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Nonpartisan elections could spur more interest by candidates and voters.

No doubt moving Roanoke’s municipal elections from May to November would increase voter turnout. But would the move make for a less informed voter?

Several members of Roanoke City Council expressed such concern in a Sunday news story. Voters might focus on selecting a president, ignore local races and simply vote the party line.

There is a remedy: Remove party labels.

Continue reading this editorial.

Gov. Bob McDonnell ultimately signed off on voter ID laws. Justice Department approval remains.

Gov. Bob McDonnell appeared genuinely torn over two bills on his desk that require Virginians to present identification at polling places or cast provisional ballots and later prove their identity.

He had legitimate concerns about the new rules, but his conservative base passionately supported them. He should have vetoed them, but instead he signed them on Friday afternoon, the favorite time for politicians who want something to be lost to the public over a sunny weekend.

Continue reading this editorial.

By Derek Mitchell

If you drive by the corner of Williamson Road and Oakland Boulevard in Roanoke, you’ll see a beautifully revitalized corner. I purchased that property with plans to demolish the house and construct a parking lot to provide adequate parking to the small 15,000-square-foot shopping center I own beside the corner lot.

So far, so good.

Read more.

Mitchell lives in Danville. He owns and operates Aaron’s franchises and two real estate development companies.

Voting, taxes and more in today’s letters to the editor.

Pick of the day: Are we forgetting, um, the Civil War?

In her May 17 letter (“Republicans love all kinds of people”) Mary Davis said Carl Scott is “confused by the most divisive president this country has ever had.” She apparently is not a student of history.

Deserved or not, I think that distinction might go to Abraham Lincoln. Within three months of his election, seven states seceded from the Union, followed within months of his inauguration by four more. It took the suspension of habeas corpus and the jailing of dissidents to keep two more from going out.

Things don’t get much more divisive than that and the Civil War that ensued. Is she not aware of possible runners-up, Lyndon Johnson and the massive turmoil over the Vietnam War or James Polk’s Mexican War?

What I don’t get is all this loathing of Barack Obama to the point of inaccurate, hyperbolic rhetoric. He’s not the first Democratic president. He’s not the first liberal president. He’s not the youngest president or the oldest. He’s not the first president to back health care reform. So, what is it?

Until these people who despise our president can come up with something more concrete than “he’s the most (insert pejorative) ever,” I’ll continue to be confused about their motives.

GLENN ROSE

LEXINGTON

Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I’m a woman’s man: no time to talk.

How do you use your walk today?

The county’s schools have a budget they can work with, but not without sacrificing some muscle. Even that does not appear sustainable.

With no good choices left, the Montgomery County School Board last week chose the Governor’s School over school sports and teachers’ pay over teacher staffing to close an intractable $4.2 million budget gap.

And the board chairman warned of hard choices ahead for next year, including the possibility of closing one or more schools.

Continue reading this editorial.

First, Americans must follow researchers’ lead and change the way they think about food.

Sometimes how researchers frame a question matters as much as the data they find. Such, it appears, has been the case with the affordability of a healthy diet.

Past studies have looked at cost per calorie. Adults need about 2,000 calories for a healthy diet, so researchers calculated the cheapest way to get them. It turned out that loading up on junk food was a good route.

Continue reading this editorial.

Scott M. threw down the gauntlet at a capitalist model of higher education in the comments about how much Virginians should have to pay to attend a Virginia college. Join the conversation in this week’s Point / Counterpoint.

People making individual rational decisions to acquire more money see a university degree as the means to accomplishing that. These individual, rational decisions have lead to more applicants, more borrowing, and more competition for the money those new students bring. That increased competition encourages universities to build more attractions to bring in students. For example, Liberty “University” has a summertime ski hill.

It is precisely these market forces that have lead to higher prices at universities.

– Scott M.

Libertarians and Roanoke Gas in today’s letters to the editor.

Pick of the day: Robbing schools to build roads

Our grinning governor shamelessly pledges to divert money from the so-called general fund, which supports schools, health care and public safety, to fund transportation needs (“McDonnell turns eye to tax reform,” May 14 news story). Yes, transportation needs are dire, but would a responsible leader expect to meet them this way?

In his first year, McDonnell scraped up about $1 billion of unused funds within VDOT departments. Perhaps he is waiting for it to happen again, like the farmer of the Chinese folk tale who, seeing a rabbit run into a big rock, knocking itself out, quit his farm work and sat daily under a tree, waiting for another rabbit.

McDonnell mentioned it might be appropriate to consider increasing the gas tax, but he indicated no intention of espousing it and, indeed, it has been unchanged for 26 years.

McDonnell instead has espoused withdrawing money from education and other core functions, terming it “tax reform.” Such reform is in the same class as McDonnell’s so-called balancing of last year’s budget by deferring $620 million in state contributions to the Virginia Retirement System.

If the people continue to accept the governor’s double-speak, he is well justified in wearing that grin.

BOB CRAWFORD

ROANOKE