Tomer deserves thanks. He’s done his job as a representative of the people and he deserves recognition for being the taxpayers’ friend on Danville City Council.

WILA is no more, sold to new owners that will debut an entirely different kind of radio station here New Year’s Day.

“Danville, I love you. Thank you for this opportunity to live out my dream,” WILA co-owner Lawrence Toller said.

“I’ve enjoyed it immensely. It’s been wonderful. It’s been gratifying. But I’m signing off.”

Tremon Antonio Wimbush faces life in prison when he is sentenced in a few weeks for the July 11 murder of Latoya Hubbard.

Wimbush murdered Hubbard in a drive-by shooting on Ross Street, but his real target was Hubbard’s brother, George Henry.

“He got two people he wasn’t even shooting at,” Judge David Melesco said. “It was a dastardly act with no regard for human life.”

The first and most obvious lesson of this shooting is that violence solves nothing. Hubbard’s life was swept away. A man wounded in the attack, Frederick Douglas Ferguson, has to date required three surgeries to repair his damaged leg.

The American political system was built to handle dissent and disagreement. It’s more than strong enough to survive the controversy over the proposed health care reform bills now before Congress.

Complaints and questions about Danville Regional Medical Center have long put Danville City Council in an awkward position.

Congressional Democrats have enough votes to pass a health care reform bill this year. That political reality infuriates the bill’s opponents, who know they probably can’t stop a bill from becoming law.

Health care reform is far from a done deal, though.

No measure of this or any community would be complete without acknowledging the role of groups like the Community Foundation of the Dan River Region.

In the deepest recession since the Community Foundation began in 1996, it received gifts of more than $4.5 million last year — while awarding grants of $1.6 million to 100 area organizations and giving another $196,000 in scholarships to 64 students.

The reasons why people chain their dogs are not as important as what Danville City Council is willing to do about it. The recent public hearing was exactly what city council needed to hear on this issue. The advocates for animals in our community are to be commended.

Former Fifth District Rep. Virgil Goode often complained about runaway federal spending while simultaneously working hard to get federal money for local projects.

Goode believed that as long as someone was shaking the Washington money tree, the Fifth District ought to get its share.

In today’s politically charged atmosphere, that contradiction might have been enough to get Goode branded a “RINO” — or “Republican In Name Only.”

If that’s the case, then maybe Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Fifth, stole Goode’s playbook. Perriello tucked $500,000 for a Halifax County sewer project into an appropriations bill, voted against the bill because he thought the entire piece of legislation was too fat with government waste and then proceeded to praise the individual earmark.

Are Pittsylvania County’s voters ready to approve Sunday beer and wine sales? Until Tuesday, the conventional political wisdom was that question was a dead issue in the county.

The voters had already said no — twice. But now that voters in the Callands-Gretna magisterial district and the town of Gretna have approved Sunday sales, the issue is once again in play.

The political winds didn’t blow in McDonnell’s favor this year. Instead, he knew which winds would carry him to victory. McDonnell followed in the political footsteps of Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, two Democrats who knew that Virginians wanted their next governor to be a jobs governor.

The family and friends of Lamonte “CoCo” Stone miss him terribly. They want his violent death to be Danville’s last.

They know what they’re up against.

In some parts of the world, people literally risk life and limb to do what we’ll be able to safely do for 13 hours today.

But here in the world’s greatest democracy — and advocate for the spread of democracy around the world — election days are often greeted with quiet indifference.

That will probably be true today.

Virginians will have an important choice to make in Tuesday’s gubernatorial election — and we believe the best choice is Republican Bob McDonnell.

For Danville Commonwealth’s Attorney, we endorse Michael Newman, who currently works in the office as a senior assistant and has spent more than a decade prosecuting the criminals that prey on society. For Danville Sheriff, we endorse Mike Mondul, who currently works for the Danville Police Department and is best known as the department’s public spokesman. Mondul brings a valuable outsider’s experience to this race and has pledged to find better ways to use existing resources more efficiently.

Virginia Republicans find themselves standing in almost the exact same spot the Democrats were a year ago — ahead in the polls, with a fired-up base of supporters and momentum on their side.

We strongly endorse Danny Marshall for re-election this year.

The Sierra Club believes that a coal-fired electric power plant under construction in Ohio could wind up hurting Danville Utilities’ customers in the pocketbook.

Danville is one of the cities that has partnered with American Municipal Power to build a new coal-fired electric power plant in Meigs County, Ohio. As a partner, Danville will contribute to the cost of building the plant and be able to buy electricity generated by the plant.

The arrangement is supposed to give Danville and its electric customers some protection from wildly fluctuating electric prices on the open market. But the Sierra Club argues that falling demand for electricity and changing environmental regulations make the plant a bad deal for cities like Danville.

As we write this, two young people have been killed in local traffic accidents in the past week.

One thing connects the deaths of Montana Haynes, 19, and Tyler Perrow, 13 — they weren’t wearing seat belts in the accidents that occurred just five days apart.

DCC’s new Foundation Hall didn’t become a reality just because a lot of people — led by the members of the Danville Regional Foundation — joined together to give the school’s health science programs a modern home.

Last year’s presidential race brought with it record numbers of new voters. We’d like to think that most of those people were so new to voting that they were not aware of the things that were expected of them.

Most candidates running for public office know the limits of government — and they all know what the voters want.

Few issues so closely tie what the state can do with what the people want it to do than economic development. That’s why it’s the one political issue that’s a winner in every election.

Social Security recipients won’t be getting a cost of living increase — also known as a COLA — for the first time since the current system of automatic increases was established in 1975. By federal law, Social Security benefits can’t be reduced, but they won’t be going up in January.

Republicans in the Fifth District are going to have plenty of choices when they pick a candidate for the 2010 race against Rep. Tom Perriello.

Chatham Hall isn’t for every young woman.

But Chatham Hall made a lifelong impression on Elizabeth Beckwith Nilsen. She graduated from the all-girl’s private school in 1931 and carried the lessons she learned there — and the experience of being a Chatham Hall student — for the rest of her life.

If we allow the government to perform certain tasks, then we should expect that the taxpayer money government workers spend to perform those tasks is handled carefully and prudently.

After all, government money is really our money.

Jeremy Stratton, the director of Danville’s Office of Economic Development, believes the community is finally ready to attract new people and higher paying jobs.

Stratton’s confidence in the Dan River Region is buoyed by yet another big economic development project, this one the promised $400 million investment by Gibbs International to renovate and find a tenant for the White Mill building on Memorial Drive.

JTI Leaf Services’ decision to process American-grown tobacco in Danville doesn’t just mean 39 new full-time jobs and 150 seasonal jobs.

It’s about more opportunities for the Dan River Region’s tobacco farmers — and a potential shot in the arm for the local agricultural economy.

The war on drugs has dragged on longer than any other American war. It has been fought by police officers and prosecutors who have dutifully filled America’s jails and prisons with people who simply wanted to get high to some of the most dangerous, violent criminals this country has ever seen.

Danville City Council has set its sights on it — and not a moment too soon. People are complaining that their neighbor’s dogs are leaving it on their lawns and sidewalks, and there’s way too much on some sections of the Riverwalk Trail.