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Montgomery County School Board is poised to wash its hands of the Old Blacksburg Middle School. Smart.  That thicket of competing interests has only created headaches.  That leaves the county Board of Supervisors and Blacksburg Town Council to suss out what the future of the property.

We are writing an editorial for Sunday's NRV Current that will urge the two public bodies to get to work on a plan. There has been little to no movement in the last year. Overall, we tend to side with the town on wanting a less impacting -- and hence less profitable for the county -- use there.

Justice for 9/11

Civilian courts and prisons have proven quite capable of handling high-profile terrorists. There is no reason for fear-mongering.

The bad economy offers an opportunity

The Roanoke Valley has a chance to reconsider options for Explore.

Roanoke's Redevelopment and Housing Authority won its condemnation case against a local property owner in a case involving land for a Carilion business park and medical school. The property owner vows to appeal, and this case raises some interesting questions about the appropriate use of eminent domain - and the secretive process and collaboration between Roanoke and Carilion in developing the redevelopment plan for the area.

We'll explore some of those questions in an unscheduled editorial we're working on.

Thursday, we'll urge the defunct Explore Park's board to renegotiate the terms of its contract with developer Larry Vander Maten to protect public access, should a commercial resort ever be built on the public's land, and to press ahead full steam on an alternate plan that might offer more attractive when the time comes to decide whether to renew the lease at all.

Rising power bills

The SCC has many factors to consider as it carefully weighs an increase to electricity rates.

Appalachian Power Co. would burn less coal this week if it could harness the energy of customers angered by its plan to increase rates. On Dec. 12, Appalachian will raise its base rate 14.5 percent. Whether that interim price will be made permanent is the topic of two public hearings this week before the State Corporation Commission.
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A legal victory for a racial slur

The Washington Redskins keep their offensive name.

The Washington Redskins scored a legal victory this week. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Native Americans unhappy with the team's name. The plaintiffs in the case wanted the court to invalidate the NFL team's trademark on its name because it is racially offensive. The Supreme Court affirmed lower court rulings that denied the request based on a technicality. Even if the Native Americans had prevailed, the team could have continued as the Redskins, just without a trademark. The courts cannot impose a moral compass. Only the team's owner can do the right thing and drop the offensive name.
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Then: "This is strictly about whether or not a minority of senators is going to prevent the president from being able to name and get confirmed judges that he chooses after he's been elected by the American people." (John Kyl, R-Ariz.)

Now: Kyl said if Obama goes with empathetic judges who do not base their decisions on the rule of law and legal precedents but instead the factors in each case, he would try to block those picks via filibuster.

It's hard to imagine a more hypocritical stance that Republicans, who so vociferously and self-righteously complained about the use of filibusters to block a relative handful of judicial nominees during the Bush administration, could take than now embracing the filibuster, refusing Obama's nominees that precious "up-or-down vote" they said in 2005 was the right of any nominee, however extreme.

Yet, that's exactly what Republicans are doing now. The nomination of the extremely moderate, David Hamilton of Indiana, will come to a vote today. Republicans will attempt to block that with a filibuster. Some conservative groups have attempted to paint Hamilton as a raging liberal - though he has the full-throated endorsement of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar and served as counsel to Republican Gov. Evan Bayh.

In an editorial for later in the week, we'll decry this hypocrisy and urge Republicans to save the filibuster for truly extreme nominees.

We're working on an editorial for later this week about a group seeking Roanoke City Council approval to use the indoor tennis courts at Countryside.

Council members seemed excited about the possibility, but they might wish to temper their enthusiasm until they know how much it will cost. The building, which needed repairs, has been left vacant. And while council has set aside funds to improve Countryside's golf course, it has not designated one dime toward tennis.

We're writing an editorial for Wednesday about the Washington Redskins. The team prevailed in a lawsuit challenging its trademark on the name "Redskins" this week in so far as the U.S. Supreme Court declined on technical grounds to hear an appeal by the challengers.

In our editorial, we will urge the team to change its name and avoid future lawsuits. We have nothing against invoking Indians as mascots.  Indians, Braves, the Tribe all are decent team names that (usually) were adopted to honor and invoke characteristics perceived to be valuable on the sporting field -- strength, honor, teamwork, etc.

"Redskins" is different.  It is a derogatory term for a race of people. Its very origin was one to demean and insult Native Americans.

Besides, maybe a new name would help the team win a few games.