Dec 16, 2016 4 min read

Editorial voices from newspapers around the United States:

West Virginia is in trouble. Revenue Secretary Bob Kiss told legislators that the state government will face a budget shortfall “north of $400 million” for the fiscal year starting next July 1.

He said the state cannot cut any more public services, after Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin already slashed $400 million in the past three years. Therefore, huge amounts of new revenue must be found.

Also, the Public Employees Insurance Agency, which covers health care for more than 200,000 West Virginians, will need another $50 million to stay afloat, director Ted Cheatham told lawmakers.

When the conservative-dominated Legislature convenes next month, will it follow its old pattern of wasting time on shallow emotional issues: pistols, gays, curbing women’s right to choose, smashing labor unions, etc.?

We hope the 2017 Legislature makes a genuine effort to raise revenue and solve the Mountain State’s problems. Here are some ideas: Legalize marijuana; raise soda taxes; and boost the state cigarette tax to around $1.50 per pack, as health advocates want.

Opponents to new taxes sometimes say the state must grow its whole economy and generate income by having more employers and more employees. There is no doubt about that. West Virginia needs a larger, more active, more diverse, more robust economy. But that economy is not going to materialize before this year’s bills come due. West Virginia must have both – more revenue to get through the short-term and more economic activity for the long-term.

When legislators gather next month, will they squander their time on the same old “God, guns and gays” far-right agenda, or will they help West Virginia?

John Glenn lived an extraordinary life. He was an outsized hero who epitomized a generation that taught America to dream big, to try things that had never been tried before.

Glenn, who died last week at the age of 95, will forever be remembered as the first American to orbit the Earth. His risky, nearly five-hour flight in the tiny Friendship 7 spaceship on Feb. 20, 1962, was a moment of national pride.

After a successful stint in business, Glenn was a four-term U.S. senator from his native Ohio who became a leading expert on nuclear weaponry, proliferation and technology issues. He was the leading supporter of the B-1 bomber when many in Congress doubted the need for it.

Upon announcing his retirement from the Senate, Glenn defied age and gravity to return to space in 1998 at age 77 on the space shuttle Discovery.

“We are more fulfilled when we are involved in something bigger than ourselves,” Glenn said at his keynote address at Ohio State University’s commencement in 2009.

Glenn left an indelible mark on history. He was a quintessential American – striving hard, succeeding, suffering setbacks and earning high-flying redemption.

One by one, exemptions have eaten away at Ohio’s public records law over the years. At last count, there were 29 types of records that are now protected and don’t have to be made available to the public.

Fortunately, the Ohio Supreme Court hit the pause button on that troubling trend by ruling that police dash-camera videos are a public record and should be released by police agencies upon request. The court said some portions of videos could be shielded on a case-by-case basis, but only if the material is deemed part of a criminal investigation.

That’s reasonable. Too often police and prosecutors avoid releasing records from an incident under the “confidential law enforcement investigatory record” exemption.

But the court, in its ruling, suggested that blanket exceptions shouldn’t be allowed when it comes to dash-cams, and that police video should be considered individually.

The main purpose of using body-cams in the first place is to increase transparency and accountability for police to build public trust. Keeping body-cam video out of the public view would do just the opposite.