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I was so happy when my new neighbor, Sheila, moved in next door to me this summer. Living in a townhome has both its advantages and disadvantages.  It’s always a plus when she/he no longer likes to party late into the night, but does like to brag about her grandchildren and enjoys keeping her grass mowed.  It’s especially nice when you share similar hobbies, like working, walking, shopping and eating out. More often than not, we decide to grab some dinner together. We’ve recently discovered our most favorite place is Five Guys!  Old fashioned hamburgers, French fries and milkshakes.  Yummy!  There’s also free peanuts.   Good service, clean tables, music and great food at a reasonable price.  My kind of place!  If you haven’t tried it yet, next time you’re at The Highlands, check it out. What other yummy restaurants do you suggest we give a try?

For the first time in United States’ history, a California doctor, Hsiu-Ying Tseng, was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for committing second-degree murder for prescribing exorbitant amounts of painkillers that left three (3) young male patients dead. Although prosecutors were only able to bring three (3) murder charges against the Los Angeles-based physician due to factors including drugs prescribed by other doctors and potential suicides, they estimate that her reckless prescription writing led to around a dozen deaths.  Tseng, who had no records for the three male victims when she was contacted by the California Medical Board, was accused of forging medical records to justify the prescriptions; ignoring the pleas of family members who begged her to stop writing prescriptions for loved ones; and, ignoring more than a dozen “Your patient has died” notices from coroner’s and law enforcement officials.  Despite these warnings, Tseng’s prescribing habits remained unchanged. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Tseng wrote more than 27,000 prescriptions over a three-year period –  an average of 25 per day.  The prosecution said the busy practice was highly lucrative, with the doctor handing out prescriptions after appointments that sometimes lasted just three minutes.  It is estimated that Tseng earned $5 million in a three-year period during the time that her patients died.  "You can't hide behind a white lab coat and commit crimes," Deputy District Attorney John Niedermann told The Associated Press. "Writing a prescription to someone knowing that they're going to abuse it and potentially die was the theory of second-degree murder that we had. Something is wrong with what you're doing if your patients are dying." Tseng’s conviction is part of a nationwide initiative to crack down on so-called "pill-mills" — doctors, clinics or pharmacies that knowingly distribute prescription narcotics to patients who do not need them for medical reasons.   Closer to home, Dr. Tressie Montene Duffy, 45, a doctor in Martinsburg, W. Va., was convicted in federal court in December 2015 for facilitating the unlawful distribution of narcotic painkillers through her medical practice.  Duffy pled guilty to seven counts of “Aiding and Abetting the Distribution of Oxycodone.”  Duffy signed blank prescription orders and allowed unlicensed members of her staff to issue prescriptions for narcotic medications to patients who had not been seen by a physician.  She faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million on each of the seven counts. Sadly, what is unknown to many people is that prescription narcotics can often lead to heroin use.  Just last week, Gateway Rehabilitation Medical Director Dr. Neil Capretto said, “ is in every community from middle to upper-middle class, richest to poorest, and it does not discriminate.”  In 1985, Allegheny County had 22 drug overdose deaths and that number has increased to 349.  Dr. Capretto said most new cases of heroin use start with a prescription drug addiction.  “ often even as early as middle school with use of prescription ,” he said.   Dr. Capretto’s comments came in conjunction with U.S. Attorney David Hickton’s press conference to alert the tri-state area that nearly two dozen non-fatal heroin overdoses have been reported in the area in the past couple of days.  “We’re in an epidemic of unprecedented proportions. We’re losing more than 120 people a day to drug poisoning, which has passed traffic accidents as the leading cause of death in this country as of 2009,” Hickton said.  At least a dozen non-fatal heroin overdoses have been reported in Washington County since the weekend. At least 15 similar drug overdoses were reported in Cambria County. Stay vigilant – if you suspect that a physician is inappropriately prescribing narcotic medication, you are free to lodge a concern with either the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency at https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/rxaor/spring/main?execution=e1s1; or, the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine.

I saw a very old picture on Facebook recently with a caption that read, “How Grandmothers Used to Look”, and I had to do a double take because that really is how my grandmother used to look. I never knew my first Grandma Kinney because she passed away before I was born, so when my Grandpap Kinney remarried somewhat later in life to an elderly lady named Leila, she was the first “Grandma Kinney” that I actually knew.  Leila had probably accepted the fact she was going to be a spinster, when she suddenly found herself married and with a ready-made family.  We weren’t quite sure about Leila, but it didn’t take long for her to win everyone over.  She was a country woman to the core.  She wore dresses that she handmade herself on an old treadle sewing machine, and thick beige stockings and sensible lace up shoes.  She wore her gray hair in a bun on her head and little wire-rimmed glasses. Leila was the best cook in the world and everything was homemade.  The highlight of every Sunday was always a trip up the road to visit Grandpap and Grandma Kinney because we couldn’t wait to have one of her mouthwatering dinners.  There was always plenty of good food to go around, most of which was raised on the farm.  I still can see the huge, thick slices of homemade bread, and we always had the same three drinks to choose from—orange Kool-Aid, strawberry milk or plain white milk from the cows on the farm—all of which would be served throughout the years in the same glasses that probably came from the Fostoria glass factory in Moundsville.  If she could make it or grow it, she did—everything from ketchup, to clothing to lye soap.  I can still see her standing out in her garden on a hot summer day, in her dress, stockings and shoes, vigorously attacking the weeds that were growing among her vegetables with a hoe.  Later, she would work even more by preserving those vegetables for the coming months.  She had an amazing green thumb, and her front porch had clay pot after clay pot of African Violets on display during the summer months, which were moved indoors to the back room in the winter. One of my favorite pasttimes when I was visiting was to sneak into the back room and play around on the old upright piano.  Even though she always seemed so busy, she still took the time to show me how to bang out a little tune on the piano.  I don’t know what that tune is called, and I am definitely not a piano player, but even after more than 40 years I can still remember how to play that little song.  I was eventually given that beautiful old piano, which sits proudly in my dining room and brings back great memories every time I look at it.  She truly was the hardest working woman I have ever known, and all of her chores were done without the modern conveniences we have today.  No weed eaters, no microwaves, no store-bought bread, no bathroom….wait, they did have a bathroom, but they preferred to use the outhouse.  She was a simple country woman, who preferred to do things the “old fashioned way” and live a simple, country life.  I wish my kids could have known her.  In the hustle and bustle of today’s world, it’s nice to revisit time spent with her, and those days gone by, in my memories.

Statistically, by this time of year, many people have either given up on their New Year’s resolution or have never really given it a sporting chance. When you place your mind to achieving a certain goal, you must accept that failure is not an option and maybe it’s time to re-group. Everyone who sets personal, professional, financial and spiritual goals, or whatever the case may be, it’s done for a reason.  That reason is generally some payoff, a payoff that is beneficial to fulfill some portion of you or your circumstances that you want to improve because you are unsatisfied in that area.  The payoff may be to improve your health, profession, finances or your soul.  Regardless, it’s something that you deeply yearn for that you want to make a priority.  So, why haven’t you done it? Perhaps you think you didn’t get off to the start you envisioned or conceivably the entire plan needs to be looked at again and has become a problematic nuisance.  Nonsense.  Make it happen and get rid of those distractions! Let’s start over.  Just because you weren’t out last night celebrating the coming of the New Year doesn’t mean that you can’t jump in full force today with that resolution.  One step, one minute, one day at a time.  Make those changes.  The changes you desire do not miraculously materialize overnight.  It takes hard work, dedication and the determination to succeed. Now, this is not a guarantee that everything is going to completely go the way you expect.  Maybe it will, it may just take longer, and then you may find a new or better road to follow to improve or build upon your last goal.  But doing nothing will never get you there.  It’s great to have good intentions.  Intentions mean nothing without results. Focus, determination, discipline and the ability to pick yourself up when you have fallen will help you to push through to achieve your dreams for the very best you. Continue on with your 2016 resolutions and remember failure is not an option and to trust in yourself that you can make it happen!

With our recent snowfall, I was reminded of the good old days when the road crews used ashes or, as my dad called it, “red dog” - cinders that had a red tinge to it, to coat the roads instead of salt. Yes, it made everything dirty, but it worked to melt ice and snow and gave much needed traction to climb hills. When I was little, snows days were few and far between because the road crews were out really early to throw ashes or cinders on the roads and the buses used chains on their tires. I could always hear the bus go down the road to turn around to pick us up because the chains were loud. It sounded like Santa Claus jingling a lot of bells. My siblings and I knew when we heard that sound we needed to get to the bus stop. Also, there had to be substantial snow for school to be closed, and that was rare. Once in a while, there would be no bus service, but school was still open. Now if we get two or three inches, school is closed. I heard somewhere that they stopped using ashes because it ruined the roads and ate the undersides of cars. That may be true, but so does salt. We still have a ton of potholes to navigate and we still have to run our cars through the car wash to get the salt off. It doesn’t matter what is used.  Plus, salt doesn’t melt anything when the temperature dips below 17 degrees. Ashes and cinders aren’t used much anymore like when I was young, but I still remember that it was easier traveling in snow than it is today. With all the intelligent people around the world, you would think someone would invent something to treat the roads and spare us from filth or salt and protect wildlife and local fauna from the resulting toxicity. Any ideas out there?

Having lived in Vermont most of my life I am no stranger to snow and treacherous road conditions. I remember specifically learning about how to drive in such conditions in driver’s ed.  Due to the fact that Vermont gets a lot more snow than West Virginia, I would say drivers in Vermont are a bit more experienced on driving in the snow.  Being that the past few days have been filled with snow and there is more on the way, I would like to take a minute to remind folks of some basic safety tips to ensure you and your loved ones get home safe and sound. Always allow yourself enough time to get to your destination safely. We are all busy, some of us have kids to get ready for school or daycare in addition to getting ourselves ready.  However, the last thing you want to do when the roads are bad is to be speeding to ensure you get to your destination on time.  Slow down and prepare ahead of time by giving yourself a few extra minutes for bad road conditions. Turn your headlights on. When it’s snowing visibility is not the greatest.  It is always important in these conditions to have your lights on.  It ensures your safety and the safety of others on the roadway. Maintain a safe distance. You are following a car and they hit their brakes, you hit your brakes, but are following too closely and your car starts to slide and before you know it you have collided.  It is always important to maintain a safe distance from the car in front of you for this very reason. It gives you time to safely react without having to slam the brakes, which will undoubtedly cause you to slide when the roads are bad. Last but not least, wear your seatbelt.  Not only is it the law, but also in the instance there is an accident it could save your life!

The special interest agendas that have swept through the West Virginia Senate and House of Delegates show no end in sight. The oil and gas industry has been at the forefront of these efforts, mainly in its attempts to legislate the taking of property interests and rights through proposed forced pooling and forced lease integration bills.  Most people now understand that the idea of forced pooling and forced leasing is to make individuals and mineral interest owners who may not want to enter into an oil and gas lease, for any reason ranging from poor lease terms to principles, enter into a lease without their approval.  New reports this past week demonstrate that Delegate Woody Ireland, R-Ritchie County, is again pushing the forced pooling legislation through the Legislature.  News articles have disclosed that Ireland owns significant oil and gas mineral interests and at least six new gas wells are planned on Ireland’s property. As much as 20 percent of Ireland’s income has come from oil and gas exploration and development since 2011. Our state has learned little from the errors of our past.  For decades King Coal ran roughshod over our workers and property owners.  Now, as we are poised to again step to the forefront of energy production, we seem to be ready to bow down to the special interests who want nothing more than to take our natural resources, turn a profit and head out of town with little to no regard for our local workers and lands.  We should all be concerned that private industry is fighting for the right to take our lands and property interests for pipelines and profit with little to no concern for our individuals and the families that have lived in these mountains and valleys for generations.  For most West Virginians, our land is our biggest and sometimes only asset.  Lands have been handed down for generations of families.  That family legacy is now facing an attack unlike any other.  Are we going to stand by and permit large out-of-state corporations to dictate to us what our property is worth and who can come onto our land?  If forced pooling is unavoidable, we need to fight to allow complete surface protections for those force into production leases and to create a system which really does result in fair market value lease deals that don’t include provisions such as forced arbitration. In addition to forced pooling legislation, bills are being proposed to take away one of the few tools that landowners have against the massive industrialization of our rural communities.  I have met with and represent dozens of individuals who have saved their money and built or remodeled their dream homes only to have oil and gas well sites and massive processing and production facilities pop up in their back yards without any warning.  Many of these people don’t own the mineral rights associated with their properties have had absolutely no say as to whether or not facilities will be built next to them.  Worse yet, the companies building these facilities hide the proposed operations from the local community until the last possible moment.  These facilities create tremendous air emissions, light pollution and sound disturbances often 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Hardworking families are kept up all hours of the night.  Husbands working shift work can barely make it through their shifts, kids are up all night before school the next day and homemakers cannot keep up with the extra dust and debris covering and entering their homes.  One of the few tools these people had and their disposal was the threat of nuisance lawsuits.  These cases have allowed aggrieved property owners to seek compensation for the harms they have experienced as a result of having massive industrial plants dropped down beside them. A bill has been sponsored by local Ohio County Senator Ryan Ferns, however, which will seek to tremendously limit the ability of hardworking property owners to fight back.  The bill would seek to require actual property or physical personal injury to support a nuisance claim.  Furthermore, the new bill would essentially provide that any business operating under the context of a permit, such as oil and gas drilling permits,  would not face liability for nuisance actions unless that business was violating a statute, regulation, permit, license or court order.  The people that stand to lose the most in these situations are the citizens of our state that live in rural communities, do not own their mineral rights, and have not consulted a mineral rights attorney.  These rural communities don’t have sound ordinances; they don’t have work hour restrictions.  The people in these communities have little to no standing to dispute the issuance of oil and gas well permits and most often don’t even get notice that such permits are even being filed.  Couple that with environmental and regulatory inspector units that are tremendously overworked and understaffed and the tort of private nuisance in the context of the oil and gas industry will be effectively gutted.  The people who live near these gas facilities did not ask for the tremendous disruptions and stress that they face.  They did not ask for their property values to be nearly wiped away.  They live in fear of explosions and catastrophic failures which may injure their families or destroy their property.  Most of these people have nowhere else to go and now they could not sell their land even if they wanted to. Sadly, once again, big business has come forward to dictate the terms of how we live our lives and what we have to put up with so it can profit.  West Virginians need to stand up and let our representatives know that these actions are wrong.  We cannot continue to bow down to the profit driven desires of out of state corporations who do not care about us or our state.  If those representatives don’t listen, they don’t need our support at the ballot box.

We all know why kids love it when the snow is falling and sticking on the ground; it pretty much guarantees a school cancellation. But what about us adults?  Most of us are working, sitting in our offices and looking out of the window wondering when it will stop. On top of that, we are worrying about the roads for the drive home and the mess of the slush getting tracked into the house.  It seems like, as you become older, the snow becomes more of a burden rather than a blessing.  It made me think of what I would do if I could have “snow days” as an adult. Would I go outside and make snow angels or go sled riding up at Oglebay?  Although the sound of those two things are youthful and inviting, I can pretty much guarantee I wouldn’t be anywhere outside.  If I had a snow day, I would most likely be in the house with my sweats and wool socks on. I would spend the day snuggled up on the couch watching Lifetime movies.  Have you ever wished for an adult “snow day”? What would you spend your snowy day doing?

Here is a FUN FACT: each square inch of your smartphone or iPad contains roughly 25,000 germs making them two of the filthiest things you come in contact with on a daily basis. Now, will you put the next smartphone call on speaker instead of putting it up to your ear/face? Yes, I hope you do and I think I will, too. Will you clean your iPad or your child’s iPad a little more often?  Well, go ahead and read on. Ever wonder what objects are actually cleaner than your Smartphone/iPad? Surprisingly, toilet seats make the list because they're usually sanitized often. Do you take your Smartphone/iPad in to the bathroom with you?  Yes, I think we all may have, haven’t we?  Well, I would think twice about that now that I brought this FUN FACT up to you. Now, I know we have all cut one of our fingers and placed a band aid on it. Then you discover at the end of the day that the band aid is pretty dirty?  Yes, and all of those dirty germs are now on your electronics and everything else you have touched that day, including your smart phone, iPad and your keyboard at work, too.  As Jimmy Fallon’s character “Sara” would say “Ew!” GERMS ARE EW! In a 2013 study, British researchers swabbed 30 tablets, 30 phones and an office toilet seat. The tablets had up to 600 units per swab of staphylococcus (also known as staph, which can cause severe stomach sickness) and the phones had up to 140 units. The typical toilet seat had less than 20 units. Another uncomfortable detail: In a 2011 survey, 75 percent of Americans said they use their smartphones while on the toilet to text, email and talk. It’s not just teenagers—91 percent of Generation Y responders said they used their phone on the toilet, as did 80 percent of Generation X and 65 percent of Boomers. Clean your electronics: Reduce your exposure to germs by cleaning your electronic screens with screen wipes or a damp, soft cloth often—or leave them out of the bathroom in the first place. Now that I have grossed you all out, I hope that you will go and clean your smartphone, iPad, etc. right now. I just cleaned mine. Go ahead, clean them and clean them OFTEN!

Flint, Mich. is once again in the news for all wrong reasons. As if the city hasn’t endured enough through impoverishment and a rapid rise in violent crime, thanks largely to “free trade” boondoggles that sent GM and other industries to Mexico, Flint is now under a state of emergency because of lead in its tap water that is poisoning its residents. Nearly two years ago, the state decided to save money by switching Flint's water supply from Lake Huron, to the Flint River, a notoriously filth tributary that runs through town. To Flint’s residents, this announcement seemed like something one would find on the satirical Onion website. In other words, a joke, given the Flint River’s widespread reputation as being highly corrosive and full of toxic waste.  Unfortunately, the announcement was all too real, and to no one’s surprise, Flint’s citizens are now paying with their health, as a result of being made to pay for toxic water. Since the entire point of the exercise was to cut corners and pinch pennies, it should come as no surprise that the state completely ignored federal law that required Flint River water to be treated with anti-corrosive agents to have any chance of being potable. According to experts, at a cost of about $100 per day, treatment with these anti-corrosives could have prevented 90 percent of the problems with Flint’s water. Instead, the corrosive water was permitted to course through Flint’s lead-lined pipes, causing widespread leaching of that lead, a highly potent neurotoxin, into the drinking water flowing to resident’s homes. The results have been a predictable litany of neurological and other health problems for Flint’s children, who are most susceptible to lead toxicity, and other residents. Sadly for us West Virginians, poisoning of our precious waterways in service to the almighty dollar is an all too familiar tragedy here at home. For instance, we may never stop hearing about the impact of DuPont’s insidious poisoning of Parkersburg in our lifetimes, give the sheer scale of the illicit dumping of PFOA into Parkersburg’s waterways and the decades-long harm that will continue to plague local residents.  PFOA was a chemical that DuPont extensively studied, conclusively learned was toxic to humans, concluded should not be disposed of in public waterways, but did it anyway – for decades. And who could forget about Freedom Industries recent poisoning of Charleston’s Elk River with MCHM, the long-term effects of which are still being studied and shown to be worse than previously disclosed. With barely regulated natural gas fracking and a republican-controlled “open for business” legislature, you can be sure that we will continue to suffer the same kind of tragedies that Flint’s citizens are struggling with. With all this poisoning happening, repeatedly, throughout our great state, you would think that we could find a legislative majority of actual human beings on this issue who might make preservation of our natural resources – the very lifeblood of West Virginian’s survival – a priority in this, or any, legislative session.  But even a cursory glance at the Senate GOP’s agenda for the 2016 session would show you how wrong you are. Far from trying to prevent these types of tragedies from continuing to occur, the GOP seemingly wants to do everything it can to guarantee they continue to happen. You won’t find any attempts to strengthen environmental or chemical inspection regulations on their agenda. No attempts to strengthen fracking regulations. No attempt to address the more than 60,000 mystery chemicals, like DuPont’s PFOA or Freedom’s MCHM, whose toxicity has never been studied but that are nevertheless routinely dumped into our environment. Instead, the majorities’ number one priority this legislative session is to try, once again, to strip you, the ordinary West Virginia citizen, of your Seventh Amendment rights to take companies like this to court when they poison the water we all must share. The corporate welfare agenda is certainly well represented by the GOP’s agenda this session, and they seem determined to carve the widest path for large scale corporate profiteering, by taking away your Constitutional Rights and giving Corporate America carte blanche to further exploit West Virginia’s natural riches for its own, personal gain, while allowing Corporate America to also use West Virginia as its own personal toilet down which to flush those inconvenient, “cost-of-doing-business,” truths like the fact that the chemicals they profit from are toxic to life. While the GOP’s priorities may go a long way towards lining their politician’s campaign coffers, they come at the expense of the very electorate they swore an oath to represent. The only way to combat this is to speak up this legislative session and let your local legislators know you support and demand the regulation of corporate polluters and see if they do anything to address these issues.  If not, at least you’ll know who not to vote for next time.

Yes, I am super excited about the firm trip to Las Vegas! I’ve always wanted to have the Vegas experience.  I, along with Jeanne Dedo and her husband, have booked a helicopter flight to the Grand Canyon!  That has been something else I have always wanted to do – see the Grand Canyon.  I really didn’t want to use up an entire day by driving there so I decided to take the helicopter.  While I’m pretty nervous about it, I’m also thrilled that I will be seeing the Grand Canyon.  I can check two things off of my bucket list with this trip. I am taking my sister with me as my guest.  My sister is so much fun and I know she and I will have a blast.  We plan to attend one show and we want to ride the High Roller Ferris Wheel.  I’ve already started dieting so I can eat anything I want when I’m in Vegas.  I looked up the places that have been on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and may search out at least one of those to experience.  Other than that I have no other specific plans.  My sister has found several antique shops, consignment shops and flea markets she would like to visit.  If we get around to that, I assume those places are in the old downtown Vegas and I would like to do the zipline! So for all of you seasoned Vegas people out there I need to hear your favorite spots, restaurants, cocktail lounges (female and age appropriate, please) and shows.  I’m not much of a gambler, but if you know a place I can actually win – that would be awesome!!  And high on my list would be the best place to just people watch – I’m sure there are a lot of interesting people in Vegas! I appreciate any advice you can send my way.

The world and our country are changing. Some of those changes may be welcome, and some of them not so much, but many of them are beyond our power, here in West Virginia, to control. The choices we face are not about whether change is coming, but whether we will capitalize on new circumstances, or simply sit still. Last year, the President of Appalachian Power, Charles Patton, told us that coal consumption would not increase, regardless of whether or not new federal regulations go into effect. Patton made it clear that the controlling factors were economic, not political, stating: “f we believe we can just change administrations and this issue is going to go away, we’re making a terrible mistake.” Charles Patton is not some wild-eyed hippie, living for a world powered by moonlight and karma. He has spent decades in the electric power business – until recently, mainly a coal business. He’s received appointments to boards from the likes of George W. Bush and Rick Perry. As an AEP executive, he works to protect shareholders, and his company, from losing money in energy markets, not on scoring short-term political points. He’s telling us the truth on this. Change is coming to West Virginia. We can’t hold it off, but we can decide how we’re going to handle it. But to do it we’ll need to separate the politics of coal from the economics of coal, so we can get realistic. The first step, as always, will be admitting we’ve got a problem. Too many of our leaders are like Fitzgerald’s “boats beating against the current,” promising to carry us back to the past. These leaders respond to a changing world by getting angry about it, blaming it on someone else, and spinning us fables about the “good old days.” That way lies stagnation, defeat and ultimately, ruin. We can’t afford it. We need a new generation of leadership with its eyes on the future. West Virginia needs its younger eyes to see that the good old days weren’t always good. Leaders who fix their gaze on the past will end up leaving us there. Next we have to make sure our leaders are choosing public service, not self-service. Public servants demand policies that support better wages for workers, not windfall profits for campaign contributors. Self-servants use the law for private gain, hurting the average person who lacks influence. Public servants represent the many people who are trying, but struggling. Self-servants represent the few who are already doing well. We must identify and promote the public servants, and rid ourselves of self-servants. Step three will be to reject and reverse the colonization of West Virginia. West Virginia’s economic history has always been that of a colony – meaning it has been owned more by out-of-state interests than by its own people. The result has been wealth flowing out of state to benefit those owners, while West Virginians struggle to maintain a basic quality of life. This occurred first in timber, then in coal and then in natural gas. But the most frightening phase is the recent colonization of West Virginia’s government. Political colonization of our state by self-servants represents an existential threat to West Virginia’s working families. No matter how hard economic interests have squeezed ordinary folks, with direct control of the law, the elite can, and will, squeeze harder. Nonetheless, politicians who got no traction elsewhere have come to see West Virginia as fertile ground to launch themselves into power and do just that. But they have no interest in solving West Virginia’s problems, because her suffering is how they came to power in the first place. 2016 will be a time for choosing in West Virginia. We know we’ll see one campaign you can sum up this way: “ Obama, Obama, Obama, and coal, coal, coal.” It’s a campaign trying to drive West Virginia while looking out the back window of the car. It’s old, and it’s tired and it hasn’t got much to show for itself. That campaign has been a jobs program for politicians, lobbyists and PR firms – but not for West Virginians. Even now, it’s beating against the current, trying to take us into the past. There’s another way. There’s a way that looks to the future, and the rising generation of West Virginians who are ready to embrace the future. There’s a path made of public service – for keeping our promises to our elderly and retirees, as well as our schoolteachers and children. There are leaders who aren’t in it for a quick buck or a self-serving law. We can put fresh eyes on our problems, put the state back into the hands of its own people and start keeping what West Virginia earns for a change. Which way, West Virginia? Christopher J. Regan is Vice-Chair of the West Virginia Democratic Party and an attorney at Bordas & Bordas, PLLC, in Wheeling. He blogs at www.homeyesterday.com.