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Patriotism's found a home in Danville

When you see that green, yellow and red sticker or ball cap that says "Vietnam Veteran," just go up and say "Thank you."

04/22/2012 9:00 AM

Insist on answers and full transparency

Regulations for mining must be devised publicly

04/01/2012 10:00 AM
A shattered dream in wake of Tebow bill's defeat

How is it fair that this child or any other is not allowed to simply participate in an extracurricular activity at a public school? State colleges, as well as private ones, gladly accept home-schooled students and let them play sports. But how would a child that has not been allowed to play at the high school level be able to qualify to play sports in college if they didn’t even have the opportunity in high school? How could a family that has been active contributors to the community and taxpaying citizens not be allowed to benefit from the local public school in which district they have always resided?

03/25/2012 8:00 AM
Another stealth workgroup? Really?

It’s not even right. It’s not what the public wants or expects. Efficiency in government should not come at the expense of public accountability.

03/12/2012 8:00 AM
A daughter of Elliot Lake remembers

While the last mine in Elliot Lake closed in 1996, the toxic legacy of uranium mining lives on in the miners, the majority of whom with their families are scattered across Canada. Any meaningful assessment of the true health impacts of uranium mining on Elliot Lake residents is almost impossible because of the high turnover in the population over the decades. The massive uranium tailing areas are legend. They are the subject of hundreds of studies, documentaries, books, photos and support an army of scientists and engineers that are trying to figure out how to contain the contamination.

02/19/2012 6:30 AM
A River District renaissance

Resurgence of city’s economy depends on it

02/12/2012 8:00 AM
Elliot Lake's lessons for Southside

My experience visiting Elliott Lake, Canada — the former "Uranium Capital of the World," which is now a thriving tourist and retirement destination — leads me to believe that worry over any stigma associated with uranium mining should not be a stumbling block in the way of uranium development. I think it is all in the personal perceptions of the people doing the worrying. I live next-door to Coles Hill, and I visited Elliot Lake with a group of eight other Pittsylvania County citizens on the trip Virginia Uranium sponsored, several of whom have expressed opinions similar to my own.

02/12/2012 7:00 AM
Regulatory overreach and the family farm

In Central and Southside Virginia, we have a proud heritage in agriculture, manufacturing and Main Street businesses that create jobs for thousands of Virginians. As I continue to hear from our farmers and small business owners in the Fifth District, it is clear that our heritage and the very future of our country is being threatened by the federal government.

12/11/2011 6:00 AM
Our next U.S. senator should be a voice for Virginia

Virginia needs a U.S. senator who will vote the best interest of Virginians, not the interests of the president and his allies in Washington.

12/04/2011 6:00 AM
Trip to Elliot Lake impressed this mining skeptic

Early last month, I joined a group of eight people from Pittsylvania County for a trip to Elliot Lake in Canada.

11/27/2011 7:00 AM
How did we get into this mess?

If you look at what we have done to maintain our civilization (that we call the American Dream), we have played a fool’s game. If you want it, be willing to pay for it. If you demand things from manufacturers, be willing to pay for them at the store. If you don’t want them to have that type of expense, be willing to pay the consequences, perhaps to the environment and the work place.

10/30/2011 8:00 AM
Understand the issues we face

Prospect of uranium mining demands we possess the facts

10/23/2011 8:00 AM
Time to act on House-passed jobs bill

Since the start of the new 112th Congress, the House has been working and has been laser focused on passing legislation that would remove the government as a roadblock to job creation and reverse the job-destroying policies of the past 2½ years.

10/18/2011 1:31 PM
The truth about Coles Hill and floods

To be credible, a "technical report" must be based on facts and scientific analysis. The BREDL report contains no scientific data, analysis or risk assessment to support its conclusions. Instead, the report extracts quotations from an International Atomic Energy Agency report that, when taken out of the context, appear to be critical of current tailings containment practices. Tailings are the non-uranium bearing material that is left over from the milling process and permanently stored in state-of-the-art containment facilities at the mill site, all under the most stringent federal regulations.

10/09/2011 9:00 AM
Obama is the ultimate comeback kid

What the president said last week made perfect sense. We have to stop the partisan politics at least long enough to start to address the problems and begin to put millions of Americans back to work. I said Americans — not Democrats or Republicans, but all of us — everyone.

09/18/2011 8:00 AM
Fairness and the tax code

Those who work at the lower end of the wage scale pay less in taxes because, after deductions, their wages don’t leave them enough to be taxed and still pay for basics like food and rent, childcare (so they can work), transportation and heat. Which of those things are they supposed to give up?

09/04/2011 10:00 AM
Our quality of life and the Roanoke

We are faced with an irreparable proposition— degradation of the environment, degradation of the communities’ economic attractiveness, degradation of the viability of the region. This is in direct conflict with our mission. We are the voice of the river’s resources and we oppose uranium mining and milling in Virginia.

08/21/2011 10:00 AM
Remember the fallen, but honor the living

In doing so, society affirms amessage of hope

08/21/2011 6:00 AM
Is Virginia's uranium worth the digging?

The unpredictability of the uranium market offers no guarantee that Coles Hill uranium would bring a high enough price to attract private investors or justify Virginia developing regulations and hiring enforcement staff. If our legislators allow future uranium mining, market uncertainties could threaten the stability Southern Virginia needs to transition from dependence on manufacturing and tobacco toward a diverse, agriculture- and knowledge-based economy that can be relied upon to sustain our well-being. The proposed uranium project in Pittsylvania County has been controversial, divisive and economically unsettling. Even if there is never a mine, the possibility alone threatens relationships and fundamental civility.

08/09/2011 8:00 AM
The economic tide's turned

Now is the time to redouble our efforts to take the next hedgerow and then the next — whether it is the next appropriations bill, the fight over the 2012 budget, the work of the so-called "super committee," or the fight for a Balanced Budget Amendment to our Constitution.

08/07/2011 9:00 AM
When's a ban not a ban? When it's a moratorium

No uranium is mined in Virginia today because there are no regulations in place to give oversight of the operations. There are no regulations in place because the General Assembly has not acted to direct state agencies to promulgate them. Hence, the question that will be placed before the General Assembly is not whether to lift a fictitious "ban" but whether to finally remove the "time out" and to direct state agencies to promulgate uranium mining regulations.

08/07/2011 8:00 AM
The GOP's lost touch with people

The rigidity of the party leaders in the current budget/debt debates also defies understanding. In one of the worst economic contexts since the Great Depression, the Republican Party stands vigorously on the side of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, tax breaks and loopholes for the most successful large corporations, as well as promising — promising! — to repeal a health care plan more modest than President Nixon’s; one which covers the poorest and neediest of us and orders my health insurance company to insure my two post-college, under-26 year old children, who are struggling to get jobs and start careers in a country with 9 percent unemployment.

07/31/2011 8:00 AM
A delegate's trip to France

Why I went to France on Virginia Uranium’s expense account

07/24/2011 8:00 AM
Time's come for balanced budget amendment

It is my hope that for the sake of our children and grandchildren, Republicans and Democrats in both chambers will come together, pass a balanced budget amendment, and make the right choice for our nation’s future.

07/17/2011 7:00 AM
'World Class' revisited: the Swedwood factor

When Swedwood first came to Danville, I wrote a column published in the Register & Bee called "Danville — A World Class Organization? By whose definition?" In this article I clearly warned Danville that the relationship between the two was on rather uncertain ground. Here are two paragraphs from that article that you will want to read carefully once again:

07/17/2011 6:00 AM