Jim Bissett

MORGANTOWN - Matthew L. Harvey didn't parse words during his remarks Thursday. "The people are not misguided," he said. "They are not 'accidental' criminals. They are predators."

MORGANTOWN – Monongalia County students last year pulled down the highest test scores in reading and math in a decade, the district said. And that’s even grading on the curve of an unprecedented global pandemic, said Courtney Crawford, who directs assessment, accountability and counseling services for the district. Since 2021, when the district was saddled […]

MORGANTOWN – There were the hands-on phonics materials that helped a whole class leap to an 89% reading level. And another class studying the Vietnam War – which led to a field trip to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., during the same term. Don’t forget the one science class where the teacher brought […]

MORGANTOWN – Susan Taylor was simultaneously jeered and cheered during Tuesday night’s meeting of the Monongalia County Board of Education. The jeering was all in good fun. That’s because the reading specialist turned administrator found herself in the role of autumnal harbinger during the gathering. “I’m here to close out summer,” said Taylor, who oversees […]

FAIRMONT – It was one of those light-infused, late afternoons – what photographers call “The Golden Hour” – when Isabella Wolford was just being, well, Isabella. Unbridled joy, and all. Her dad, Justin Wolford, picks up the tale. “She was just learning how to crawl,” he said. “She’s rocking back and forth and we’re all […]

FAIRMONT – A day after former Pleasant Valley mayor Emily Haddix was arrested and charged with embezzling, officials of the Marion County municipality put up a Facebook post to residents stating no civic services will be disrupted nor delayed during the legal process. Haddix, 38, who was first elected to council in 2016, was taken […]

FAIRMONT – Randy Hines caught himself dabbing at his eyes Wednesday morning at Windmill Park. That’s because he wasn’t counting on getting called out, in a good way, by Fairmont Mayor Anne Bolyard and Fairmont City Manager Travis Blosser. Both officials praised him publicly, you see. The occasion on the 85-degree morning was the groundbreaking […]

MORGANTOWN – On the ground. Lt. Joe Torrillo was being pummeled like an outmatched prize fighter that morning in the shadow of dying Tower 2. Torrillo, who technically had the day off, rushed to his Brooklyn fire station to respond to the call anyway. How could he not? He had studied structural engineering and design […]

MANNINGTON – Chuck Knisell drew a crowd when he rolled into the Marion County Labor Day Picnic at Mannington’s Hough Park last year. He was behind the wheel of his late dad Larry’s 1955 Chevrolet 3100 pickup. Vintage rides always generate an audience. It’s not super-fancy, Knisell, the younger, said then of the vehicle. And, […]

Sep. 11—MANNINGTON-Brian Kolb has the perfect pepperoni roll recipe. First, you stir in a 250-pound aluminum frame that you also cooked up.