www.roanoke.com

B.E. Goehring

Goehring, is a retired manager from Hardy.

In response to the criticism of Mel Quesenberry's commentary of May 18, "Frontier heroes? Hardly":

In 1906, William Jennings Bryan, as editor-in-chief, compiled 10 volumes of "The World's Greatest Orations." In Volume VIII, we can read the thoughts of some of the great Indian chiefs of the time and judge for ourselves about the ways in which they were coerced, cajoled and deceived into parting with their land.

Read here.

Early history SOL promotes reading, citizenship

Michael Wildasin and James Dillard

Dillard is a member of the Virginia Commission on Civic Education in Fairfax. Wildasin, of Millboro, is a 2001 and 2008 History and Social Science SOL Review Committee member and a retired social studies coordinator for Fairfax County Public Schools.

Both of us most always agree with the editorial voice of this newspaper. Now we have read the June 3 editorial "SOLs and the third-grader," and you need to know we could not disagree more. A career in education tells us that the elimination of the Grade 3 History and Social Science SOL test would not be "a smart move."

Read more.

The New York Times reports that the federal government briefly and accidentally posted a 266-page report on the Web that gave details on the nation's nuclear sites and programs.

The Times wrote: "The publication of the document was revealed Monday in an online newsletter devoted to issues of federal secrecy. That set off a debate among nuclear experts about what dangers, if any, the disclosures posed. It also prompted a flurry of investigations in Washington into why the document had been made public."

The story goes onto say that the material was being gathered to ship later this year to the International Atomic Energy Agency as part of the process to open the U.S. up to stricter inspections. The hope is that other countries will then do as well.

Lining up are experts who say this release shows nothing more than already was known and experts who say it gives terrorists exact locations to go and steal the material.

Imagine, if you will, how the Cold War might have been fought in the Internet age.

Gov. Kaine announced today a deal in which Amtrak will begin providing an additional commuter train between Richmond and Washington, D.C. This follows the addition of a second train between Lynchburg and D.C. Good on them.

Yet, I can't help but have train envy. Richmond and Lynchburg score 2. Former railroad town, Roanoke, remains routeless.

Extending passenger service here can't come soon enough.

Back in December, I wrote two columns encouraging Virginians to use trees to combat climate change. One important way to do that is for people who own some land, say one to ten acres, to use some of their property for forest.  The trees would then absorb and sequester carbon, create habitat for animals and help clean water.

If you're one of those landowners and still haven't planted, Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources' Cooperative Extension Program will host upcoming classes on how to pull it off. Check it out and see what steps you can take to help the environment.

Full news release below.

Read more »

We're writing our Sunday NRV Current editorial about the Firewise program. It provides seed money to homeowners and developments to clear brush, cut trees and generally make homes built next to forest safer from fire.  We ran a letter in Current a couple of weeks ago castigating the expense.

The program is a public investment the provides a small amount up front to show people how to do these things and to gather information for benefits that might help shape insurance rates some day.  The costs of fighting fires and protecting homes would far exceed what is spent.

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting story this morning about one idea the Senate is considering to pay for health care: the soda tax.

We talked about this at our morning meeting but aren't planning to write about it. There's the thought that taxing a substance that contributes to obesity and its accompanying health problems might A. collect money from those who place a larger demand on health care  and B. serve as an incentive to kick the habit. (See how well that works for smokers.)

While we agreed that signaling out sugarary drinks isn't the right move, we found less unity in figuring out what, if anything, should be tax.

So what do you think? How's a Twinkie tax or something that hits all products with high fructose corn syrup? What about routinely charging obese people more for insurance? Assessing a fat tax?

Cody Lowe filed this story following the presentation of the until-now-closely-guarded-secret plans for Explore Park.

Take a look. It isn't a glitzy theme park or waterpark afterall.  It seems to understand the park, the parkway and its role. Whether it would draw tourists and make money is up for speculation. As is whether the developer will ever obtain the financing.

Former President Bill Clinton came to campaign for Terry McAuliffe who wants the Democratic nomination for governor. For those interested, here is a highlight video from the event.

Isn't it funny how you used to be in the nut house and now I'm in jail?

Where are you headed this weekend?