Virginia Tech, Wikimedia Commons

Used properly, social media can better connect police departments and their communities.

The proliferation of social media has given law enforcement additional tools to enhance community policing and solve crimes. Savvy use of social media platforms can pack a big punch in college communities like Virginia Tech, where the police department is adeptly using Facebook and Twitter (@VaTechPolice) to expand its outreach and make the most of new crime-fighting technology.

As Roanoke Times reporter Tonia Moxley wrote on Sunday, Tech’s police department ramped up its social media presence at the same time it was installing a new video security system to better monitor public places around the Blacksburg campus.

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Botetourt supervisors were wise to fund new emergency radio equipment.

Even in a growing community like Botetourt County with increasing service demands, leaders are wise to pinch their pennies. But they also must recognize when it’s time to invest in core services like public safety.

County officials have made do with what Sheriff Ronnie Sprinkle describes as an “antiquated system in dire need of repair” as long as possible. When one of the county’s four emergency radio transmitter towers went on the fritz, parts were borrowed from another tower when feasible. Sprinkle said he’s even ordered parts on eBay because the radio system is so old that new parts are no longer being manufactured.

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by Del. Dickie Bell

News of the pending closure of the Carroll County Virginia Virtual Academy is heart-breaking. A long-term solution has been in reach for the last three years.

Legislation I introduced would have created a funding model that would have capped expenditures at about 25 percent less than is currently being spent in traditional brick-and-mortar-style learning environments. It would save money for government, spending less for education while providing families choices in the manner in which students learn while maintaining Virginia curriculum and standards, including meeting requirements of the Standards of Learning tests.

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Bell, a Republican, represents House District 20 in the General Assembly.

Snooping on Americans, a mining tragedy and Hillary Clinton’s Tweets in today’s letters to the editor.

Connecting homeless to housing

Four individuals and one family are now appropriately housed and out of a shelter thanks to a concentrated effort by the Salvation Army, Rebuilding Together Roanoke, and the Community Housing Resource Center of Council of Community Services. Working collaboratively, they have filled two completely renovated Rebuilding Together houses in Roanoke.

Through a Homeless Solutions Grant, clients ranging in age from 1 to 57 years old have been given an opportunity to get back on their feet. The HSG fund provided security deposits and the first month’s rent on housing that passed habitability and lead-based-paint inspections. Rental subsidy for two months is also provided.

The collaborative effort began when the Community Housing Resource Center asked shelters for referrals for those homeless who were ready to be housed and would meet the grant requirements. CHRC works with several shelters successfully; this is just one example of partnerships that have had positive results.

In these cases, the Salvation Army was able to combine interests of individuals seeking roommates and refer them as household units. CHRC then took their applications and finalized housing plans. Rebuilding Together is now landlord to this group of eight people, while CHRC and the Salvation Army continue case management for up to a year.

CHRC is seeking partner landlords.

HEATHER BRUSH
Housing coordinator
Community Housing Resource Center
ROANOKE

Wikimedia Commons

Civil confusions often spring from trifles but decide great issues.

What trifles and issues are on your mind today?

The College of William and Mary, Wikimedia Commons

As the price of college rises, Virginia students are paying for more than education.

The escalating cost of a college education strains family finances and saddles too many students with enormous debt as they enter the working world. But how much of that cost is directly related to course instruction, and how much comes from amenities that enrich the college experience and help schools win marketing battles against their peers?

With concerns about access and affordability ringing in their ears, state lawmakers last year directed the General Assembly’s watchdog agency to look behind the price tags at Virginia’s public colleges and identify opportunities to reduce costs. The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission staff has found that the biggest drivers of spending increases in the past two decades were not tied directly to instruction, but instead were student-funded “auxiliary enterprises” such as housing, dining and intercollegiate athletics.

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A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court offers clarity and compassion on genetic research.

By Brian Lindholm

Back in September, the Federal Reserve began its third round of quantitative easing, colloquially known as QE3, in an effort to stimulate the economy and reduce unemployment. The program started with the purchase of $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities every month, and then in December it was expanded to include an additional $45 billion in purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds every month. Thus far, the Federal Reserve has created nearly $600 billion out of thin air in a massive stimulus effort that rivals the size of the underperforming $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and it has achieved two particularly noticeable effects.

The first is that mortgage rates have dropped, with housing prices rising correspondingly. This is good news for those looking to refinance or to sell their houses. However, it’s bad news for those looking to buy a house. The low interest rates have resulted in extremely tight lending standards, and rising prices have made it more difficult to accrue the 20 percent down payment needed to avoid the substantial monthly fees associated with FHA-insured mortgages. Housing starts have risen somewhat since QE3 began, but remain well below historical norms.

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Lindholm is a mechanical engineer who lives in Roanoke.

By Larry Thomas Black

A commentary in The Roanoke Times by Lucas Thornton on June 2 was entitled “Market Square has designs on improvements.” Having read Thornton’s commentary with more than casual interest, I have decided the headline should have read “A Partnership for a Better Downtown Roanoke has designs on Market Square.”

The partnership began its design on Market Square some months ago by ignoring the vendor stalls in Market Square, referring to them as parking spaces.

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Black lives in Roanoke County and was market manager of the Historic Roanoke City Market from 2002 to 2004.

Marco Rubio, Wikimedia Commons

By Esther J. Cepeda

It’s fascinating that two Hispanic men — both of whom are further to the right of where most Latinos stand on immigration — are at the epicenter of the current reform debate.

Both Cuban-Americans, Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, represent the young, multicultural new face of what could someday become a diverse and welcoming Republican Party. Until then, they’ll be two of the most important Hispanic political players that many Latinos don’t much care for.

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Cepeda is a columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group.