Recent editorials from West Virginia newspapers:
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Aug. 2
The Charleston Gazette on the West Virginia Supreme Court:
When someone gets a job at the Statehouse mopping floors or making lunch, does he or she expect to get a state car to ride to and from work everyday? Hardly. So what is it about some elected officials who seem to expect such niceties?
We refer, of course, to former West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Menis Ketchum. Former because he suddenly resigned from the court last month when legislators started looking closely and how Supreme Court justices glam up their offices and drive state cars.
Now, U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart’s office says … that Ketchum defrauded state residents by using a government-owned Buick to ferry himself to and from work and by putting his personal gasoline on a state credit card.
Really, it is such a tawdry subject to even have to spend time on.
But apparently it does not go without saying that most people, when they get a job, or two or three, know that they are responsible for getting themselves to and from work, troublesome as it can be.
Poor Ketchum isn’t alone, apparently. A legislative auditor found that it is a practice among some state agencies to give certain employees a car to use to get to work. This is a nice idea, one that would be better applied to state workers who have trouble keeping a working car on the road, or to employees whose duties require them to travel the state regularly. Some police departments send officers home with assigned cars. It’s good for the neighborhoods they patrol for marked vehicles to be seen regularly. But in those examples, there is an additional benefit to the public in assigning a car.
Presumably Ketchum, a partner in a Huntington law firm before he was elected to the state’s highest court, could afford a fuel-efficient vehicle to get himself to and from work. People of lesser means, both inside and outside of government, do it every day.
Ketchum has repaid the state for golf trip expenses he formerly charged to taxpayers. Stuart praised Ketchum for owning his actions and cooperating with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Good for him.
But the whole situation still rankles. Aside from the financial cost to the people of West Virginia, which can be repaid, there is another cost of this kind of behavior. It is disrespectful. It reinforces the wrong belief already too prevalent among some residents that “Everyone does it.”
Everyone doesn’t do it, as the reaction to Ketchum (and the even more significant alleged misdeeds of Justice Allen Loughry) shows.
The people’s offices deserve more care and respect than this. The last place West Virginians should find the cynical, self-aggrandizing attitude modeled by Loughry and Ketchum is in their highest court.
Online: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/
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Aug. 2
The Dominion Post on the release of drug distribution data:
Ignorance about prescription opioids is not bliss.
Nor is the lack of information about their manufacture, distribution or sale.
Yet, last week, a federal judge, overseeing more than 800 lawsuits filed by cities, counties and states against drug companies, ruled those local governments cannot release data about prescription opioids.
That Cleveland-based judge ruled that disclosing that data to the press would reveal trade secrets and “eviscerate” the terms under which the information was shared.
We cannot imagine what trade secrets would be disclosed aside from the fact that these drug companies have something to hide.
As to the terms under which this information was obtained, we were under the impression the Drug Enforcement Agency collects and monitors that data without strings.
The DEA had to agree to a long list of conditions, including it could be used only for law enforcement and litigation, to even share it with local and state governments.
Admittedly, release of this information might spark public outrage or repulse stockholders, yet the public’s right to know far outweighs those concerns.
Most importantly, these data would provide the public accountability for the grief, the misery and suffering of hundreds of thousands of people harmed by these drugs.
Some of that information was released in 2016 by a West Virginia judge, including such tidbits as:
More than 780 million pills (opioids) streamed into our state in one six-year period. That’s 433 pain pills for every man, woman and child in West Virginia.
The records show one distributor shipped more than 300,000 hydrocodone tablets over four years to a pharmacy in War, population 800.
Distributors shipped nearly 21 million prescription painkillers to retailers in Williamson - population 3,000 - in a 10-year period.
Perhaps knowing where the greatest concentration of vulnerable addicts live was one of those trade secrets.
The first trials of these companies are set to begin in March 2019, when that federal judge will hear three cases from local governments in northeastern Ohio.
In April, that judge did order the full release of nine years of data the DEA collects on drug sales for six states, including West Virginia, that have cases going to trial.
Then he wrote, “. The Court observes that the vast oversupply of opioid drugs in the United States has caused a plague on its citizens and their local and State governments. Plaintiffs’ request for the . data, which will allow Plaintiffs to discover how and where the virus grew, is a reasonable step toward defeating the disease.”
With all due respect, your honor, that observation should apply to the plaintiffs’ constituents, too.
Online: https://www.dominionpost.com
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Aug. 5
The Parkersburg News and Sentinel on West Virginia’s coal industry:
Coal is an important part of West Virginia’s economy - still. But a study by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics shows it is not as big a part as it once was, and will likely never rebound to levels seen during its heyday.
Coal mining and coal-fired electric power generation amounted to approximately $12.9 billion in economic activity in 2017. The state’s gross domestic product that year was approximately $77 billion. Direct mining operations employed approximately 13,000 miners - and an average coal worker in 2017 earned about $85,000 a year.
And, in 2017, West Virginia was still producing 12 percent of the country’s coal.
“Despite production declines in recent years, coal remains a very important part of West Virginia’s economy, as illustrated in our research,” said the bureau’s director, John Deskins. “Coal continues to support a sizable share of the state’s economic output and thousands of high-paying jobs.”
As always, plenty of good information came from the report produced by WVU researchers. The project was funded, however, by a Charleston-based lobbying group, the Coal Forum. In responding to the release of the report, Coal Forum Co-Chairman Chris Hamilton said coal is “the bedrock of (West Virginia’s) economy,” and “our industry is rebounding .”
That may be a touch optimistic. The report forecasts demand for coal will, in fact, remain even until at least 2050. Coal is certainly still a vital part of our economy, but not the force it once was. Changes that go beyond the targeted attacks of previous presidential administrations mean the Mountain State must continue to look for ways to transition its economy. Not abandoning coal, or cutting it off at the knees - in fact, continuing to fight for fair regulation and treatment of the industry, but shifting our focus to a more diversified economy that takes advantage of ALL West Virginia has to offer.
One extraction industry no longer defines us, folks. It is still a big part of who we are; it is not everything. The sooner we take into account data like that presented by WVU’s researchers, the better we all - including our miners - will be.
Online: http://www.newsandsentinel.com/
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