WASHINGTON — It has been five months since Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, lost his committee assignments over his support for white supremacy, and on Wednesday he took a step toward rehabilitation.

Talk about timing. Last week's column said the Ohio River ferry at Sistersville, West Virginia, could skip the 2019 season if the governing board couldn't find a pilot soon. The evening that column ran, the Sistersville Ferry Board announced this season has been canceled, but there is hope the ferry can run next year.

WASHINGTON — President Trump's detractors are trying to play down the significance of the U.S.-Mexico immigration deal, saying it is largely comprised of actions that Mexico had already agreed to many months ago.

The year was 1919, exactly a hundred years ago. My father was 14 and lived in Logan County where 14-year-olds completed the eighth grade. And that was it. No ninth grade in Logan.

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she believes President Trump "has been involved in a criminal cover-up." Too bad she's not in a position to do something about it.

The Journal of Martinsburg, West Virginia, published this editorial regarding a two-year program providing skilled workers for industries experiencing employee shortages:

WASHINGTON - Randolph Bourne (1886-1918) said, "War is the health of the state." James Madison said, "War is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement," and the executive almost is the American state, Congress now being more theatrical than actual.

In Alabama, where a new law denies abortion to women even in cases of incest or rape, a rapist may still pursue custody rights of a child conceived during his assault.

College is

still worth it

You may have noticed that people are more skeptical about the value of college than they used to be. As I've traveled Kentucky, I cannot count the number of times that someone has expressed the belief that "not everyone needs to go to college." People who say this usually argue, "There are lots of people who'd be better off learning a trade." Others use a cost-benefit analysis, weighing the total cost of college (including interest on loan debt) against the opportunity costs of not working.

WASHINGTON - For decades, Catholic Democratic politicians have been justifying their pro-choice position by telling us that they were personally opposed to abortion but could not impose their religious view on others. For most, the argument was a fig leaf to justify their shameful failure to protect innocent unborn life. But it appeared that Joe Biden really believed it.

WASHINGTON - Pull up your bellbottoms, slip on your clogs, and turn up the Roberta Flack: Today, we're gonna testify like it's the 1970s.

Education has been a major topic in our state. While almost everyone agrees that West Virginia's schools need improvement, proposed methods to do so vary greatly.

WASHINGTON - Dear Democratic presidential candidates: I know all 23 of you want to run against President Trump, but only one will get that opportunity. If you truly believe your own righteous rhetoric, some of you ought to be spending your time and energy in another vital pursuit - winning control of the Senate.

The Huntington Municipal Development Authority's decision to purchase the ACF Industries site along 3rd Avenue for $3.12 million as part of a plan to redevelop the Highlawn area brought a mix of reaction from online readers.

D-Day cartoon was tasteless

How can The Herald-Dispatch print such a despicable cartoon? To use the crosses of dead heroes to ridicule a president at a D-Day ceremony goes way beyond a line that should not be crossed. Have you no shame?

WASHINGTON — The abortion issue is more divisive than ever, thanks to extreme anti-abortion legislation recently passed in some states and, lately, to Democratic presidential candidates seemingly vying to be the most pro-choicest.

My dear sweet mother, Berenice O'Keefe, spent her last year or so (in her 90s) in a nursing home, less and less able to leave her bed or her wheelchair. In that final trot down the backstretch heading for home, she turned frequently to a patched-together notebook of prayers.

Ferries crossing the Ohio River once were numerous in this area. My own great-grandfather operated one between Mason County, W.Va., and Gallia County, Ohio, at the end of the 1800s.

WASHINGTON - The earnest improvers at the College Board, which administers the SAT, should ponder Abraham Maslow's law of the instrument. In 1966, Maslow, a psychologist, said essentially this: If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. The College Board wants to solve a complex social problem that it and its test are unsuited to solve.

June is Adopt-A- Cat Month

From the cute whiskers to the licks, cats are the "purrfect" pet. In June, anyone can show some love to felines during Adopt-a-Cat Month. The event encourages people to adopt one of the millions of cats sitting in shelters hoping to find a home.

The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register published this editorial on June 4 regarding the separation of powers:

Most West Virginians who were upset and outraged about last year's impeachment summer, involving state Supreme Court members, probably would prefer to forget about it. It is over and done with - except for one critical detail.

WASHINGTON - If there was "great love all around" during President Trump's state visit to the United Kingdom, as he tweeted Monday, the participants royal and decidedly otherwise were deceptively discreet.

Postal Service needs better customer service

What is wrong with the Postal Service in Huntington that they do such a lousy job? I am writing this on a Wednesday and my small business, which is literally two blocks from the Post Office, has not had mail service since last Thursday. You can't go in the post office and get your mail because it is "out with the carrier." But the carrier doesn't show up! They won't give you a supervisor's name or number to call to get resolution, and if you call the published number, it just rings and rings, never answering. I need mail service five days a week, and we pay taxes for this service. If they were a real business, they would be out of business!

WASHINGTON - I believe President Trump when he says "I never called Meghan Markle 'nasty.' " I believe him even though Britain's Sun newspaper published an interview with Trump the day before in which he referred to the Duchess of Sussex with that very word - and even though the Sun has a recording.

WASHINGTON - President Trump is understandably frustrated by the crisis at the border. Anyone who watched the video of more than 1,000 illegal migrants sneaking through a hole in a fence near El Paso, Texas - the largest single breach of our border ever recorded - and still says we don't need a border wall is in denial.

GOP bill punishes teachers, students

In case you have missed it, there was a "special session" of the West Virginia State Senate to pass a second try at a big ugly education bill. Teachers think that it is punitive. It includes allowances for for-profit companies to end up with taxpayer school funds through the formation of "public" charter schools. It suggests that all school employees should be trained to be better first-line responders to trauma-afflicted students, which sounds great, but doing that instead of getting more help for those students by employing specialist counselors, psychologists and nurses just puts more pressure on teachers who will continue to be just as hard-pressed to address these problems while also teaching their classroom full of children.

Today is the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Older senior citizens, military personnel or history aficionados easily remember the day. Too many others seem unfamiliar with this date or its significance. Yet, D-Day continues to have vital messages for our nation and the world.

And fired the shot heard round the world.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Concord Hymn"

WASHINGTON - After the morning bloodshed on Lexington green, on the first day of what would become a 3,059-day war, there occurred the second of what would be eventually more than 1,300 mostly small military clashes. Rick Atkinson writes: "A peculiar quiet descended over what the poet James Russell Lowell would call 'that era-parting bridge,' across which the old world passed into the new." Here again is Atkinson's felicity for turning history into literature.

Salt Rock too far out for Huntington

My first year of teaching was at McComas Elementary, a three-room school located on Raccoon Creek in rural Cabell County. On occasion, county supervisors made unannounced visits to McComas as well as other schools throughout the county. I recall one blustery winter day I was walking the hallway at lunchtime when the front door to the school building opened wide. This one particular supervisor flounced in, flailed his arms, and proclaimed, "This school shouldn't even be in this county!" I wanted to say, "Oh, but it is. And what's more, these students would walk through fire for me." For as long as this man was a county supervisor, anytime I heard his name, the aforementioned incident came to mind. Even when I think about it today, it still rubs my fur the wrong way.

The Exponent Telegram of Clarksburg, West Virginia, published this editorial on May 29 regarding the pursuit of natural gas-related industries:

WASHINGTON - Donald "Bone Spurs" Trump is in Britain, attempting to celebrate a special relationship forged in heroic military sacrifice.

My wife was born Carrie Susan Samuels, but no one ever called her by her first name, Carrie, until a woman at the DMV office in Huntington made her Carrie, not for a driver's license but for a state identification card.

Trump AWOL

on Memorial Day

These last few days Americans nationwide are commemorating the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Over 1 million lives lost since 1900, a number multiplied if one includes the Civil War, ending only 35 years before. Flags and red poppies, parades, services of remembrance for loved ones, loss mixed with pride, tears, across our nation.

Astonishingly, I can find no synthesis of the Mueller Report that probed Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and looked into the question of whether the Trump campaign aided the Russians in their efforts.

CAMDEN, S.C. - Eulogies, it has always seemed to me, are best delivered while the subject is living and can enjoy hearing the best version of him- or herself.

Politicians betray Normandy's heroes

Martha MacCallum, a Fox News reporter, is going to cover the 75th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy on June 6. It will be her second time to visit these sacred grounds, as her first visit was to show her children this historic place. Her comments about visiting Normandy the first time reminded me about the 25th anniversary on June 6, 1969. I was in the Air Force at the time and stationed in Spain. We were sent to Normandy to coordinate military protocol and patriotic music for the celebration. I actually got to meet Gen. Omar Bradley, and that thrill alone will remain with me for life.

WASHINGTON - If congressional Democrats will temper their enthusiasm for impeachment with lucidity about the nation's needs and their political self-interest, they will understand the self-defeating nature of a foredoomed attempt to remove a president for aesthetic reasons.

Take care of the flag

To all area businesses, residences and anyone who displays the American flag: If you care enough to fly it, care enough to keep it clean and free of tears and frayed ends. There are local cleaners who will clean Old Glory for free.