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MOV Climate Corner: The election and safe drinking water

Although many voters in the Mid-Ohio Valley have cast their ballots through early voting, many more will express their preferences on Nov. 3. Among the most important issues for the voters in this region are injection wells and the danger they pose to our drinking-water aquifers. Several candidates have expressed their views on this topic, others have not. In the gubernatorial race, Dr. Amy Acton made her position clear at a press conference in Marietta on Sept. 17. She endorsed the three-year moratorium on fracking wastewater (brine) injection activity, which specifies a shutdown of ...

Living Democracy: The myth of voter fraud

Claims of widespread voter fraud are unsupported by evidence and can be used to erode public confidence in elections. Safe voting practices are securely in place in Ohio and West Virginia. Our election systems are protected by multiple safeguards. Voter fraud is extremely rare. According to American Bar Association Sept. 2026, of the more than 25 million votes cast in six swing states in the 2020 election, an analysis by the Associated Press found fewer than 475 potential voter fraud cases, and even those cases were unconfirmed. Non-citizen voting in federal elections is ...

The Way I See It: I’m not scared, are you?

Saturday is Halloween. The time-honored day that we pause each year to pay thanks for a successful harvest by carving turnips. Yes, I said turnips. The celebration of Halloween has its roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain. The celebration was meant to welcome the harvest at the end of ...

Op-ed: Saving Dorothy Webster Hall – it’s of historical significance

It is wonderful news that Joe and Linda Chlapaty are making a $55 million gift donation to Marietta College. Their generosity is really quite astonishing and the city of Marietta will be better for this gift as well, in so many ways. Thank you to both of you. I am wondering if there is a way to do the construction without tearing down one of the oldest buildings on campus with deep historical significance? Here is the history. In 1929, John and William Webster Mills donated the historic Butler Street mansion which had served as the residence of Civil War General A.J. Warner. They gifted ...

Early Marietta: The ghosts of Marietta College

On Halloween in 1992, the Marietta College newspaper MARCOLIAN reported on a strange campus phenomenon: ghosts and paranormal activity. Ghosts abounded; many had names. One night a resident assistant at Dorothy Webster Hall heard "a little kid crying, then laughing and talking." Someone’s ...

Cracking the Code: Broadcast journalism alive and well, at least locally

This week, close friends invited Lynnda and me to attend the 21st Annual West Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony as their guests. The event was held at the Museum of Radio Technology in Huntington. In this time of distrust of the media, it was a reminder there are good people with integrity who work hard to keep us informed. It felt like a gathering of friends with people I am used to seeing on TV but never met. We met radio personalities whose voices were familiar, though their faces were not. People were friendly and easy to talk to, like Spencer Adkins, the WOWK ...