Latest news with #CharlestonGazette-Mail
11-06-2025
- Politics
Newspaper executive and former West Virginia lawmaker Doug Skaff Jr. dies in highway accident at 48
CHARLESTON, -- Doug Skaff Jr., a West Virginia newspaper executive and former Democratic legislative leader, died Tuesday following an accident on Interstate 79. He was 48. Skaff was president of HD Media, which publishes the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the Herald-Dispatch of Huntington and several other state newspapers. The Gazette-Mail announced Skaff's death on its website Tuesday night. Details of the accident, which the newspaper said occurred in Lewis County in north-central West Virginia, weren't immediately released. An operator who answered the telephone for the Lewis County state police office said she had no further information. Skaff served in the supermajority-Republican state House of Delegates for nearly 11 nonconsecutive years representing Kanawha County. He resigned his seat in 2023 and switched to the GOP before a failed campaign for secretary of state in 2024. Skaff also was interim executive director of the West Virginia Press Association and recently was part of an ownership group that purchased a popular restaurant in Charleston. Skaff planned to run for state Senate next year, according to the secretary of state's website. 'I am heartbroken to hear about the passing of our friend Doug Skaff,' Gov. Patrick Morrisey said on the social platform X. 'Doug was a longtime state legislator, the Minority Leader of the West Virginia House of Delegates, and omnipresent in the Charleston community. He will be greatly missed by many.' Skaff is survived by his wife and three sons. 'Doug Skaff was more than just a colleague; he was a friend to many of us, even after he left the legislature," West Virginia Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin said in a statement. 'His humor was infectious, and his dedication to his family, particularly his love for his children, was evident in everything he did.'
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
‘We're here for health': Kanawha-Charleston health board denies indoor smoking exemption for casinos
Tom Baldwin downloads a sports betting app onto his phone after the opening of the sports betting bar at Mardi Gras Casino & Resort in December 2018. The Kanawha-Charleston Board of Health voted down an amendment to its clean indoor air regulations that would have permitted casinos in the county to allow indoor cigarette smoking in 10% of the square footage of their establishment. (Chris Dorst | Charleston Gazette-Mail) The Kanawha-Charleston Board of Health voted down an amendment to its clean indoor air regulations on Thursday that would have permitted casinos in the county to allow indoor cigarette smoking in 10% of the square footage of their establishment. The amendment was proposed by board member Jessica Hudson. It would have only applied only to gambling establishments, where 10% of the square footage would have been exempt to the clean air regulations. Any business that allowed indoor smoking, according to the amendment, would have needed to install a special ventilation system and would have been barred from serving food in the area with smoking. Board members voted 4-2 against the amendment. Mardi Gras Casino and Resort, in Cross Lanes, West Virginia, proposed the exemption for the clean indoor air regulations to the county board of health in October 2024. In its presentation to the health board, representatives for Mardi Gras said they were losing business to a new casino in Ashland, Kentucky — about an hour's drive away from Mardi Gras — where smoking was allowed in some areas. ... this is not a chamber of commerce. We're here for health. – Dr. Dara Aliff-Lao 'Reading the financial impact certainly was impactful to me in terms of how it affects the community. But that said, this is not a chamber of commerce. We're here for health,' said Dr. Dara Aliff-Lao, an OBGYN by trade, who voted against the amendment. 'I just feel like it would send the wrong message for a health department to rescind anything. I feel like once we start eroding things, they go away completely. We've seen that time and time again in other aspects of health.' Hudson and Board President Jeremy Nelson were the only two board members to vote in support of loosening the county's indoor smoking regulations. Joining Aliff-Lao against the amendment were nurses Lillian Morris and Danita Nellhaus and Dr. Art Rubin. Hudson, who works as the executive director of Business Strategy & Analytics at Vandalia Health Network, declined an interview following the board's vote on Thursday. Nelson, an executive at Moses Auto Group by trade, called into the meeting virtually Thursday and as such was not available for an interview. During the meeting, Nelson said that he believed a 'carveout' was needed in the county's clean indoor air regulations to help Mardi Gras stay competitive against Sandy's Racing & Gaming in Ashland. 'I think this is certainly a carveout and I think that this organization [Mardi Gras] has a huge, huge impact, on our community,' Nelson said. 'They are at a disadvantage and I think they've proven that the amount of people's money that's going across the state line to Ashland [in Kentucky] right now is alarming.' But Aliff-Lao and Nellhaus told the press following the meeting that the health risks aren't worth it. Employees, Nellhaus said, would be constantly exposed to second- and third-hand smoke. This could put people who are unaware they were pregnant as well as those with certain medical conditions especially at risk. 'Mardi Gras did a good job as far as their presentation, but I think I have to say — no matter what they've said — I just understand the implications,' Nellhaus said. 'I mean, I'm a health care professional. I just think that totally outweighs anything that they would offer.' Aliff-Lao pointed out that smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the nation. In West Virginia, nearly a quarter of residents — the highest rate in the nation, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — report using tobacco products. Lung cancer diagnosis rates here outpace that of every other state. After heart disease — which is also exacerbated by smoking — cancer is the leading cause of death in West Virginia, and lung cancer deaths occur more frequently than any other cancer related death. The vote Thursday followed a 30-day public comment period, where members of the public were urged to voice their opinion on opening up the county's clean air regulations. Lalena Price, public information officer for KCHD, provided a copy of those comments to West Virginia Watch upon request. Out of 36 comments received, only five seemed to support allowing smoking in the county's casinos. Comments against the amendment came from casino patrons, the American Heart Association, former smokers and more. Aliff-Lao and Nellhaus both said they were sympathetic to Mardi Gras' economic concerns. The presentation shared with the board in October alleged that the casino's market share was down to 32.8% in 2024 versus the 41.2% it held at the end of 2023. 'Mardi Gras Casino will continue to see a steady decline unless change is made to stop the erosion,' the presentation read. But Aliff-Lao said there are other economic factors that the casino should consider, namely the continuous decline in the region's population. 'We recognize that there can be an economic impact, and you hope that the casino will rally around and find other ways to make up for that revenue,' Aliff-Lao said. 'But I think [protecting] the safety of the patrons and the employees who really would be exposed [to cigarette smoke] is our job as the board of health.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
A message to West Virginia lawmakers: Make it personal
The Lincoln Walks at Midnight Statue sits in front of the West Virginia state Capitol building in Charleston, (Lexi Browning | West Virginia Watch) Until we make it personal, empathy vanishes. After reading that state GOP lawmakers are seeking to remove rape and incest exemption from West Virginia's near total abortion ban, I was reminded of a conversation I had a number of years ago with a colleague about West Virginia's Catholic bishop facing charges of inappropriate sexual behavior. And recently, another diocesan priest was accused of inappropriate behavior. I will never be judge and jury, yet even as I made attempts to hear the charges from the priest himself, I was accused of passing judgment. I recognized that movement on his part as clear deflection. In discussions with a co-worker, who is the father of young boys, I mentioned that the bishop had apologized for any hurt/pain he may have caused, even as he maintained his innocence, as countless Catholic clergy before him had done. My colleague remarked that maybe the bishop was sorry. It was at that moment that divine intervention slipped in and I said, 'Would you be that forgiving, that accepting, that dismissive if a member of the clergy had acted like that to one of your sons?' His expression turned ashen. That was answer enough for me; and then he said, 'I hadn't thought about that.' When will we think about the laws that are being enacted on a personal level? When will we put ourselves in the situation that's up for debate? When will we move beyond the stark black letters on a stark white background and excavate what lies beneath the surface? As our state lawmakers hold tight to a black and white world, we need to find a way to make certain that they consider the issues by asking themselves, 'What if this situation were to happen to someone I hold dear, to someone I love?' Empathy is on a much too lengthy hiatus. It must be resurrected if we are to have any modicum of decency to combat the starkness of black and white. Very little is that simple. In the summer of 2022, I wrote a commentary for the Charleston Gazette-Mail after the reversal of Roe v. Wade. It is crystal clear to all who know me that I am against abortion. Pay attention to the bold pronoun. That's me. I also firmly believe that every woman has the right to make that choice for herself, along with her physician. My commentary stated that when the reversal was announced, 'I cried in a way that was closer to a howl.' And later that day, I received an email from a co-worker who is fanatically against abortion who wrote, 'Now those women who have been protected as they chose abortion, will die by their own hand, as we take those measures from them, like they have taken the life of a child, and sacrifice their own life. Read the Old Testament.' Read those two sentences again. Almost three years later, those words frighten me even more than when I first read them. They will always frighten me. Let's bury the potential cruelty and judgement and destruction that would most assuredly accompany these proposed laws, if they should be adopted. How did we get here? To reiterate my earlier plea, ask yourself, 'Would I feel differently if a loved one were to be raped or became a victim to incest and a pregnancy resulted?' Make. It. Personal. Because in the end, it's nothing but personal. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
