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Baseless election claims threaten integrity

Local Editorials

Republican officials and other bad actors across the country continue to threaten the integrity of elections with Orwellian rhetoric fueling hostile takeover attempts of nonpartisan fair elections. Dozens of bills have been introduced in 11 states this year calling for reviews of election results by partisan groups, following the lead of Arizona and Wisconsin last year. In Arizona, a company whose leader was a GOP election conspiracy theorist was allowed to review all the ballots in the 2020 presidential election without having any experience in election audits. In Wisconsin, a former ...

Et. Cetera

Local Editorials

Square dancing a mix of history and modern Fairmont’s square dancing club, the Lake Promenaders, has been around for almost 50 years and is the only square dancing club left within a two hour radius. The club may have less members than it did back then, but it still meets on a monthly basis. The club welcomes anyone who wants to learn about square dancing to reach out. We see the important history in this group and are glad it’s still active. Council talks yard waste site This week the Fairmont City Council discussed the yard waste recycling site and opted to spend some of its ...

Inflation solution won’t come easy

Local Editorials

President Joe Biden announced Thursday he is going to start releasing a million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum preserve for the next six months to control spiking energy costs. The addition to the nation’s fuel supply should impact the price at the pump, which is contributing mightily to the nation’s inflation problem. This is a good first step on the way to taming inflation, but it isn’t a fix-it. Inflation is a complex problem with a multitude of factors and it is not going to be solved easily. Republicans have their own ideas about gas prices, ...

‘Yes men’ won’t tell you what you need to know

Local Editorials

According to an Associated Press report Wednesday, U.S. intelligence officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is getting bad information from his advisors about how things are going for his troops in Ukraine, and how economic sanctions are hurting the country. According to the intelligence, Putin’s advisors are afraid to tell him the truth. Who wants a trip to Siberia, or a poke with a poison-tipped umbrella? If the report is true, it makes one wonder about the intelligence Putin received before the invasion of Ukraine. Did his advisors truly underestimate the ability and ...

A question for President Biden regarding oil, gas

Local Editorials

Every so often President Biden makes himself available to the press to ask a question—when he’s not walking to or from a helicopter—and we have a suggestion for the next opportunity: “Mr. President, will you do everything in your regulatory power to make it easier for American companies to produce more oil and gas to make the U.S. and its allies in Europe and elsewhere less dependent on Russian energy?” The question is straightforward, and the goal is to elicit a straight answer that gets to the heart of the current geopolitical moment. Oil and gas prices are soaring amid ...

Time to get tougher on catalytic converter theft

Local Editorials

The theft of catalytic converters from cars has been growing over the past few years. The converters, part of the emissions control system, are coated with a variety of rare and precious metals to convert unburned hydrocarbons in exhaust into carbon dioxide and water. Thieves found that with a little practice and an electric saw they can slide under a car, take out the converter and be gone in a couple of minutes. They can sell the converters to salvage shops and recyclers for a few hundred dollars. They also leave the car owner with a very expensive repair ...