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America’s greatest secret weapon

Our grandson is a U.S. Marine. This week I told him about his great-grandfather, my dad, who was a proud U.S. Marine. Dad and other Marines I know are Marines, even if they aren’t currently serving. When the “The Marines’ Hymn” – “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli” – was played, Dad stood up and sang. Dad fought in the Pacific in World War II. He never talked about combat. Once in a while something slipped out, like when they were landing on Tarawa. The Marines came in on landing boats that couldn’t make it all the way to the beach. They waded ...

Ohio Fever

Have we got a deal for you! Today we are bombarded with telemarketing calls and events or people that go viral. In the late 1700’s, land in the “Ohio Country” was an attraction and curiosity to people living in the colonies. Sometimes it was called “Ohio Fever.” The Ohio Country then ...

MOV Climate Corner: HB 2014 a dead end

House Bill 2014, the Power Generation and Consumption Act of 2025, introduced on 3/18/25 into the WV House of Delegates by Speaker Roger Hanshaw at the behest of Gov. Patrick Morrisey, is a recipe for keeping West Virginia an extraction colony and sacrifice zone, with a 21st Century spin. HB2014 would enable microgrids (smaller energy grids that are not connected to broader utility grid operations) to utilize fossil fuels instead of renewable energy only, as the law pertaining to microgrid energy use is written today. It would also expand land use options for microgrid districts and ...

No matter the storm, you will have peace

Back in August of 1875, Edward Bickersteth heard a sermon about peace. Later that Sunday afternoon he visited a terminally ill friend and the friend asked about the sermon, since he hadn’t been able to be there. Bickersteth told him about the preacher talking about an inner peace that is divorced from circumstances and simply comes from the presence of God in one’s life. As Bickersteth talked, his friend drifted off to sleep. Bickersteth, however, felt the urge to jot down some of his thoughts after ruminating on that sermon. This is what he wrote: Peace, perfect peace, in this ...

Little Hocking dam was a danger zone in the 1910s

In the span of two years the old dam at Little Hocking claimed two major sternwheelers and 18 lives. As the Kanawha pulled away from Marietta on Jan. 5, 1916, Jennie Hoyt stood on her Virginia Street porch and watched it leaving the wharf carrying her son Fred, who was a clerk on the boat, and 63 other crew and passengers. The boat was about midway through its run from Pittsburgh to Charleston. She shaded her eyes from the sun as she watched the boat make its way past Harmar and down the choppy and windswept Ohio River. She had an uneasy feeling as she watched the boat hug the ...

Be part of the solution

One of our partners reminded me a couple of days ago, it’s time to start planning for the annual food drives hosted by The Marietta Times and Parkersburg News and Sentinel each fall. He was right, of course, but my first thought was “Wow, this seems early.” It’s not. The more time we spend working on this, the better we can do for those who are hungry here in the Mid-Ohio Valley. Filling that need can’t wait until fall, however. Changes in the economy and in the way food banks and school feeding programs receive support are making the need even more pressing, right ...