Guest Post — May 15, 2013

Note from Dan: This came in Sunday night. The story is long, but very well told. If you care about veterans, you’ll care about this.

By John Moyer, VFW Life Member
Past Post Commander (Post 6949)
Past Post Quartermaster (6949, 7854)
Past Post Adjutant (6949, 7854)

The slogan, “NO ONE DOES MORE FOR VETERANS” appears on correspondence sent from the National Headquarters of The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States located in Kansas City, Mo. As a member, I never had reason to question the saying until recently, when a fellow veteran was cut loose.

On January 29, 2013, after nearly 40 years of service to the VFW, Connie Wood’s Life Membership was terminated.  Despite a lengthy appeal process, which included a petition of support bearing hundreds of signatures, it was over.  With the passage of time, I can almost understand why the higher ups went by the book and not the heart, but it hasn’t eased the bitterness I currently have for the organization, or the pain of seeing a really decent man put down.  I keep thinking that perhaps if Connie had really been known, had been more than a name or number to the higher ups, things would have ended differently.

Connie, a self-proclaimed “country boy,” was born May 8, 1935 in his parents’ home located near Spencer in southwest Virginia. Being raised during the depths of the Great Depression, in rural America, meant hard work and tough times would be inescapable. Connie, who would become the standard bearer for his six brothers and three sisters that followed, would learn well how to face the cards dealt to him along the way, at least most of them. Read more »

From Dan Gaffney’s Facebook page

Feast your eyes on the sign at the left, recently removed from a playground in Delaware. Oh how clever those Mexican-hating “public servants” can be.

The translation for the Spanish portion: “You must have a permit to play in this field. Violators will be subject to police action.”

Raw Story has more:

Jonathan Montgomery | Virginia Department of Corrections

Here’s some info about the troubling case of a wrongful sexual abuse conviction of a young man, Jonathan Montgomery, on charges later proved fabricated.

He was charged (and convicted) m as an adult even though he had “committed” the (fabricated) offense when he was 14. His accuser has since been charged with perjury.

And Montgomery is still in prison, where he has been wrongfully since 2008. This is because of Virginia’s 21 day rule, and despite a judge’s order for his release. Apparently, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is keeping him there.

From the Virginia American Civil Liberties Union:

Richmond, VA – November 15, 2012 -The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia sent a letter to Governor Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli encouraging them to take action to assist an innocent Hampton man in gaining his freedom and to reform the state’s 21-day rule.

“No person in Virginia should be deprived of liberty for crimes he or she did not commit nor held any longer than necessary once known to be innocent,” said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Claire Gastañaga. “This is another unfortunate example of the problems stemming from Virginia’s 21-day rule. Wrongfully convicted individuals need a quicker process to have their convictions overturned and gain their freedom.”

Despite the recantation of the victim, and agreement by all involved parties – defense counsel, prosecutors and the court-that Jonathan Montgomery is an innocent man, Montgomery remains in prison. Montgomery is sitting in prison for a crime he did not commit because evidence of his innocence was not discovered until more than 21 days after his conviction. Under Virginia law, a convicted person has just 21 days to return to the circuit court to have the conviction vacated. After 21 days, the individual must appeal to the higher courts for a “writ of actual innocence.” The only other course of action is to appeal to the Governor for a pardon. Read more »

cchan199206 | Wikimedia Commons

You may want to think twice before you drive a hard bargain on your next new-auto purchase. Because a customer in Chesapeake who did that wound up in the pokey, arrested by police.

To make a long story short: The dealership screwed up and wrote him a sales contract that was $5,600 less than it should have been. When he refused to renegotiate the deal in their favor, they called the cops on him and reported the vehicle stolen.

The whole story is right here, in The Virginian Pilot:

On June 15, three Chesapeake police officers arrested [Danny] Sawyer in his front yard and took him before a magistrate judge. He was released on bond after about four hours at the Chesapeake jail, the suit said.

The head of the dealership has since apologized for the arrest, admitted it was their own dumb error, and says Sawyer can keep the deeply-discounted SUV without coughing up the $5,600.

But that hasn’t satisfied him, and no wonder, eh? He’s filed a lawsuit.

If I were the dealership I’d offer him another car, gratis, and try to make this go away.

jill, jellidonut | Wikimedia Commons

Some bad news for many excited women around town. From 202 Market’s Facebook page:

“Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are unable to continue with the Chippendales Show scheduled for September 18, 2012. We apologize and anyone having purchased tickets and/or VIP Tables will receive a 100% refund of their money. Please contact events@202market.net for more information.”

Here’s the column that ran about this Aug. 12

I’ll update here when I get more information.

UPDATE #1: I emailed 202′s event planner, Jo Jo Soprano, and he responded with the notice posted above. The only thing he added was, “It was not our choice.”

Curious.

Whose choice do you reckon it was, folks? The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board’s? The Chippendales?

UPDATE #2: Roanoke.com is reporting that 202 Market got scammed by a fake Chippendales outfit, and when that came out the show got canceled.

UPDATE #3: Email from Jo Jo Soprano: ” I have tickets and posters here with the Chippendales Registered Trademark if you would like to use them to show how fraudulent this company was.”

(h/t to Elliot)

This is how Joyce Crouch displays her handicapped parking placard. | Submitted by Joyce Crouch

Note from Dan: While my family and I are away at the beach this week, I’m treating you to some columns from the past year. This one was one of my favorites. It appeared Aug. 28, 2011.

Life is full of major and minor outrages, and last week, I heard about one of the latter.

It involves Joyce Crouch, 65, of Salem and a $25 parking ticket she got in Roanoke on Wednesday.

She’s retired, and disabled as a result of a knee replacement that didn’t work. She also has a hernia condition that prevents her from stretching out her arm. Joyce can’t even use the drive-through teller at a bank. Her husband Carson is disabled, too.

As a result of her conditions, Joyce has a handicapped placard that allows her to park in disabled parking spaces.

Wednesday she had an appointment at a Carilion Clinic rehabilitation center. She parked her Ford Expedition SUV in a handicapped space at McClanahan and First streets in south Roanoke.

Because the hernia makes it difficult for her to reach up to the rearview mirror, she didn’t hang her placard there. Instead, she stood it up neatly in a slot on her dashboard, so it would be obvious. She said she’s been doing this for at least three years without any problem. (It’s illegal to drive around with a placard hanging from the mirror.)

Joyce’s appointment lasted for an hour, and when she returned she found a parking ticket on the SUV.

Her offense? She didn’t hang her placard from the rearview mirror. The listed violation was: “Improper display of placard.” A little farther down on the ticket was this comment: “Placard on dash beside rehab center.”

This means the ticket-issuer actually saw Joyce’s placard and busted her anyway. Read more »

Jaquen | Wikimedia Commons

It is Sunday, but school is in session. Here’s a short pop quiz. The subject area is education. There’s only one question, and it’s multiple choice.

1. If you as a teacher stop an unruly student from entering your classroom by grabbing his shirt and admonishing him to put a lid on it, you:

A. Deserve an award for deft handling of a classroom distraction.

B. Merit a reprimand for not getting out your paddle and handling that little monster the old-fashioned way.

C. Could be charged and convicted of assault and battery, and face the prospect of losing your job, and then being sued for $110,000.

Because I know you devilish readers well, I’m certain a few of you chose ‘B.’

But if you’ve been reading this newspaper lately, you know the correct answer is ‘C.’ Outrageous as it seems, that’s precisely what has happened to Lord Botetourt High School teacher Victor Terry. Read more »

It’s not apparent from this video, but Brent Bozell, the founder and president of the Media Research Center, is a 55-year-old adult male. That has been called into question by some childish and tasteless language he used on Fox News (where else?). Listen to him retaliate against President Barack Obama because of something unkind that Chris Matthews said about Newt Gingrich. (So there! So there! So there!)

In doing so, Bozell betrays a principal root of many conservatives’ hatred and fear of the president. Watch:

We love that wonderful electric provider American Electric Power so much that it earned $5.8 billion on its monopoly service in the past three years.

But AEP doesn’t love to pay state corporate income taxes. No sir. It hasn’t paid of dime of them in the past three years. Not in Virginia or anywhere else.
But AEP got $97 million in refunds in that time frame.

(Perhaps its subsidiaries pay, that’s unclear).

The power conglomerate is near the top of the list in a new report out from Citizens for Tax Justice. The group found that 265 profitable Fortune 500 companies paid no state taxes anywhere in at least one of the past three years. And some of them, like AEP, didn’t pay in any of the three years.

What are some of the others, and how many of the past three years did they avoid paying state income taxes, according to the report? Below are some that may be  familiar to Virginians:

DuPont (3 years); Corning (2); Comcast (1); Wells Fargo (1), J.C. Penney (1); R.R. Donnelly (1); Verizon (1); General Electric (1); Campbell’s Soup (1).

You’ll want to download and read the whole report, which gives the skinny on the tricks these companies play to avoid paying taxes. There’s some pretty slick stuff in there.

Ragesoss |Wikimedia Commons

Midnight Wednesday was the deadline for Medicare recipients to sign up for their annual Part D insurance plans. That covers prescription drugs.

If you’re a senior or you’re close to one, you’ve heard about the frustrations with Part D. There are 30 different plans sold throughout the valley, and there’s the confounding “doughnut hole” that costs some seniors thousands of dollars every year.

Betty Price’s concern is different. Beginning next year, her medicine will cost more with her insurance than it would without it. It’s a 50-year old medication and her insurance company has jacked her out-of-pocket cost 419 percent.

They also raised the price of her insurance. So in terms of rip-offs you could consider this one a two-fer.

READ THE REST OF THE COLUMN HERE.