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Hard times call for big hearts
It's only wise to cut costs in a poor economy. But this is just when the number of people in need grows. Help them if you can.
With bad economic news piling on top of bad economic news, the times are uncertain even for those able to pay all their bills. The prudent are trying to save against the possibility of harder times ahead. But with homeless shelters and food pantries in the Roanoke Valley and beyond reporting unusually high demand even before the winter cold hits, it's apparent that for some, hard times are already here.
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Boys and Girls Clubs builds a legacy
The local Boys and Girls Club ushers in a new teen center but says goodbye to its director.
The Boys and Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia set out a decade ago to make sure kids didn't age out of its programs or influence. The goal to help teens make smart choices so they didn't end up as unready parents or high school dropouts couldn't be reached unless the club could actually keep reaching the teens. Recently, the dream for a teen center with a ready-made crop of teens became a reality.
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Take over the oil companies
Ray Stubblefield
Stubblefield teaches earth science at Franklin County High School and is a Roanoke Times columnist.
On a rare occasion I write about news events or politics. This is one of those times. What follows is really a rant and some out-of-the-box thinking. Who knows how feasible any of my suggestions are, but I feel better for getting them off my chest. Gas prices were just starting to ease a bit, dropping to $3.39 a gallon, and I was starting to think we were finally getting a break. But thanks to Hurricane Ike, prices jumped by nearly $1 a gallon in one day.
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Economy fares better under Democrats
Theodore Fuller
Fuller is a professor of sociology at Virginia Tech.
We are going through tough times economically. Millions are unemployed, and millions more are worried about the security of their jobs. Nearly a million families have lost their homes through foreclosure, and others seem to be on the brink of losing their homes. At a time when a college education is more important than ever, families worry about being able to pay the tuition for their children. As the values in retirement accounts melt away, families wonder if they will ever be able to retire. The dollar has lost about one-third of its value against the euro since January 2001. We have more income inequality now than at any time in a century.
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Read Monday's letters here.

What do you want to talk about?

Which is the parody, and which is the real thing?

It's seriously hard to tell.

Improve Virginia's price-gouging law
The current law is too strict about when an investigation may occur -- and who may be investigated.
Those who prey on people during a tragedy represent a particularly loathsome sort of subhuman. Consumed with profit, price gougers charge unconscionable prices during a calamity and make a bad situation worse. Virginia properly has little tolerance for such behavior. The commonwealth outlaws it, yet partly hamstrings investigators. One lawmaker proposes beefing up the price-gouging law.
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Plain talk from the government
Americans shouldn't need an advanced degree in Bureaucratese to understand their government.
A bill to require bureaucrats to communicate with Americans in plain language couldn't be any clearer: Regulations may remain obscure. Still, that hasn't been enough for Sen. Robert Bennett, a Utah Republican, to release his hold on the bill and allow the Senate to vote on guaranteeing Americans the ability to understand their government.
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New River editorial
Apply for EPA help in Pulaski
Cleaning toxic land will aid economic development.
The town of Pulaski's industrial past left behind contaminants in the soil. As the town seeks to reinvigorate its economy and attract new businesses, it ought to find out which parcels need cleaning, and the Environmental Protection Agency might help pay the bill if the council asks.
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The state of the media
Dan Radmacher
Radmacher is the editorial page editor of The Roanoke Times.
As I'm sure would be true of any gathering of print journalists these days, the recent convention of the National Conference of Editorial Writers in Little Rock, Ark., had something of the feel of a wake. This is a bad time for the newspaper industry, the worst I've seen in nearly 20 years in the profession.
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Gmail isn't suitable for public records
Christian Trejbal
Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
Douglas White wanted to exercise his right as a citizen to see some public records. What he found is that some Blacksburg town officials, like many others in the New River Valley, tread a fine line between open government and secrecy. White lives just outside the Blacksburg town limits, close to a proposed workforce housing project along Harding Road. He and many of his neighbors do not like the project for a host of reasons.
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No universal cure for health system
Alice Louise Kassens
Kassens is an assistant professor of economics, specializing in health and labor economics, at Roanoke College.
Health care is one of the top five concerns of Americans. There are several suggestions for overhauling our health care system. One popular plan is a universal insurance program. The U.S. is the only major industrialized nation without universal health care insurance, but before such a drastic move is championed, the costs and consequences should be made clear, and we should be certain that such a change would solve the problems associated with our current system.
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What have Republicans done for you?
Janis Jaquith
Jaquith is a columnist for Charlottesville's newsweekly, The Hook. She has also been a frequent radio commentator for WVTF and for PRI's "Marketplace," and has appeared on NPR's "Day to Day."
You know in your heart that homosexuality is unnatural, an abomination. You are foursquare against abortion and there's no doubt in your mind that Muslims are a foreign threat -- and it goes without saying that the United States is a Christian nation. These are your most cherished values. What could be more natural than to vote for people who share your values? Someone you feel comfortable with. Someone like you.
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Read Sunday's letters here.

"George Bush put more deliberation into invading Iraq than McCain did into his own reckless invasion of the delicate Congressional negotiations on the bailout plan."

- Frank Rich

For more on the mess McCain made, read this account.

Obama spoke for the Democrats. McCain deferred to Boehner and McConnell. He would not give his opinion on what he thought of the House Republican "insurance" alternative (which essentially amounted to a worthless gesture - this anecdote captured it perfectly: "For one thing, asking banks teetering on the edge of bankruptcy to pay into the insurance fund would be like asking a patient facing heart surgery to buy health insurance before being wheeled into the operating room.")

Most of the American people will see McCain's stunt as the desperation move it was as he faced sinking poll numbers and the nation's dawning realization of the train wreck that is Sarah Palin. And he has the gall to say Obama is trying to exploit the situation.

The Straight Talk Express has certainly gone right over the cliff.

“It would be fantastic,” said a McCain insider — discussing the possibility of the wedding of Palin's pregnant teenage daughter to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé before the November 4 election.. “You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week.”

(The Sunday Times)