“21-day rule” may be modified to ease legal challenges falsely convicted inmates face

In the aftermath of Johnathan Montgomery’s case, a man falsely accused and wrongly charged of a crime he did not commit, Virginia legislators may seek to “relax” the cumbersome legal challenges that falsely convicted inmates seeking exoneration face in the state of Virginia.[1]

Virginia’s “21-day rule” says that only an appellate court can consider new evidence of innocence presented three weeks after sentencing.

In the case of Johnathan Montgomery, 4 of his 7.5 year sentence for a sexual assault conviction had already been served when his accuser admitted she lied. After a circuit court judge ordered Montgomery’s release, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli held up the release, arguing the circuit court judge lacked authority to exonerate Montgomery under the 21-day rule.

Cuccinelli stated that Montgomery would have to file for a “writ of actual innocence” from the Virginia Court of Appeals OR ask Virginia’s governor for exoneration, both ridiculous examples of bureaucratic/legal overkill.

Of course, Cuccinelli was upholding the law of Virginia when he made his decision to stall Montgomery’s release, but it is clear that Virginia’s “21-day rule” must be modified. According to the executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, Shawn Ambrust, “One thing we may advocate is a way of getting someone out of prison when everyone agrees he should get out.”[2] Indeed, this would be a good cause to advocate for!

Adding to the need to modify the 21-day rule are the relatively easy fixes that could be applied to ease the legal challenges faced by falsely convicted inmates seeking exoneration.

For instance, the attorney general could be allowed to provide evidence of an inmate’s innocence. Another solution would consist of a single word change in the current statute, from “could” to “would.” Even in our polarized political environment, a legislative change like this can be made.

If laws are made to protect the innocent and prosecute the guilty then it stands to reason why the 21-day rule should not be immediately changed. Not only is it the right thing to do for the individual and society, it seems like a uniquely easy problem to solve.

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[1] http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/ap/va-lawmakers-likely-to-examine-innocence-law/article_2211e1e7-b6d5-51cd-8fdf-a241c10e7e59.html

[2] http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/ap/va-lawmakers-likely-to-examine-innocence-law/article_2211e1e7-b6d5-51cd-8fdf-a241c10e7e59.html

Another shooting death and another reason to find meaningful gun control solutions

On Thursday night, an as yet unidentified man was found dead in Sterling, Virginia from a gunshot wound. According to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, the killing does not appear to be random.[1]

And so it goes, another shooting death in Virginia. What is just as sad about this killing and the sparse media attention that it has received is that were it not for the recent shooting in Connecticut at Sandy Hook Elementary School[2], this ‘story’ may have been tucked away even further in the day’s notable stories.

Beyond the immediate tragedy of losing another individual to senseless gun violence, Virginia and America as a whole has a real problem with gun violence that has been ignored for too long.

When the issue is discussed the discussion about ‘gun rights’ is usually divided by the mainstream media into proponents and modifiers of the 2^nd Amendment right to bear arms. Of course, there are many different viewpoints that have entered the public discussion over gun rights in America.

But the fact of the matter is, if we are to believe public opinion polls[3], Americans really like their guns and tend to assign more of the responsibility for gun violence to the individual and not the gun itself. For my own part, I tend to agree with this position.

When it comes to guns like assault rifles, the issue of gun rights gets a lot murkier. What exactly is the purpose of an assault rifle? Besides seriously harming or killing another individual, there doesn’t seem to be another purpose.

Because of questions like these, Americans have had to balance the belief in the 2^nd Amendment right to bear arms with what is truly beneficial for society. The discussion, up until the present, has not, however, been a substantive one where answers have been found.

It is up to all of us as citizens of the U.S. to enter the public discussion over Federal gun laws and make a decision about where we want these laws to be and deal with the consequences. As a country, we have consistently refused to face the issue of gun control in a definitive way. There is no better time than now while the public is focused on the issue. Otherwise, we need to ask ourselves how many more gun-related deaths it will take for us to finally talk about gun control in a meaningful way.

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[1] http://www.nbc12.com/story/20438666/man-shot-killed-in-sterling-townhome-community

[2] http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/12/27/168152215/shootings-leave-sandy-hook-survivors-rethinking-the-odds

[3] http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/26/gun-rights-assault-weapons/1791827/

Legislation to protect the elderly and mentally disabled may finally pass in General Assembly

It’s been a long time coming but the Virginia General Assembly could finally pass legislation in 2013 that makes it a crime to take something from an individual known to be “mentally incapacitated”.[1] Under current Virginia law, it is difficult to prosecute someone for taking something from a mentally incapacitated individual who has given consent for the behavior.

The legislation had previously failed for a number of consecutive General Assembly sessions. The law was given new life this year, however, after the Virginia State Crime Commission threw its support behind the law after a year of review.

Stunningly, the Department of Criminal Justice Services showed that between 2001 and 2007, the total number of financial crimes in Virginia grew 8.6 percent. For those 65 and above, that number grew by 18 percent;[2] this being one of many staggering statistics regarding financial crimes against the elderly and mentally incapacitated in Virginia.

For the victims of these crimes and their loved ones, the legislation won’t come a moment too soon. It is a shame that we need this type of legislation in the first place, but as our society has changed so too must our public policies.

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[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-lawmakers-to-take-up-financial-exploitation-of-elderly-mentally-incapacitated/2012/12/27/aa78210e-4ff7-11e2-835b-02f92c0daa43_story.html

[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-lawmakers-to-take-up-financial-exploitation-of-elderly-mentally-incapacitated/2012/12/27/aa78210e-4ff7-11e2-835b-02f92c0daa43_story.html

Virginia Tech football team to honor victims of Sandy Hook and Tech shootings with decal

The Virginia Tech football team announced that it will be ‘honoring’ the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims alongside its own 2007 campus shooting with a helmet decal during today’s game with Rutgers.[1]

According to the Roanoke Times[2], the decal is half orange to represent the shootings at Virginia Tech and half green to represent the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The decal will also have the number 58 in the center, the total number of victims from both shootings, along with the word “Prevail” written across it.

While the ‘honor’ paid by the Virginia Tech football team is a high-minded gesture and a necessary societal method of coping with unthinkable tragedies, it does little to actually solve the continuing problem of gun violence in the country. The decal also shines a spotlight on the killings during these two incidents, taking attention away from the more systemic inner-city problems with gun violence[3].

What these types of ‘memorials’ or ways of ‘honoring’ victims seems to primarily do is relieve our sense of guilt and, by extension, our drive to seek out and implement long-lasting solutions to the problems which stretch across our society.

This is not to say that the victims of these shootings should not be honored and remembered. Without a doubt, they should. But these memorials and symbols of remembrance should not be the final step in the process of ending senseless gun violence.

We live in a society where constant stimulation moves our attention from one object to the next. As a result, we oftentimes lose sight of the issues that most Americans would argue are the most important to us as a country.

We can no longer shift our focus and lose sight of this issue. We can best honor the victims of these two shootings, and those that have largely gone unnoticed, by finding long-term solutions to the issue of gun violence in America.

The solutions won’t be arrived at easily, but little in life worth achieving comes with ease. Americans have proven time and again that we can do anything we put our collective energies to. Now it is just a matter of coming together and focusing on this common goal.

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[1] http://www.nbc12.com/story/20421574/va-tech-honoring-conn-shooting-victims-with-decal

[2] http://www.roanoke.com/sports/vtfootball/wb/318315

[3] http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/story/health/story/2011/05/CDC-US-murder-toll-from-guns-highest-in-big-cities/47159990/1

Jim Webb’s exit from the senate won’t be a resignation from public life altogether

Asked recently what he’ll be doing after his ‘retirement’ from the U.S. Senate, Jim Webb said, “I will be working. Trust me.”[1]

And so are the words of a man who has both pleased and vexed his Democratic base in Virginia. But one thing that Sen. Webb never did was adjust his principles to fit the political weather of the day. Whether or not Webb’s policy positions were liked (or disliked), you could be sure that he was acting in a manner he thought best for Virginia and the country as a whole.

For all of the policy disagreements I have had with Sen. Jim Webb over his six years as U.S. Senator for Virginia, I can’t help but have mixed feelings about his departure from the upper chamber, especially as Virginia’s other U.S. Senator, Mark Warner, sounds more and more like an amorphous chatterbox than a representative with unwavering principles.

As Webb exits from the political stage, however, his ‘capital’ as a fair-minded and principled politician will go a long way in shaping future debates that he chooses to be an open part of.

In Webb’s own words, “Politics has never been my calling. Leadership has always been my calling, from the time I was a little kid…Unpredictably, political leadership has been a part of it – I’m not saying I’m done with that, by the way.”[2]

In Webb, one is reminded of the reluctant citizen whose calling to politics is spearheaded by a need to infuse the political system with some semblance of virtue and principled leadership. As a U.S. Senator, he was one of a handful of ‘good guys’ who spoke with a purpose other than political ambition.

Sen. Webb is the kind of politician whose significance may only be felt or known some years down the road when historians unravel Webb as both an individual and a politician. Then, if not before, Americans will see a man who strove to make America a better place, albeit in his own way.

I am not given to paying many people homage for doing their job, especially someone who I have had my fair share of policy disagreements with in the past. But in the case of Jim Webb, America is losing a true patriot and a true fighter for a better America.

I know we haven’t seen the last of Mr. Webb and I hope that the path Sen. Webb pursued in the senate will be one more politicians follow in the years ahead (i.e., the path of principled leadership). In this brave new world, America will still need principled individuals to lead us through the vast and sometimes dangerous ocean of international and domestic politics.   

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[1] http://hamptonroads.com/2012/12/webb-reflects-his-time-us-senate

[2] http://hamptonroads.com/2012/12/webb-reflects-his-time-us-senate

Mental health care in Virginia still not meeting the needs of Virginians

In a recent report, The Daily Progress found that since 2007, Virginia’s mental health system has experienced reforms, “but significant gaps…remain.”[1] 2007 was the year that a gunman killed 33 people at Virginia Tech[2], throwing a giant spotlight on Virginia’s mental health system and its failure to avert the massacre.

One of the most important conclusions that the report reached was that many Virginians who seek mental health coverage end up on waiting lists for the care they are requesting.

According to Richard J. Bonnie, chairman of Virginia’s Commission on Mental Health Law Reform, the private system of mental health care is “simply unavailable in most parts of the state, or not available in a timely manner.”

It should not have taken another senseless killing spree to further attune the attention of Virginians to the need of mental health care in the Commonwealth, but this is exactly how it’s turned out.

In the wake of the killing spree in Newtown, Conn., Virginians and their elected representatives once again shifted their focus towards mental health care or the lack thereof.

Said Del. David J. Toscano (Charlottesville), “We did make the investment at the time, [but] we haven’t been able to keep pace with the need.”[3]

While the conversation shifted to guns in the wake of the Newtown shooting, one of the first lines of defense was largely ignored (i.e., mental health care).

We will never know if the gunman behind the Newtown killing spree would have been prevented had appropriate mental health care been received. It’s not even clear that the gunman had any tell-tale signs of mental illness that would have required mental health treatment.[4]

It is not debatable, however, that more efforts need to be made to “open up” mental health care to individuals who seek it. Like climate change and a host of other issues in this country, we have failed to address some of the more pertinent issues in our society and we have suffered the consequences as a result.

If our political representatives cannot find the political will and energy to make the appropriate changes to Virginia’s mental health care system now, maybe it’s them who need to have their heads examined.

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[1] http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/article_b5623f2c-4ca1-11e2-ba0b-0019bb30f31a.html

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/us/16cnd-shooting.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[3] http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/article_b5623f2c-4ca1-11e2-ba0b-0019bb30f31a.html

[4] http://thegrio.com/2012/12/17/adam-lanza-and-aspergers-syndrome-sandy-hook-massacre-puts-mental-health-in-the-national-spotlight/

Mark Warner accuses both parties of “dancing dangerously” near the edge of fiscal disaster

In a recent interview at the nation’s capital, Sen. Mark R. Warner (VA) made clear his distaste for so-called “brinkmanship” partisan politics and essentially accused both parties of “dancing dangerously” near the edges of fiscal disaster.[1]

Warner stated that the $16 trillion federal deficit is “the single greatest threat to our national security,” stating further that “Trying to win a short-term political battle versus the risk of putting the whole national and world economy at risk? It’s not a really good trade…”[2]

Mark Warner was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008, beginning his first term in 2009, right in the midst of a national and global economic freefall. Thus, Warner has the political cover to criticize other members of the U.S. Congress for their inability or unwillingness to control the country’s debt. As a member of the more collaborative U.S. Senate, Warner also has the ability to criticize the House of Representatives for their failures to reach a long-term debt reduction deal that has been elusive.

But when I hear Warner making comments like the one he made above, seemingly criticizing both parties somewhat equally for their roles in this latest fiscal standoff, he comes off as little more than a career politician looking for a political middle ground where he can stake his claim for the U.S. presidency in 2016. 

What America needs right now, however, are actual leaders who do more than talk the good talk.

Even in the senate, however, Warner hasn’t been able to hash out a bipartisan debt reduction bill as a member of the so-called ‘Gang of Six.’[3] So Sen. Warner, where are your own mea culpa’s?

For all of Sen. Warner’s business and political intelligence, he and many of his colleagues still don’t understand that leadership and practicing what you preach are the qualities Americans are seeking from their elected officials. And pointing the finger at everyone but yourself is hardly leadership.

Warner cannot keep trying to distance himself from his fellow members of congress as if he were not one himself. Ultimately, Warner has played a role in the situation we are in at present and should thus share the blame of a disaster and the accolades of a fiscal cliff aversion.

But to reach the latter, he’ll have to begin by bringing the congress together, not splitting it by wagging his finger at the supposedly guilty parties, excluding himself.

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[1] http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/warner-we-re-really-playing-with-fire/article_c058d84d-cb88-5c80-bf41-0947f1b1af21.html

[2] http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/warner-we-re-really-playing-with-fire/article_c058d84d-cb88-5c80-bf41-0947f1b1af21.html

[3] http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61626.html

Appalachian Power receives permission to decrease water outflows due to minimal rain

Appalachian Power (APCo) recently announced that it would decrease the outflows of water from its Smith Mountain Hydroelectric Project due to “minimal rainfall” and a dry forecast. APCo[1] sought and received permission from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to decrease its water releases.

The Smith Mountain Hydroelectric Project has been a reliable source of electricity to customers since the 1960s. Utilizing two dams, the project can generate over 600 megawatts for up to 11 hours. [2]

State officials say they are “hopeful” that the decreased water flows will still meets the needs of customers, both upstream and downstream, while biological and environmental resources are safeguarded.

Unfortunately, the recent lack of rainfall may very well be a sign of extreme weather events in the years and decades to come due to global climate change.[3] While Virginia may continue to experience similar baseline levels of rainfall in the future, the “spread” could be unevenly distributed, leaving certain months of the year more prone to dry conditions akin to what is being experienced now in segments of Virginia.

A lingering question is whether or not Virginia’s utilities are prepared for the likelihood of extreme weather patterns. If minimal rainfall were to continue well into the future, what back-up electricity generation plans would APCo have for customers reliant upon its hydroelectric project?

Because Virginia and the country as a whole have failed to act upon the warnings of climate scientists, it is no longer a question of if extreme weather patterns will occur, but when and how severely. Virginians may experience a net gain from the changes in climate and therefore fail to change business as usual.

As they say, however, you reap what you sew. If Virginia doesn’t make significant changes to stem the emission of greenhouse gases, changes like conversions to cleaner and more renewable forms of energy, that fine line between net gain and net loss will almost certainly be crossed for the worst.

Companies like APCo not only have a moral duty to decrease the emission of harmful greenhouse gases, it also has a duty to its customers. For the sake of its customers and our environment, let’s hope that they finally decide to move their energy portfolio in the right direction.

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[1] http://www.nbc12.com/story/20405714/apco-reducing-outflows-at-smith-mountain-project

[2] http://www.nbc12.com/story/20405714/apco-reducing-outflows-at-smith-mountain-project

[3] http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/future.html

Republicans in House of Delegates plan to increase funds for school resource officers

On Thursday, Republicans in the wise and unideologically driven Virginia House of Delegates made public their intention to increase funding for additional “school resource officers” (i.e., local law enforcement officers) in the Commonwealth’s elementary schools[1].

According to a House Appropriations Committee member, Del. Beverly J. Sherwood, 80% of Virginia’s high schools and middle schools have full-time school resource officers. Surely, then, Virginia’s elementary schools can get a piece of that pie.

In a public statement, Sherwood stated, “Unfortunately, only about 25 percent of elementary schools have assigned school resource officers, many of which serve multiple schools.”[2] Unfortunate, indeed! If only I had grown up with an armed guard in my school, how much safer I would have felt!

School resource officers are certified local law enforcement who are stationed at public schools around the state to ensure a false sense of security. But honey, there’s an armed guard at the school, everything is going to be alright!

But aside from the logic of using local law enforcement at elementary schools to supposedly stop another Sandy Hook from occurring, this is yet another example of Republican Party financial hypocrisy at its finest.

[Fictional account with House Speaker William J. Howell] Speaker Howell, can we increase funds for more special education programs in Virginia’s schools? No, that’s socialism, but we should add more funds to pay for increased law enforcement at these schools!

Ah, so government funding isn’t so bad after all, at least when it comes to projects that Republicans, in all of their wisdom, find justifiable.

In another vein, however, putting one local law enforcement official at elementary is little more than putting a band-aid over a gaping wound. In one sense, if a gunmen armed with four semiautomatic or automatic weapons chooses to shoot his or her way into a school, it shouldn’t be expected that one armed guard will stop this. And this is only one of many reasons why this supposed solution isn’t much of a solution at all.

As I’ve argued before, armed teachers or installed armed guards in elementary is hardly the deep solution that we as a country need to be searching for and finding. These solutions are akin to using radiation therapy once the cancer has already been found as opposed to stopping the cancer before it starts.

But it is a perceptibly easy solution and thus one that will probably pass, at least in the house. Meanwhile, the legacy of Sandy Hook and all of the lessons that should have been learned will be left to linger, in vain.

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[1] http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/local/government-politics/va-republicans-want-more-money-to-fund-school-resource-officers/article_d80530fe-59fa-5ce7-991d-337a4176396d.html

[2] http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/local/government-politics/va-republicans-want-more-money-to-fund-school-resource-officers/article_d80530fe-59fa-5ce7-991d-337a4176396d.html

Department of Homeland Security audit faults Virginia for not using grant money

A recent audit conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General found that Virginia has left over $38 million of its $90 million in Federal homeland security grants untouched that it received from 2008 and 2010.

Virginia was criticized by the department for not allocating grant money faster to local governments for various kinds of emergency response gear.[1] Presumably, then, Virginia would be left in a more precarious position were another terrorist attack to occur inside Virginia.

The Office of Inspector General also faulted Virginia for not creating measurable goals for the grant money as well as for inadequate oversight of the grant money.[2]

The audit was made public Wednesday and officials with the Commonwealth responded by saying that all of the funds will be spent by 2013, leaving out a response to claims of inadequate oversight and lack of measurable goals.

Given the rhetoric of accountability, fiscal responsibility, and such, one would think that Virginia officials would be more rigorous about where Homeland Security grant money is going and if the grant money is actually meeting purposeful goals. Apparently, it is alright to unwisely spend Federal money.

And while Republican representatives in particular gripe about government overspending, they certainly do not miss an opportunity to take more Federal money for what THEY perceive to be worthwhile goals and causes.

It is a double standard that is woven into the fabric of the Republican Party of Virginia: do as I say, not as I do.

Virginia may be spending the grant money wisely, but since oversight and measurable goals are both wanting, it is difficult for concerning Virginians to truly get a complete picture of the progress, or lack thereof.

It doesn’t matter where the money is coming from or where the money is going to, the methods should remain similar: carefully track the money and set measurable goals to ensure the money is being used efficiently. Republican representatives, claiming to be high priests of monetary efficiency, should already have this in place. Instead, its’ that old VA GOP double standard once again.

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[1] http://www.nbc12.com/story/20389562/audit-va-lags-at-using-homeland-security-grants

[2] http://www.nbc12.com/story/20389562/audit-va-lags-at-using-homeland-security-grants

McDonnell endorses discussion about arming teachers while Marshall goes further

Good news always comes in pairs and Tuesday in Virginia was no exception. It was on this fateful day that Gov. Bob McDonnell endorsed a discussion about arming Virginia’s teachers and our old friend, Del. Bob Marshall, proposed legislation to put weapons in Virginia’s schools.

During his monthly radio appearance on Washington-area radio station WTOP, McDonnell commented, “If people were armed, not just a police officer but other school officials who were trained and chose to have a weapon, certainly there would have been an opportunity to stop aggressors coming into the schools.”[1]

Del. Bob Marshall (Prince William County) also would like to see Virginia’s teachers armed with knowledge and semi-automatic weapons[2].  Marshall stated that his aim is to train “certain educators” on the safe use of weapons by Virginia State Police standards.

The entire issue of teachers being allowed to carry guns in school comes in the aftermath of the Newtown, Connecticut elementary shooting that left 20 children dead.

The assumption that some Republicans are making in their calls to arm our country’s teachers is that doing so will prevent the kind of mass killings that occurred in Connecticut. But it is far from certain that putting guns into the hands of educators will produce any such effect.

Moreover, as has been pointed out[3], more guns is not solving the fundamental problems that have led to these senseless acts of violence. Even if we were to make a big assumption and concede that arming some teachers would cut down on the risks of mass school killings, it still would not address the reason for the shootings themselves.

If our elected representatives truly want to end the mass shootings that have become all too frequent in our own time, they’ll have to look for harder and more complex solutions than arming teachers. Thus, one of the first priorities that must be addressed is ending the unproductive partisanship that has ripped the nation.

It’s time for Virginia’s, and America’s, elected officials to lead and to do the harder thing by looking for lasting solutions to our country’s most vexing problems. Putting guns into the hands of teachers would only be putting a band-aid over a larger problem, a problem that the band-aid could even make worse.

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[1] http://hamptonroads.com/2012/12/bob-mcdonnell-discusses-arming-school-officials

[2] http://hamptonroads.com/2012/12/bob-mcdonnell-discusses-arming-school-officials

[3] http://www.examiner.com/article/mcdonnell-takes-a-number-of-political-steps-the-wake-of-connecticut-shootings

Virginia environmental group, CCAN, and Attorney General Cuccinelli find rare common ground

Maybe the world is coming to an end in 2012, after all! One of the first signs of the cataclysm may have been witnessed on Monday after the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) released a report card[1] which agreed, by and large, with Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s concerns regarding Virginia’s renewable energy law. Let me repeat, a Virginia environmental group, CCAN, and Attorney General Cuccinelli agree on the ludicrous nature of the incentives offered to Virginia’s two biggest utility providers.[2]

Cuccinelli said in a report released last month that analyzed the costs and benefits of incentives given to the Commonwealth’s two biggest utilities, Dominion Virginia Power and Appalachian Power, that the incentives have not “served their purpose” and called on the Virginia General Assembly to get rid of the bonuses.[3]

On Monday, Cuccinelli’s office also spoke to the General Assembly’s Commission on Electric Utility Regulation about their worries. The attorney general’s office was reportedly asked to find a compromise with the two utility companies by January 16 over how the law distributing their bonuses should be reworded.

According to CCAN’s Virginia director, Beth Kemler, “The way the goals are structured, utilities really don’t have to do much to meet them, and don’t have to do anything that spurs the growth of renewables in Virginia. We need to fix it so it fulfills its original intention.”[4] In other words, the Virginia renewable energy law gives Virginia’s two biggest utilities large taxpayer handouts while giving little in return, especially renewable energy generated in Virginia.

CCAN has proposed replacing the bonuses that exist now in favor of a tiered system that would require utility companies to generate a portion of its energy from wind and solar power from locations in Virginia.

This is one of those beautiful no-brainer action items that even the most beholden political representatives to Dominion Virginia and Appalachian Power cannot avoid or defend without raising the public ire. Why are Virginians paying bonuses to companies for behaving in a manner that does Virginians no good? It simply doesn’t make sense.

Thanks to groups like CCAN, the Virginia Sierra Club (among other groups), and concerned Virginians, reason may once again shine upon the General Assembly, if only for this legislation anyways.

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[1] http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=3568:va-utilities-receive-failing-grades-in-renewable-energy-%E2%80%98report-card%E2%80%99&Itemid=23

[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-politics/cuccinelli-environmental-group-find-consensus-on-va-renewable-energy-law/2012/12/17/556de85e-4883-11e2-820e-17eefac2f939_story.html

[3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-politics/cuccinelli-environmental-group-find-consensus-on-va-renewable-energy-law/2012/12/17/556de85e-4883-11e2-820e-17eefac2f939_story.html

[4] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-politics/cuccinelli-environmental-group-find-consensus-on-va-renewable-energy-law/2012/12/17/556de85e-4883-11e2-820e-17eefac2f939_story.html

Bob McDonnell takes a number of political steps in the wake of Connecticut shootings

On Monday, Gov. Bob McDonnell stated that he asked Laura Fornash, Secretary of Education, and Marla Graff Decker, Secretary of Public Safety, to review school safety audits recently submitted for Virginia’s school superintendents.[1]

Gov. McDonnell also established a “task force” of public safety exports, educators, legislators, and local leaders to analyze school safety. The final product of the task force will include legislative and budget proposals.

Finally, McDonnell created a new position within the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services that will focus exclusively on issues related to school and campus safety.

The moves by McDonnell comes of course in the aftermath of the shootings in Connecticut at Sandy Hook Elementary School where 20 children and 27 individuals overall were killed.[2] Since the shootings the country has been looking for answers as well as an assured sense of safety for individuals with children attending schools.

While McDonnell’s moves show a level of response proportional to the senseless shootings in Connecticut, how often have there been “task forces,” commissions, special committees, and so forth, to address important issues that are somehow soon forgotten, swept under the rug, or no longer seemingly worth the time or energy?

One could argue that this issue isn’t going away anytime soon. But wouldn’t it have been easy to conclude the same about the relatively recent shootings in a Colorado movie theatre in which 12 people were killed?[3] While this shooting wasn’t completely forgotten, were it not for this recent killing spree in Connecticut, it’s arguable that the Colorado murdering spree would hardly be more than a mid-page story in the local newspaper for most news outlets.

Thus, Americans have a short historical memory and an ambivalence towards guns with at least two different segments of social beliefs: the first claims that guns kill while the second segment says people do the killing. The former segment supports gun control while the latter vehemently opposes it. And never the twain shall meet.

For my own part, both sides are right and both sides are wrong. Guns do kill people and it must be asked, would the Connecticut killings have occurred if guns weren’t so readily accessible? On the other hand, my parent’s generation never experienced this level of senseless domestic violence. Why? Were there fewer guns in those days, per capita? Perhaps, but perhaps the answer goes deeper. Perhaps the reason why so many senseless shootings have occurred in our own time is due to a loss of some social fabric that once knit most Americans so closely together?

Whatever the answer may be, it is more certain that establishing “task forces” is not the solution, in and of itself. Meaningful actions will have to be taken, actions addressing engrained social problems, not just whether or not schools are safe. Try as we might, if a crazed gunman wants to commit these types of atrocities, chances are, he or she will, at least some of the time.

Whatever answers these individuals and groups come up with, shootings will persist until Americans once again find it in themselves to create a sense of community for everyone. Together we stand, but divided, we commit senseless acts of violence.  

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[1] http://www.nbc12.com/story/20365426/virginia-to-review-school-safety-policies

[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/gunman-kills-mother-then-26-in-grade-school-rampage-in-connecticut/2012/12/15/9017a784-46b6-11e2-8061-253bccfc7532_story.html

[3] http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/14/colorado-shooting-suspect-cant-go-to-hearing-defense-lawyers-say/

York River gets a new “soil life” from National Park Service but problems will remain

In one of many moves to come by the National Park Service (NPS), the NPS will address shoreline erosion along the York River in Virginia as outlined in a new report[1].

The report spells out plans to repair and “stabilize” 4.2 miles of the York River whose erosion is so bad that it’s an “imminent threat” to the Colonial Parkway, a scenic attraction for Virginians and non-Virginians alike.

According to officials with the Colonial National Historical Park, the latter is asking for $3.9 million from the NPS to repair the whole 4.2 mile stretch of the river.

The first phase of the project will focus on 1,300 feet of shoreline near Indian Field Creek in January.[2] This initial project will cost more than half a million dollars and will be paid for by the park’s fees for entrance.

As the recently leaked IPCC draft report[3] has highlighted in even less equivocal language than the panel’s previous report, the growing dangers of climate change will only make matters like coastal erosion all the more frequent and intense in Virginia.

In the case of the York River, the economic toll is insignificant, so far, in comparison to the damage inflicted upon New Jersey and New York by Hurricane Sandy. While it would not be accurate to say that climate change caused the hurricane, climate change certainly added to its destructive capacity.  

But Virginia’s rivers are not in good shape in terms of water quality, species adaptability and diversity, soil erosion, and the list could go on. Many of these factors have been helped along by the effects of climate change and they only stand to get worse in the future.

So if Virginians value their rivers and natural habitats, they will talk to their legislators at the local, state, and Federal levels about aggressively addressing climate change and its effects.  

Climate change is real and we can do something about it, but we have to act now.

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[1] http://www.nbc12.com/story/20352516/shoreline-erosion-is-threatening-va-scenic-roadway

[2] http://bit.ly/VHub9O

[3] http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23005-leaked-ipcc-report-reaffirms-dangerous-climate-change.html