Turnpike fees are going up

Yes, that's what Ogden's state news reporter, Steven Allen Adams, tells us on the front page of this morning's Wheeling Intelligencer:

Turnpike Tolls To Rise In 2019

Adams and the Intelligencer are a bit late to this story, however. Here is the AP report from June 7 which covered the same increase:

West Virginia Turnpike Tolls Doubling Next Year to $4

In his article, Adams includes a lengthy quote from West Virginia's governor, Jim Justice. What Adams doesn't tell us is that that the Justice quote comes from a press release from the governor's office dated June 8.

I looked for something in the article that might have happened recently (say, in the last week) and found this:

According to the Parkways Authority, more than 15,000 people have applied for the West Virginia E-Z Pass plan. So many people are signing up that the website has been having technical issues due to the high volume of people seeking the discount.

Unfortunately, that 15,000 figure is almost three months old. From WV Metro News on October 4:

The state Parkways Authority has more than doubled its customer service staff to handle the volume of applications associated with the new single fee EZ Pass program for the West Virginia Turnpike.

Fifteen-thousand new individual EZ Pass accounts have been created in recent months as motorists look to take advantage of the one-time three-year $24 unlimited use pass for passenger vehicles.

The most important information in this article is that the deadline for the purchase of a discounted EZ Pass is Monday. Wouldn't this information have been more relevant at an earlier date?

The Ohio legislature and Kasich's vetoes

Here’s the headline from the AP story found on page 2 of today’s Wheeling Intelligencer:

Veto Override Possible in Ohio On Abortion, Guns and Medicaid

The first paragraph tells us how the Ohio legislature plans to deal with the Kasich vetoes:

Some of the Ohio legislative session’s testiest issues — guns, abortion and outgoing Republican Gov. John Kasich’s Medicaid expansion — may yet see reversals before year’s end.

Unfortunately for those interested in actual news, the AP story used by the Intelligencer is from Wednesday. Yesterday, the legislature acted on these issues. Here is the AP report from early Thursday afternoon:

A dramatic day of veto override attempts at the Ohio Statehouse on Thursday ended in a kind of tie for outgoing Republican Gov. John Kasich, a prospective 2020 presidential contender who took on his same-party Legislature on Medicaid expansion, abortion, gun rights and politician pay raises.

Lawmakers overrode Kasich's vetoes of bills expanding gun-owner rights and increasing the pay of elected officials, including some incoming state officeholders, during rare post-Christmas voting sessions.

But they opted not to revisit Kasich's 18-month-old veto protecting Medicaid expansion and, in the most dramatic moment of the day, came up just one vote short of overriding his veto of a heartbeat abortion ban.

These very dated stories are not surprising. If you go to the Ogden Newspaper Manual and look for “Criteria for Choosing Stories,” you’ll find “fills available space” near the top. “Timeliness” is not mentioned.