For Friday: State officials say uranium mining doesn't pose a public threat in Virginia. It doesn't? The Southern Environmental Law Center sites alarming enough threats: contamination of groundwater and surface water, increased cancer risk for workers and the public. These threats ought to be thoroughly examined before the state decides to lift the 25-year ban on drilling for uranium deposits.
A birth control makeup test
Congress gets an 'F' for allowing deep discounts for contraceptives to slip away from campus clinics. Lawmakers need to fix the damage.
A glitch in the federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 has caused a spike in the cost of contraceptives at college and university health centers and hundreds of community clinics across the country that serve the poor. The Bush administration could easily set things right by clarifying the rules for clinics that are able to buy the drugs at deep discounts from manufacturers. But, despite pleas from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, the Department of Health and Human Services failed to act earlier this year when it had a chance.
Read more.
Hanging at the library
Check it out. Libraries are no longer old school. Teens discover their world at the local hangout.
Your teens say they're hanging at the library. A typical cover story that you used back in the day. You'd tell the folks you were off to the library, then ditch the reference room for a cooler hangout a few blocks away. It's not that you don't trust your kid, but you might want to check out this library thing. You could discover what they have: These are the coolest hangouts in Salem and Roanoke.
Read more.
Civil War remembrance
John Long
Long, who teaches history at Roanoke College and is the director of the Salem Museum, is a Roanoke Times columnist.
How should the Civil War, and specifically the Confederacy, be remembered? It's a question that comes up more frequently than you might think, given that the war ended nearly 15 decades ago. I've noted two unbending factions on the issue. One extreme: the "unreconstructed" enthusiasts who will hear no criticism of the Old South. The Boys in Gray fought valorously for a noble Lost Cause that had nothing to do with slavery, and only the fact that the victors write the history books keeps the truth submerged.
Read more.
Holiday hopping
Jeremy S. Miller
Miller, of Wytheville, works part time as a teacher and part time in retail.
We threw out the jack-o-lanterns, carved the turkey and now set out Santa and his elves. I wonder what happened to the luxury of "in between" times. We now instead go holiday hopping as if there is no time to breathe between holiday events. We accompany our holiday hopping with holiday shopping as we frantically accumulate gifts for people we do not see or communicate with any other time of the year.
Read more.
Thursday's letters can be read here.
For our Sunday NRV Current editorial, we're writing about a proposal in Montgomery County to foster alternative transportation. New businesses that develop plans to get employees and customers to arrive by some means other than a car will be required to build fewer parking spaces. It's entirely optional, but a smart way to encourage biking, walking and so on.
Read the ordinance here.
A quick update on a column I wrote a couple of months ago. Unconfirmed word on the digital street is that the Floyd County Woman's Club has voted to invite Civil War/slavery revisionist Gary Walker back for next year's Arts and Crafts Festival. It seems they caved to dubious legal threats.
Check out more details at the Blue Ridge Muse blog.
For Thursday: An unintended consequence of the federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 has been a spike in the cost of contraceptives at student health centers and some community clinics that serve the poor. The Bush administration could easily set things right by clarifying the rules for clinics to be designated as "safety net providers," and thus eligible for deep discounts from drug makers, but the Department of Health and Human Services has failed to act. Congress can fix the oversight, though, and should -- quickly.
For Thursday: Check it out. Kids are hanging at the libraries and maybe even reading.
Prevent, or build
Rep. Bobby Scott's Youth PROMISE Act has been tagged as an anti-gang bill, but its impact could be far greater than keeping kids out of gangs.
America can continue to build more prisons for people who are drawn to a life of crime at a young age and persist into adulthood -- what the Children's Defense Fund calls the cradle-to-prison pipeline.
Or we can build at the front end -- not prisons, but strategies that target young people who are at risk of being sucked into gangs, drugs and ultimately a lifetime in and out of the criminal justice system.
Read more.
The GOP accepts no presidential dissent
Primary voters must sign loyalty oaths. Where's a third party when you need it?
The Republican Party of Virginia has no interest in thoughtful voters. It only wants mindless party loyalists who will vote Republican no matter what.
That's the sad message of a new GOP policy for next year's presidential primary approved by the State Board of Elections this week. People who want to vote in it must sign a loyalty oath swearing their intent to vote in November for the party's nominee, whomever that winds up being.
Read more.
Abstinence-only sex education works
Ken Cuccinelli
Cuccinelli, of Centreville, represents the 37th District in the Virginia Senate.
I am writing in response to Shanna Flowers' recent criticism of abstinence programs in Virginia's schools ("Kaine's take on teens and sex is practical," Nov. 15 column). You really should require Flowers to educate herself on subjects before you print her opinions in your paper. Her one source of data appears to be comments of a boy at Patrick Henry High School who said, "You walk up behind a girl, whisper in her ear and it's on."
Read more.
Read today's letters here.
The new United Nations Human Development Report is out, and Iceland has taken the top spot as the most desirable place to live in the world. The United States fell to 12th from 8th last year.
If you're worried about the cold (it's called ICEland), don't be. In Reykjavik it doesn't get hot or even particularly warm, but it doesn't get all that cold either.
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