The first of this month, a friend who grew up near me posted a photo on Facebook. It was a pair of work boots, a helmet and a United Mine Workers of America ballcap accompanied by a single word: RETIRED.

Proposed spending by the far left: $5.9 trillion! Past and present. Stupid!

Gov. Jim Justice’s plan to increase West Virginia’s vaccination rate against COVID-19 by using a lottery to give away cash and prizes has turned out to be a bust.

Three recent popes all, in one form or another, authorized the use of the Latin Mass in a liturgy dating to the Council of Trent (1545-1563), with an intent to promote unity in Catholic ranks. The three were Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Now Pope Francis has severely restricted the…

As 1,246 employees of the former Mylan Inc. factory (now Viatris) in Morgantown prepare to join the ranks of out-of-work West Virginians, they can look back to the 1980s for the source of their discomfort.

In the pantheon of pessimists, Arthur Schopenhauer towers.

West Virginians know what it means to help one another, especially when times get tough. This has been particularly true over the past year when we were forced to stay apart but were still able to keep our communities strong. Despite our best efforts, some of our most vulnerable West Virgini…

Dale Burcham has decided about 60 years of public service is enough, so he’s calling it quits, sort of.

I’m a biased person. I struggle to overcome psychological tendencies that distort my perception of reality and decision making. For me recency and confirmation biases are the two most powerful and deceiving.

Same song, different verse:

A few weeks ago, Ryan Quinn’s article in this newspaper, “Proposals for online charter schools still on public comment” reminded readers they had less than a week to comment on West Virginia’s online charter schools, which were already decided by the Legislature. Some online charter schools …

The Elyria (Ohio) Chronicle-Telegram published this editorial on July 14:

A popular movie called “Minari” received six Academy Award nominations and has been described as embodying “what it mean to be a family.” But, IMHO, reviewers have missed the deeper point. And this point (again in my opinion) it may have relevance to present-day West Virginia.

The village of Moscow, Ohio, population 185, sits along U.S. 52 about 18 miles from the Interstate 275 outer belt around Cincinnati. Standing at the post office parking lot and looking toward the skate park, you can’t miss the William H. Zimmer power plant. Its single smokestack and its cool…

En route into Washington, D.C., two weeks ago, I stopped to see an old friend and more recently an author of mine, Frank Joseph, at his home in Bethesda, Maryland. Frank and I first met at the Associated Press bureau in Chicago, where we both were new hires.

The Boston Globe published this editorial on July 13:

West Virginia has borne more than its share of problems related to the opioid epidemic, and statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week brought that point home further.

This editorial was published in the Charleston Gazette-Mail on July 15:

For years, West Virginians have complained about the quality of their public schools. Whether those complaints are justified, given the nature of West Virginia culture and the state’s lack of affluence as compared with other states, is debatable.

COVID-19 has not gone away. It’s still hanging around.

People with a “wanderlust” gene rarely stay put for more than a year, but COVID-19 kept us at home until our mini vacation last week. To celebrate Maury’s birthday, we decided to explore a part of West Virginia with which we were unfamiliar.

Training camp in the Canadian Football League has begun. Because of adjustments made to accommodate COVID-19 protocols, the season begins Aug. 5 and ends with its championship game, the Grey Cup, on Dec. 12.

No amount of money can undo the damage the opioid epidemic has caused this nation, this region and this community. Too many lives have been lost and too many people continue to struggle with addiction. Too many of their family members suffer, also.

For at least the last several election cycles I have been rankled by a political phenomenon that I am hard put to explain: the appallingly bad quality of Democratic Party messaging, especially in national campaigns. Republicans, clearly, have been winning the messaging wars, though at times …

Decatur (Alabama) Daily published this editorial on July 6:

Writer, world traveler and Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award winner William Saroyan titled a memoir “Places Where I’ve Done Time,” which would be a suitable appellation for a summation of the lives of many newsmen, including this one. In “Places,” Saroyan dispenses with the wisdom typical of …

The Minneapolis Star Tribune published this editorial on July 5:

In one of the least surprising announcements of the year, an environmental nonprofit group says Appalachia has a multibillion-dollar problem with coal mine reclamation.

It’s not working. Our nation’s approach to immunizing Americans against COVID-19 did not reach the goal of 70% vaccinated by July 4th. Only about 53% are fully immunized. Providing free easily available vaccinations against a disease that killed over 600,000 Americans and almost 3,000 West V…

As much as political leaders and pundits like to cite scientific consensus as unarguable fact, consensus can change. New classification schemes can emerge. New information can shake loose even the most firmly held beliefs as the scientific method is impartial to politics or patronage. This f…

As many states and Congress consider changes in how Americans vote, it is timely to consider the views of those who have devoted their professional careers to the study of democratic processes, especially to how the people choose their leaders.

WASHINGTON — Ecumenical dialog among the churches, ways of identifying and combating racism and the question of prayer and its power: What could possibly be the connection among these three issues? Answer: My brief “summer residency” for the online master’s of catechesis curriculum at the Ca…

The Parkersburg News and Sentinel published this editorial on June 26: