When the minimum wage goes up, most everyone’s pay increases. And working West Virginians earning minimum wage have not had a raise since 2015. Yet earlier this year, a bill to gradually raise the minimum wage to $12/hr. (about $25,000/yr) over three years didn’t get anywhere and was supported only by Democrats in the WV Legislature.

Senate President Mitch Carmichael penned a recent opinion piece in the Sunday Gazette-Mail entitled "A New Era for WV Education." Instead, we think it should be called "A New Error in Education."

Beholden to out-of-state corporate interests that spent millions in 2016 getting him elected, WV Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is using state tax dollars to support a national right-wing agenda to take health coverage away from millions of working families across America. The lawsuit, which looks increasingly threatening, would hit West Virginia especially hard, because if successful, it would also increase profits for coal companies by making it harder for disabled coal miners and their families to get black lung benefits.

If the WV Attorney General has his way more West Virginians will suffer and die. Patrick Morrisey has signed our whole state on in support of the Texas vs United States lawsuit which seeks to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. 

Fireworks or the sight of military hardware and flyovers by fighter planes on the 4th of July can stimulate patriotism. But women on a soccer field in France brought our nation together in pride even better the 4th of July weekend.

Roark Sizemore receieved Sodexo's Brady Scholarship for his work with Pantry Plus More

Hunger makes learning hard. What if kids could get extra food and hygiene supplies from a school-based food pantry to take home from school? That’s what a West Virginia county commissioner and high school student wondered and it led to an award-winning, first-in-the-state program.

It seems even Mother Nature was in agreement that the Omnibus Education bill was not the way to go. As the senate debated the Bill’s final passage before sending it to the governor’s desk a tornado rushed into Charleston.

West Virginia’s clean air, fresh water and deep woods are why generations of families love this beautiful state. Yet a recent funding grab by the state Legislature raises a question: Where do legislators loyalties lie when it comes to keeping West Virginia's air clean? With citizens or polluters?

We expect our local representatives to be strong and do what’s best for the folks at home, not give in to legislative arm-twisting. But that’s what happened when state legislative leaders bullied their way into passing charter schools against the wishes of many West Virginians, who polls show don’t want them.

As West Virginia enters the next phase of confronting the opioid abuse crisis—helping people get their lives back and healing family and community life—a bill that can help is now in front of the WV Legislature.