Recent editorials from West Virginia newspapers:
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Aug. 5
The Parkersburg News and Sentinel on the state’s drug tip hotline:
It is easy forget, as we continue to battle the coronavirus pandemic and the economic struggle that comes with it, that West Virginia still faces attack from many fronts. Among our greatest enemies remains the substance abuse epidemic, which has certainly not weakened with the presence of COVID-19.
Those working to stop that plague are still on the job, and in fact finding new ways to fight.
“Every division of Homeland Security is being used to fight countless threats to West Virginia, from the pandemic to illegal drug trafficking,” said WV Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeff Sandy.
To that end, the department has set up a statewide toll-free drug tip line, on which residents can report what they suspect is illegal drug activity.
West Virginia Drug Tip Line is available around the clock, seven days a week at 833-905-DRUG (3784), and calls are handled by the WV Fusion Center’s new Narcotics Intelligence Unit. Tips can also be submitted online at: appengine.egov.com/apps/wv/fusioncenter/drugtip.
We don’t have up-to-date numbers (and, to be fair, the number crunchers at the Department of Health and Human Resources have been pretty busy lately), but a little less than a year ago, the DHHR announced figures from 2018, which showed there were nearly 900 confirmed drug overdose deaths in West Virginia that year.
Someone supplied the drugs that took those lives - and have been taking hundreds of lives over the past two years. Any new weapon in the arsenal as we try to stop those who peddle this poison is welcome. But that weapon must be used in order to be effective.
Please, folks, if you see something, or know something that would help law enforcement put a stop to the substance abuse epidemic, take advantage of the anonymity provided by this new tip line. Your help WILL make a difference.
Online: https://www.newsandsentinel.com/
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Aug. 4
The Herald-Dispatch on Marathon Petroleum selling its Speedway chain of convenience stores to the parent company of 7-Eleven”
Sunday’s announcement that Marathon Petroleum is selling its Speedway chain of convenience stores to the parent company of 7-Eleven wasn’t a surprise, but it remains a significant one for the Tri-State region.
The sale was part of an overall strategy brought about by shareholder groups that contend Marathon Petroleum is undervalued - that the sum of the company’s parts are worth more than the whole, so the company should be broken up into three pieces.
Marathon so far has resisted calls to divest itself of its pipeline unit, known as MPLX. Locally, MPLX is technically the owner of the boats on the Ohio and Kanawha rivers that carry the Marathon logo on their stacks.
The Speedway sale is a step in that plan.
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021. 7-Eleven is to acquire Speedway in the $21 billion all-cash transaction. After taxes, Marathon will have $16.5 billion available to strengthen its balance sheet and return capital to shareholders. 7-Eleven commits to buying 7.7 billion gallons of fuel per year from Marathon, with additional growth opportunities.
The agreement was disclosed the day before Marathon announced its second-quarter earnings. The sale comes as Marathon reported a rough quarter financially. However, the company’s retail segment, meaning Speedway, held its own. Income from retail operations was $494 million in the quarter of 2020, compared with $493 million for the second quarter of 2019.
Profits from the sale of fuel increased to 39.60 cents per gallon in the second quarter of 2020 from 26.66 cents per gallon in the second quarter of 2019. Same-store merchandise sales decreased by 4% year-over-year and same-store gasoline sales volume decreased by 37% year-over-year, which company officials attributed to “demand destruction associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In their quarterly conference call, company officials said in-store food and soft drink sales fell in the quarter, but alcohol and cigarette sales were up.
What all this means for the Tri-State area is unknown. 7-Eleven officials say they plan to close some stores where Speedway and 7-Eleven are close to one another, but that’s not likely to be a big deal here, where 7-Eleven has not had much of a presence in recent years. Marathon trucks will continue to supply the stores that are changing hands.
As of this writing, not much is known about 7-Eleven’s plans for the Speedway locations. Huntington alone has five, and there are several more close by in both West Virginia and Ohio.
Another concern is the Marathon refinery at Catlettsburg, Kentucky. Once the anchor of Ashland Inc., the Catlettsburg refinery is a mid-size player in Marathon Petroleum. Because of a recent merger, Marathon Petroleum is now a coast-to-coast refiner. It’s a coast-to-coast marketer, too, but it’s getting out of that business.
In their conference call, Marathon officials said all refineries are being examined to ensure they can generate cash flow in all environments. Marathon did announce that two refineries on the Pacific Coast that had been idled as a result of the pandemic will not be restarted. Catlettsburg may have a larger role in Marathon Petroleum going forward. It may have a smaller role. No one really knows just yet.
What all this means is that things are going on outside our area that are outside our control. But they do bear watching. It’s hard to tell what the long-term economic effects of the pandemic will be. We just have to do what we can to minimize the damage and maybe even make some things better than they were before.
Online: https://www.herald-dispatch.com/
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Aug. 2
The Register-Herald on mail-in voting:
Now that Secretary of State Mac Warner has taken a baby step towards expanding mail-in balloting for the November election, we would encourage him to put on his big boy shoes and do exactly what he did this spring in preparation for the primary at the beginning of the Covid-19 spread and, quite simply, send all registered voters in the state an application for an absentee ballot.
Even better, if he really wanted to get down with democracy and cut through bureaucratic paper pushing as other states have done, he could mail all eligible voters a ballot. It would be much more efficient – saving time, preventing headaches and preserving taxpayer dollars while concurrently improving the prospects of boosting participation in our most basic and cherished freedom, voting.
And in this era of a highly infectious and deadly pandemic, it is the safer strategy.
As announced by Warner this past week, all West Virginia voters – beginning Aug. 11 – can apply to receive an absentee ballot for the general election.
Warner is using an emergency rule that allows voters – because of the prevalence of Covid-19 – to cite the “other medical reason” excuse on the absentee ballot application, just as long as Gov. Jim Justice’s state of emergency is ongoing.
West Virginians liked the option in June when 262,503 out of 1.2 million registered voters requested absentee ballots, and 224,777 were returned – a healthy 85.6 percent. In Raleigh County, the most populous in southern West Virginia, more than 20 percent of eligible voters applied for an absentee ballot.
And we are not alone.
Across the country, states are expanding access to mail-in voting. As of now, over 180 million eligible American voters will be able to cast a ballot by mail. Of those, 24 million live in states – like West Virginia – that will accept fear of the coronavirus as an excuse to vote absentee. At least 77 percent of all eligible voters in the U.S. will be able to cast their votes by mail.
And do not believe claims of voter fraud. President Trump and Gov. Jim Justice have made unfounded claims that mail-in voting will create widespread abuse. But a recent analysis by The Washington Post found only 372 cases of potential fraud out of roughly 14.6 million ballots cast by mail in 2016 and 2018. The Brennan Center for Justice in 2017 ranked the risk of ballot fraud at 0.00004 percent to 0.0009 percent, based on studies of past elections.
The problem, here, is not potential voter fraud and abuse, it is access to the ballot box. Right now, voters and county clerks have to jump through the predictable bureaucratic hoops to make the process work. Every additional step presents the opportunity for something to go wrong, to let something fall through the cracks, to escape even an eagle’s eye attention, to deny a citizen’s right to cast a vote. As is, voters have to apply for the ballot, either online (which not everyone has access to or comfortable with) or by contacting the local county clerk’s office by phone or in person (which not everyone has the patience for).
Warner should cut through all of that perfunctory molasses and direct county clerks to mail every registered voter an application. In West Virginia, that’s about 1.2 million pieces of paper. That is what Warner did in the spring when, on primary day, there were a reported 12 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in West Virginia. On Saturday, the number was 159. Given how the U.S. is operating without a national plan to test and track infections, it’s a solid bet that we will be in no better shape on Nov. 3 that what we are right now.
So, yes, a safer path to the ballot box is the correct route to choose.
But, at the end of the day, it is just simply about doing whatever we can to open up our elections for full participation.
Let us hear freedom ring in our country this fall – the first note of which is to make voting as accessible as possible for one and all.
Online: https://www.register-herald.com/
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