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Article 3 of the United States Constitution: The Supreme Court

Earlier articles in this series have discussed the sections of the Constitution that formed the Congress and the executive. The Colonies had always had their own courts that dealt with their own problems. The Framers concluded that the federal government had its own issues that could not be resolved in a state court. A Supreme Court would be formed to hear actual cases — no “what-ifs” — involving disputes between two or more states, treaties, congressional laws, ambassadors, and maritime issues. Congress was to create the lower federal courts whose rulings could then be appealed ...

During my first two years as a legal aid attorney, I worked exclusively on eviction defense cases in Ohio’s Appalachian counties. While I saw tenants of all backgrounds face a broad range of housing challenges, I became increasingly aware of the regulatory no-man’s-land that leaves tenants of mobile home parks with little recourse in the face of hazardous living conditions and egregious violations of state law. I also became aware that legal aid – free civil legal services available to income-eligible clients – was the only mechanism through which mobile home park residents could ...

Wastin’ time with Jess Mancini

I’m talking to Art Smith at the newspaper about retirement and he says I should write a column. I say I don’t know what to write about and I don’t want to be tied down. He says it’s easy, just do it as soon as you get an idea. Art writes a weekly piece, “The Way I See It,” a ...

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 ...

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 ...