On Saturday, West Virginia University’s men’s basketball team will host the Kentucky Wildcats at the Coliseum in Morgantown, West Virginia. It’s a matchup of two high-profile teams and two volatile, mediagenic head coaches, TV-made for a national ESPN audience. But the game will mean more to West Virginia and Kentucky […]
Read MoreAuthor: Frank Ahrens
West Virginia and South Korea — Linked by Free Trade
When President Trump came this close to beginning the U.S. withdrawal from its free-trade agreement with South Korea in September, jobs in Wellsburg, W.Va., were suddenly put at jeopardy. How could that be? When heavy industry began leaving West Virginia, and Appalachia, for foreign shores, businesses that supplied them had to […]
Read MoreMassive Chinese Investment Pledge Could be Game Changer for WV — If it Happens
President Trump announced during a recent visit to China that state-owned China Energy would invest $83.7 billion in West Virginia over the next 20 years, but will it be good for West Virginia? Yes — if it happens, and if the state doesn’t give away an arm and a leg in […]
Read MoreAnti-Trump Backlash Sinks Virginia Republicans, Will Rest of Appalachia Be Next?
Republican candidates suffered a statewide rout in Tuesday’s Virginia election, from the governor’s race down to statehouse contests. The reason: Backlash against President Donald Trump and the anti-immigrant, economic nationalism planks of Trumpism. Does this mean that other Appalachian and southern states, which went so strongly for Trump in the […]
Read MoreTrump’s Opioid Plan? It’s a Start
President Trump’s Thursday announcement of a national public health emergency on the opioid epidemic is already being criticized by some who are calling an unfunded mandate – Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi responded by calling it “words without the money.” But it is, at least, a start. And that’s […]
Read MoreBy Disrespecting Veterans, Trump Disdains Appalachian Voters Who Put Him in Office
In retrospect, we learned all we needed to know about President Trump’s views of the U.S. military when candidate Trump smeared the Khan Gold Star family during the 2016 presidential campaign. He reinforced that impression following the first military action he ordered – a covert SEAL mission in Yemen that […]
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