2009.11.20
Friday's letters to the editor
Supporting the troops, abortion statistics, religion's role and more in today's letters to the editor.
Friday open thread
I will not eat them in a house.
I will not eat them with a mouse.
I will not eat them here or there.
I will not eat them anywhere.
What will you not do today?
2009.11.19
Exploiting the gun show loophole
How hard is it to buy a gun from a private seller at a gun show? Can you buy it without an ID to prove your age or residence? Can you front money for a friend standing right next to you? Can you avoid any background check at all?
You betcha.
At least that's what Colin Goddard, who was shot four times on April 16, 2007 at Virginia Tech, found when he visited gun shows in several states.
In the Hamilton case, find all the facts and lay them out
Former Del. Phil Hamilton resigned after being defeated for re-election, apparently cutting short a state ethics investigation into his securing a job at an Old Dominion University teaching center at the same time he was securing state funding for it as one of the General Assembly's senior budget negotiators. Sunday, we'll urge the assembly to change the state ethics law that appears to limit investigations to sitting lawmakers, and we'll ask legislators to investigate ODU's role in the scandal. Lawmakers need to find some route to determine all the facts behind events as they unrolled so the assembly can act to avoid a repeat. And they need to make their findings public, to bolster its frayed confidence in the integrity of their elected leaders.
The next round of VDOT cuts
We're working on an editorial about the latest $851 million cuts to VDOT's six-year plan. Take a look here at the projects that won't be completed in our area.
While the recession has worsened VDOT's problems, a rebounding economy won't fix the structural problem that will soon leave Virginia with money only to maintain existing infrastructure.
Virginia Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell will need more solutions than the pixie dust he sprinkled during the campaign to solve this.
The ol' Old Blacksburg Middle School debate
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.
Editorial: Deliver justice to 9/11 conspirators
Justice for 9/11
Civilian courts and prisons have proven quite capable of handling high-profile terrorists. There is no reason for fear-mongering.
More than eight years after the 9/11 terror attacks, the United States will finally be bringing some of the alleged perpetrators to justice. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has spent the years since his capture in the legal limbo of Guantanamo, will be brought to New York City for trial, the Obama administration announced late last week. Other suspected 9/11 conspirators will also be brought to trial. Predictably, the reaction from some quarters has bordered on hysteria. "This decision is further evidence that the White House is reverting to a dangerous pre-9/11 mentality -- treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue and hoping for the best," said House Minority Leader John Boehner.
Read more.
Editorial: Keep options open on Explore
The bad economy offers an opportunity
The Roanoke Valley has a chance to reconsider options for Explore.
Not surprisingly, Larry Vander Maten came calling on Tuesday to ask the governing board of the defunct Explore Park to delay his June deadline to either break ground on a new development or lose his lease. Capital isn't available for a project like his envisioned Blue Ridge America, which he figures will take $200 million to turn 1,100 acres of mostly undeveloped state land into a commercial family resort.
Read more.
Price: Make reading programs work better
Reading programs need to be revamped
Betty G. Price
Price is a reading remediation therapist for Professional Reading Services.
"Seventy-five percent of the country's 17- to 24-year-olds are ineligible for military service largely because they are poorly educated, overweight ... " These words, as reported in The Roanoke Times on Nov. 7, delivered shock waves ("Political notebook: Obesity, poor education obstacles to enlisting"). Whose research is this; from where and from whom did this information come? Certainly, there is cause for alarm over poor language skills -- the basis of all education -- and the growing problem with above-average sugar consumption, but the news that only 25 out of 100 of our young citizenry are educated and/or healthy enough to be recruited is cause for either universal alarm for false reporting or red-faced embarrassment.
Read more.
Clements: Remember who Veterans Day honors
Veterans Day is for the vets
Don K. Clements
Clements, of Narrows, is a retired lieutenant commander of Chaplain Corps for the U. S. Navy.
First Place for Rude Dude of 2009 has got to be Kanye West -- without a doubt. His barging in on Taylor Swift's moment of honor at the MTV awards is out of reach for anyone to try to take away. But the U.S. media tried hard this Veterans Day to climb up out of second place. Actually they do it every year, but when my favorite media, ESPN, gets in the act, I sit up and take notice.
Read more.
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