www.roanoke.com

Short takes

Quick views on some of the week's news.

Freedom from government religion

Bob Crawford
Crawford, of Roanoke, is an artist and a writer.

The government prayer issue continues to occupy the General Assembly's time, diverting that body from the important state matters needing its attention, ("Religious breakaway," Feb. 24 front page). By now, legislators, if not the general public, should realize that prayer conducted under governmental auspices is government prayer or, as the courts call it, government speech.
Read more.

Read Saturday's letters to the editor.

"I've hired you to help me start a war. It's an prestigious line of work, with a long and glorious tradition."

What do you want to talk about this weekend?

After the RNC's first African American chairman Michael Steele gave an address to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference - in which he said, “Tonight, we tell America: we know the past, we know we did wrong. My bad." - Rep. Michelle Bachman, the event's moderator let loose with, “Michael Steele! You be da man! You be da man.”

Truly cringe-worthy.

As they said over at Talking Points Memo, "And no, this is not from The Onion."

A pathological unwillingness to admit a mistake must be a characteristic of people named George. In his column today, George Will insists he didn't err in his recent column on climate change even though, as we noted previously, he was pretty roundly slapped down. (The column will appear in Sunday's print edition of The Roanoke Times.)

Rather than repeat other people's work, I'll just point you to Talking Points Memo, where they sum up the continued problems with Will's misuse of science.

In an editorial that we're writing for Monday, we'll urge Congress to give the District of Columbia full representation. After years of work, the Senate finally passed a bill that would give the district a voting seat in the House of Representatives. It's paired with a bonus seat for Utah, so there would be a new Democrat and a new Republican vote, at least until the 2010 Census.

That's a good first step, but it's not good enough. Members of the district deserve representation in the Senate, too.  There's also good reason to worry that the Supreme Court might toss out the House seat because the constitution limits representation to the states.

The real solution is obvious: Make DC a state. It is unfortunate Republicans place partisanship ahead of giving taxpaying American citizens the same rights as everyone else.

On a side note that we probably won't have space to get into in the editorial, with Utah getting another representative, that will kick up it's electoral votes by 1. That means the Electoral College also will grown from 538 to 539 members. And that means that the odds of a tie, which was within the realm of possibility last year, goes way down.

The Virginia Supreme Court sided with the town on whether the developer had vested rights. I haven't read the full decision yet, but it looks like the town's new big-box ordinance will apply, which means the First & Main developer must get approval for its huge store in Phase II. I can't imagine the current council would approve a Wal-Mart Supercenter or most other big-box stores.

In considering whether developers obtained a vested right to a commercial use of their property under Code § 15.2-2307 as a result of proffers they made to obtain approval of a rezoning application, the circuit court erred in affirming a board of zoning appeals' ruling that the developers had acquired such a right and were therefore not required under a subsequent zoning ordinance amendment to obtain a special use permit for a proposed structure with more than 80,000 square feet of retail floor space. The proffers also did not prohibit enforcement of the subsequent zoning ordinance amendment under Code § 15.2-2298. The judgment is reversed, the determination of the zoning administrator that a special use permit is required for the proposed structure is reinstated, and final judgment is entered.

The group Blacksburg United for Responsible Growth (BURG), which led the fight against the project, will continue to raise money. It has $8,000 worth of bills outstanding according to an announcement sent to members.

Low on funds, not commitment

The Roanoke school board's decision to close two schools is just one of many tough decisions.

Crash: Too soon to find fault

Roberto Montanez
Montanez is an aerospace engineer and a private pilot. He lives in Roanoke.

Debra Shipman's letter to the editor on Feb. 24 concerning the unfortunate accident involving the Colgan Air (operated as Continental Connection Flight 3407) is disappointing and unfair to the thousands of people who fly, maintain, secure, manage and regulate the aviation industry in this country ("Pilot's inexperience may be to blame").
Read more.

Read Friday's letters to the editor.

What do you want to talk about today?