We all owe a big debt of gratitude to the many people who labored to make the Nov. 4 General Election work as smoothly as it did. I include everyone who worked at a polling station, as well as all of the employees of the County Clerk’s office. We’re particularly fortunate to have Nikki ...
Many thanks to a local friend for sending me the following quote from Anne Frank, which in turn has set me to reflecting on some lessons her life gives us this strange Thanksgiving. “I do not think of all the misery, but of the glory that remains. Go outside into the fields, nature and the ...
This was written before election results were reported, so I know not if I will have been re-elected when you’re reading this. Whether or not I’ve been returned to office, I thank all who voted and otherwise participated in the November 3 election. Whether I’m there or not, one issue ...
My mind hearkens back to an old fairy tale of Hans Christian Andersen’s called, “The Garden of Paradise.” It begins, “There was once a king’s son. Nobody had so many or such beautiful books as he had.” In spite of all the wonders he could discover from his books, he was unable to ...
On September 17, the Danish Mediation and Complaints-Handling Institution for Responsible Business Conduct announced it was investigating Rockwool, who’s building a stone wool insulation manufacturing plant in Ranson. This resulted from a complaint filed almost a year ago by a group called ...
Here in late September 2020, as so much else swirls around us, another historic moment flows silently through our midst. This Monday will be my 75th birthday. Now, mind you, I have no sense that mortality is closing in on me any time soon (although life is full of surprises), but I do feel ...
The personal property tax generates roughly half a billion dollars for local governments in our state. "Local” governments are counties, municipalities and school districts (the latter get the lion’s share of the money). The tax is levied on individuals and businesses. Businesses pay it on ...
So this summer has been anything but fun at the Wise Guyde household. My brother passed away in mid-July, and then I was in a collision that totaled our white Camry. It also battered my right leg, which resulted in five days of antibiotic drip at Jefferson Hospital and so far a month of keeping ...
When the West Virginia House of Delegates shot down the "Omnibus" Education Bill sent to it by the State Senate, the people of our state were failed. I suspect this failure was inevitable.The Senate and the House approached the issue of public schools from entirely different points of view. The ...
This month I would like to share with you my own soul searching about my role as a citizen in a democracy that is now under real threat to its existence. When conservative mouthpiece Ann Coulter says that the only state of emergency in America is that the president is an idiot, you know we're ...