Cheers and Jeers

Jeers to West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner for continuing to hang on the tremendous falsehood that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. Even Trump’s director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Christopher Krebs, said the 2020 election was the safest on record in U.S. history up to that point. Since then, Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp., the parent company of FOX News, admitted in court documents that his news channel’s perpetuation of the Big Lie was merely to make money and he knew that it was not true, that the election was not stolen by anyone. Murdoch admitted that he just didn’t want to lose anymore viewers to other knockoff right-wing cable channels so they kept spreading and morphing the lie. So, the question for Warner is how is clinging to a lie going to serve you as you campaign for higher office between now and election day 2024?

Jeers to the Marion County Commission for cutting a $15,000 check to Blackshere Elementary School for a basketball camp under questionable circumstances. Records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show that Matt Offutt, the county’s new director of media and events and county commissioner Bobby DeVaul’s lifelong friend who helped him get the job, has on resume that he is the CEO of Blackshere Basketball Organization (Summer Camps) from 04/2022 to the present. However, there was no such camp at Blackshere last year. There was a camp at North Marion High led by DeVaul, but it certainly didn’t have access to the county checkbook at that point. DeVaul needs to understand that the county’s money is not his to spend on his pet projects. Also on Offutt’s resume, he states that he has commitments from Space Jam stars Mugsy Bogues and Larry Johnson and WVU coach Bob Huggins. A lot of questions should be asked of Marion County Schools about accepting a check for a camp that should be funded by private funds.

Cheers to folks like Marcella Yaremchuk and the group Friends of Maple Grove Cemetery which is seeking public aid to build a Memorial Plaza to honor the various veterans buried at the historic cemetery. This is the kind of project the county should be funding.

Cheers to Lloyd White, administrator of the Marion County Health Department, for knowing when to stop and reassess the big picture. White was the face and voice of COVID-19 in Marion County for better or worse from March 2020 until about six months ago when the coronavirus seems to dissipate into the ether. White made tough decisions during the pandemic that not everyone liked, but he did so by following the rules and regulations that he was given. We applaud him for his tenure at the health department and especially for leading Marion County through a global pandemic.

Jeers to West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee and Athletic Director Wren Baker for how they handled the Bob Huggins homophobic slur incident. A 3-game suspension is a slap on the wrist as is a $1 million penalty. If anyone else had behaved in the manner Huggins had, they would have already been shown the sidewalk.

Cheers to the Fairmont State University Board of Governors for selecting a new president to lead the university. “We can’t do business like we’ve always done it and [Davis] understands that very well. He has plans on how we can grow our student population by focusing on the things we as an institution are really good at,” Board Chairman Rusty Hutson said.

Cheers to Kylie Reeseman, a 6th grade math teacher at East Fairmont Middle School, for being named Marion County Teacher of the Year. Alongside her was Kathy Cyphers, an executive secretary over special education in the central office, who was named Service Personnel of the Year. Congratulations for your honor and thank you for all you do to make public education excellent in Marion County.