Charleston Gazette-Mail - Earlier this month, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals released a long-awaited ruling on Texas v. United States, a court case regarding the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). When the lawsuit was filed last year, it was roundly mocked as frivolous by legal experts on both sides of the political…
OpEds
Charleston Gazette-Mail - Recently, residents of the Kanawha Valley have heard a great deal from elected officials about the success of the sports complex at Shawnee Park and the remodeling of the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center. The conversations about these two projects always find their way back to the same term: economic development. Read op-ed.…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - While the United States is a low-tax country compared to most industrialized nations, for a majority of Americans it doesn’t feel this way. That’s largely because private health insurance companies receive a large portion of our income every month. If we sent our money to a publicly run health insurance plan (e.g. Medicare)…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - Every year, at our Summer Policy Institute, I give a presentation to the students there on finding and working with economic and other data sources. One of the key lessons is that, with economic data, particularly in a small state like West Virginia, there is a balance between timeliness and accuracy. Read…
Beckley Register-Herald - West Virginians often show our love through sharing food. Whether it’s a big pot of beans and cornbread on the stove when we show up to a relative’s house or a friend sharing her “world famous” pepperoni roll recipe, we show love by filling up bellies. Read op-ed. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - In May, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a proposed rule regarding abusive debt collection practices. Contrary to the Bureau’s pretense that it protects consumers, the proposal unfortunately only helps collectors track down and harass them. Read op-ed. The rules will help collectors contact consumers via text and direct messages — even…
This week marks the 99th anniversary of the adoption of the 19th Amendment, granting women (though not black or native women, in many cases) the right to vote. Read this op-ed in the Beckley Register-Herald. This date has become known as Women’s Equality Day, but nearly a century later, women – and particularly women of…
West Virginians have something to learn from Alaskans. Several years ago, Jay Hammond, the Republican governor of Alaska from 1974-1982, wrote a memoir called “Diapering the Devil,” about how Alaska turned its rich oil assets into an everlasting source of wealth by creating the Alaska Permanent Fund. Read op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail. During the…
No one should live without access to health care. But fulfilling that principle requires helping our population overcome many of obstacles in West Virginia, including our high poverty rate and our state’s rural landscape. Nineteen percent of our state’s population lives in poverty, the fourth-highest rate in the nation- and the poverty rates are even…
In under nine months, the decennial Census will begin, with a goal of enumerating, or counting, all who live in West Virginia. The Census determines how much political representation we get at the state and federal levels and how much federal investment comes to West Virginia for programs that fund highways, school lunches, health care,…