Pittsylvania County’s constitutional officers have vacancies they can’t fill because they have no money to hire replacements — and almost no chance of convincing the Board of Supervisors that they need help, not more budget cuts.

The recession continues to batter some of the most important human service agencies in the Dan River Region.

U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Fifth District, has joined a group of freshman House Democrats who are suggesting changes to the proposed health care legislation now before Congress.

The Danville Regional Foundation has jumped into the debate over uranium mining and milling in Pittsylvania County.

Formed with the assets from the 2005 sale of Danville Regional Medical Center to LifePoint Hospitals Inc., the Danville Regional Foundation exists “to develop, promote, and support activities, programs and organizations that improve the health, welfare and education” of Danville, Pittsylvania County and Caswell County, N.C.

Clearly, uranium mining and milling at Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County would have a profound impact on the communities served by the Danville Regional Foundation, and on the foundation’s core areas of concern.

It was a coincidence that the monthly unemployment numbers and the annual poverty rate estimate both came out around the same time this week. The business of monitoring the business of this community never ends.

We’re hearing a lot about Enterprise Zone funding and the Governor’s Opportunity Fund during this year’s political campaign.

That’s good news.

The recent revelation that a former slave cemetery has been found within the 3,400-acres destined to become the Berry Hill industrial mega-park should surprise no one.

Gun control, as the old joke goes, means using both hands. But America’s gun owners are not in a laughing mood these days.

The election of President Barack Obama and two-straight blue-tide elections have given the Democratic Party firm control of the executive and legislative branches of government. The fear is that the Democrats will try to push through new gun control legislation, ban certain types of weapons and ammunition and even impose new taxes.

Studying the entire length of U.S. 29 at once was a smart step for Virginia to take.

U.S. 29 is an economic lifeline for communities like this one, as well as an alternative to the state’s gridlocked north-south interstate highways, making it a critical link in the state’s transportation system.

Americans worried about this country’s manufacturing economy fret over three simple words: “Made in China.”

For good reason, they worry about what will happen to our economy if we don’t manufacture products in this country. The sting is even worse when existing domestic manufacturing is shipped overseas, costing American jobs.

Every election matters, but not always for the most obvious reasons. This year, Virginia’s gubernatorial contest will attract the most attention.

But in northern Pittsylvania County, the voters in the town of Gretna and the larger Callands-Gretna Magisterial District will be asked to vote on several questions about the sale of alcoholic beverages.

Once again, Danville’s political leaders are being asked to address complaints about Danville Regional Medical Center.

For the members of Danville City Council, those complaints are an ongoing problem without an easy solution. All the city can do is raise issues and ask questions.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine cancelled his trip to Grove Park Preschool on Thursday, but that didn’t stop the kids from showing off what they’ve learned about the basics of preventing the spread of flu.

It took two words — “You lie!” — from one disrespectful idiot of a congressman to drag the question of race, politics and President Barack Obama to the surface.

Danville-Pittsylvania County Habitat for Humanity is becoming known for building energy efficient houses.

Energy conservation is as important — if not more — than securing new, stable and domestically controlled fuel to power our economy.

Danville Mayor Sherman Saunders knows what’s at stake for the city next year. The 2010 Census promises to verify the city’s population drop that has been tracked over the past nine years.

For mayors like Saunders, the Census is a high-stakes project. More than a simple count of the population mandated in Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution, the Census has grown to become a way to determine the amount of federal assistance doled out to states, counties, cities and towns.

Danville and the developer of its newest shopping center, Coleman MarketPlace, have reached an agreement that will help some of the very people whose tax dollars built the shopping center.

The city’s Handy Van program — a bus service for the disabled — and the Reserve-A-Ride program will be allowed onto the shopping center’s property.

Danville’s Wendell Scott won’t be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s inaugural class — and it might take a few years before it gets around to honoring him.

By the end of this month, work will begin on a new road around Barkhouser Ford to link Piedmont and Riverside drives. That new road has to be ready before construction can start on the new Robertson Bridge.

For most of the time it will take to build the new road — at a cost of $558,975 — drivers won’t be inconvenienced. Once work starts on the new Robertson Bridge, though, the scale of the work being done in that part of Danville will be unmistakable.

Pittsylvania County ought to be big enough for the seven personalities that sit on the Board of Supervisors.

But with many votes ending in a 4-3 split between supervisors representing the “northern” and “southern” ends of the county, the question that has to be asked is what would happen if that delicate political balance was disturbed.

When it comes to government budget cuts, pain is relative. If you work for the government and you lose your job, those spending cuts hurt.

For everyone else, though, the specter of the government spending less money during a recession makes sense. The private sector has no problem freezing salaries, cutting jobs, making their employees take furlough days and other ways to get revenues and expenditures to line up.

Farmers have done their part. Their hard work, combined with thousands of years of experience and hundreds of years of scientific research, allow us to walk into a grocery store and pick out packages of food with little or no thought about what it took to produce that food.

America has survived, as America is wont to do, one of the latest threats to the republic — a speech by President Barack Obama to the nation’s schoolchildren.

Virginia’s study of uranium mining finally has the funding it needs to move forward, thanks to the only entity that ever offered to pay for it.

Virginia Uranium Inc. Chairman Walter Coles Sr. long ago said his company would pay for the state study. With the commonwealth unwilling to fund the study and no one else waving their checkbook around, VUI money was the only way to move this issue forward.

President Barack Obama is getting ready to fight the good fight on health care reform.

Based on the local town hall meetings held by Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Fifth District, it’s obvious that people are concerned about two things: They want the same quality care they’re used to getting, and they want costs controlled.

Unemployment remained high — and steady — in the Dan River Region in July even though it dropped in Virginia’s other nine metropolitan areas.

Same old, same old … right?

A long time ago in a master’s thesis tucked far, far away, GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell wrote things that, on the whole, demonstrate that he’s a conservative, religious Republican.

Of course, anyone who knows anything about McDonnell knows he’s a conservative, religious Republican. His concern for what is often referred to as the “social issues” facing our country is obvious.

Most Danvillians don’t know the legal definitions of zoning districts like Multifamily Residential, Transitional Office and Highway Retail.

But they know about House of Hope’s controversial move to the corner of Ridge and Patton streets in downtown Danville. Members of the downtown community and their supporters were angered when that happened.

North American Properties, the developer of Coleman MarketPlace, promises to “reopen our dialogue with city officials working to improve access for all” visiting the region’s newest shopping center.

The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond recently toured local industries and gave a speech to a small group of local leaders in the fields of education and philanthropy.