Braxton Citizens' News

In this weeks edition:

Fast pace for legislature…
It was a busy week for yours truly. Among the activities was my attendance at the WV Press Association’s Legislative Breakfast last Thursday. It is always good to visit with colleagues from around the state and this event was no exception. It probably won’t surprise anyone when I say that one of the main topics of discussion was the extremely fast pace some proposed laws seem to be on during this year’s legislative session. Most publishers I ran into had similar thoughts as mine regarding the Education Bill.
All the Legislative leadership from both houses were guest speakers at our breakfast. While it was all polite and professional it was obvious that there are differences on the Education bill and how it came to be. By Thursday several changes were already being proposed for the bill and if you followed those happenings you probably know that they are ongoing at this writing. It does appear that cooler heads are prevailing so I am cautiously optimistic that there will not be another school closing.
Our Association has for a number of years fought to keep legal ads in our newspapers. Yes, we do get paid for them. In this day and time any small business like ours needs all the revenue sources we can get. But, the real problem is that moving the legal notices to what will, sooner or later, be an obscure website that we will be lucky to find at all will mean to the public’s right to know. Of course this initiative continues to come from the West Virginia Association of Counties and the other public officials organizations. Again I renew my pet peeve that public money pays for these efforts and there is no way that moving these notices to a website is in the taxpayers best interest.
Maryanne Reed, Dean of WVU Reed College of Media, was also at the breakfast. She had recently provided her opinions on the importance of public notices in newspapers for the Nieman Reports at Harvard University. Don Smith, WV Press Executive Director, spoke on the importance of what Maryanne had to say. With her permission, he shared that column with member newspapers. I believe it is important and have reprinted it here on this page. If you haven’t already done so, I hope you will take time to read it. She makes some very good points regarding what an important and valued service legal advertisements are in your local newspaper. As you will note, this attack by public officials to keep their citizens in the dark is not confined to just our state. You will also note that the values are wide-spread as well. We will continue to monitor this and other legislative action that impedes your right to know.