James Baker coming to Miller Center

President Bush may not be the only one “staying the course.” The Miller Center of Public Affairs (www.millercenter.virginia.edu) at UVA announced last week that it has assembled a National War Powers Commission, a bipartisan panel designed to examine constitutional allocations of power during war. Former secretaries of state James A. Baker III and Warren Christopher […]

Parents busted for child abuse

Two Augusta County teenage girls, ages 15 and 16, have been removed from their father and stepmother’s custody. Those guardians, Steven Tomlin, 35, and Heather Tomlin, 27, have been charged with two counts of cruelty and injury to a child. According to Augusta police investigator Paul McCormick, police received a call from a school friend […]

Legislature fights crime

In general, the State of Virginia is known for dealing with criminals, shall we say…effectively. During this last General Assembly session (www.legis.state.va.us), lawmakers did find a few ways to make our streets a little safer and would-be felons even more jittery. Here, four passed bills that will help the state fight crime. Albemarle Delegate Rob […]

Aged witnesses cling to false memories

As age advances, memory declines. Old news? Perhaps, but a recent UVA study suggests that the issue may not be quite so simple. The study, “I misremember it well: Why older adults are unreliable eyewitnesses,” finds that older adults are not only more error-prone when remembering details—they are also extremely confident of their mistaken recollections. […]

No rise in minimum wage

No rise in minimum wageAlso, payday lenders get by with no new regulations “For ye have the poor always with you,” Jesus Christ says in Matthew 26:11. Virginia seems to have resigned itself to this fact. Multiple attempts to raise the minimum wage—currently at $5.15—in the most recent legislative session were defeated at the hands […]

Ups and downs for local government

Ups and downs for local governmentLike photored, not keen on transportation, paper ballots As the dust is settling on the legislative session, what do the City of Charlottesville and County of Albemarle see as particularly meaningful to them? They both like the ability to set up photored cameras at intersections, which they see as a […]

Assembly’s commendable bills

Assembly’s commendable bills157 measures devoted to devotion A new website that tracks the goings-on of the Virginia General Assembly, www.richmondsunlight.com, is a wonk’s dream, and thusly, our new favorite thing (cheers to website creator, Waldo Jaquith). The site’s best feature? The “Tag Cloud” that lists topics by size, relative to their prominence in this session’s […]