Editorials

When gasoline prices skyrocketed last year, fresh attention was given to alternative energies and fuels for the future.

When the West Virginia Health Care Authority held a public hearing about War Memorial Hospital plans in October, we saw a lot of hand-wringing locally.

A few years ago, we saved a New Year’s Resolutions column from The Pendleton Times, the weekly paper of Franklin.

The Morgan County Commissioners are playing it right by not being pushed into giving away the trailers

Morgan County school officials certainly did the right thing when they stood up for the rights of students to express their opinions last week.

As an article in this week's paper explains, the issue was whether a group of Berkeley Springs High School students were allowed to wear t-shirts promoting a single payer health care system, a form of national health care.

Seems to us that Morgan County Commissioners Brenda Hutchinson and Stacy Dugan are making a mistake in pushing Bill Clark out of the county administrator post he has held for more than 20 years.

By a 2-1 vote last Thursday, the commissioners split Clark's administrator and economic development director duties into two separate jobs. Commissioner Tommy Swaim provided the no vote — with good reason.

The first week of deer season is a busy time in Morgan County and a small country store serving as a game checking station, such as Stoney Creek in Largent, depends on hunting traffic for an end-of-year income boost.

In Largent this year, Division of Natural Resources (DNR) personnel elected to test deer for chronic wasting disease during the first two days of the season. Testing was not conducted at the store (the game-checking site), but at the Division of Highways garage in Largent.

Each year at this time we ask you to show your "Goodwill to Men" during the Christmas season by trying to help others. This year, the need is especially great.

Doesn't take a wise man to see that the national economic situation has been hard on nearly everyone in the last couple years. For those who already had trouble paying their bills or putting food on the table, times are even tougher than usual. A hard winter lies ahead for too many of our friends and neighbors.

You know, there's a way to avoid the "Black Friday" shopping headache and all that running up and down the road during the holiday season. It's called: Shop Local.

Sure, you might say there's a bigger choice elsewhere, but you'd be surprised what you find close to home. We're talking about gifts with a local twist and a personal touch, including things made right here in the Morgan County area.

A new policy about bank overdraft policies will take effect next summer, and it's long overdue.

The Federal Reserve has ruled that financial institutions will no longer be able to charge customers overdraft fees on debit cards and at ATMs unless the customer agrees.