Breaking News

Opinion

MOV Climate Corner: Out-of-state interests win, real issues lose

Local Columns

With the primaries now behind us, I can’t say I’m entirely surprised by the outcomes. If West Virginia has taught us anything about politics in the last decade or more, it’s that culture war and social issues are exceedingly potent, even in the shadow of actual problems in dire need of a fix. Then when you factor in out-of-state money and PACs, the real issues don’t stand a chance of reaching the people. According to the most recent financial reports, the Sugar Maple PAC alone spent close to a million dollars on primary elections, much of which in our area. Of the listed ...

Early Marietta: Griffin Greene, a Man in Perpetual Motion

Local Columns

What else could a Marietta pioneer possibly accomplish who (a) built a perpetual motion machine, (b) Raised the sunken British frigate FLORA, (c) designed a unique floating water-powered mill in the Ohio River, and (d) helped build the Farmers Castle enclosure at Belpre? A LOT more, as ...

Some gave all. Can we give a little?

Local Columns

December 1967, our family was watching TV when the phone rang. It was Uncle Joe, Dad’s older brother. Mom handed Dad the phone. Dad’s eyes got wet. Looking down, in a whisper he announced, “Austin (our cousin, Dad’s nephew) was killed in Vietnam.” I was in high school; death was no stranger. Austin’s mother (our Aunt Caty) passed two years prior. I went to my grandparents' funerals. A close childhood friend died in a gun accident when he snuck out of school before the end of the day to go bird hunting. We all boarded the school bus that morning. It was surreal. My parents ...

Living Democracy: How the latest Supreme Court ruling on voting has changed the Voting Rights Act

Local Columns

On April 29, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s 2024 congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, in Louisiana v. Callais. In its decision, the Court made null the Louisiana Bill SB 8, that provided two majority-Black districts in 2024. Section 2 was considered the crown jewel of the Civil Rights Movement by earlier Supreme Court decisions and is the provision that allowed (and sometimes required) the creation of majority-minority districts, which is a main factor in how Black and Latino representatives have been elected to Congress. The statute, ...

Exclusion efforts not the answer for public schools

Editorials

Opponent testimony is piling up against Ohio Senate Bill 113, and rightly so. The effort to “prohibit diversity, equity, and inclusion in public school,” was primarily sponsored by state Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, who introduced the measure last year but has since lost his Republican primary race. “This bill is frustratingly vague about what does and doesn’t qualify as prohibited diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives,” Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper said during last week’s Ohio Senate Education Committee meeting, according to a report by ...

Improved health care access good for everyone

Editorials

Earlier this month, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously advanced two pieces of legislation meant to improve health care access, improve early intervention efforts and expand community-based care. Both were spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Troy Balderson, R-Ohio. Now, the entire House will get a look at the Accelerating Access to Dementia and Alzheimer’s Provider Training (AADAPT) Act and the School-Based Health Centers Reauthorization Act (harder to come up with language that leant itself to an acronym for that one, it seems). “Alzheimer’s disease and dementia ...