Recent editorials from West Virginia newspapers:
April 29
Charleston (West Virginia) Daily Mail on Capital High protests:
For eight hours a day, five days a week for nine months a year over 13 years, parents across the country entrust educators in the public school system to teach and protect their kids.
It goes without saying, then, that the quality of those educators and the information they impart to our children is of utmost concern to nearly all parents. Teachers are expected to be experts in their fields. School administrators keep things running smoothly while being good stewards of taxpayer dollars. And the county boards of education are voted in to govern the school system and make personnel and financial decisions. How these officials go about conducting school business is something most parents pay attention to, and rightfully so.
But the way parents of Capital High students have acted after the Kanawha County Board of Education announced the hiring of a new principal is disappointing. Because board members chose Larry Bailey, a middle school administrator from Kentucky, over current Horace Mann Middle School principal John Anderson, parents threatened to protest. One parent went as far as telling board members the school would “go to Hell” because of the new hire and said students would refuse to take standardized tests or participate in class, according to education reporter Sam Speciale.
Parents have every right to be concerned about their child’s education and question the adults who run the school. But the actions parents at Monday’s board meeting suggested have wide ranging affects. Capital High is home to nearly 1,400 students. Fewer than 100 parents protested Bailey’s hiring. So a small minority of parents are encouraging an atmosphere that disrupts the educational process for more than 1,000 kids. That’s not right.
Bailey’s hiring came after a long interview and vetting process conducted by a panel that included members of the Capital High community. Superintendent Ron Deurring admitted the situation is a tough one, but said that Bailey - a graduate of Herbert Hoover High and West Virginia University - has a track record of improving schools, something that is needed at Capital. Bailey is known as a “turnaround principal” who oversees periods of behavioral and academic improvement at priority schools.
He is not without controversy, however. A third-party investigation in Kentucky accused Bailey and his wife of nepotism and fraudulent Medicaid billing. Deurring claims those allegations are not true and stands by the hiring committee’s decision.
Capital High students are lucky they have parents who are so passionate about their education. But those parents should think about how their actions, and words, affect the educational process. The school board, on the other hand, needs to remember they are elected by the parents to serve as their voice. Members shouldn’t make unilateral decisions without thinking about how they will affect schools and the children in them.
Online:
https://www.charlestondailymail.com
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April 29
The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia, on craft beer makers:
The production of beer in the United States actually predates the founding of the country.
Native Americans brewed spruce beer long before Europeans arrived on the scene.
The first official European-style brewery was founded in 1632 by the Dutch West India Co. in New Amsterdam, now better known as New York.
In what might surprise some, given their modern-day reputation, even the Puritans were heavy ale and beer drinkers, the result of an iffy supply of drinking water in the 17th century that dictated mixing it with ale or beer on a daily basis.
At one time, or at least prior to the wonders of refrigeration, practically every town in the United States with a population of over 10,000 people had its own local brewery. Without refrigerators, beer went bad before you could ship it very far.
The oldest continuously operating brewery in the nation is D.G. Yuengling & Sons, the Pennsylvania beer producer that still stocks the coolers of West Virginia stores with its products.
But the cutting edge of beer production these days is happening again at the local level, with craft beers and brew pubs putting out some excellent new lagers, ales, stouts and more.
We profiled one of these new brewers last Sunday, the Lewisburg-based Greenbrier Valley Brewing Co., and its popular Mothman IPA and Wild Trail Pale Ale.
Greenbrier Valley, like most of the new brewing companies in the state, is now bottling and canning its product for sale in West Virginia stores thanks to a change in the law passed by the Legislature in Charleston.
But another aspect of the Lewisburg brewery’s operation is its brewpub license, and operators can now legally invite the public into the brewery for its taproom and for tours.
Other brewing concerns around the state have added food to offer their customers, along with the locally brewed beer and ale.
These brewpubs are not just a hobby. They’re potentially big business when it comes to tourism and economic development.
Today in the United States, the craft beer industry employs more than 100,000 people and produces roughly $14 billion in retail sales, according to the Brewers Association.
The two largest craft beer makers, the Boston Beer Co. that produces the popular Samuel Adams beers and the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. of Chico, Calif., may be known to many West Virginians already.
But locally it will be brewers like the Greenbrier Valley Brewing Co. and Bridge Brew Works in Fayetteville that make their mark as destination spots for tourists, and valuable partners in southern West Virginia’s ongoing drive to diversify its economy.
We can’t think of a better - or tastier - way to add new jobs and bring tourists to the region.
Online:
https://www.register-herald.com
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April 28
Herald-Dispatch, Huntington, West Virginia on drug sales:
A West Virginia lawsuit against 11 drug companies has raised a pertinent question about transparency surrounding the shipment of prescription painkillers to the state.
The drug wholesalers - all based out of state - don’t want the public to know the volume of drug shipments they sent to the Mountain State in recent years. The state says the information should be made available to the West Virginia public.
Lawyers for state government are on the right side of this argument, in our view.
The issue stems from a lawsuit filed by former Attorney General Darrell McGraw in 2012. The complaint alleges that drug wholesalers contributed to Southern West Virginia’s prescription drug problem by shipping an excessive number of painkillers to so-called “pill mill” pharmacies in that region.
The companies targeted in the lawsuit have provided pill shipment records to the law firm representing the state in the case. Those records included the pharmacies that received the pills, shipment and delivery dates, total sales and, in some cases, drug prices, according to a report on the lawsuit in The Charleston Gazette.
The state recently requested that those shipment records be unsealed; the companies say they only provided the information with the understanding that the information would be kept confidential. The companies involved contend that an order in the case allowed them to “keep highly sensitive business information from falling into the hands of their direct competition.” While that may make sense in regard to the prices of drugs, the public’s interest in this case should take priority in regard to the volumes of drugs they distributed.
Attorneys for the wholesalers also argued that the state should not be allowed to “start playing to the court of public opinion ” But the public has a vital stake in knowing what has contributed to West Virginia having the highest drug overdose rate in the country. How can the public determine whether justice is served if it’s not privy to the amount of drugs sold?
West Virginia Delegate Don Perdue, D-Wayne, observed that prescription drug problems have devastated many West Virginia families. “With this issue, we’re not only called on to be transparent, we’re duty-bound to pursue transparency in a situation where we have numerous deaths, addictions and a tremendous economic impact on the state,” Perdue told the Gazette.
It has been apparent in many criminal cases that drug distributors weren’t paying attention to the huge number of pain killers they were shipping or else declined to act on the implications. A pharmacy in a lightly populated area near the Wayne-Mingo county line purchased more of the pain killer hydrocodone than all but 21 retail pharmacies in the nation during 2006, according to court affidavits. In a more recent case, a small storefront pharmacy in Barboursville ordered more oxycodone than all but two pharmacies in West Virginia from January to August 2014, according to search warrants.
How could such instances not raise suspicions by those supplying the drugs?
Perdue is correct that more transparency, not only in this case, but on a consistent basis might do much to put the brakes on diversion of drugs from their medically justified uses.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration already receives shipment information from the wholesalers. It should continue - and improve - its monitoring of that data to look for and act on suspicious trends. But that information is largely kept under wraps unless shared in a criminal case. If more eyes were on that type of information, perhaps abuses could be identified more quickly and just maybe so many would not occur.
Online:
https://www.herald-dispatch.com
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