www.roanoke.com

This week: The fuel ethanol craze has found its way to Virginia, in the form of a proposed plant in Chesapeake. Problem is, the plant could require almost twice as much corn as state farmers grew in 2006. What do plant developers propose to do, aside from encouraging Virginia farmers to step up the plowing and planting? Bring it in from the corn-rich Midwest and from Brazil. The amount of non-renewable fossils fuels needed to transport that corn hardly contributes to a reduction in oil consumption.

For Wednesday: When a small town draws a large crowd for days for a music festival like FloydFest does, a stronger police presence is needed. But revelers shouldn't be hasseled.

On Wednesday, we'll take Virginia's two top Democratic officeholders -- U.S. Sen. James Webb and Gov. Tim Kaine -- to task for opposing a Senate plan to increase the federal cigarette tax. The money would go to expand health insurance coverage for children.

Workplace computers aren't personal
There is a compelling need to preserve computer data relating to the Tech massacre. Still, the attorney general could have done it in a less threatening way.
We've all done it. Dashed off a personal e-mail on company time. Stored sensitive personnel records on our office hard drive. Carried on an online exchange with a co-worker to navigate through delicate issues. We'd cringe if any of this data fell into unsympathetic hands, and whose hands could be more unsympathetic than those of lawyers?
Read more.

Say no to gerrymandering
Redistricting in Virginia needs a nonpartisan process; it doesn't matter which party makes the call.
When Democrats controlled the General Assembly, Republicans pushed for a nonpartisan redistricting commission. Now that they're in charge, Republicans are rebuffing a similar push by out-of-power Democrats.
Read more.

Is soot Salem's future?
Diana Christopulos
Christopulos, of Salem, is air quality coordinator for the Sierra Club's Roanoke Group.
Salem Avalanche baseball games. Youth softball tournaments at the Moyer Complex. The Division III football and men's basketball championships. A bit of envy from surrounding cities and counties. This is the present in the city of Salem. Consider this future: Frequent air quality alerts. Long traffic jams on Union Street, the access to the Moyer Complex, as diesel locomotives shuttle back and forth. What happened?
Read more.

Tech tragedy suggests no easy, cheap, solution
Ray Mayberry
Mayberry is a retired psychiatrist living in Roanoke.
In regard to the June 22 news story "No drugs found in Cho's body, according to autopsy": Seung-Hui Cho was a young male student who murdered 32 people and then himself in the Virginia Tech massacre. We usually look for drugs or some physical condition to blame for such strange, unexplained behavior. When we don't understand abnormal behavior, we look for and expect to find simplistic answers. We seek to find a silver bullet for the explanation to satisfy our curiosities and to relieve our anxieties. Tragedies are usually much more complicated but understandable.
Read more.

Tuesday's letters can be read here.

For Tuesday: Tech professors naturally are upset that information on their computers' hard drives will be copied and kept as part of the investigation into Seung-Hui Cho's behavior. While we can sympathize with their concerns, there really shouldn't be any expectation of privacy on workplace computers.

For Tuesday, we reiterate our call for a nonpartisan process for drawing new boundaries for Virginia's legislative districts. Let it be done by an independent commission.

Humble faith lost in public prayer
Montgomery County Supervisors adopted a flawed ordinance to open their meetings with prayers.
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors could have used some divine guidance before they voted to open future meetings with a prayer. Supervisors tried very hard to add an inherently exclusionary activity to their agendas without stepping on people's rights. Their prayers will be non-sectarian and invoke something called the "American civil religion," whatever that is in a nation whose constitution separates secular government from religion.
Read more.

Subsidy system stuck in a time warp
Politics may prevent a long-needed reform of the $21 billion farm subsidy program.
Congressional Democrats are more interested in protecting vulnerable farm-state incumbents than in trimming billions of wasteful spending from the farm subsidy program.
Read more.

Statistics are fickle and confusing
Steve Huff
Huff, a family physician from Patrick County, is a Roanoke Times columnist.
You're going over your labs with your doctor. She flips through your chart, comparing your weight and blood pressure to those of last year and the year before. She looks to see if you smoke, if anyone in your family had heart disease, if you have diabetes.
Read more.

Bad-driver fees only part of the problem
John S. Edwards
Edwards, a Democrat, is state senator for the 21st District, which includes Roanoke, parts of Roanoke, Pulaski and Montgomery counties, and all of Craig and Giles counties.
The ill-conceived Transportation Act of 2007 -- negotiated in secret by House and Senate Republican leaders -- is only now receiving the public scrutiny it should have received during the legislative session last winter. And the public is making clear that it does not like what it sees.
Read more.

Monday's letters can be read here.

Presidential campaign doesn't inspire
Dan Radmacher
Radmacher is the editorial page editor of The Roanoke Times.
Even though I consider myself a news junkie -- it comes with the job -- I just cannot force myself to get interested, much less excited, about the presidential campaign yet. It's just too early. And the candidates are just too uninspiring.
Read more.