
That's a nice coat of asphalt going down on the new Beaver Dam Trail in Hillsville. Nothing's too good for those 15 or so people who will meander there each day.
Oh, did I mention that you are paying for it?
Photo courtesy of the Galax Gazette.
I've now decided that women should be banned from riding ATV's. For their own good.Woman seriously injured in ATV wreck
Charleston (WV) Gazette
Bomont — A woman was seriously injured when the ATV she was riding flipped over and landed on top of her, said Aylene Johnston, a paramedic with Clay County EMS.
The accident happened around 5 p.m. on a gravel road in Darnell Hollow, near Bomont, she said.Two people were riding the large ATV, which resembled a small truck. (link)
The Summer of DrugsForty years later, those same (graying) stoned, dirty, stinky hippies can be found wandering aimlessly along Southwest Virginia's many mountain hiking trails. Still soulless. Still clueless. Still oblivious. Brains fried long ago.
Forty years ago, dirty, stinky hippies converged on San Francisco to "turn on, tune in and drop out."
By Ted Nugent, writing in The Wall Street Journal
This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the so-called Summer of Love. Honest and intelligent people will remember it for what it really was: the Summer of Drugs.
Forty years ago hordes of stoned, dirty, stinky hippies converged on San Francisco to "turn on, tune in, and drop out," which was the calling card of LSD proponent Timothy Leary. Turned off by the work ethic and productive American Dream values of their parents, hippies instead opted for a cowardly, irresponsible lifestyle of random sex, life-destroying drugs and mostly soulless rock music that flourished in San Francisco.
(link)
Damascus police chief dismissed
Town Council votes to fire him, says he didn't do his job
By Debra McCown, Media General News Service
Damascus -- The police chief in this small Southwest Virginia town was fired Monday night ...
After a 30-minute closed session, the Damascus Town Council voted 4-0, with one member abstaining and one absent, to fire Police Chief Tony Richardson, who was not at the meeting.
"Tony served at the pleasure of the council," Councilman Johnny Blevins said after the meeting. "He was not performing his duties." (link)
Well, yeah, besides the fact that he wasn't doing his job, there's that too.Contacted after the meeting, Richardson said, "I would love to tell you how I feel and all that stuff, but . . . I've been advised not to say anything about anything."
Richardson was arrested June 23 and charged with three counts of distribution of a Schedule I or Schedule II substance, one charge of possession with intent to sell a Schedule I or Schedule II substance, two counts of selling and distributing a Schedule III controlled substance and possession of a Schedule I or Schedule II controlled substance while in possession of a firearm.He was released from jail under a $20,000 bond.
Site lists vicious Va. dogs -- all 9 of themI can only imagine what that "more than a year of development" cost us to find out there are nine vicious dogs in the commonwealth. Where once a "BEWARE OF DOG" sign worked ...
By Joe Kendall, The Roanoke Times
Postal workers take note: The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has launched a Web site aimed at making it easier to avoid the perils of problem pooches.
The Dangerous Dog Registry, an Internet database much like the state sex offender registry, made its debut this week after more than a year of development, VDACS spokeswoman Marion Horsley said.
The registry provides a list of dogs classified as dangerous by local courts or officials. The database can be searched by locality or ZIP code, but there's one problem: The list is incomplete.
Horsley said only nine dogs have been entered into the registry so far. (link)
Kaine pledges to revisit payday lending debateThis is just another example (in a long line of many) of Democrats thinking they run a nanny state. Kaine wants to keep lenders from taking advantage of those people who have such poor credit that a bank wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole. How dare the two parties enter into a contractual agreement of their own free will? People with bad credit are obviously stupid (a prerequisite for the government running their lives) or they wouldn't be in their predicament, right Tim?
The governor said he objects to cash-strapped Virginians being burdened with "rates that are off the charts."
by Michael Sluss, The Roanoke Times
Richmond -- Gov. Tim Kaine said Tuesday that he will join lawmakers in an effort to revamp the state's payday lending law next year, declaring that cash-strapped Virginians should not be burdened with "interest rates that are off the charts."
"I am very committed to working with legislators and citizens to try to find meaningful ways to reform this industry so that people don't dig themselves in deep and get taken advantage of at vulnerable moments of their lives," Kaine said during an appearance at a mixed-income housing community south of Richmond. (link)
The Hobgoblin of Little MindsJames Taranto, Best of the Web Today, July 3, 2007
"Nonviolent offenders should not be serving hard time in our prisons. They need to be diverted from our prison system."--Sen. Hillary Clinton, Democratic debate, June 28
"Today's decision is yet another example that this Administration simply considers itself above the law. . . . This commutation sends the clear signal that in this Administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice."--Sen. Hillary Clinton, press release, July 2
Clinton Slams Bush Over Libby Maneuver
By Mike Glover, The Associated Press
Keokuk, Iowa -- Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton drew a distinction between President Bush's decision to commute the sentence of White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby - which she has harshly criticized - and her husband's 140 pardons in his closing hours in office.
"This (the Libby decision) was clearly an effort to protect the White House. ... There isn't any doubt now, what we know is that Libby was carrying out the implicit or explicit wishes of the vice president, or maybe the president as well, in the further effort to stifle dissent."
Her husband's pardons, issued in the closing hours of his presidency, were simply routine exercise in the use of the pardon power, and none were aimed at protecting the Clinton presidency or legacy, she said. (link)
7 Doctors Tied to British Plots
By Mark Landler and Sarah Lyall, The New York Times
London, July 3 — All eight people arrested in the aftermath of two bungled car bombings here last week are from the medical profession, a British police official said Tuesday, rattling a national heath service that has long relied on foreign doctors to fill its understaffed hospitals.
The seven men are physicians, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, while the lone woman, the wife of one, is a laboratory technician. The police are now working to unravel links and prior contacts within this far-flung expatriate medical circle. (link)