Loughry expresses no remorse as he heads to prison

  The remarkable fall of Allen Loughry will end with the raw sound of a prison door being locked. The brilliant attorney who ran a successful long shot campaign for the state Supreme Court and quickly rose to Chief Justice is now headed to federal prison for two years. U.S. District Court Judge John Copenhaver

There’s a lot more to the education bill than charter schools

Many of the hours and hours of debate over the comprehensive education reform bill (SB 451) have focused on two issues—charter schools and education savings accounts.  As the bill stands now—it’s on the House floor—ESAs are out, and charter schools have been reduced to a pilot project of two existing low performing elementary schools. The

Delegate Porterfield keeps digging himself deeper into a hole

The old adage says, “When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” That would be good counsel for Republican Delegate Eric Porterfield from Mercer County. The trouble for the freshman delegate began last week during a committee meeting when he spoke in support of an amendment to a bill aimed at nullifying non-discrimination ordinances

We should not be defined by tribalism

America feels deeply divided on, well, everything.  At least it seems that way.  You know when we cannot agree on what constitutes a “wall” that we are all migrating toward our own safe space of ideas, while venturing out only to attack the opposition or defend our position. This tribalism is counterproductive to not only

Wheeling Island Casino wants second casino at The Highlands

Wheeling Island Hotel Casino Racetrack wants the West Virginia Legislature to permit a satellite casino within Ohio County. House Bill 2901 allowing that second gambling location was introduced this week in the House of Delegates. In current law, slot machines and table games are only allowed on the premises of the four racetracks (Wheeling Island,

How the education bill could affect your property taxes

Public education is expensive. This fiscal year West Virginia will spend $2 billion out of a $4.4 billion General Revenue budget to educate our children from grades K through 12. The public ed budget dwarfs all other state spending, except for the Department of Health and Human Resources; it’s General Revenue budget this year is

Education bill likely to change in the House

The attention now turns to the House of Delegates to begin work on the comprehensive and controversial education reform bill.  The Senate passed out SB 451 18-16 with two Republican Senators (Bill Hamilton, R-Upshur and Kenny Mann, R-Monroe) joining with Democrats to oppose the bill. Republicans hold a 59-41 advantage in the House, but that

The Super Bowl was not that bad.

It seems that everyone, except perhaps Patriot fans, found something to hate about the Super Bowl. The New York Times Kevin Draper wrote, “It was the lowest scoring Super Bowl ever, a universally agreed upon snooze-fest. The halftime show was forgettable. The commercials were tame.”  And that was one of the kinder reviews! I must

Why a teachers strike would be a mistake

The leaders of the three teacher and service workers unions in the state have called on their local chapters to decide whether to support or oppose a job action to demonstrate opposition to the sweeping education reform bill under consideration in the state legislature. The poll of the memberships asks for a “yes” or “no”

State school board may be frustrated, but still supports key provisions of ed bill

The big story out of the state School Board’s emergency meeting this week was frustration expressed by state School Superintendent Steve Paine over he and the Board being left out of the crafting of a sweeping education reform bill. “Look at the board we have,” an aggravated Paine said.  “Now why are we not being

Congress tries novel approach to wall controversy–regular order of business

An unusual thing is going to happen this afternoon at 1:30 in room HC-5 at the U.S. Capitol—a conference committee of Senate and House members will meet to try to work out a compromise on the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill, including the issues of a border wall and immigration reform.  It’s unusual because, too often,

Sweeping education bill runs into trouble at the Capitol

Republicans hold the majorities in the state House of Delegates and the Senate.  The state’s Governor is a Republican.  With those advantages, you might think that Republicans can pass just about any bill they want this legislative session. However, when it comes to the omnibus education bill, legislative life is a little more complicated. The

The state Supreme Court gets the message

Breaking news: The other day, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Beth Walker and Justices Tim Armstead and Evan Jenkins were having lunch together in the cafeteria in the basement of the state Capitol, and they paid for their own meals! Those who have followed the controversy over the spending habits of the state Supreme Court

DHHR needs help with foster care

West Virginia’s opioid crisis has contributed to a dramatic increase in the number of children who have to be removed from homes and placed in the state’s foster care system. State Department of Health and Human Resources Secretary Bill Crouch told the Senate Finance Committee this week that the number of children in state care

Audit shows highways district offices fall short on road maintenance spending

The Justice administration continues to work behind the scenes to try to formulate a plan for additional repairs and maintenance for the state’s secondary roads. As the Governor is apparently learning, it’s not a simple matter. The Governor said in the State of the State address earlier this month that he wanted to redirect some

West Virginia seniors will benefit from Social Security tax plan

West Virginia is an older state. According to Census Bureau figures, the median age is 42 years; that’s four years older than the national average. One in seven West Virginians is 65 or older. However, the state does not treat its older citizens very well when it comes to taxation. Kiplinger rates West Virginia “Not

Manchin, Capito understand how to get a deal

It was encouraging to read and hear the comments from some members of the West Virginia Congressional delegation after President Trump Saturday offered a compromise on the border wall dispute to try to end the partial government shutdown. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said, “I’m hopeful the President’s statement tonight will allow us to immediately reopen

#FTDR 2.0

  Governor Jim Justice, during his State of the State speech earlier this month, received one of his biggest rounds of applause when he made a pledge to shift some of the road bond money to smaller highway projects.  “We’ve got to pull some of the money out of the bigger projects and move some

State’s nonpartisan judicial election law needs tweaking

Four years ago, West Virginia passed a law making judicial elections nonpartisan. Starting in 2016, judges were chosen in nonpartisan elections that coincided with the state’s Primary Election. However, the law created an unintended consequence, which came to light in 2018 because of the controversy on the State Supreme Court that led to two justices

When wacky ideas come out of Charleston

Three West Virginia House of Delegates members are calling for $10 million of the state’s nearly $200 million budget surplus to be used to “help President Donald Trump build a wall along the southern U.S. border.” Republican Delegates Carl Martin (Upshur), Patrick Martin (Lewis), and Caleb Hanna (Webster) released a statement explaining their proposal: “West