Recent editorials from West Virginia newspapers:
April 23
Charleston Gazette-Mail on the photo of a coal miner used by Russians to promote Donald Trump’s 2016 candidacy:
By now, thanks to the Mueller report, most everyone has learned of the extent to which Russian troll farms and hackers went to interfere with the 2016 election and sow discord among Americans in general.
One of their pieces of propaganda was a leaflet touting Trump’s support for coal miners in Pennsylvania, with an image of a miner covered in dust and soot. The image was from 1976, and the man in that photo, who actually worked in West Virginia, has been dead for decades, his life taken by black lung disease in 1987.
The man is Lee Hipshire. He was 57 when he died. The photo was taken by Earl Dotter. Naturally, the Russians didn’t seek Dotter’s or Hipshire’s family’s permission to use the photograph.
Here in West Virginia, it’s just another example of miners being exploited for political gain, even if not by traditional methods.
Hipshire’s son, Ronnie, was understandably upset to learn about what happened. He told The Washington Post his father “wouldn’t like that (the photo) was used by Russian trolls to better the Republican Party and the Trump Agenda.”
Dotter told The Post he was “outraged.”
“I thought it was a fake message to garner support, and, two years into Trump’s presidency, I think it’s pretty obvious there hasn’t been thoughtful ways to make coal miners whole.”
There have been plenty of less-than-thoughtful ideas from Trump and company, though those efforts have been on behalf of the mine owners, not the miners themselves. The Trump administration has put forth massive rollbacks of environmental pollution policies to try and help the slowly dying coal industry. Hipshire’s image is a perfect representation of that imbalance of power.
Black lung rates are surging and at a 25-year-high. With most coal seams in West Virginia and the rest of Appalachia depleted, miners have to cut through more sandstone to get to the coal, and it turns out that silica dust from sandstone is just as lethal, if not more, than coal dust. Regulation of silica dust is not just a Trump problem. Several administrations going back to the 1990s have had chances to take action on that problem and failed.
Of course, letting mining operations pollute more hasn’t done much to spark another boom in coal, though thinking it would gives a disturbing glance into how the minds of this administration work. Energy companies long ago started enacting plans to shutter coal-fired plants and develop more diverse sources for power production. Low natural gas costs have also played a huge part in coal’s decline.
Whether it’s Russian trolls distributing a pamphlet and circulating an image online, or Trump putting on a hard hat in Charleston and miming digging with a shovel, it’s all been one big con. While the real answer to the decline of coal is elusive, embracing outdated ideals and continuing to exploit the workforce can’t be the answer. West Virginia owes its miners more than that.
Online: www.wvgazettemail.com
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April 24
The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register on youth courts:
Ohio County commissioners are being asked to consider funding a youth court program. The suggestion has been made that they tack an additional $5 onto court cost charges for those who appear in the traditional court system.
A youth court already is functioning in Brooke County, commissioners were told. It has been endorsed by circuit Judges David Sims and Michael Olejasz.
Under the proposal for Ohio County, the special court would handle the cases of those 18 and under who have been accused of minor crimes. Only first offenders would be eligible. Juvenile probation officers would recommend defendants, who could escape having to pay fines and have their records expunged upon successful completion of the program.
As an example of the type of offense for which youths could be handled through the special court, those charged with possession of tobacco products in school were cited.
Yes, that is a crime under state law. But no, handling it does not require involvement by the full-scale traditional court system.
Having such minor charges dealt with by a youth court could free up time for the existing juvenile justice system to work with those accused of more serious offenses. That alone makes the idea appealing - on a trial basis. Commissioners should consider providing the funds for it.
Online: www.theintelligencer.net
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April 23
The Herald-Dispatch on the 2020 Census:
Early next year, around the time people are filing their income tax returns, households will be expected to submit their census forms.
The forms are used to determine how many people each state sends to the U.S. House of Representatives. It’s no secret West Virginia will likely lose one of its three seats, and thus one of its five votes in the Electoral College, once the census results are compiled. The change will affect the 2022 elections to Congress and the 2024 election for president.
It’s not just that West Virginia has a had a downward trend in population for the past few decades. There are only 435 seats available in the House, so a state can still gain population but lose a House seat if its growth is slower than others’.
According to a House apportionment calculator provided by the University of Michigan, based on 2017 population estimates West Virginia would lose one seat in the House after the 2020 census. So would Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and New York. Texas would gain two seats, while Florida, North Carolina and Oregon would each pick up one. Notice that two of the states popular with migrating West Virginians - Florida and North Carolina - are likely to gain a seat.
The census will also determine how legislatures in each state apportion their membership. In West Virginia, we’re likely to see the Eastern Panhandle and the Potomac Highlands gain members and thus influence and the southern coal counties lose.
The census affects more than just politics, though. As noted by Herald-Dispatch reporter Travis Crum in Sunday’s edition, an undercount of the state’s population could cut into the nearly $7 billion in federal funding the state now receives each year.
Exacerbating the problem is the potential for an undercount as more than 24% of West Virginians are considered to be living in hard-to-count communities.
These programs include Medicaid, Medicare Part B, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Section 8 Project-Based Housing and Head Start/Early Head Start, among others. An undercount on the census will affect the amount of money the state and counties receive for these programs starting in 2021.
“The federal monies that come down from the federal government to West Virginia are the programs that are so critical to us,” said Laura Lee Haddad, executive director of the West Virginia Nonprofit Association. “There’s adoptions, childcare and nutrition, our military veterans and all of our health and human service organizations. All of these are critical and are determined in many cases by our population base.”
A complete census count is more challenging in Mingo, Logan and Wyoming counties, where 100% of the population is considered hard to count, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s map of hard-to-count communities. In some counties, such as Cabell and Kanawha, large swaths of cities risk being missed in the 2020 census. In Huntington, those living downtown and in the Fairfield neighborhood will most likely require door-to-door followup visits from a census worker.
It could be that an individual household does not rely on Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP or another program that relies on federal money. But many households in our three states do. When the redbud trees bloom again, it’s time to be sure every West Virginia, Ohioan and Kentuckian is counted.
Online: www.herald-dispatch.com
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