Damon Cain

The tumblers, plural because they come with different glazes, textures and a mix of colors, feel just right in either hand, each distinct but a perfect and comfortable fit as if they were made just for me and my hands, my fingerprint, as it were, even though I am fully aware that they were not. What may be most important and quite magical in this is that they are not mass manufactured but created one at a time, no two the same, each unique in that way, each with its own texture, but all a perfect fit, in my hand and other hands as well.

Neither of my grandmothers had a hand in raising me – not that they lived next door or in the same town. Nor did I spend a single day in child care. As such, my experience in these matters differs from what many here in the Mountain State have gone through in the past couple of decades. I did not become more fully informed until much later in life.

Beckley has one less business downtown, now, and one less reason to go there. When Tammy Jordan, president of Fruits of Labor, tired of waiting for manageable terms on a lease with the city, she closed up shop. Her nonprofit provided culinary training to those in recovery from Substance Use Disorder (SUD). Still does in the enlightened little communities of Alderson, Montgomery and Rainelle.

West Virginia, we have a problem – and the governor knows it and is leveraging you and it to his benefit.

The scenes and stories from communities across multiple southern states affected by Hurricane Helene are tragic, heartbreaking, and, apparently, stirring and inspirational. Americans are showing their resolve to pitch in and help. Perfect strangers who live and work hundreds if not thousands of miles from the storm's destructive path are rallying to the rescue and eventual recovery, caring not a whit whether the storm tore through red states or blue but focused solely on sending a measure of comfort to the weary.

Why is it that most everything under the sun, especially here in a state where the people deserve so much better, seems prepared for failure? It's as if we hand the folks in charge fresh stalks of rhubarb in the spring only for them to leave the pie in the oven too long. They shrug their shoulders at the result and walk away.

Gov. Jim Justice – as pompous, pretentious and self-promoting as they come and, as a person, politician or potentate, take your pick, a decidedly poor personification of the people he is supposed to serve as chief advocate – went out of his way on Wednesday at the end of the most recent legislative interim meetings to tell the whole world, “I told you so.”

Justice delayed because Hatfield dropped the ball While there have been no accusations of impropriety

The residence of former West Virginia Governor Hulett C. Smith, which is owned by family members of Gov. Jim Justice and located just outside of Beckley on Harper Road near Interstate state-77, was engulfed in flames on Sunday night.

Pinecrest Business and Technology Park is now in the hands of the Raleigh County Commission.