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Shades of gray in the Caucasus

Much context and history have been missed in bold rhetoric by politicians about the Russia-Georgia conflict.

There have been many sweeping pronouncements and bold declarations about the Russian invasion of Georgia (Sen. John McCain's "We are all Georgians," for example).

Expect more with Russia's controversial step of recognizing the independence of Georgia's breakaway regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

But comprehensive news accounts of the lead-up to the battle and a deeper understanding of the history of the regions paint a far more subtle picture of the situation.
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Time for Roanokers to make AYP

Students will make better progress if the community becomes involved.

The Virginia Department of Education last week released annual statistics that judge whether schools made adequate yearly progress in teaching reading and math.

The results were exactly as expected: Suburban schools with mostly white, middle-class students performed well on state tests. Poorer, urban schools, where most kids eat free lunches, have failed yet again.
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Short takes

Quick views on some of the week's news.

All-you-can-eat is less than you can carry

The University of Virginia and Virginia Tech are among the growing list of colleges ditching cafeteria trays. Tech stowed the trays this summer at its all-you-can-eat dining centers and found food waste dropped 38 percent. Tech's energy and sustainability coordinator Denny Cochrane told the Times Dispatch that not having to wash the trays also saved water and electricity. ...

Someone has to clean the mess

Last Saturday, volunteers spent the day hauling trash out of the New River in Giles County. Just where does all this crud come from? Tires, mattresses, carpet, chairs, a baby bed -- in all, several dump trucks full of trash were picked up and hauled away. ...
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NRV Current editorial

Invest in diversity at Virginia Tech

A five-year plan to improve race relations deserves support.

Virginia Tech has few black students. It has been like that for a while.

Tech officials have some new ideas about how they can encourage more minority students to give the Blacksburg school another look, but pulling it off will require a serious commitment from the people who control the purse strings.
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Our votes will matter

By Churchill Robison
Robison of Roanoke has worked on the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Now that the Olympics are over, we can focus on our own political domestic Olympics, otherwise known as the presidential race, which, like the Olympics, we hold every four years. But with the prelude of the presidential primaries, the race seems never ending, perhaps explaining why most of us slept during this year's marathon, now in the home stretch between John McCain and Barack Obama. However, with the Democratic convention over and the Republican convention starting, the sprint to the finish is about to begin.
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How will you spend your retirement?

By Helen Ardan
Ardan provides life-planning seminars to assist people who are planning for retirement. She lives in Roanoke.

The Roanoke Times has presented a comprehensive review of the second stage of retirement, the years when illness and worn-out bodies or minds begin to have a major impact on independence and vitality (Beth Macy's occasional series "Age of Uncertainty"). It is scary and depressing. None of us want to burden our children or spouses with having to go through this.
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A Regular Joe found in Biden

By Bill Larson
Larson, of Rockbridge Baths, is a first-year law student and 2008 graduate of Washington and Lee. He was on the steering committee for the 2008 Mock Convention.

Sen. Joseph Biden is a Regular Joe. Thirty-five years as senator have prepared Biden to be vice president and familiarized him with Washington, but Biden has never forgotten the people back home. The Obama campaign will tell, and the media will repeat, the story that Biden returns home every night from Washington and that he knows the names of the conductors and ticket takers on the Amtrak trains.
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AIDS prevention depends on knowing who has it

Pam Meador
Meador is the director of the Drop-In Center, a program of the Council of Community Services in Roanoke.

Every 12 seconds another person contracts HIV.

Every 16 seconds another person dies from AIDS.
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Read Sunday's letters here.

Read Saturday's letters here.

Read Sunday's New River Valley Current letters.

It's a holiday weekend, and posting will be light.

We'll probably do a wrap-up of the editorials and columns for the weekend on Monday. Until then, use this thread to discuss whatever's on your mind.

For early next week, we're working on an editorial about The Wall Street Journal's front-page take-down of Carilion. The article claims that Carilion's monopoly on health care in the region is driving up prices, taking the region from the lowest health insurance premiums in the state to the highest over the last 20 years. On top of The Roanoke Times article the same day highlighting Carilion CEO Ed Murphy's $2.27 million salary, it was a bad day for Carilion's image.

The articles raise important questions about the role - and profitability - of "nonprofit" hospitals that need a broader airing.

Virginia law is a mess when it comes to college students who want to register to vote. Basically, it leaves a ton of discretion in the hands of local registrars rather than establish uniform voting standards. The upshot is that we have registrars like the one in Radford who sometimes seems hostile to registering students and ones like Montgomery County's, who seems a little more open.

At least he did. The bloggers over at Think, Christiansburg! point out a press release from the county that warned students if they registered here, they could screw up their parents taxes and their financial aid. Of course, that's not the case, and students may register where they go to school under many circumstances without affecting tax standing.

So how about it? Should Virginia Tech, Radford, Hollins and Roanoke College students register in Southwest Virginia? For students from say, Texas, which is not in play for the presidential election, the temptation must be great to have a real say in the November outcome.

In Virginia, there are no bars, only restaurants. That's because state law requires nearly all places that serve booze to also earn a substantial portion of their income from food. Two exceptions are day spas and meal assembly kitchens, but that could change. A legislative panel on Tuesday took a look at ending that exception. The law floated on the panel would require day spas and meal assembly kitchens to serve food too.

In an editorial we're writing for next week, we will urge lawmakers to go in the other direction. More establishments should be able to serve alcohol without meeting food sales quotas. In other words, Virginia should allow bars.

Among the side benefits of such a change would be easing the debate about smoking in eateries. The state could look at banning smoking in restaurants but not in adults-only bars. We think it should be in both, but the split-ban might be more palatable with lawmakers.

Read the proposed changes to the law.

For Tuesday: Mark Warner, former governor and the Democratic senatorial candidate, declined to participate in a televised debate hosted by the  Virginia League of Women Voters. Warner who is polling far better than Jim Gilmore, former governor and Republican senatorial candidate, might lull himself into thinking that he has more to lose by participating in a debate. But, he also has much to lose if he denies all Virginians an opportunity to see the candidates debate each other.

What's on your mind today?

For Sunday we are working on an editorial about Virginia Department of Education's adequate yearly progress report for schools. As expected, schools did about the same as last year, and the year before and the year before that. One thing can turn that around: community involvement.

Former Democratic National Committee Chair Terry McAliffe reportedly is thinking about running for governor of Virginia next year. So far, Del. Brian Moran of Alexandria and Sen. Creigh Deeds of Bath also are looking for the Democratic nomination.

Wonkette looks forward to the McAuliffe campaign and has a pointed response to likely Republican candidate Bob McDonnell's mocking.

What do you think? Does McAuliffe have what Virginia needs? Did you even know he lives in McLean?