For Tuesday: The nation, and especially Congress, should sit up and take note of retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's warning last week that the government is failing U.S. military and intelligence forces by leaving vague what rules apply in an asymmetrical war.
| Virginia's best elected golfer? |
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| Sen. John Warner (unofficially) shoots about bogey golf. |
Golf Digest has released its annual list of the 200 best political golfers in Washington. The handicap rankings reveal some interesting things.
(photo from warner.senate.gov)
Here's the situation. Anton was born in Virginia. He was raised in Virginia. He went to school in Virginia. He's a U.S. by birth and a resident of the commonwealth. Now he wants to go to one of the state's fine public universities. Unfortunately, his Russian parents overstayed their visas and are now in the commonwealth and the country illegally.
Because Anton still lives with his parents, he isn't entitled to in-state tuition without jumping through hoops and proving that he's a legal resident. That, at least, is the opinion of Attorney General Bob McDonnell's office. It all comes down to the laws of domicile.
The ACLU of Virginia says it will file suit on behalf of any students denied in-state tuition under such circumstances.
In this case, both sides have good arguments. The AG's office reads the law correctly. And the ACLU is right to be outraged that a citizen of Virginia might not get the tuition rates to which he is entitled. The problem is a bum domicile and residency law that attaches students' standing too closely to parents. It causes problems in other areas, including student voter registration.
Mental health system still needs attention
In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre, reform has begun. Much work remains, even if public attention begins to wander.
The public's intense interest in Virginia's mental health care system is likely to be fleeting. The public duty to reform the system is not, and the state still has far to go.
Read more.
One council seat isn't the only race in town
Residents who want a say in local government need to make sure they are eligible to vote.
The law is what it is and must be followed even when it doesn't make much sense. Such will be the case today when Roanoke City Council appoints a member of the community to join them on council for the next two years.
Read more.
A not-so-typical Friday
Ray Stubblefield
Stubblefield, who teaches earth science at Franklin County High School, is a Roanoke Times columnist.
It was Good Friday. It was also the first day of spring and the end of the marking period, so teachers had a workday to finalize grades. Nothing unusual about that, but we also had a mock lockdown drill. The scenario was shooters on campus.
Read more.
How Wall Street crashed on Main Street
John Freivalds
Freivalds runs an international firm in Lexington and once worked for a Wall Street firm.
Usually we pay little attention to Wall Street and the various indices going up or down, or even what companies' stocks comprise them, but when the crisis affects homeownership and the most sacred cow of all -- home prices should always go up -- everybody notices. We got into this mess by forgetting what history has told us, that we all are affected by greed and we all feel there is such a thing as a free lunch.
Read more.
Drivers can prevent work zone deaths
Richard Caywood
Caywood is the district administrator for the Virginia Department of Transportation, Salem District.
It's been just over a month since the tragic loss of Richard Slone, a construction worker who was killed Feb. 20 in a work zone on Virginia 419 in Roanoke County. Like many others who live in the Cave Spring area, I was surprised and saddened by the accident. My home is just a few miles from the accident site. My wife had driven through the work zone only hours before the accident occurred.
Read more.
Read Monday's letters here.
What do you want to talk about today?
Dan and I wrote no columns this week and will likely not write them for the next two or three Sundays because it's election season on the editorial page. We're interviewing dozens of candidates for local offices. I think more than 60 overall and more than two dozen in the New River Valley alone. Making time even tighter, we have people out of town in upcoming weeks -- Hello, San Diego!
Look for our endorsements in the weeks leading up to the election. When those start appearing, our columns should also.
Lessons from the Center
Roanoke officials seem controversy-shy these days, but Mayor Harris was adept at steering a City Market quarrel into a productive dialogue.
Downtown Roanoke's Center in the Square is due for a sprucing up. The rough outline of a plan it made public Thursday looks a lot different than Roanokers might have expected last spring when word leaked that the landmark Weiner Stand and some market stalls might be uprooted.
A firestorm of criticism ensued, and Center officials incorporated the feedback into the renovation plan they are ready to introduce. The city's public officials ought to be able to take a lesson from that model -- since they were critical in developing it.
Read more.
Don't let states opt out of treaties
International treaties protect Americans abroad, but not foreign visitors to Texas.
Last week's Supreme Court decision that Texas may ignore international treaties came as a surprise. The majority of the court that supported it typically preaches a strict, literal reading of the Constitution. Yet it is the law, now, and the nation must adapt to it. Fortunately, Congress can undo the damage.
Read more.
NRV Current Editorial
Blacksburg needs a higher meals tax
And diners at Tech should start paying it.
No one enjoys paying a hefty meals tax in Blacksburg, but it is a smart means to ensure visitors help fund essential local services. Now if only Virginia Tech would have campus diners chip in.
Town leaders propose increasing the local meals tax from 5 percent to 6 percent, the same rate Christiansburg charges. Combined with the statewide 5 percent rate, diners at Ceritano's and other eateries could pay 11 cents for every dollar an entr
Old middle school stands on precious ground
By Margaret Roston
Roston lives in Blacksburg and is a member of Informed Citizens
Clinton's strategy engages divisiveness
By Reginald Shareef
Shareef is a professor of political science/public administration at Radford University.
Sen. Hillary Clinton's kitchen-sink strategy -- an updated version of the Nixon/Atwater/Rove Southern Strategy -- was designed to undermine the public's confidence in her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama. This strategy represents the epitome of the politics of divisiveness. While the older version of the Southern Strategy sought only to use race as a wedge issue, Clinton has added a second poisonous arrow to her quiver -- the whispering campaign that Obama is a Muslim.
Read more.
Read today's letters here.
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