Robertstown, Ga. | Wikimedia Commons

Your daily Letter to the Editor — June 18, 2013

Re: Roanoke County supervisors candidate Al Bedrosian’s comment in Dan Casey’s metro column (“Candidate explains his stance on religion”) on June 9:

Bedrosian, the Republican candidate for the Hollins District seat on the board of supervisors, stated, “A new library in Vinton is not necessary.” Bedrosian is misinformed. Pay a visit to the current Vinton Library. There is no space for the teens; the children’s area is too small; it is ill-lit; it is overcrowded and outdated.

The few tables and chairs are always filled with home-schooled children or literacy volunteers assisting people to learn to read or people studying for GEDs.

The Vinton library is a relic of the 1950s concept of a library. Vinton needs a library to accommodate the future. Vinton has one of the largest populations of seniors and teens, and the new library will take their needs into consideration. The new Vinton Library will be the only library in Roanoke County on a bus route, bringing access to more citizens.

The U.S. is lagging behind other countries in education. The library is a source for bringing the U.S. back to No. 1 in the world in educating its citizens — both young and old. It is available to all — rich, poor and in between.

The people of Vinton supported building the Green Ridge Recreation Center, the new South County Library and the new Glenvar Library. Is it not Vinton’s turn to receive a little bit of attention?

May I suggest to the candidate that he attend the next citizens’ meeting on the Vinton Library to learn of the support and excitement the people of Vinton have for their new library?

Please stand up and tell them they don’t need a new library.

Lorraine Bratton
VINTON

AP Photo | Altered by Dan

Your daily Letter to the Columnist — June 18, 2013

Hello—

Just came across your June 1 column on fraud.

It is a great piece of journalism and I am grateful for your straightforward writing.

Keep it up!

Best wishes,

Robert Brickhouse
CHARLOTTESVILLE

Shot, and slightly photoshopped, by Dan

“I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called Mother and Child Reunion. It’s chicken and eggs. And I said, I gotta use that one.”
Paul Simon

Logo altered by Dan

A Guest Post — June 18, 2013

Note from Dan: This is a response to a June 7 guest post by Michael Bentley, in which he complained about non-responsiveness of WVTF’s Friends Council. The chief issue is the desire of some local activists to see the public broadcasting station carry Amy Goodman’s program Democracy Now! Bill Gray lives in Lynchburg.

By Bill Gray

I am writing with regard to the guest post on your blog by Mr. Michael Bentley. That forum allowed him to make allegations regarding the Friends Council established to support WVTF Public Radio. In addition, Mr. Bentley attacked two private citizens, namely my wife and myself. I find this a bit disconcerting and, further, I find it hard to believe that you allowed this under your byline and that you made no attempt to get the other side of this story.

I want to be clear that WVTF and the Friends Council are interested in and welcome public input and participation. The Friends Council meetings are publicized over the air and on the WVTF website to encourage such participation.

To the best of my recollection, Mr. Bentley or a representative of Plowshare Peace and Justice Center has been at every Friends Council meeting. Their sole purpose has been to promote a program called “Democracy Now” and to force this program onto WVTF or Radio IQ. Read more »

Dsw4 | Wikimedia Commons

For a discussion about the sad state of voter turnout, one need look no farther than Roanoke County and Democratic primary last Tuesday. Could it have been any more embarrassing?

There are 67,189 voters in the county. How many turned out?  A grand total of 619. That’s not in any one precinct, mind you. That’s across 32 precincts. The final vote total was 646 because 27 people voted absentee. That’s a rate of .96 percent.

Nobody is more upset about this than my friend Ron Adkins, secretary of the three-member Roanoke County Electoral Board. He’s a former county Republican chairman.

Tuesday, Adkins made the rounds of most of Roanoke County’s 32 precincts. And what did he see? Empty polling place after empty polling place.

You have to feel a bit sorry for those election officials, three per precinct, who manned the polls at $145 per day each ($170 for the chief official). The county should supply Xboxes or something so they can play “Call of Duty” to fight the boredom.

“This is the first time I ever went to an election and nobody came,” Adkins said.

READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE.

AP Photo | Altered by Dan

Your daily Letter to the Editor — June 17, 2013

In a June 7 letter (“Talk about McAuliffe contributors, too”), William Daly chided The Roanoke Times for not reporting on out-of-state contributions to Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s gubernatorial campaign. Daly referred to two columns that contained unfavorable information about Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s contributors, which Daly did not dispute.

I don’t have those articles and cannot comment on them, but I do recall reports in the past of troubling and, in one case, allegedly criminal activity by some Cuccinelli supporters. But Daly is correct; we do need information about both candidates’ contributors.

So what about the McAuliffe contributors? Are any of them attempting to do any of the following:

* Prevent the EPA from protecting our air and water.

* Disprove global warming.

* Solicit money from Virginians for a phony charity.

* Avoid paying taxes.

Unfortunately, Cuccinelli has job performance problems as troubling as the motives of some of his contributors. He has wasted time and money on frivolous and politically motivated lawsuits that he lost. Shouldn’t he have to pay the state for that?

I hope we will not reward his poor judgment with the highest office in our state. That would place our judgment in question.

Bobbie Jackson
DALEVILLE

Gov. Bob McDonnell

Interesting story from the Washington Post on Sunday: Did you know, Virginia taxpayers, that you’ve been paying for Gov. Bob’s deoderant? And “sleep inducing elixirs?’ And ‘detox cleanses?’ (I wonder if he bought the latter from my old blue-blooded Virginian roommate, Moonman, who now sells those from his mountain-top lair in New Mexico).

What with all the personal errands they’ve been having state employees run for them, it sounds like the McDonnell’s are going to have a rough transition back into the real world, come January. Golly, they might have to pick up their own drying cleaning!

From the Washington Post:

The McDonnells have billed the state for body wash, sunscreen, dog vitamins and a digestive system “detox cleanse,” the records show. They also have used state employees to run personal errands for their adult children. In the middle of a workday, for example, a staffer retrieved Rachel McDonnell’s newly hemmed pants at a tailoring shop nine miles from the governor’s mansion. Another time, a state worker was dispatched to a dry cleaner 20 miles away to pick up a storage box for Cailin McDonnell’s wedding dress.

About six months into the governor’s term, the official who oversees mansion spending told the McDonnells that they should not have charged taxpayers for a number of expenses, including deodorant, shoe repairs and dry-cleaning their children’s clothing. The official asked the McDonnells to pay the state back more than $300, which they did, and also gave them a refresher on what the state will and won’t provide for occupants of the governor’s mansion.

But since that time, state records show that the McDonnells have continued to let taxpayers pick up the tab for numerous personal items, including vitamins, nasal spray and sleep-inducing elixirs.

I reckon among the many nice things you can say about Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, is that he’s hasn’t been ordering diarrhea potions, either on or off the taxpayers tab.

Shot by Dan in Salem

“In most communities it is illegal to cry ‘fire’ in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims?”
Dwight D. Eisenhower

DanielHolth | Wikimedia Commons

If you’re taking Amtrak on its Montreal-to-New York run, via Albany, you’ll climb aboard the Adirondack. When you leave New York and are headed to Miami, you’ll be riding either the Silver Meteor or the Silver Star. And if you’re riding the rails from Chicago to San Francisco, it’ll be on the California Zephyr.

Such romantic passenger train names are worth considering here in Starville. Because in four short years, maybe fewer, Amtrak will make a triumphant return to Roanoke.

That train will connect Roanoke to Boston and will make stops in Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Providence and other places. Right now the southern terminus is Libertytown – er, Lynchburg – and we must suffer the indignity of a 5:45 a.m. shuttle bus ride to catch it.

Unfortunately, that train currently has a depressingly utilitarian name, the Northeast Regional. Informally, it’s known as the “Lynchburg Train.” Problem is, both monikers have as much creativity and romance as you’d find in Soviet-era bus to suburban Chernobyl.

We can do better. So today, I’m launching the great Name That Train Game. Email your suggestions to me, explaining your idea, and I’ll use the best ones in a future column.

This contest was sparked by “Train Man” Dan Peacock of Manassas, the Old Dominion’s unofficial No. 1 passenger railfan . Before we get to his ideas, here’s a bit of background.

READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE.

Emily Looney, operator of the amazing new beer tap at the Salem Red Sox double header Friday night. | Shot by Dan

Meet Emily Looney, a concessions staffer for the Salem Red Sox. Friday night she was operating an invention that has to be seen to be believed: a new beer tap that fills the cup from the bottom up.

I was kibitzing in the center concourse Friday night, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw this this thing in action. I felt like pinching myself.

These taps look like a big Coleman camp stove, right? Here’s how they work: They use a special cup with a hole in the bottom.

The hole is rimmed by a metal ring. And inside the cup is a magnetic disc, about 2 inches in diameter, that sticks to the metal ring and covers the hole.

When  a customer orders a beer, Emily takes the cup, pushes the bottom over one of these taps. This disc pops up. She presses a button on an electric panel for small, medium or large, and the cup fills up from the bottom. It’s an electronically metered pour, so there’s no spillage. Bonus, there is almost no head. So you get all beer.

When she lifts the full cup off the tap, the magnetic disc automatically seals the hole in the bottom.

Here’s a pic of it in action:

Shot by Dan

You can see the magnetic disc near the bottom of the cup.

Yet another of many reasons to go to a Salem Red Sox game!