four years to find out, as it just seemed that nobody I spoke with knew just when the Triadelphia Country Club was opened. It was located at Bruno in the Triadelphia District a few miles outside of Man. When I found out a few years ago the golf course was ceasing to exist, I made it a point to drive there and have a look. What I saw was not pretty.
I am trying to locate an old Army buddy from my basic training at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina, in 1958. His name is Allen Hughes and he lived in Holden prior to his service.
My book group selected "Isaac's Storm" by Erik Larson, prompting me to read a book I might never have chosen. It describes the events leading up to and through the devastating hurricane that struck Galveston, Texas, in 1900, which killed more than 5,000 people.
For most of this year, Joe Manchin effectively prevented any other prominent Democrat from announcing his or her intentions to run for statewide office. As long as Manchin toyed with the idea of running for governor, no one else would jump into that ring.
According to some of the "old-timers" around Logan, like former Logan City policeman and current Logan County Court part-time court martial Tom Fink, the town of Logan once had at least 10 bars, clubs or pool halls that sold alcoholic beverages. The beer joints or beer gardens, as they were often referred to, could legally only sale beer, but nearly every community within Logan County had a "watering hole" at some point in their local history. Private clubs, of course, were allowed to dispense liquors and wines.
Another indication of what appears to be significant disarray in West Virginia's Division of Highways continues to cast a shadow over the department and the many endeavors it is supposed to be tackling.
On Wednesday, the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy released a report on wage theft in West Virginia. Wage theft can be defined in many ways. Some examples are minimum wage violations, overtime violations, illegal deductions, employee misclassification, and tipped minimum wage violations.
I'm currently working on a story concerning about five or six different places in Logan where local legend Aracoma - whom I hesitate to call an Indian Princess - was buried. So, I thought since I haven't completed that narrative yet, I would sort of set the table for it with the following related information.
While Marshall University and West Virginia University prosper, some of West Virginia's smaller state-supported colleges and universities struggle. Gov. Jim Justice brought that fact to light again earlier this month.
Back in my hey-day with this newspaper, I often was assigned to cover different types of public meetings in which there frequently were disagreements among school board members, city officials, county commissioners and even political executive committee people - back when the Executive Committee was a key component to the outcome of many local elections.
In some circles, "plastic" has become an almost verboten term because of growing concerns about waste. But addressing waste around the globe while growing West Virginia's economy are not mutually exclusive goals.
Somewhere, I saw a small sign that read something like, "A Cluttered Desk is a Sign of Genius."
Trust me, when I say that I am a far cry from anywhere near being a genius, but I certainly have a cluttered desk, even though I promise it's not nearly as bad as Logan Chief Circuit Judge Eric O'Briant or court reporter Larry Coffindaffer's offices. With that remark, I must also concede that their ultra-cluttering must make those two fellows more like geniuses than myself.
For decades, Big Pharma has raised drug prices with impunity. Here in West Virginia, the average annual cost of brand name prescription drug treatment increased 58 percent between 2012 and 2017, while the annual income for West Virginians increased only 2.9 percent.
The West Virginia Division of Highways says it needs outside help in its push to repair the state's secondary roads, which are deteriorating faster than the DoH can fix them.
"I was six years old when my peg-legged father sold our two-room shack near Charleston, West Virginia, for thirty cans of Wilson's evaporated milk. He moved the family fifty miles away to Logan County where we continued to struggle with poverty. I stood beside him as he sat in front of dime stores and sold pencils at southern West Virginia towns."
Progression is defined as "the process of developing or moving gradually towards a more advanced state." As time barrels forward, each institution, industrial sector or culture must adapt to societal needs. Agriculture is no different.
Was it really that long ago that the national Republican Party claimed to be the party of fiscal restraint and prudence? You might not know it from the budget deal that passed through Congress earlier this month.
Whether or not you are a history buff, people - especially in Logan and Mingo counties - should know that Mingo County was formed from Logan County in 1895. However, I'd bet very few people know that an old mountain moonshiner is credited with being the "daddy" of the project that led to Mingo's creation. Here's the story.
The Pallottine Foundation of Huntington has just passed a milestone - the application deadline for our first round of grantmaking in the 20 counties we serve in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio.
In an age where renewable energy sources are supposed to be the future, older technology is not going down without a fight. For evidence, look at Ohio and West Virginia on a recent Tuesday.
Last week, the German auto company Volkswagen announced that its plant in Puebla, Mexico, would produce the company's very last Beetle. The famous slope-roofed, rear-engine air-cooled car's final journey from Mexico offers a road map for cars and international relations in the 20th century.
If something sounds too good to be true
How many of us thought those words a couple of years ago when West Virginia officials announced the big development deal with China?
Have you ever felt like you've been fighting a losing battle?
After years of witnessing mostly a younger generation suffer and too many succumb to addiction due primarily to the combination of pharmaceutical companies and pharmacy greed fueled by some physicians' unjustifiable prescriptions, I have to now say thanks to those responsible for creating "zombies" throughout Logan County and beyond.
Our world has a surplus of major crises not limited to floods, wars and refugees. However, it seems that unless we are directly affected by these dreadful events, human nature leads us to just utter a few sympathetic words and then go on to daily personal concerns. One of those daily activities of American life is driving our vehicles; we do love our cars, trucks and SUVs.
A year ago, people driving the West Virginia Turnpike paid $6 in tolls to get from Charleston to Bluefield - three tolls of $2 each. This year the tolls have doubled, so the one-way trip now costs $12, or $24 for a round trip.
Recently, I wrote in regard to Jack Baisden Sr. being enshrined into the Artie Museum at what was called the West Virginia All-Sports Day that was conducted at the Raleigh County Armory near Beckley on July 6.
A new program about to get underway in West Virginia appears to be a badly needed initiative that could help make some headway against two of the Mountain State's more significant problems.
I know that when it comes to history, the names of Don Chafin and the Devil Anse Hatfield family standout for their distinguished contributions to true American history: Chafin for his renowned 1921 stance against marching miners at Blair Mountain. And, of course, the Hatfields for their role in the famous Hatfield-McCoy feud that lasted for many years following the Civil War.
Amid the ongoing trade tensions, the White House recently issued a proclamation with the stunning conclusion that Toyota and other international automaker contributions to the economy have reduced the market share of "American-owned" companies and thereby are a national security threat.
Last month, something happened in your state Capitol that many people predicted never would: Our legislature passed a comprehensive education reform bill, including measures that provide educational choice in our state.
Developers of the Heartland Gateway Intermodal facility at Prichard promised a lot as they took the project from concept to completion. The 100-acre site that was supposed to open southern West Virginia, southern Ohio and eastern Kentucky to the world market didn't quite accomplish that.
Last Thursday's fireworks display in Logan got me to thinking about how congested things must have been prior to the completion of the Logan Boulevard. What a tremendous difference it must have made for those travelers of yesteryear when the only way to Stollings and beyond was through the heart of Logan. Things sure have changed with a population decline of at least 24,827 people when 59 years ago the Logan Boulevard was opened as maybe the single best highway change ever in county history, prior to the new road opening from Man to Logan.
The fight in the West Virginia Legislature over charter schools is over for now. A bill has been passed in special session. Now it moves on to Gov. Jim Justice, who has said he plans to sign it.
Should there ever be a Logan County Hall of Fame for softball, there are dozens of names I, personally, would submit for admission. At the top of that list would be Jack Baisden, a guy I've known nearly all of my life. He actually is going to receive a mighty high honor July 6 when he will join the ranks of people like former NBA great Jerry West and Logan's Willie Akers as an inductee into the Artie Museum in Raleigh County.
First a story:
I have a friend who used to be a full-time reporter at The Herald-Dispatch. He covered all the general elections as we all did.
The Register-Herald of Beckley published this editorial on June 24 regarding a shortage of funding for state highway authority offices:
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