February 29, 2008
For Monday: No life was lost when a gunman appeared on Ferrum College's campus, and for that everyone is grateful. The response and ensuing lock down afford the college an opportunity to dissect a real, rather than simulated, tragedy to determine the effectiveness of procedures.
For Monday: With more than 1 in 100 people in the United States behind bars, America has the shameful distinction of having the highest rate of incarceration in the world. A newly released study by the Pew Center on the States http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/One%20in%20100.pdf
found the prison population grew last year, as it has every year since 1987. Virginia's 5 percent rate of growth exceeded the national average of 1.6 percent.
With its more than 38,500 prisoners to support and guard -- the figure for Virginia as of the first of this year -- the Old Dominion needs to use every tool it has to keep corrections costs in line. Fortunately, the state has experience at this sort of thing. When the Allen administration abolished parole in the mid-1990s, it overhauled the sentencing system for nonviolent offenders.
Judges can divert a lot of low-risk offenders from prisons and jails with alternative sentences. But even in tight budget times -- especially in tight budget times -- the state needs to do more to keep people who present little danger to society out of jail, and on a path to productive citizenship.
For tomorrow, we'll write about the Virginia Supreme Court's decision striking down the creation of a regional transportation authority to collect taxes for transportation as unconstitutional. This decision will blow a huge new hole in the state transportation budget.
An unfortunate way to fill a council seat
Roanoke voters can't pick a replacement for a resigned councilman's post. But they should be invited to participate.
Alfred Dowe resigned his Roanoke City Council post with more than two years remaining on his four-year term. Roanoke plans to hold an election on May 6 to select a mayor and three council members. Logically, it would follow that voters could pick Dowe's replacement then. But logic doesn't rule. State law -- flawed as it is -- controls the timing.
Read more.
Budget politics and scams
A newly Democratic, but more sharply partisan, state Senate faces dangerous budget waters.
Virginians looking for signs of whether the retirements last year of veteran Republican moderates from the state Senate would push the GOP, now the chamber's minority, to the right ideologically need look no further. Republicans sealed the shift Wednesday when, joined by one Democrat, they voted as a bloc for a budget amendment to eliminate money for women's health care that the state funnels through Planned Parenthood -- and prevailed.
Read more.
What do you want to talk about today?
Cuba and Israel have been foreign policy failures
John Freivalds
Freivalds runs an international marketing communications firm in Lexington.
Fidel Castro's recent resignation from the Cuban presidency brought to light two longstanding domestic policy issues: total rejection of Cuba and total support of Israel. Each has gone on almost as long with disastrous consequences for the United States.
Read more.
Read Friday's letters here.
February 28, 2008
For Friday: Virginians looking for signs of whether the retirements last year of veteran Republican moderates from the state Senate would push the GOP, now the chamber's minority, to the right ideologically need look no further. Republicans made that apparent Wednesday when, joined by one Democrat, they voted as a bloc to eliminate state money for women's health care that is funneled through Planned Parenthood.
For Friday: A judge ruled that state law will prevent voters from picking a citizen to fill a vacancy on Roanoke City Council. This is unfortunate, and will require the mayor and council to make an appointment in the most open and welcoming manner. And the city's state delegation should seek a change to state law.
For our Sunday NRV Current editorial we are writing about the bridge that would carry the Huckleberry trail across Virginia 114 in Christiansburg. It will be a welcome addition to one of the recreational gems of the New River Valley. The town, however, should seriously investigate costs associate with sprucing it up beyond the bare-bones structure. This could be an attractive, signature edifice in a busy part of town.
The little train museum that hasn't
The Virginia Museum of Transportation is heading the way of abandoned lines. The nonprofit board needs to steer a different course.
A graveyard for forgotten railcars -- that could be the fate of The Virginia Museum of Transportation, if its board fails to capture the imagination, enthusiasm and cash from more than parents of tiny tots and old railroaders.
Read more.
Daisy chain decisions
Roanoke's mayor needs to learn that communication is a two-way street.
Mayor Nelson Harris chatted privately with his buddies on city council and decided it's a bad idea to turn one-way Church Avenue into a two-way street. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. No one will ever know now, because Harris has cut off debate.
Read more.
What do you want to talk about today
Paying for college
Linda Whitlock
Whitlock, an adjunct English professor who lives in Salem, is a Roanoke Times columnist.
She was going through the registration process. I had stopped by Virginia Western to pick up my diploma. We were about the same age -- 40ish -- though she was probably a little younger.
Read more.
Healthy living, not socialized medicine
Paul Taylor
Taylor works in the health care industry in Roanoke and lives in Salem.
Steve Huff, in his recent column, "The health care market is killing us" (Jan. 28), voiced a great deal of concern for the state of our current health care system and how it has impacted his patients. In his opinion, we would be better off copying France, where employees are covered by a state-run system and nonemployees buy in separately. Private insurers would compete for supplemental coverage.
Read more.
Read Thursday's letters here.
February 27, 2008
For later in the week, we're writing about Gov. Tim Kaine's proposal to stem the rising tide of foreclosures in Virginia. His measures - which would slow the state's unusually speedy foreclosure proceedings by giving borrowers in trouble 30 days, along with access to credit counseling - are reasonable and cheap.
An unscheduled editorial will deal with a newly published study of Virginia's Hispanic population by the University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. The demographic snapshot offers a reassuring picture to those who fear that a marked growth in numbers threatens American culture.
For later in the week, we are musing about the presidential races, and what presidents can actually accomplish when elected. All of the candidates are talking about grand plans, but without congressional support, none of them can happen. Voters should give as much scrutiny to their congressional elections as they do president.
For Thursday: Roanoke Mayor Nelson Harris has decided after talking informally with others that city employees needn't waste their time figuring out whether it's wise to open one-way Church Avenue to two-way traffic. So much for public discourse.
Payday lending reform's uncertain fate
Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, a well-paid industry supporter, may derail reform of predatory lending yet again.
Will Sen. Dick Saslaw kill payday lending reform in Virginia for the second year in a row? The Democratic senator killed a weak reform bill last year, withdrawing his industry-favored legislation out of fear Gov. Tim Kaine might amend it into something meaningful. This session, with even more political power at his disposal as majority leader, Saslaw is once again threatening to kill reform.
Read more.
A cockfighting law with teeth
The General Assembly should pass, and the governor should sign, Griffith's tough measure.
Virginia House and Senate panels turned aside pleas from the Virginia Game Fowl Association Monday to exempt its members from a bill that would make cockfighting illegal. The association's assurance that its member-sponsored cockfights are family-friendly -- no gambling, drinking or minors allowed -- just didn't fly.
Read more.
What do you want to talk about today?
Uranium isn't a gold mine
Hildred Shelton
Shelton is a farmer and lifelong resident of Pittsylvania County.
Virginia Uranium Inc. has requested the General Assembly to commission a study to determine the safety of mining a possible $10 billion uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County. According to articles appearing in various Virginia newspapers, the executives of Virginia Uranium went to Canada to study safe uranium mining techniques. Canada produces one-third of the output of uranium mined worldwide.
Read more.
Read Wednesday's letters here.
February 26, 2008
For later in the week: Which came first? The Virginia Museum of Transportation's lack of funding led to poor management or poor management hampered the museum's ability to generate contributions? We'll try to sort this out.
For Wednesday: House and Senate panels turned aside pleas from the Virginia Game Fowl Association Monday to exempt its members from a bill that would make cockfighting illegal http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?ses=081&typ=bil&val=HB656.
The association's assurance that its member-sponsored cockfights are family friendly -- no gambling, drinking or minors allowed -- just didn't fly.Nor did a spokesman's argument that lawmakers should protect clubs dedicated to the blood sport because it dates back to the commonwealth's colonial days. As the bill's sponsor, House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, noted, times have changed. In this instance, they have changed for the better.
The FCC is contemplating rules to forbid or at least limit Internet providers from discriminating against certain types of Internet traffic. For example, companies now throttle some file-sharing stuff, but little would prevent them demanding amazon.com pay fees for full access to a provider's customers.
FCC action will be appreciated, but Congress should codify the principle of network neutrality.
For tomorrow, we'll write about the lamentable possibility that reform of the payday lending industry may once more be delayed by a powerful state legislator who's taken lots of cash from payday lenders.
What's in their wallets?
Roanoke officials say controls check the spending on 700 city-issued credit cards. Still, city officials should review procurement policies.
Not everyone can be trusted to use credit cards responsibly. Alfred Dowe proved that adage yet again. Dowe resigned his post on Roanoke City Council over the weekend when it appeared he had abused his city-issued card by double billing the city and the state for conferences. He also spent far more last year than other council members -- nearly $15,000 -- and routinely bought meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner guests.
Read more.
Drug courts face another trial
New budget straits again put this effective crime-fighting program at risk.
These are tight budget times in Virginia, and one place the House of Delegates is scrimping in the next biennial budget is on drug courts. Doing so would be a false economy likely to cost state taxpayers more in the end.
Read more.
What do you want to talk about today?
Why waste time on torture warrants?
Michael J. Hileman
Hileman resides and practices law in Blacksburg.
In a recent interview, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia discussed opening the constitutional gates for an Alan-Dersowitz-style torture warrant scheme. At the heart of his argument was a hypothetical that is not original but is often trotted out to leave those who object to torture stunned by the obvious necessity and rightness of such techniques.
Read more.
Read Tuesday's letters here.
February 25, 2008
For later in the week, we'll urge Gov. Kaine to veto legislation that would require the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles to collect the regional titling fees added to car purchases as part of last year's transportation compromise. Car dealers don't want the hassle of collecting it (even though they collect other fees and taxes), and don't want customers thinking the price of their cars have gone up. According to the impact statement accompanying the legislation, saving dealers that hassle will cost the DMV $3.4 million.
For Tuesday: Roanoke Councilman Alfred Dowe has resigned because it appears he abused his city-issued credit card. Roanoke issues 700 of these to employees and public officials. It would be prudent to review this policy.
For Tuesday: These are tight budget times in Virginia, and one place the House of Delegates is scrimping in the next biennial budget is on drug courts. Doing so would be a false economy likely to cost state taxpayers more in the end.
Shifting the burden of education
House Republicans want to short-sheet public education by rewriting Standards of Quality formulas. Localities should protest.
Virginia's Standards of Quality are supposed to set the minimum standards for state funding of K-12 education. But House Republicans want to rewrite those standards to save $124 million over the next two years, and they promise a further rewrite that will save an additional $200 million in the next budget.
Read more.
What's that house really worth?
Biennial property reassessments would benefit Montgomery County.
Every four years, residents of Montgomery County find out how much the county thinks their homes are worth. The quadrennial reassessments and resulting tax increases sometimes cause sticker shock. Some county officials wisely want to reduce the surprise and make financial planning easier for everyone by reassessing more frequently.
Read more.
What do you want to talk about today?
If abortion is banned, then what?
Steve Huff
Huff, a family physician from Patrick County, is a Roanoke Times columnist.
Life begins at conception; abortion is murder. The fundamentalist Christian message could not be clearer. Let's pretend that yesterday the Supreme Court gutted the 1973 pro-abortion ruling Roe v. Wade.
Read more.
Read Monday's letters here.
February 24, 2008
'Illegals' and criminals
Illegal immigrants pressure communities in many ways, but localities that treat illegal status as a crime can expect to pay a high price.
Prince William County drained its rainy-day fund nearly dry last week to pay the startup costs for a key component of its much-publicized local crackdown on illegal immigrants. Its police officers are to check the citizenship status of everyone suspected of breaking the law, no matter how minor the offense.
Read more.
A matter of trust
A good argument could be made to conduct random audits of attorney trust accounts
The Virginia State Bar president wants to inject verification into the blanket confidence afforded attorney trust funds. Howard W. Martin Jr., told The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot that he would seek random audits of lawyers' trust funds. Martin was responding to news accounts that a Virginia Beach attorney misused millions of dollars entrusted to him by clients.
Read more.
New River Editorial
Growth will test new Blacksburg planner
The town finally gives planning the attention it deserves.
If recent debates about development in Blacksburg have revealed anything, it's that residents care passionately about growth. They want planning and building to proceed sensibly and to preserve the character of the community. They also want to foster new business and accommodate new residents.
Read more.
In downtown, every day is a new production
David M. Feehan
Feehan is president of International Downtown Association in Washington, D.C.
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances.
Or so said William Shakespeare in "As You Like It." More recently, a friend of mine, Pat Norris, who directs the downtown museum in Kalamazoo, said, "Downtown is the stage on which we celebrate our community."
Read more.
Read the full commentaries excerpted in Sunday's Horizon section:
* Mill mountain is beautiful -- just as it is
* Valley Forward should redirect its energy
* Don't ignore the opportunity of Rockledge
* Valley Forward stuck on the wrong idea
* Mountain restaurant won't attract professionals
* Bringing the heresy of humanism to Mill Mountain
* Who is Valley Forward?
What do you want to talk about today?
The more things change...
Michael Miller
Miller is a freelance writer who lives in Montgomery County.
I was shocked the other day to read that Neil Young, one of my favorite protest sort-of folk singers for the past 40 years, no longer believes that music can change the world. Young, under the extremely clever pseudonym Bernard Shakey, directed a movie about the 2006 Freedom of Speech tour by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Shakey ... er, I mean Young. During his introduction at the Berlin film festival, Young commented: "I think the world today is a different place, and that it's time for science and physics and spirituality to make a difference in this world and to try to save the planet. If we didn't do that, it would just feel like a bunch of old hippies up there saying what they thought -- and who cares?"
Read more.
Study links electronics use with drop in national park visits
Steve Kark
Kark teaches writing in the English department at Virginia Tech.
If you haven't camped or hiked or visited a national park in the past few years, you may be a videophiliac. Worse yet, if you have children, you may be raising them to be videophiliacs as well, according to the authors of a recent study published by the National Academy of the Sciences.
Read more.
Children and families need government support
Rebecca Scheckler
Scheckler is an educational technologist. She lives in Draper.
Christian Trejbal ("Another sweet deal for families," Feb. 17) mixed two issues. These two issues are a politically driven economic stimulus package and the wisdom of supporting parents and children in the United States. In response, I wish to make two points. First, President Bush's economic stimulus package is a politically driven and nonsensical program on many levels and deserves to be abandoned, but not for the reasons Trejbal states.
Read more.
Read Sunday's letters here.
Paying our own way
Christian Trejbal
Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
This is a great time of year. Two state agencies release a heap of numerical bliss every January and February almost as if to coincide with the short, winter days and dreary weather that keep Virginians cooped up.
Read more.
February 23, 2008
Short takes
Quick views on some of the week's news.
Detecting a foul-smelling vote
A House subcommittee sounded the death peal for yet another good piece of legislation overwhelmingly endorsed by the Senate. The bill, S.B. 40, sponsored by Roanoke Sen. John Edwards, would have allowed localities to require carbon monoxide detectors in residential buildings that contain appliances that could malfunction and fill rooms with the colorless, odorless poison.
Read more.
What do you want to talk about today?
Safety regulation must be done the right way
Joel S. Baker
Baker is Roanoke County building commissioner and sergeant-at-arms for the Virginia Building and Code Officials Association.
A news story and related editorial were recently published in your newspaper concerning legislation requiring installation of carbon monoxide detectors in certain structures in Virginia. The story ("Carbon monoxide alarm bill approved," Jan. 31) reported that a bill was approved by a Virginia Senate committee allowing localities to require, by local ordinance, the installation of these devices.
Read more.
Saturday's letters can be read here.
February 22, 2008
For Monday, we're writing about a little-noted provision in the House version of the state budget that would cut about $200 million to schools by rewriting the Standards of Quality. It's a bad move that sets a dangerous precedent, and promises far deeper cuts in coming years.
For Monday we are writing about talk in Montgomery County about how often to reassess property. Right now they do it every four years, but some would like to do it more frequently. Biennial reassessments have appeal.
Dining on the city
The tab for Roanoke Councilman Dowe's meals and travels is far above the norm. Are taxpayers getting their money's worth?
Roanoke Councilman Alfred Dowe last year charged nearly $15,000 worth of meals and travel to city taxpayers. They'll never know if they received their money's worth, and they can only speculate as to whether the councilman took advantage of their generosity.
Read more.
Back in the hole on transportation
A slowing economy erodes all the funding gains made by last year's compromise legislation.
Remember last year's hard-won transportation compromise that was supposed to provide the state with enough money to maintain roads and keep up with increasing traffic demands? Thanks to the declining economy, Virginia is back in the same hole as before. Without the transportation bill, that hole would have been even deeper, but the fact remains that when it comes to fixing transportation, it's as if the General Assembly never left the garage.
Read more.
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