Editorial

OP ED OPINION: Rooting Out Medicaid Fraud Demands New Leadership

Waste, fraud and abuse are rampant nationwide and West Virginia certainly is no exception.
 
This reality harms safety net programs, such as Social Security, Disability, and Medicaid. The unlawful taking from any of these programs wastes tax dollars, deepens deficits, and jeopardizes the very programs designed to help those most in need. Read more

LETTER TO EDITOR: Hold Elected Officials Accountable for what we Cannot Afford

To all the citizens of Huntington.  Let us remember some very basic facts.

All of our elected officials are simply that.

We elect these people to represent us at the various levels of our government.
If someone decides to place themselves on the ballot for any office we have the belief that they like us want what is the best for us and themselves. Read more

Commute Chelsea Manning's Sentence to Time Served

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqkSdbJMZy8

Chelsea Manning has been incarcerated since May 2010, including in unlawful, unusually harsh solitary confinement for 11 months before her trial. She has spent the past six years helping others. Read more

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Fee will Crush Some Huntington Residents

A lady sent this to me .....this sewer tax will crush some folks in our city. If they truly care for the folks they will look for other avenues for the money instead of breaking the citizens back.

Mayor Williams, I am a 67 year old woman living on nothing but SS. Income of $732 a month. How am I suppose to pay for all the increases that you are asking for? Read more

COLUMN: Turning a Long Triage Wait into a Concert Ticket Camp In ... Well Sorta

While nearly everyone sings "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas," it's stress out time for other with memory baggage: Good and Bad.

For me, Dec. 22 marks the anniversary of a truck hitting my Dodge Dart from behind near Grayson, Ky. My vehicle caught fire and would eventually explode. I had enough of a head to see flames licking out of the gas tank, and, think, movie: All of those action scenes where one or more characters jump from a moving car.

So, I pushed my dazed then fiance out the passenger side and then jumped with the car still in motion. Getting up from the roadway, Everything appeared like a scraped knee until I saw her faint. The car exploded. I screamed, "My car...." thinking of the exhaustive search to find a used one that had gas efficiency. Read more

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Former Mayoral Candidate Opposes Sanitary Increase, Pledges to Create an Oversight Forum

Citizens of Huntington.

Regarding our City and the Sanitation increase and all other actions regarding our tax and fee funds. Read more

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Mayor Steve, decline raise , please

I do want to clarify that I am not angry at City workers. I walk my dog very early downtown on Sunday mornings and I see workers out then. I see them in the cold and in the heat. Read more

LETTER TO EDITOR: Open Statements to Mayor Steve Williams; Boxing Event Challenge

This is an open letter to Mayor Steve...I trust someone will make sure he sees this.....

Dear Mayor Steve, Read more

COLUMN: Is the EPA’s Landmark ‘Endangerment Finding’ Now Itself Imperiled?

by Abrahm Lustgarten
ProPublica, Nov. 22, 2016, 12:29 p.m.

Donald Trump has called climate change a “hoax” and said he plans to unburden American industries from Obama-era requirements to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases causing the planet to warm. Read more

It's Time to Buy Made in the USA

The American apparel industry is a $250 billion a year market and 98 percent of clothing in the U.S. is now being manufactured in foreign countries. Colleges and universities, professional sports teams, private clubs and other organizations have an opportunity to change that and create jobs in this country. Read more

Trump Endorsed for President

HNN realizes that this endorsement is late, but we believe it is necessary. Though the Tri-state area is pretty much solidly behind one of the contenders in the Presidential race, according to most reputable polling, we feel it is essential to weigh in. Why? Read more

GUEST EDITORIAL: Reynolds Did Not Sponsor Single Substance Abuse Issue During Ten Years in Legislature

by Jared A. Page

Deceptive Doug Reynolds says he will fight the drug issue in West Virginia, but instead of using his ten years as Delegate to pass meaningful drug sentencing and drug reform laws, all he does is politicize this serious issue. During his time in the legislature, Reynolds did not sponsor a single bill addressing substance abuse issues that became law. But now that he’s running for higher office, he expects voters to believe that he can lead on this issue. Read more

OP ED COLUMN: Domestic Violence Victims Need Our Support

By United States Attorney Carol Casto

Freedom from violence and abuse is a basic human right. Yet nearly one in four women and one in seven men have suffered from domestic violence by an intimate partner. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a time to recognize and offer our support to people who are hurt in their homes and in their relationships by those closest to them – the ones who should protect, support and keep them safe.  Read more

COMMENTARY: Doctor Needs Patient Support for Trying to Help

A long time Huntington physician needs letters of support to the WV Board of Medicine for trying to effectively treat many that no one else wanted.

Dr. D.H. Webb began his practice 41 years ago with another Huntington neurologist/ psychiatrist, then, his brother William, a certified addiction counselor (now operating "Oasis" in Barboursville, WV), formed a Holistic Health Center for treating patients with behavioral disorders. Read more

Shelly’s World: Knock Out Drops - Revisited

Adapted from an earlier version of this column published in 2009

I had a tremendous advantage when I was growing up.

I did not join a movement that brainwashed girls into thinking that, simply because they demanded to be called “Ms” instead of “Miss,” they had automatically become invulnerable. Nor was I taught to believe that, merely by virtue of being female, I had the right to be ignorant, oblivious, and credulous. Read more

Mountain Party Candidate Charlotte Pritt Takes Exception to Democratic Statement

Charlotte Pritt, a former Democratic candidate for WV governor and now running as a Mountain Party candidate, issued the following statement on Sept. 20:

"Yesterday, I was shocked and saddened at comments by WV State Democratic Chair Belinda Biafore regarding my candidacy for the Governorship of West Virginia. Read more

OP ED COLUMN: Ready For West Virginia’s Day in Court

In a few short days, on Tuesday, Sept. 27, my office will take the lead before a panel of nine judges and make our best case against President Obama’s so-called “Clean Power Plan.”

The Power Plan is an unlawful federal rule that forces states to stop using the most affordable, reliable form of energy — coal. Read more

COLUMN: Making Stuff Up, a Winning Legal Strategy

by David Epstein
ProPublica, Sep. 2, 2016, 8 a.m. Read more

Public Relations Firm Claims to Have Ghost Written Thousands of Op-Eds in Major U.S. Newspapers

Laura Bentz of Keybridge Communications describes her company as "a boutique PR firm -- founded by a former writer for the Wall Street Journal -- that specializes in writing and placing op-eds. With some of the country's most influential trade groups and global corporations as clients, we run many of the major op-ed campaigns in the U.S. We place roughly 3,000 op-eds per year." Read more

SHELLEY'S WORLD: "A Crime in Rhyme"‏

Ideas breed like bunnies, and

There really are a lot

From which to pick as I prepare

An outline for my plot: Read more

Trump Campaign Debuts the 'America First' App

(New York, NY) August 26, 2016 – The Donald J. Trump Campaign announced the new app, ‘America First’, available on Android and iOS devices. The ‘America First’ app allows supporters of Donald J. Trump to engage with the campaign, meet fellow supporters, and collaborate to Make America Great Again by answering various calls to action and building an active online community of supporters. Read more

Secretary of State Candidate Mac Warner Announces Friends of Coal Endorsement

MORGANTOWN, August 25, 2016 – Retired Army Veteran and candidate for Secretary of State Mac Warner announced the endorsement from Friends of Coal and the West Virginia Coal Association. The West Virginia Coal Association recently endorsed Donald Trump for President and gave the following comments about their endorsement in the 2016 West Virginia Secretary of State’s race: Read more

Why Are We Still Wasting Billions on Homeland Security Projects That Don’t Make Us Safer?

by Stephen Engelberg
ProPublica, Aug. 19, 2016 Read more

COLUMN: Hobet Project Holds Vast Promise for West Virginians‏

Just down the road from Charleston in Boone and Lincoln counties lies something unique and promising in Southern West Virginia - approximately 12,000 acres of flat land ideal for new businesses and with the potential for a level of job creation that would be a game changer for our state. Read more

GUEST OP ED COMMENTARY: Let's Shift the Cause of Dispair

by Scott Caserta

Thought:
If folks had a job, a future, a plan of some kind then maybe despair would not lead them to drug abuse and ODs? Read more

OP ED OPINION: The 24/7 Sobriety Program: What Might Have Been

West Virginia’s war on drugs continues to present many challenges. It seems as though a battle is being waged in every home, neighborhood and community throughout our state. Read more

Satanic Black Mass Still Scheduled at Oklahome City Public Venue Despite Protest

OKLAHOMA CITY, Aug. 11, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Amid growing protest Satanists plan to stage a second Black Mass at the public Civic Center Music Hall in Oklahoma City on August 15, 2016. The public sacrilege against God and the Catholic Mass will include the desecration of a statue of the Virgin Mary whose Assumption into Heaven is celebrated that day. Read more

SHELLEY'S WORLD: "Aah...Youth."

So there we were. Four friends: Margaret, twenty-one; her sister Justine, twenty-five; and their mother Pegeen, eternally young and beautiful … all three native New Yorkers. Then there was little old me, who grew up in the Midwest (this becomes relevant later), and like thousands before me, came to the Big City to chase down a dream. Read more

Statement from Charles Woods, father of Benghazi Hero Tyrone Woods

(New York, NY)  -  Donald J. Trump received the endorsement of Charles Woods the father of Tyrone Woods, a former Navy SEAL, who gave his life fighting to protect Americans during the terror attacks on the U.S. consulate and the CIA compound in Benghazi. Ty’s sacrifice saved more than twenty-five American lives, and he is truly an American hero. Read more

COLUMN: Is Common Courtesy Dying?

SEATTLE, Wash. – For 10 years journalists have been writing and talking about more people becoming rude every day. We now have a generation that does not understand or practice the basics of old fashioned common courtesy. They obviously never learned from their parents and their children will not learn from them, making things even worse in the future. Read more

OP ED: FOIA Exemptions Prevent Some Energy Workers from Proving Claim

By Deb Jerison

One of the ways Energy Employees Claimant Assistance Project (EECAP) provides information to the public on Energy Employees Occupation Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA)  is by filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.  On July 1, 2016 President Obama signed the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 into law. Read more

EDITORAL COMMENTARY: Midlife Voters Need to Educate Millenials on the Clintons

We have noticed something interesting in recent weeks, a political phenomenon we should have expected but which managed to take us off guard.  The new generation of voters, commonly called "the Millenials," are too young to remember the political hijinks and salacious events of the Clinton Administration. Read more

The US Has Lost More Than One-Quarter Of Its Manufacturing Jobs Under Hillary-Backed Trade Policies

Since Bill Clinton Became President In January 1993, The U.S. Has Lost 4,506,000 Manufacturing Jobs, A 27 Percent Decline. ( Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 6/21/16) Read more