Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
News from the Roanoke Valley for April 13, 2012.
Citation preview
POSTMASTER: Dated material, please deliver by publication date
PRSRT STDU.S. POSTAGE
PAIDPERMIT 342
ROAnOkE vA
*The lowest 3.49% APR (Annual Percentage Rate) offered is a variable rate, and is subject to change. All balances will be calculated at a standard variable APR as indexed to The Wall Street Journal Prime Rate (as of February 22, 2012, the Prime Rate was 3.25%) plus a margin of 0.24% for the life of the loan. Automatic deduction of payment is required from a Union First Market Bank checking account to obtain advertised rate. APR may increase to 3.74% APR if automatic payment is discontinued. The Maximum APR is 24.00%. There is no origination fee charged to open the Union First Market Bank Home Equity Line of Credit Special. Other fees may be charged at origination, closing or subsequent to closing, ranging from $0 to $100. Offer is subject to credit approval and is based on a minimum equity line amount of $25,000 with a maximum combined loan to value of 80%. Applicants must possess a Beacon Score of 720 or greater. Certain conditions and restrictions may apply. Bank must be in a valid first or second lien position on the collateral. Bank will pay all closing costs for second lien equity lines up to $250,000. First lien equity lines and equity lines over $250,000 will receive a $600 credit towards closing costs. Home Equity Lines of Credit closed within 36 months from the opening date will be charged a prepayment penalty as follows: Lines ≤ $100,000 will be charged 1.00% of the line amount. Lines > $100,000 will be charged 0.50% of the line amount. Property insurance and flood insurance, where applicable, will be required. This offer is limited to primary and secondary, single-family residential real property located in Virginia. Consult a tax advisor regarding interest deductibility. This is a limited time offer available on new Union First Market Bank Home Equity Line of Credit Special accounts. Certain conditions and restrictions may apply. Member FDIC.
1-800-990-4828 bankatunion.com
Roanoke Star HELOCStrip 7x1.indd 1 3/13/12 1:20:31 PM
NewsRoanoke.com
The Roanoke Star-SentinelCommunity | news | Per spect iveApril 13 - 19, 2012
4341 Starkey Road • Roanoke, VA540-774-0171
$100Off
Diagnostic TestingCall Huntington today. We’re nearby and affordable.
If your child is struggling in school, success starts here.•Certified Teachers•Customized, Individual Program of Instruction•Private Tutoring for SAT/PSAT/ACT Prep•Low Student to Teacher Ratios, Individual Instruction
A one-on-one debate be-tween Democratic incum-bent Mayor David Bowers and the Republican challeng-er businessman Mark Lucas will give voters the contrast they need to either “keep a good thing” or “change the role of mayor.”
The debate is Tuesday, April 17 at 7:00 p.m. with light refreshments at 6:30 p.m. WSLS anchor Jay War-ren will moderate the debate at the Claude Moore Edu-cation Complex on Henry Street across from the Dumas Center. The Roanoke Branch of the NAACP is hosting the debate.
Bowers leads in fundrais-ing with over $40,000 raised in the period ending March 31 according to Joan Washburn, Bowers’ campaign manager. This is in no small part due to a second donation of $25,000 by Peter Via, a strong conservative Re-publican. Via’s contributions to Bowers total a hefty $50,000.
According to Washburn “Via is very happy with David as mayor because of his love for the city of Roanoke and he
is not using it as a stepping stone to higher office.”
Since the first of the year, that includes the February primary race with Sam Ra-soul, Bowers has raised over $70,000 excluding loans to himself. Exact numbers will be reported on April 16 but Washburn said Bowers has over 140 individual contrib-utors. Another fundraising event was held Wednesday night at the O. Winston Link Museum.
Bowers will use mailers, literature drops, radio and cable TV to make his case for why voters should keep the self-proclaimed blue collar mayor for another four-year term.
According to Chris Wal-ters, Mark Lucas’ campaign manager Lucas has 120 individual contributors and will have raised over $50,000. The Virginia State Board of Elections shows one large contribution of $15,000 from the Business Leadership Fund PAC. Wal-ters said Lucas has radio spots and is campaigning door
> CONTINUEDP2: Debate
Growing The Greenways
As Roanoke’s greenway system continues to grow in bits and pieces there is help from volunteers on a
regular basis, supplying some of the elbow grease there’s no funding to pay for. Some of that help is now coming from students, faculty and staff members at Hollins Uni-versity, where work is now underway on a two-mile trail that will connect to Carvins Cove near the boat ramp. From there serious hikers and mountain bikers can gain access to some of the other 40 miles or so of paths at the reservoir.
The new trail taking shape actually begins off Planta-tion Road on the north side of I-81, on property owned by Hollins but not actually on campus. Eventually this two-mile trail, which will be a dirt path, will connect to the Tinker Creek Greenway once the link to the Roanoke River Greenway is complete. The Hollins contingent is focusing on the first three-quarters of a mile, which will be about two feet wide on average. A trailhead and park-ing lot will be built at the Plantation
Scientist Turns To Public to Help Fund Excavation
Dr. Alton Dooley, curator of paleontology at the Virginia Museum of Natural His-tory, has spent the majority of his career excavating Virginia’s Carmel Church Quarry in Caroline County and is now seeking public support to continue excavating one of the world’s most important fossil sites before high erosion rates and possible develop-ment cause the fossils to be lost forever.
Carmel Church is one of the richest fossil deposits in eastern North America and has yielded a vast diversity of marine fossils from the Miocene era, a time period between 5 million and 23 million years ago. The fossils discovered at the site include a variety of animals, including whales, sharks, fish, turtles, crocodiles, seals and sea cows and more. It is also one of few sites along the Atlantic Coast that has produced land mammals from this time period.
While the rich marine and mammal fossil
Tim Kaine And Mark Warner Visit Medical School
Virginia’s U.S. Senator Mark Warner and former governor and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Tim Kaine took a whirl-wind tour of Virginia last week. Warner was backing Kaine as he promoted innovation and education as a means to shape U.S. eco-nomic competitiveness.
While in Roanoke Kaine toured the Vir-ginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute and held a round-table discussion with Warner that included leadership and researchers and innovative companies that have located or formed in Roanoke because of VTC.
Kaine as governor in 2008 took credit for the higher education bond package that made record investment in higher educa-tion facilities at Virginia’s public universi-ties and community colleges. Kaine, if elect-ed vowed that he would work to increase the accessibility and affordability of higher education as part of building a national tal-ent economy.
“[VTC] is like exhibit A of my economic plan,” said Kaine. “It combines growth, it combines talent and it combines balance.” Kaine praised Warner’s leadership in the “gang of six” balancing spending cuts with spending priorities. “You can’t close [the deficit] just with cuts. If you just cut you will hurt important priorities like research and education and infrastructure. You have to make investments as well.”
> CONTINUEDP2: Kaine/Warner
Likely Republican nominee Mitt Rom-ney has opened a six-point lead (46%-40%) over President Barack Obama in Virginia, according to The Roanoke Col-lege Poll. The two were statistically tied in the College’s February poll. Republican George Allen maintains an 8-point lead (44%-36%) on Democrat Tim Kaine in the likely November matchup for the U.S. Senate seat from Virginia. The mar-gin is unchanged from last month. The Roanoke College Poll interviewed 603
Virginia residents between March 24 and April 5 and has a margin of error of +4%. Screening for registered voters (537) re-duces Allen’s lead to seven points (46%-39%) and Romney’s lead to five points (46%-41%).
Part two of this poll, which will examine the perceptions of religious faith, the Presidency, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and Mormon-ism from the perspectives of Evangelical Christians and the general public, will be
released in the next several days.Romney Faces Enthusiasm GapAlthough Mitt Romney leads Barack
Obama, he faces a clear “enthusiasm gap” as compared to the incum-bent, according to poll results. Romney supporters are less likely to say they are very cer-
tain they will vote for him (72% vs. 81% among Obama voters), are only half as likely to say they are very enthusiastic about their vote (31% vs. 62%), and are
three times as likely to say they are not enthusiastic (22% vs. 7%). Not surpris-ingly, Obama supporters are more likely to say they would contribute money to the campaign (49% vs. 20% among Romney voters), volunteer for the campaign (43% vs. 20%), informally talk to other people about voting for the candidate (58% vs. 45%), or put up a yard sign or attach a bumper sticker (50% vs. 30%). About
Romney Opens Lead Over Obama / Kaine Trails Allen in Potential Senate Race
Dr. Alton Dooley on a recent dig at Carmel Church in Caroline County.
> CONTINUED P2: Greenways
> CONTINUEDP3: Poll
David Bowers
Debate Will Provide Opportunity To Size Up Mayoral Candidates
[State Politics]
> CONTINUED P2: Excavation
[Community News]
Volunteers work on a two mile trail that will run from Plantation Road to the Tinker Creek Greenway.
Mark Lucas
Gamename
P4– nick Thomas discov-ers that automobiles say a lot about us as well as the manufactures and the cars themselves.
SpeaksCuccinelli
P6– valerie Garner gives her report after an exclusive interview with vA Attorney General ken Cuccinelli.
OneThe Wild
P7– Our own Wild Bill Turner covers everything from the Red Sox to the Masters to High School Baseball to the latest in late night gadget commercials.
JazzHokie
P9– The 18 piece vA Tech Corps of Cadets Jazz Ensemble, “The Southern Generals” will heat things up at the first ever ”Jazz on the Upper Quad Event.”
Nick Thomas
Bill Turner
Sunshine is forecast for Thursday and Friday with temperatures in the low to mid 60s.Sun and clouds are expected for the weekend. Temperatures will be in the mid 70s on Saturday and near 80 on Sunday.A slight chance for showers and storms returns Monday with highs in the upper 70s.
625 College Avenue, Salem540-389-8844 or 800-277-8845
southwestsunroomandwindow.com
Mon-Thurs 8-5pm | Fri 8-2pm | Sat 9-1pm
Proudly Serving Southwest VirginiaSince 1980
A+
Up to$2000 OFFANY Sunroom or
Porch EnclosureCannot be combined with
any other o�ers.Limited time o�er.
Page 2 | The Roanoke Star-Sentinel | 4/13/12- 4/19/12 newsRoanoke.com
Road site as well.Greenways Coordinator Liz Belcher –
who said it took twelve years for Hollins University officials just to agree to the new trail on their property – may not allow the Tinker Creek greenway to be built on school grounds. If that’s the case a portion of that greenway may just become a sidewalk or roadside path.
That’s an issue for the future; in the mean-time about 100 people from Hollins were working on the new two-mile trail last week, along with volunteers from the Pathfinders for Greenways group, mostly retirees that help out on a regular basis.
Kerry Edmonds is the Vice President of finance and administration at Hollins; she noted that the school, Roanoke County and the greenways commission had been eyeing this project for some time: “We first started talking about doing something together 15 years ago. In the last 3 or 4 years we’ve been aggressive about identifying where on our property we could locate a greenway.” Horses will be allowed on the new trail sec-tion that runs to Carvins Cove – important because Hollins has a well-respected eques-trian program.
The Hollins community outreach pro-
gram has won national awards and a stu-dent run group called SHARE spends time helping people as well; one residence hall at the school is reserved for those interested in service learning and activities. The growing greenway system in the Roanoke Valley and its very existence now on Hollins property is also a selling point for the school.
The Hollins Outdoor program on campus is geared towards students with a passion for recreational activities. “We think this s just another way to connect those activities with something on our property … and the natural beauty of the Roanoke Valley,” said Edmonds.
Hollins graduate student Rebecca Quirk was one of those manning a rake last Friday. “I grew up just doing yard work and being outside. I love to hike and it seemed like the perfect combination of the two … to par-ticipate. I’m very excited.”
Greenways coordinator Liz Belcher al-ways hoped that Hollins University would come around, once all the “legalities” were worked out. She hopes the school will help maintain the trail once it is built and con-nected to Carvins Cove. Students may come and go but staff members who remain be-hind “can train the next crowd [of stu-
dents],” said Belcher.The new path on the Hollins property is
“stage one” said Belcher; the Tinker Creek greenway may wind up running alongside a creek adjacent but not on the school’s prop-erty. “We’ll see how it goes,” said Belcher. “Very little work,” has been done of the 8 or 9 miles needed to connect the existing Tin-ker Creek greenway near Fallon Park to the section taking shape at Hollins now, accord-ing to Belcher. She foresees a crowded trail-head when the path to Carvins Cove opens, probably this fall.
Hugh Scruggs is one of the Pathfinders for Greenways volunteers and a member of the “midweek crew” of retirees that works on trails around the valley. “It’s always ex-citing – [and] we do this every week,” said Scruggs, who worked on the Read Mountain trail for a year. He estimated that the Path-finders group will spend several months on the Hollins project; students may come back again in the fall semester to help finish up.
“Being part of this today is a great thing for our [Hollins] community,” said Kerry Edmonds before she went back to work.
> Greenways From page 1
By Gene [email protected]
> Kaine/Warner From page 1
Having the education that produces researchers like those at VTC is Kaine’s pri-ority. “We’re slipping in the talent race nationally,” said Kaine. “To get back to num-ber one we have to be willing to invest.”
Kaine supports letting the Bush tax cuts expire and tak-ing tax incentives away from companies like Exxon Mobil. “They don’t need a taxpayer handout to do well.” Giving money away is no way to re-duce the deficit, explained Kaine.
Attorney General Ken Cuc-cinelli said that Tim Kaine would have a hard time ex-plaining that as governor he raised taxes, tried to send double murderer Jens Soering back to Germany and called a failed transportation special session. Kaine responded say-ing “Cuccinelli is an attacker – I am a builder promoter and a doer – he can attack all he
wants. I’m not worried about it.”
No visit to Roanoke is complete without a trip to the iconic Roanoke Weiner Stand. But before the entou-rage slipped out of the build-ing there was an opportunity to confront Senator Warner on the report that he was seri-ously considering running for governor again in 2013. Both Terry McAuliffe and Fairfax Senator Chap Petersen are waiting for Warner’s decision before announcing a run for the Democratic nomination.
A cornered Warner was evasive but never responded “no” when repeatedly pressed. With a big Cheshire cat grin Warner said, “The most im-portant thing I can do right now is work on this deficit re-duction bill. We’ve got a train wreck coming at the end of the year with the expiration of the tax cuts … the best value I can add … (He is interrupted
asking for a yes or no answer but Warner ignores the ques-tion and continues) “I would like nothing more than to say that we got our country’s bud-get fixed in 2012.” Another at-tempt for a direct answer was futile.
Meanwhile the Democrats
are in a holding pattern while the Republicans are lining up candidates. AG Cuccinelli and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling are already fundraising and cam-paigning.
By valerie [email protected]
to door.The forum that was held on March 8 in-
cluded the three council members and In-dependent candidate Brian Bushnell. That gave little time for questions between the two mayoral candidates.
Mark Lucas avoided the “ribbon cutting mayor” label and instead talked about be-ing a tool in the city managers arsenal for promoting Roanoke as an entrepreneurial city. Lucas was careful and avoided depict-ing Bowers’ mayoral style. Instead he mostly affirmed his opponent’s views but thought
he could do better when it comes to jobs and growing businesses. Lucas and his wife Wendy own Lucas Therapies and he has started and sold multiple businesses. Lu-cas proposed an entrepreneurial day in the mayor’s office on the first and third Thurs-day of every month.
Lucas is mostly campaigning in South and Southwest Roanoke. The Lee-Hi precinct is a bedrock of voter participation. A solid Lee-Hi and South Roanoke precinct win could put Bowers in jeopardy with low turnout in other precincts.
Lucas has taken the offensive with a state-ment in his robo calls. Besides explaining how he would promote businesses and jobs in the valley he offered a contrast to the cur-rent officeholder he concludes the call with “if you want a mayor who can do more than cut ribbons” elect Mark Lucas.Virginia State Senator John Edwards has thrown his sup-port behind Bowers and Congressman Bob Goodlatte has endorsed Mark Lucas.
> Debate From page 1
> Excavation From page 1
variety that the Carmel Church site boasts is uncommon, what separates Carmel Church from
any other excavation site is the high density of bones found there, according to Dooley.
“At Carmel Church, whale skeletons are literally lying on top of one another,” said Dool-ey. “The high bone density is the focus of my research here at the museum. What makes Carmel Church so special that it should have a bone density that is orders of magnitude higher than other localities on the east coast? We hope to answer that question by preserving and documenting the fossils.”
Doing so, however, requires funding that is available from limited resources, which re-searchers across the nation compete to obtain.
To help fund future excava-tions and field work at the site, Dooley is looking at crowd-funding as an alternative. In-stead of relying mainly on grants from government and private entities, he is now able to pro-vide a simpler way for individu-als who wish to help through a new Web site called Petridish, a donation Web site developed by members of the scientific com-munity to help advance science through research and discov-ery. Scientists apply and have to meet certain criteria in order to have their research projects listed.
“We’ve always relied on pub-lic support to carry out the ex-cavations at Carmel Church,” said Dooley. “However, many people have expressed an inter-est in helping, but have found the scale of our projects daunt-
ing. Petridish provides a way for anyone interested in paleontol-ogy to be a part of the exciting science going on at Carmel Church.”
Beginning April 9, Dr. Dool-ey’s upcoming expedition, “Sav-ing fossil whales in Virginia”, is featured on the Petridish Web site at petridish.org. The expe-dition is scheduled to take place in late summer or early fall of 2012.
Individuals can pledge as lit-tle as $1 or as much as $2,000 or more, with each pledge earning individuals rewards based on the amount pledged. Rewards range from recognition on Dr. Dooley’s research blog, to post-ers, baseball caps, and cast rep-licas of fossils found at Carmel Church. Pledges of $2,000 or more earn an individual a spot on the excavation team.
“The funding we receive will allow us to fund an excavation team of 5 people for a two week excavation at Carmel Church, including all of our excavation supplies,” said Dooley. “We will also be able to purchase lab supplies, such as adhesives and consolidates to help repair and preserve the bones and casting materials for making replicas of certain specimens for exhib-its and educational programs. We also post daily blog updates about our excavations, and en-courage schools and others to follow our progress as we make our discoveries.”
The goal of the campaign is to raise $4,000 over a 60 day pe-riod. If the money pledged falls
short of the amount, all pledges will be void. However, Dooley notes that if the pledges exceed the goal, it’s possible enough funding would be available to extend the excavation longer than the two week period.
“While we are seeking funds for at least two weeks, with suf-ficient funding we can extend the excavation for an additional week or more,” said Dooley. “Past excavations suggest that we should be able to collect ap-proximately one ton of material over three weeks, representing more than 1000 bones and teeth.”
According to Dooley excavat-ing Carmel Church is becoming extremely important due to the growing uncertainty of its fu-ture.
“It is rare for a vertebrate pale-ontologist to excavate a site with a 100% certainty of recovering fossils,” said Dooley. “Carmel Church is just such a site, giving us a very high data return on investment. However, the site is at risk due to high erosion rates and possible future develop-ment. We are attempting to save as many fossils as we can before they’re lost forever.”
To learn more about sup-porting Dr. Dooley’s expedition, visit www.petridish.org. To learn more about the museum’s scien-tific research and collections, or to visit Dr. Dooley’s blog, visit www.vmnh.net.
Don Lilly Agency
www.donlillyagency.com 540-989-1931
Call:
I work full-time.I want to advance my career.I am a face of National College.
National–College.edu
Roanoke Valley Campus1813 E Main St Salem, VA 24153888.202.2643
It’s possible for you too.Call, click, or come in... We’ll show you how.
Business | Computer Technology | Healthcare
National College’s
flexible class schedules
made it possible for me.
Mark Warner and Tim Kaine enjoy lunch at the Wiener Stand.
By valerie [email protected]
4/13/12- 4/19/12 |The Roanoke Star-Sentinel |Page 3
Free Checking Yes NoAlternate:
MyAccess®
Checking
NoAlternate:
Value
Checking
NoAlternate:
Everyday
CheckingSM
NoAlternate:
BB&T
Bright Banking
Minimum
balance to waive
monthly fees
$0 $1500 $1500 $500 $1500
average daily
balance or
qualifying
direct deposit
of $250+ per
month
average daily
balance or
qualifying
direct deposit
of $250+ per
month
minimum
daily collected
balance or
$100+ per
month payroll
direct deposit
average
per month
or $6,000
in various
combined
balance options
or $100+ in
direct deposit
per month or
a mortgage
Monthly Fee$0
$12$5
$7$10
waived for first
60 days
Uni
on
Bank
of A
mer
icaW
ells
Far
goSu
nTru
st
BB&
T
Compare More
Bank Fees At
bankatunion.com
as of 2 / 7 / 2012
Account benefits may vary by bank
WELCOME
1-800-990-4828 n bankatunion.com
Member FDIC
BudgetLive Rep Rewards ATMsLocationsMobile Online PersonalTouch
Bill Pay BusinessTools
These fees are not going to break the bank— or yours, for that matter. But it’s a comfort to know that Union keeps more in your pocket and not the other way around. For welcome relief, c’mon over to Union.
IF YOUR BANK
IS NICKELAND
DIMING YOU
TO DEATH WE HAVE
ONE WORD FOR YOU.
FREE CHECKING And more bank for your bucks.
Roanoke Star 5.378x20.indd 1 2/10/12 1:18:17 PM
> Poll From page 1
one-third (36%) of those who are not certain they will vote for their preferred candidate say it is possible they won’t vote. More than half of those who say they may not vote (56%) say they would be more likely to vote if the Republicans nominated someone other than Romney.
Favorable / Unfavorable—Mixed News for Obama
Election prognosticators often cite the favorable/unfavorable ratings of candidates as potential harbingers of the election. Presi-dent Obama’s favorable ratings are poor (41% favorable; 49% unfavorable), but they top those of Mitt Romney (27% favorable; 43% unfavorable). However, Obama’s relatively high unfavor-able rating is not a good sign for his candidacy. Governor Mc-Donnell tops the list of elected officials and candidates with a 46 percent favorable rating. Tim Kaine and George Allen are statistically tied in this category (Kaine: 40% favorable/32% un-favorable; Allen: 38% favor-able/28% unfavorable).
Poll results indicate that Vir-ginia residents think that Barack Obama understands them bet-ter than Mitt Romney does. Just over half (51%) think Obama understands the needs of peo-ple like them very well or fairly well, while only 40 percent say the same about Mitt Romney. Virginians claim to have given the Presidential election a lot of thought (64%), and even more (67%) say their interest in the campaign is increasing over time.
Allen / KaineAllen’s lead over Kaine is the
same as last month. Allen leads among political Independents (42%-35%), but he trails Kaine among ideological moderates (46%-35%). Allen benefits from the greater percentage of self-identified Conservatives in Virginia as compared to Liber-als. In fact, Kaine does slightly better at getting support from Liberals (78%) than Allen does among Conservatives (71%). Each gets a strong majority of their partisan brethren, with Al-len doing better among Repub-licans (80%) than Kaine fares among Democrats (76%). Kaine holds relatively narrow leads in Northern Virginia and Tidewa-ter, while Allen has a larger lead in the other regions of the state.
There is also a gender gap with
the potential candidates tied among women (39%-39%), but Allen leads among men (50%-33%). Allen has a commanding lead among Whites (52%-29%), while he barely registers among African-Americans (Kaine leads 66%-9%). Kaine leads among younger respondents, while Al-len does better among older residents. Interestingly, Kaine leads among those with the least and most education (less than high school and post-graduate degree) and those in the lowest and highest income groups (less than $20,000 and more than $100,000). Allen leads among all groups between those extremes.
Views of Virginia and the U.S./ Important Issues
Virginians are more pes-simistic about the direction of the country and the Common-wealth compared to February’s Roanoke College Poll (71% think the United States is on the wrong track while 23% think the country is headed in the right direction). Predictions for next year are slightly better with 38 percent saying they expect the national economy to improve, while 26 percent think condi-tions will be worse. Perceptions of the Commonwealth are more optimistic than the country but have declined in a month (45% think Virginia is headed on the wrong direction; 41% think it is on the right track).
Virginians remain focused on the economy. When asked the most important problem fac-ing the country today, the top four issues were the economy in general (34%), unemployment (19%), the budget deficit (7%), and gas prices (6%). All other is-sues combined comprised only 34% of responses, with none exceeding 5%. Virginians disap-prove of the individual mandate portion of the Patient Protec-tion and Affordable Health Care Act by a 57 percent to 32 percent margin. On a related is-sue, those who disagree with the Tea Party movement now out-number supporters by six points (46%-40%), a margin virtually the same as February’s Roanoke College Poll.
Elected Officials’ Approval Ratings
President Obama’s and Gov-ernor McDonnell’s approval rat-ings are down slightly, though statistically unchanged (38% in March vs. 42% in February for
Obama, and 56% in March vs. 60% in February for McDon-nell). Approval of Congress has dropped into single-digits at 9%, down 2% in a month.
Analysis “While Mitt Romney fares
well in the top-line numbers of this poll, looking beneath the surface suggests that his position is somewhat precarious,” said Harry Wilson, director of the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research. “The commitment of his supporters lags significantly behind the commitment of President Obama’s supporters in several areas. While his lead over Obama has widened in a month, his favorable/unfavor-able numbers and the fact that Virginians think Obama better understands their needs do not bode well for the likely Republi-can nominee.”
“The Allen/Kaine race has not changed since the last Roanoke College Poll. It is also interest-ing that Kaine is actually win-ning among Virginians with the highest income.”
“The results of this poll indi-cate a very high level of dissatis-faction on the part of Virginians. Approval of Obama, McDon-nell and Congress are all down slightly, and perceptions of the state and the country have de-clined as well. Both Presidential candidates have higher unfavor-able than favorable ratings. Vir-ginians are a disgruntled group right now.”
MethodologyInterviewing for The Roanoke
College Poll was conducted by The Institute for Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College in Salem, Va. between March 26 and April 5, 2012. A total of 603 Virginia residents were interviewed. The sample of land lines and cell phones was prepared by Survey Sampling Inc. of Fairfield, Conn. and was created so that all cell phone and residential telephone numbers, including unlisted numbers, had a known chance of inclu-sion. Cell phones constituted 21 percent of the completed inter-views.
A copy of the questionnaire and all frequencies may be found on the Roanoke College web site.
Former Candidate Kept An Eye On Several Bills This Past Session
Freeda Cathcart spent part of the late winter and early spring in Richmond, making her posi-tion known on several bills that made their way through the General Assembly session. The former Democrat candidate for the 17th House of Delegates dis-trict seat last November – she lost to Republican Chris Head – also won’t rule out running again in the future.
In the meantime she’ll be con-tent to home school her boys, act as president of the Grandin Court Neighborhood Asso-ciation and keep an eye on go-ings-on in the capitol. The state legislature has not taken any action on uranium mining but the existing ban is still in place. (Cathcart and some other envi-ronmentalists want it upheld.) But she is concerned about a “working group” Governor Bob McDonnell has set up to explore uranium drilling and mining legislation in the future – should the moratorium be lifted.
Cathcart said the way the Ura-nium Working Group was set up, it does not require the public to be involved, nor is it subject to the Freedom of Information Act. “Our tax dollars are paying for it,” said Cathcart, who also contends that the working group flies in the face of recommenda-tions from the National Acad-emy of Sciences, which believes “the public should be involved at every step. [The working group] is very dismissive of the public.”
Cathcart doesn’t think there is adequate storage of uranium core samples taken several years ago at a Pittsylvania County site, wondering what would happen if a tornado tore those contain-ers apart and unleashed urani-
um from the core samples into the air and waterways, just 50 miles from Roanoke. Cathcart said there is bipartisan support for continuing the ban on ura-nium mining. “There’s not the need to put at risk our environ-ment. Radiation lasts for tens of thousands of years.”
State Senator John Edwards (D-Roanoke) helped sponsor a bill that Cathcart championed, one that would require women to receive more information after mammograms about any dense breast tissue that might have been seen during their ex-amination.
Dense breast tissue can con-ceal cancer but many times women were not getting the full story about its presence, which could indicate the need for more testing. Cathcart was pleased that a bill sailed through the General Assembly and was signed by the governor, one that will require more information to be given to women who have dense breast tissue.
Cathcart also took issue with the ultrasound bill passed, man-dating that women in certain stages of pregnancy have an ultrasound and take 24 hours
to think about their decision if considering ending the pregnan-cy. She is pleased that the more invasive form of ultrasound was taken out of the bill; but worries that poor women without easy access to transportation may have trouble getting to an ultra-sound center, or will find the 24 hour waiting period before they can have an abortion a financial and logistical imposition.
She also worries that placing the independent Pesticide Con-trol Board under the auspices of the state Agriculture Depart-ment – something McDonnell touted as a way of streamlining– will allow for lesser control of pesticides that are not related to farming. “People use extermina-tors to come to their house – it’s a different type of [pesticide] in-dustry.”
Cathcart, who took part in sev-eral Richmond rallies on issues like the ultrasound bill, said the old pesticide board was funded by chemical manufacturers that paid fees, and was manned by volunteers. “There was no cost to the taxpayer,” she insisted. The new board provides “more of an opportunity for mistakes to happen and less accountabil-ity,” in her estimation.
The General Assembly may still be a calling for Cathcart – or at least making another at-tempt at wresting the seat away from Chris Head, who replaced the retiring Bill Cleaveland. “I haven’t ruled it out. I really en-joy helping people and however I can best serve the public … that’s where I’ll be.”
By Gene [email protected]
Freeda Cathcart was a candidate for the House of Delegates last year.
PersPectivePage 4 | The Roanoke Star-Sentinel | 4/13/12- 4/19/12 newsRoanoke.com
“”
I am the slowest carpet cleaner in Roanoke.
Williams Carpet Cleaning“I will give your carpet the time and attention it deserves to produce the best results possible.”
• 2 rooms and a hall for $75 • 5 rooms and a hall for $155• Furniture cleaning also available!
Danny Williams • 989-1825 • Cell - 765-7144
Hurry! Sale Ends Soon!
Sunnyside Awning Co. 601 Salem Ave SW Roanoke, VA 24016
Toll Free: 1-888-445-0659, Ext. 71641
71641
National–College.edu
Roanoke Valley Campus1813 E Main St Salem, VA 24153
888.202.2643
It’s possible for you too. Call, click, or come in... We’ll show you how.
I work full-time.
I want to advance my career.
I am a face of National College.
National College’s flexible class
schedules made it possible for me.
This One’s About the Moon, and the Son
More Tales From the E.R. . . .
The traditional Jew-ish calendar is based on the cycles of the
moon. Each month has 29 or 30 days, in which the moon waxes through the first half of the month, is full in the middle of the month, and wanes until the end of the month. Works pretty well, except that after 12 months, only 354 days have passed, leaving some days left over in the solar year. If left alone, the months of the year would slip backwards about 11 days each year. To deal with this, a 13th lunar month has to be added in some years - known as "preg-nant years" - to push the dates back again; out of every 19
years, 6 of them are pregnant.The Book of Exodus tells
us that the first Passover oc-curred under a Full Moon, in the spring. God told Moses to
gather lambs, and on "the fourteenth day of the month, all the members of the community of Israel must slaugh-ter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood
and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of
the houses." The blood allowed them to be "passed over" by the wrath of God, when He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, and released Israel from slav-ery. The month in question was Nisan (perhaps in 1441 BC,
but don't get us started), which is the first full month after the spring equinox. So, for the last 3,453 years, the beginning of Passover has been celebrated on the eve of Nisan 15, under a Full Moon (and the rest of Passover flows accordingly).
The Gospels tell us that the Last Supper also occurred un-der a Full Moon, in the spring. Matthew, Mark and Luke all agree - though John does not - that the Last Supper was a Pass-over Seder. If so, it was held on the eve of Nisan 15 (perhaps in 33 AD, but don't get us started), the Crucifixion would have taken place on that date, and the first Easter would have taken place on Nisan 17. How-ever, when the Romans drew up the first "official" Christian calendar in 325 AD, they want-ed Easter to always fall on Sun-day, AND they didn't want its date to be set in direct relation to the Jewish calendar. So, for the last 1,979 years, Easter Sun-day has been celebrated on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the spring equinox (and the rest of the Easter cal-endar shifts accordingly).
Both holidays move around on our modern solar calendar, but only one also synchro-nizes with a day of the week. Passover can begin as early as March 21 or as late as April 20. Easter can fall between March 21 and April 25.
And so this year - as the moon would have it - Friday April 6, turned out to be dou-bly divine. Good Friday by day, and Passover by night.
Blood of the lamb indeed.
Mike Keeler
Contact Mike [email protected]
I’m on duty in the ER. Thir-ty inches of fresh snow on the ground. Police
are asking that all unessential travel be avoided; and patients are signing in left and right to be seen with chronic complaints: `M’back’s been hurtin’ fer nigh on thirty year. Thought I’d get it checked out!’
I tell you, Virginia could be in a nuclear confrontation with New Jersey, and folks would be coming to the ER for suture re-checks! But, stand to your philosophy, Gahv, each day brings its petty dust. Don’t take it too seriously.
...A patient of mine did a speed-
bump. Where was he hurting? He pointed behind him and said, “Right here at the neck of my head.” [Oh, you know where that is, right near the shoulder of your back!]
...During the recent blizzard,
roads were all but impassable. How to get Dr. Culpepper home after his shift? “We got you a snow-mobile and a driver,” said the nurses.
“Oh great!” he said. Then he paused and asked, “What’s a snow-mobile?” [He was raised-up in Tallahassee and he don’t get out much.]
Reluctant to spill the beans, one of them answered, “Well... uh... you might say it’s like a small car.”
“Oh great! Ah know all about
cars!” he said. They led him out to the parking lot in front of the snow vehicle. He looked around the lot and said, “So. Where is it?”
“You’re standing in front of it.”
“No. I’m standing in front of a little sled with a motor and the words `organ donor’ written all over it.”
But, rather than spend another minute in the ER, he grabbed fate by the fore-lock and reluctantly climbed aboard, all
the while uttering shamelessly profligate promises to his God in exchange for getting him safely home. A platoon of saints could never have achieved all the good works Dr. Culpepper promised his Maker that day.
…A patient stopped and stared
at me like I was a urine sample. “Dr. Garvin! What happened?! You’ve gotten so much older! Did you have a stroke?! [Work-ing at a medical facility, I’m sure someone would have told me.]
“Well, when was the last time you saw me?”
“About five years ago.”“Did you expect me to get
younger?”“Well, no, but not to look this
old!”She later asked me if I was an-
gry at her for telling me I looked so old. I said, “No. Happens all the time.”
But then, there are compensa-tions: I stepped into the examin-
ing room. The little six year old girl squealed, “Oh goody. A boy doctor!” Thank you, Ma’am!
…People wonder why I’m
burned out:The patient came for a return
visit and told me, “I didn’t take those pills you gave me and I’m no better.”
It’s 4 AM. Three patients. One with a cat bite sustained at 6 PM the previous day. Dropped by for a tetanus shot.
5:30 AM: A lady with a knee injury. Three weeks ago. No in-crease in pain. She just got tired of it.
5:45 AM: The lady has a sinus infection. She was diagnosed one week ago. Took her antibi-otics two days. Felt better. Quit them. The infection flared up again. Go figure. So, she came in to be seen. By ambulance.
6 AM: My legs got weak after my heart surgery three years ago.” “And you just now got around to coming in to be seen?” “Yeah.”
6:05 AM: He needed a refill on a medicine a physician had given him in California. Helped him breath. Oxygen tablets.
...“You got the physician’s
name?” I asked. “Dr. Some-body.” Well, that’s getting the ball over the plate, eh?
“Nurse,” I said, “look at the roster and see which of our physicians has the first name of `Dr.’”
...A 39 year old fellow came in
with heart pain. No past history of heart trouble. But, he’d been using cocaine. He was playing `the innocent.’ “Oh, is coke bad for you?”
“No, sir,” I said, “It’s one of the four basic food groups.” The other three are: Mellow Yellow, sun-flower seeds and trail mix.
…I went in to see a fellow who
happened to be a bilateral leg amputee. He told me he worked as a stand-up comedian. [True.]
Look for Lucky’s books locally and on-line: The Oath of Hippo-crates; The Cotillian; A Journey Long Delayed.
The Automobile Name GameDo you have fond
memories of your first car? I don't. And
the reason can be explained in two words: Chevy Chevette.
Okay, you can stop laughing now. I know this was not a vehicle that a young, testosterone-primed male of the 80s could worship as it rattled along the Interstate powered by an engine that roared like an elec-tric toothbrush.
So after driving around unknow-ingly for weeks with a “Ram Me” sign someone had attached to the back bumper, I realized it was time to trade up to a vehicle with a name boasting a little more panache a Thunderbird.
Car names are important to automobile manufacturers. They are keenly aware that pub-lic recognition and acceptance of a name can influence a ve-hicle’s commercial success in a highly competitive industry.
Consider the Jeep Wrangler a great earthy name for a car. But the Kia Kickit probably wouldn’t inspire much consumer confi-dence.
Vehicles are often christened with names that intrigue or arouse our sense of adventure and excitement. What bold driver wouldn’t want to be seen trekking through the rugged wilderness in a Pathfinder, Ex-plorer, Outback, Expedition, or Navigator?
Exotic places also sell cars: Dakota, Monte Carlo, Malibu, Park Avenue, Tahoe, and Yu-kon all exciting destinations and, presumably, exciting cars. A Lincoln Lubbock might never make it off the showroom floor.
Then there are drivers who select specific models according to his or her profession.
Can’t you see an astronomer behind the wheel of a Mitsubi-shi Eclipse; an optometrist in
a Ford Focus; or a pilot taking off in an Isuzu Ascender?
And what proc-tologist could re-sist parking a Ford Probe outside the surgery?
The late explorer Sir Edmund Hil-lary would have
felt right at home climbing into a Mercury Moun-
taineer, although he would have been wary about the Chevy Avalanche.
And almost certainly the in-famous Heidi Fleiss would have treated her “girls” to a fleet of Escorts.
The animal kingdom has also been well represented in the au-tomobile name game over the years. But not just any animal often it is one that symbolizes power, strength or speed. So the Mercury Cougar, Dodge Ram, and Ford Taurus worked well (at least in name).
But there have been suc-cessful exceptions to muscular monikers: the VW Beetle was a cute, popular car, and justly de-served its quaint title.
Two animal categories have been especially popular: horses and birds. In addition to the Mustang, Ford rounded up the best equine names with Bronco and Pinto as well. Wisely, they never produced a Ford Gelding probably a little too Freudian for young male drivers.
During the energy conscious Carter administration, Dodge created a stable of their own
with the Colt. It was a time of ef-ficiency, when cars were named after little animals, such as the Audi Fox. There were even VW Rabbits multiplying all over the freeways.
Our feathered friends have been well represented with the Jeep Eagle, Ford Falcon, and the Buick Skylark. Even chickens made an appearance in the 30s and 40s with the Bantam.
From the 60s and 70s, Plym-outh had the Barracuda and the Roadrunner, which were great looking cars. But the head of Plymouth’s marketing depart-ment should have taken a les-son from other companies that produced the Corvette Sting-ray, Fiat Spider and the Dodge Viper. Now there were some classic cars with names that had bite.
Along these lines, there are a few car names that may not im-mediately be recognized as ani-mals, such as the Mercury Sable. A sable might be best described as an elegant weasel. Wisely, the Mercury marketers chose sable over weasel.
And let’s not forget the Chevy Impala, named after a grace-ful deer-like African mammal. Well, perhaps graceful on four legs when gliding over the sub-tropical savannas, not neces-sarily when rattling along the Interstate on four wheels.
And speaking of rattling, I sometimes wonder about the fate of my old Chevette. I sus-pect it was melted down and recycled into a faster and more graceful vehicle, such as the one my neighbor currently owns, which just happens to be ...... a John Deere.
Local Crossword for /13/2012
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13
14 15 16
17 18 19
20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31
32 33 34
35 36 37
38 39 40 41 42 43
44 45 46
47 48 49
50 51 52
www.CrosswordWeaver.com
ACROSS
1 Gauze 4 Posttraumatic stress
disorder 8 Female (abr.)
11 IOU part 12 Sailors "hey" 13 Which chill and grille now
features Chef Michael Wright?
14 Get at 15 Japanese staple 16 Three 17 Creative products 19 Local heating and air
conditioning company that offers 'a breath of fresh air'.
20 Olden 21 Daddy 22 Dickens' "__ of Two
Cities" (2 wds.)
25 Be incorrect 26 Trail 29 Hit 30 Avail 31 Brink 32 Official 33 Central Standard Time 34 High ranking man- used
formerly 35 Molten rock 37 Bro.'s sibling 38 Wanders 40 Dying 44 Singing voice 45 Scat! 46 Condemn 47 The white tiger cub at
Natural Bridge Zoo. 48 Brag 49 Hotel 50 Aurora 51 Which local ice cremory
is 'sweet to the taste,
smooth on the tongue, and yummy on the tummy'?
52 Female deer
DOWN
1 Science channel 2 Vessel 3 Book 4 Type of probation 5 Before fourth 6 Drogue 7 Change color 8 Offensive soccer players 9 Canal
10 Secure 13 End 18 __ down 19 Saloon 21 Before (prefix) 22 Abridged (abbr.) 23 Equal 24 Poetic inspiration 25 Eastern Standard Time 27 Good grief! 28 Drink 30 America 31 Direction 33 Kroger's local three letter
pharmacy. 34 Aviators 36 Famous cookies 37 American indian 38 Take down 39 Tub spread 40 Hold it there 41 As previously cited 42 Taboo 43 Departed 45 Short-term memory
Star-Sentinel Crossword
By Don WaterfieldFind the answers online: NewsRoanoke.com
Have a clue and answer you’d like to see?email: [email protected]
Contact Lucky Garvin [email protected]
Lucky Garvin
Nick Thomas
Contact Nick Thomas [email protected]
PersPectivenewsRoanoke.com 4/13/12- 4/19/12 |The Roanoke Star-Sentinel |Page 5
NOW ACCEPTING:
365 DAYS OF PURE COMFORTSunrooms, Porch Enclosures, Windows,
Doors, Patio Covers, Decks & More12 MonthsSame as Cash.
No payments or interest Best Insulated Glass Available• Glass Breakage and Seal Failure for a lifetime• No Sub Contractors Installing our Sunrooms• Over 30 Years in Business
COME VISIT OUR SHOWROOMMon-Thurs 8-5pm | Fri 8-2 pm | Sat 9-1pm
540-389-8844 or 800-277-8845625 College Avenue, Salem • southwestsunroomandwindow.com
Up to $2000 OFF ANYSunroom or Porch Enclosure
REVERSEMORTGAGES
Security One Lending
Virginia State Corporation Comminssion • License Number MC5508
�����������������
540-427-6187
����� �� �������� � ����� �� ���Bedford, Virginia - Your Local Lender
Let Your Home Pay YouNeed Money? We can help
Come To Apple Ridge For Your Next Corporate or Group Retreat!Our beautiful 96-acre mountaintop
facility in Copper Hill, only 30
minutes from downtown Roanoke,
is the perfect destination for
meetings, retreats, workshops,
and group outings of all sizes. Our
environment and team-building
activities teach individuals to work
collaboratively, communicate
quickly, and solve problems
creatively.
Our amenities and exciting outdoor adventure programs serve groups of 25 to 100 and are available for an afternoon, a day, or a multi-day, overnight experience, and include:• Indoor & outdoor meeting, reception & classroom space• Commercial kitchen & catering• Jr. Olympic size pool• Team Challenge & High Ropes Course
with Climbing Tower• Athleticfields&tennis/basketballcourts• Dark Sky Observatory• Over 5 miles of hiking trails including a
Universal Access trail• Overnight facilities as well as camping space
Your Retreat Supports The Apple Ridge Mission
For further information & reservations call 540.982.1322 or visit appleridge.org.
You’re On, KidOf the wondrously
huge number of phobias, the one
which affects me most in-tensely is public speaking. My fear of being heard by large crowds originated in grade school during oral presenta-tions. I'm not sure why that is, considering that I excelled at being a real ham during show and tell.
Now, addressing a crowd is a pretty common fear. Most of us suffer this anxi-ety to some extent, though many of us overcome much of it in college, work, or various social situ-ations. Some of us, however, can't quite seem to shed that particular terror no matter what measures we take. Like the idea I had for beating my fear by calling a nationally syndicated radio talk show in order to beef about the issues of the day. One might think that such an outlet is healthy; after all, one calls a talk show to vent and to express. Reliev-ing emotional pressure should thus lead to better mental health.
Or so one might think. In my case, calling the show meant being placed on hold for twenty plus minutes. From the time I dialed the number I was nervous. Every other minute, the call screener came on line (in an intimidating hushed tone) to inform me that I was now number seven in the queue. Each time he did this, I felt my throat constrict just a little more. Commer-cials came and went, and the music signaling that the show was back on the air once again blasted AM speakers across
the nation. My palms began to sweat. This time, Mr. Screener informed me that I was next following the crazy guy call-ing from Forth Worth whose complaint centered around some government conspiracy to fluoridate orange groves in Florida. Would anyone recog-
nize my voice, which sounds like a moose with a head cold?
Just as I began hearing my blood pump from within my head, with palms sweating, and with that icy cold feeling that only fear can bring, Mr. Screener came back on the line to tell me not to
make any noises because I was next.
I think I heard myself gulp, which scared me since he just instructed me not to make any noises.
The host, ever the glib, slick-tongued orator, sud-denly sounded much louder and much, much angrier. "We take a call now from Rooooob in Roanoke, Virginia. How are you today, Rooooob?", in-toned the most professional-sounding and famous person on the other end of the call. "Uumm..." I began, voice crack-ing and hands shaking. "I was
wondering what you thought about Senator Whoozit's plans to push for a-" "I know where you're going, and you're right! Those in our political camp need to stick together during these tough times, Rooooob", replied the gifted orator. "Thanks for a great call," im-parted Mr. Host. "Rooooob makes a good point." (I won-der what it was?)
By this time, of course, I was so wracked with adrenaline that I could have bench pressed a Buick. The famous talk show celebrity prepared to move on to the next caller as I crawled away from the phone feeling like someone had Hoovered the blood sugar out of my en-docrine system. Consuming an entire box of Oreos would not have pushed me closer to homeostatic balance.
Psychologists term such an attempt to overcome a phobia as "flooding" - as in fully im-mersing the person in the very situation which elicits fear. The idea is that the person will quickly learn that his or her fears are unfounded, thereby extinguishing the phobia. I missed that day in class.
I had to take a call.
The Preacher’s Corner “Magdalenic Faith” by George C. Anderson
In my Easter sermon, I talked about Mary Magdalene and the faith that brought her to the grave even though she thought her Lord was dead. This is not the mother of Jesus Mary, but the Mary who John presents at the end of the Gospel as a disciple. Many people might relate to the shaken but vital faith that compelled Mary to come to the grave.
Mary Magdalene is the first person to visit the tomb. But she doesn’t come because she believes Jesus is raised from the dead, despite the fact that Jesus had said he would be several times. Her later shock at finding an open grave and then not rec-ognizing Jesus when she comes upon him shows that she expects to find the grave sealed tight. Jesus is dead, but still she comes. Though crucified and thus discredited in the world’s eyes, Mary comes because, dead or alive, she wants to be near Jesus. Believing or doubting, she is taking her stand with Jesus. How can hers be called faith?
Let’s remember what the Gospel of John calls faith. In chapter 15, Jesus tells his disciples that “as he has been loved by his Father, in the same way he has loved them. So, live in my love. Do so by keeping my Father’s commandments, and this is commandment #1: Love one another as I have loved you.”
A heart-broken, grief-stricken, disillusioned, Mary goes to the grave because she loves Jesus. It is not an intellectual conviction, or certainty, or strong opinion that brings her here. A lot of what she thought she knew and counted on is lost to her right now. Despite the fact that she believes Jesus is dead, and though she is confused as to where God is in all that has happened, she still believes in the God she met in Jesus. God makes no sense right now. But she still believes and still follows. Love brings her.
Can faith be like that? Can we love God even when we wonder if there is a God? Or when we wonder where God is when the evidence seems to say God is nowhere near?
Of course, I am not talking about any kind of God. I am talking about the God Mary came to know in Jesus Christ. I am talking about a good God. There are holocaust moments in history and in life when we wonder if good can stand up to evil; moments when it seems good has been gassed in a chamber and now is in a grave. The world will keep spinning no matter how we treat it or each other, and yet we can’t give up on the God who forbids stealing and murder and commands compassion for the frail and weak; a God before whom there is a real difference between right and wrong, good and evil.
And, I am talking about a love that believes life
has meaning. Sometimes it seems that we make up our meaning and all that we think is meaningful goes with us into the grave. But love of God keeps us believing that life does have meaning, that there is a God that cares that we are here and wants us to live in ways that have purpose and reflect the values of justice and compassion- the values of what we in church call “The Kingdom of God.”
That’s Mary’s kind of love. She doesn’t go to the grave because he thinks God has won, or is certain everything will work out. She goes because the Lord she loves is there. Despite what the world did to Jesus or now says about him, she remains com-mitted to him. I think she is even willing to die for what Jesus died for because she knows that what he died for is the only thing worth living for.
I suggest Easter is not just for those who want to celebrate the empty grave, but is also for those who are here because they cannot quit loving the God they doubt and are searching for, want to fol-low a God they cannot find, are confused about the one in whom they seek meaning, want to be with God even when they don’t expect to be intimate and confuse God for the gardener, and are will-ing to give their lives to a cause where justice and compassion matter even if sometimes they wonder if they do.
If the Easter news is true, and I believe it is, here’s the wonderful news for those whose faith is in a Magdelenic stage.
You love God? Well God loves you. Do you want proof that what you hope to be true
is true; that God is real, God is good, God loves sin-ners, life has meaning and justice and compassion matter?
Sorry; love can’t be proven. Love can be known, but only as it is lived.
Do you feel it? Whether you do or don’t, it doesn’t change any-
thing; God still loves you. Do you half believe it, still hoping it is true? Well, that’s your issue and not God’s because this
isn’t a tale where Tinkerbelle lives if we wish it hard enough. God’s existence and love don’t depend on your believing hard enough.
If your faith is in a “magdelenic stage,” keep com-ing to the grave. Keep waiting, watching and pray-ing for those moments when you hear your name and the gardener turns out to be God.
George Anderson is Senior Pastor at Second Pres-byterian Church. Visit them on the web at www.spres.org
Data TransfersTrainingDisaster RecoveryWireless Setup and Security
www.bridgebyte.com Bridgebyte Computers LLC
Robert Adcox
Contact Robert Adcox [email protected]
AFN41703
Underwritten by United of Omaha Life Insurance Company, Mutual of Omaha Plaza, Omaha, NE 68175-0001
Don Lilly Agency | 540-989-1931
How Does Guaranteed Income Sound?Ask me how annuities can help.
HELP WANTED
EOE/AA/F-M/D-V
Need experienced Drywall Mechanicsfor project in Blacksburg.
Must have at least 3 years experience.
Call Bo Pruitt 678-414-2659
Page 6 | The Roanoke Star-Sentinel | 4/13/12- 4/19/12 newsRoanoke.com
When times are tough you may need someone to walk beside you to offer
encouragement and hope. That is why our hospice offers a FREE support network
and bereavement program from a perspective that strengthens your faith and
helps you get back on your feet and living again. Please contact Kathy Barton
at 540-989-6265 for more information.
Long term employees with experience in palliative pain & symptom management,emotional support and grief counseling
ROANOKE GRIEF SUPPORT SERVICES
FOR ADULTSMondays & Tuesdays, 12-1:30 p.m.
CHILDREN GRADES K-12One Monday night monthly
& pizza provided.
24/7 Referrals... Same Day Admissions
GSH0111-10.85x5.29 RSS AdultKid Ad.indd 1 3/1/11 1:20 PM
Good PayPart-time | May Lead to Full-time
ELECTRICIAN NEEDEDASAP
Please call 540-293-1363
Kissito Makes Progress On Two Fronts In AfricaRoanoke-based Kissito
Healthcare International (KHI), which is currently building a hospital in Ethiopia, is also working at another clinic in Uganda – where the quantity of patients seen and the number of surgeries performed can be quite staggering at times. KHI, about five years old, is an offshoot of Kissito Healthcare, which oper-ates eight facilities in the United States, including the Brian Cen-ter in Botetourt County.
Roanoker Chris Barth spend several months in Uganda as a
volunteer, working on IT issues, and Kissito Project Manager Clarissa Clarke (Barth’s fiancé) will be there for another month or so, according to KHI Devel-opment Director Elizabeth Par-sons. “Clarissa is really excited to be over there,” said Parsons.
The rural hospital in Bugobe-ro, in eastern Uganda, serves more than 50,000 patients a year. Recently Kissito surgeon Dr. Edward Sabiiti performed 18 surgeries in one day. On his travels to Africa, Kissito CEO Tom Clarke noted that “with
just a little bit of money I could make a big impact,” according to Parsons, and thus Kissito Inter-national was born.
Clarke made a point to visit rural hospitals and orphanages on a regular basis said Parsons, and soon determined that he wanted to make a permanent impact on the lives of people in places like Ethiopia and Uganda. Parsons has been to Ethiopia sev-eral times as the hospital planned there is being constructed.
Sam Rasoul is a development consultant for KHI, and also the CFO for Kissito. The former Roanoke mayoral candidate and one time congressional hopeful said that the non-profit KHI is working to combat disease and malnutrition in underdeveloped countries. “We’re [also] sponsor-ing research with partners like Harvard,” said Rasoul, “and we’re trying to increase our footprint.”
The cash flow generated by Kissito’s domestic entities means that sponsors can be assured that all of the money donated for in-
ternational efforts will go toward programs on the ground – a major selling point, said Rasoul. “People are always wondering – where are my dollars going? With our program people are specifically sponsoring a doctor, a nurse, a clinic, a hospital.”
KHI trains people from the countries in Africa they serve (which might include the Sudan in the future) to staff the clinics and hospitals. In Uganda they sent nursing students to the Phil-ippines for training.
“It was very eye-opening,” said Parsons of her time in Ethiopia, which is “filled with wonderful, vibrant people,” that just don’t have much in the way of mate-rial possessions.
In Bugobero, Uganda the hospital there is actually a pub-lic-private partnership with the Ugandan government – a model that works best, according to Parsons. But the facility “literally was falling apart,” and had not received a drug shipment for six months before Kissito arrived on
the scene. The patients seen were few and far between. Now the hospital has seen as many as 483 patients in a single day.
“It’s really amazing – there’s a lot of needs that we’re address-ing,” said Parsons, who com-mends Ugandan health care workers for doing what they can with few supplies. Childbirth is still a hazardous ordeal in Ugan-da, where 6000 women a year still die while having children. “The things you see over there,
you don’t get used to them,” said Parsons.
The laid back and much slow-er pace of life in Uganda some-times gets in the way, “but we have to work within that system and culture.”
See kissitohealthcareinterna-tional.org for more information or to make a donation.
By Gene [email protected]
Cuccinelli Speaks to the IssuesVirginia Attorney General
Ken Cuccinelli first saw the printed copy of the Center for Public Integrity corruption re-port that gave Virginia an “F” during an interview with the Roanoke Star-Sentinel two weeks ago. He dismissed the grade questioning how could Internal Audit receive an “A” but receive an “F” overall.
He rebuked it calling the center a George So-ros organization. “They can call it what they want but they have an agenda,” he said. “Nonetheless, I think some of the things they point out are legitimate areas of concern.”
As a senator he tried to make improvements. “It’s awkward to run for governor and say I’m go-ing to police [legislators]. They need to do it themselves.”
The Open Society Foundation (a George Soros supported foun-dation for liberal causes) is one of 50 donors to the center. This was confirmed in a call to Randy Barrett communications direc-tor for the center. Barrett firmly stressed that they were “staunch-ly nonpartisan.”
Transparency: In 2009, prior to his election
to Attorney General, Cuccinelli spoke at the annual Virginia Co-alition for Open Government in Staunton. “Whoever controls the information has more power,” he said then and repeated again two weeks ago.
The budget could be more transparent but financing an an-tiquated computer system is the problem. “I believe that there are people who prefer a muddled, lousy budget information system because less people can under-stand it and that smaller number of people are in a stronger posi-tion of control.”
Campaign finance as a part of transparency:
With a question regarding the State Board of Elections being a “toothless tiger” he said, “it is
fair to call them a toothless tiger. They don’t have any manpower for policing and they don’t have any legal authority.”
There are two ways to look at this from an inves-tigative standpoint, said Cuccinelli. “You can either have a low threshold for suspi-cion but you police it more vigorously or you have this really high standard where you don’t even look essentially until some-body basically brings
you a criminal case and drops it in your lap.”
“I think we are far more the latter,” he said. “I don’t think that is an ideal way to operate. I don’t think it encourages trust by the people of Virginia”
Cuccinelli agreed that “it was a legitimate concern” that there was no law saying a legislator couldn’t use money from their campaign coffers for personal use like paying relatives or going on vacation.
Caps on donations:Virginia has no caps on cam-
paign contributions and Cuc-cinelli is OK with that but if there were caps he said the cap should be very high. “I’d have a real problem picking some line to reign in first amendment rights.”
Cuccinelli believed his fund-raising would benefit with caps because of his large number of small donors. “We absolutely dust [the Lt. Governor] in terms of small donors,” he said.
“It’s just free speech and I’ve been outspent in four races and I’ve won all four. Would I like to outspend an opponent some day? I would. If I’m going to be running against Terry McAuliffe (the expected Democratic gu-bernatorial nominee) the odds are it’s not going to be this race,” he said.
Judges:“There is nothing perfect,”
when it comes to legislative se-lection of judges. He believes
judges should have terms and not life appointments. “It gets you the best combination of ac-countability and insulation that you can have.”
As a Fairfax senator Cuccinelli focused on judges coming up for reappointment. “Not that I was out to get them or anything but I wanted to make sure they were working hard … moving cases through at a reasonable clip and that they were judging consis-tently and intelligently.”
Judges’ reviews are kept pri-vate. “We need to hold judges accountable and if they don’t like people seeing their job reviews then don’t be a judge,” he said.
Elections – President and U.S. Senate:
Cuccinelli wouldn’t divulge who he voted for in the Repub-lican primary. He will pull for whoever is the eventual Repub-lican nominee. “I’ve organized several of my fellow attorney generals to gather up all the in-formation on all the lawbreaking the President [Obama] and his administration has done.”
“Virginia’s ballot was embar-rassing quite frankly,” said Cuc-cinelli. “It just points out what a terrible system we have. I watch TV returns and though I love this stuff even I’m getting a little bored, “ he laughed.
He took a swipe at the Demo-cratic candidate for U.S. Senate, Tim Kaine, saying that as DNC chair he was the Democrats’ at-tack dog, raised taxes, tried to send the double murderer, Jens Soering, back to Germany. He recounted the abusive driver fee fiasco. “Remember the explosion that caused?” he said.
“That even upset Charlot-tesville, how does a liberal up-set Charlottesville? They think Ho Chi Minh is a right-winger,” he said while laughing. He ex-plained that was intended to be a dig at UVA professors and that Soaring was a former student there.
Democratic Challenger In The 6th Congressional District Holds Town Hall
Andy Schmookler is officially the 6th district nominee of the Democratic Party. He will run against either the entrenched incumbent Republi-can Bob Goodlate or his primary challenger Karen Kwiatkowski. Both Kwiatkowski and Schmookler reside in Shenandoah County.
The political newcomer is in "the truth business" as he told the 25 people gathered at Roanoke’s main library Saturday. He vowed to “always speak the truth.”
His dad once told him that his forthright straight talk was not conducive to his political aspirations. “You’re a person who says what he means and means what he says – that is not how politics work,” said his dad according to Schmookler.
Many award-winning books later - at age 65 - he says that he has not changed his commitment to the truth. Schmookler believes that “neither liber-als nor conservatives have a monopoly on the truth - they only have pieces of the truth.”
The country is facing a very dark set of forces – “a degradation of our birthright as Americans,” he said. The degradation has become so serious to Schmookler that he couldn’t sit by any longer without taking action. He jumped into the political arena because the problem at its core was that the “lie was defeating the truth.”
Schmookler is convinced the only way to restore America and "defeat the lie" is through the politi-cal process. His concern is the widening gap of in-equality between the wealthy and the middle class.
Schmookler also believes that the industry that is funding climate change denial knows full well what is true about climate change. “Half the people think it’s a hoax,” he said. “We’re like the Titanic mov-ing full speed ahead toward the iceberg of climate change.”
Blaming Planned Parenthood for abortion is an-other "myth" according to Schmookler. He also says that there are some who attack higher education as “anti-American” for their lack of American history classes when in truth they offer dozens of courses. “[Republicans] are making war on every aspect of American society which opposes them.”
A Tea Party member in an email exchange told Schmookler that liberal Democrats want every-body to be dependent on the government, depriv-ing people from thinking for themselves. "The people buy the lies and the Republicans prosper," he said.
The founding fathers crafted a system that relied on an informed citizenry, explained Schmookler. “There has never been a time in American history where the lie has been so powerful. The lie is do-ing so good because the entire body of politics has failed. People are living in a bubble resisting intel-lectual thought."
"Journalism has failed to inform the citizenry by not exposing the truth," he said. "Rather than in-forming the citizenry with the truth that the world is round and not flat, the media just puts out op-posing sides for readers to figure it out for them-selves."
He blames the Democratic Party for "the blind-ness and fear of confrontation that allows the lie to go unchallenged . . . It gives me no pleasure to blame the Democratic Party,” he said.
Schmookler is striving to model what he thinks the Democratic Party should be by "speaking the truth."
"If the lie continues to prosper, democracy falls apart," he said. “It is not enough for people to have access to information if they are being sequestered by propaganda that keeps them from the truth.”
As a candidate Schmookler said he is seeking op-portunities to speak to the conservatives in the 6th district. “They are vulnerable,” he said. He wants to convey to conservatives that today’s Republicans are “demonstrably not conservatives.”
He explained that “conservatism is the commit-ment to the preservation and respect for the norms and morals codes and traditions that are handed down to us.” He hopes to convey to conservatives “how their true values do and do not get served.”
According to Schmookler, "No real patriot would want to hurt America. The Republicans used extor-tion to keep the Bush era tax cuts on the wealthy from expiring and did so again with the debt ceil-ing. No real conservative would delegitimize the President of the United States."
"The Republicans are not about policy or finding common ground - they are about power and the fight," he said. Adding that what they are doing “is not the spirit of Christianity.”
Ken Cuccinelli
Councilman Bill Bestpitch talks with Andy Schmookler before last week’s town hall.
By valerie [email protected] valerie Garner
Dr. Edward Sabiiti (right) performed 18 surgeries in one day.
sPorts 12/30/11 -1/5/11 |The Roanoke Star-Sentinel |Page 7
A BULLY BOOT CAMP
AGES 6-12
(Space is limited on a first call basis. Call today!)
Bullies don’t just beat you up. They take away your dignity! The effects of Bullying often have devastating effects on a
child’s life. Now we can stop Bullies and we can do it FAST!
Avoiding common playground altercations How to handle name calling and teasing Protecting personal “space” and possessions Verbal skills to back off a Bully Team strategies to work together to stop Bullying Confidence and Assertiveness Training for all walks of life!
What: A 1.5 hr Assertiveness and Confidence TrainingWho: Kids ages 6 - 12Where: Salem Fitness located at 35 Spartan Drive Salem, VA. When: Saturday May 5, 2012 at 10:00 – 11:30 am Cost: $35.00 per student Contact: Tom Ramsey 540-309-3416
FAST Defense teaches Award Winning assertiveness and self protection skills to effectively protect our children from Bullies. Using simple and effective non violent conflict resolution skills, FAST Defense playfully gives children ages 6 - 12 the tools to stop bullies in their tracks! And the confidence gained from the experi-ence empowers them in all other facets of their lives!
In a fun and safe environment,this dynamic 1.5 hr program effectively teachesour children how to skillfully deal with bullies:
Non-surgical weight loss One-on-one with a physician
877.398.1547 cmwl.com
Start by losing 10 pounds in 2 weeks.**
*Based on a stratified sample of 349 patients over a six-year period. Patients must have remained on the program for a minimum of 28 days and be monitored with at least two physician visits within first 31 days to be included in the study. A variety of nutritional meal replacements were used. 99% of the patients that followed the CMWL program, including a low calorie diet and individual counseling with CMWL physicians, from one month up to a year, weighed less at their last weigh-in than their starting weight. **Based on a stratified random sample of 223 women and 99 men on a medically prescribed diet.
Grand OpeninG - BramBletOn COmmOnS initial COnSultatiOn Only $19!
Kenneth Luckay, DO - 4515 Brambleton Ave. S.W., Suite B, Roanoke VA
Being overweight increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and many types of cancer, it also can take years off your life. Our programs offer strategies unavailable to commercial weight loss programs.
Physician customized plan99% keep the weight off after a year*
lOSe WeiGht aS if yOurlife depended On it.
540.265.35554802 Valley View Blvd. NW
w w w . A b u e l o s . c o m
Free Kids Mealwith the purchase of an adult entrée.
Limit 2 Kids Mealsper Table
Expires 4/30/12
Wild Bill’s Weekly Sports Roundup
A ceremony in the school li-brary last Wednesday saw three Hidden Valley athletes commit to play their respective sport at the college level.
Hayden Smith will attend Al-leghany College in Meadville,Pa. where he will play baseball. A four-year player for Hidden Val-ley, including two as a member of the varsity squad, Smith fol-lows his father, Scott, who was a pitcher for Alleghany.
Since Alleghany is a Divi-sion-3 college that cannot offer athletic scholarships, Smith took advantage of his hard work in the classroom to receive a merit scholarship. He listed the coach, the family history at Alleghany, and other family who live there as his reasons for choosing the school.
Trevor Holdren, a lineman on the Hidden Valley football team for four years, signed with UVA-Wise to continue his foot-ball career. He pointed to the great program and facilities in
making his choice. Holdren re-ceived a partial athletic scholar-ship, and had also considered Concord and Bluefield.
Also Wednesday, Hidden Valley swimmer Sami Norman signed with King College in Bristol. She had also considered Lenoir-Rhyne, Ferrum, Hood and Pfeiffer.
Norman, who has been a member of the Titan swim team for 3 years, and the CCA Marli-na for five, said she was at home with the King team and loved the beautiful campus.
Three Hidden Valley Athletes Sign To Play At College Level
Seated, left to right- Hayden Smith, Trevor Holdren and Sami Norman are surrounded by family and coaches as they sign to compete at the college level.
By Bill Turner [email protected]
Basketball All-Star Teams Named For Roanoke Metro
The 2012 Roanoke Metro high school basketball all-star teams for girls and boys have been selected by the Kiwanis Clubs of Botetourt, Roanoke
and Salem.The girls team consisted of
Jade Lewis (Lord Botetourt), Ryjae Anderson (William Fleming), Tyler Evans (Hidden Valley), Jessi Strom (Glenvar) and Tay Taylor (Salem).
Evans was named player of the year.
Nick Stewart, head coach at Glenvar, was named girls'
coach of the year.Making the boys' team were
Marcus Banks (Patrick Henry), Dylan Hodson (Hidden Val-ley), Amin Abuhawwas (Cave Spring), B.J. Hamlett (Patrick Henry) and Miles Henderson (William Fleming).
Banks was tabbed the 2012 player of the year.
Cave Spring head coach Billy Hicks was named boys' coach of the year.
Girls All-Star Team (L-R) Jade Lewis, Ryjae Anderson, Tyler Evans, Jessi Strom. (Not pictured - Tay Taylor.)
Girls' coach of the year, Nick Stewart of Glenvar.
Boy' All-Star Team (L-R) Marcus Banks, Dylan Hodson, Amin Abuhawwas. (Not pictured - B.J. Hamlett, Miles Henderson.)
Boys' Coach of the Year, Cave Spring's Billy Hicks.
It’s been a trying week for our publisher. High school sports is on hold with the well-deserved spring break in our midst, so games, athletes and the tank-top clad, good looking, warm weather fans are no-where in sight.
That means no games to cover and a shortfall of pictures. No prob-lem; we simply move to the Wild Bill Expanded Coverage to take up more room in print. So, read on, and hold on to your seat.
We have to wait until tonight (Friday, Apr. 13th) before our own Salem Red Sox open the home campaign at Salem Me-morial Stadium. The 2012 Red Sox look imposing, so it should be a great year at the ball park. Add this year’s line-up of pro-motions lined up by GM Todd Stephenson, and Lewis-Gale Field will be the place to be for family fun throughout the sum-mer.
I’ll be in the photo pit in the Red Sox dugout for many of the games, so lean over to say hi to the Wild One. That is, of course, except thirsty Thursdays, when I plan to be on the concourse to check out all the ....... well, you know ..... the opposing team’s outfield alignment.
The Masters concluded Sun-day with a great win by Bubba Watson over South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen in a riveting two-hole playoff. I’m convinced Bubba is the PGA TOUR golfer looking most like a rock singer, and Louis Oosthuizen now holds the record for the most vowels in the name of a second-place finisher.
We’ve now had fourteen dif-ferent winners in golf ’s last fourteen majors. That brings me to Tiger Woods. I’ve got to
admit I was getting a chuckle out of Woods beating it all over the place, cursing and kicking clubs. Interesting how the golf gurus, prior to the tournament, were ready to hand Woods the
trophy before Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player hit the ceremonial first shots Thursday morning.
High school base-ball resumes next week as district play begins
for most of our area teams. The Wild Bill ‘Big-11’ Top-3 holds
steady with Northside, Wil-liam Byrd and Lord Botetourt holding the 1-3 spots. Possible pollbreakers include Hidden Valley, after their impressive run in Rock Hill, SC last week-end, Cave Spring with a senior-loaded team, and North Cross, who’s had some sizzling bats in their VIC openers.
Many of our readers continue to comment on the Wild Bill product updates, so this week we take a look at two products in the world of magnets.
I’m skeptical about the first on our list, the newly promoted late-nite Magic Mesh. This gad-get is a screen-like two-panel mesh that is connected by 18 magnets. Supposedly, this re-places opening a door, or even sliding a screen door to access your patio and outdoor BBQ.
The pitch shows people clam-oring through this thing with nary a flinch, and the magnets immediately closing the open-ing with efficiency. To me, the closing sounds like a rattlesnake, which, living in a wooded area, concerns me that an actual rep-tile will take me unawares on the way to my grill.
The other problem I have with the pitch are the dogs hap-pily running indoors through
the Magic Mesh. What keeps your pets, if distracted, from running outside through the Magic Mesh, never to be seen again?
Hopefully, some of my avid readers who have given this a trial, will offer an opinion.
Next, in the magnet category, was one that took the cake. My wife and I were offered a free meal at a local restaurant last week to hear an informative health care offer. Amazingly, I couldn’t get info ahead of time if this was a Medicare supplement plan or a time-share in Hawaii that would make my cholesterol lower from being around maca-damia nuts.
We attended, and this pitch was a lulu. A heal-all magnetic mattress (and other magnetic products) that cured virtually every malady known to man-kind. Since I suffered from 80% of the list, I listened intensely. The crowning blow came when the affable guy asked if we knew how iron reacted to magnets. I, like others, pictured iron shav-ings jumping around toward a magnet like an Etch-A-Sketch. He then pointed out that a main component of blood was iron, thus the magnetic mat-tress would pull the iron in your blood to give you circulation never imagined.
I’m not offering an opinion yet, but since these gadgets seemed ultra-expensive to the naked wallet, I’ll wrap myself in refrigerator magnets first, and hopefully won’t end up in the freezer compartment.
That’s enough magnetic pull for one week. Send your cen-trifuge to: [email protected]
Bill Turner
By Bill Turner [email protected]
By Bill Turner [email protected]
Page 8 | The Roanoke Star-Sentinel | 4/13/12- 4/19/12 newsRoanoke.com
No one else can do it for our quality and price!
116 S. Poplar Street, Vinton • 904-2070 • www.vintoncomputer.comWe can make your computer new again! Stop by at Woodland Square (behind Vinton Baptist).
Computer Repair • Free Diagnosis • New & Used Computers & Laptops
$50 Does it!No matter what the problem is, we will take care of it! Bring in this ad! Expires 4/30/12.
(takes care of everything, parts not included)
Dear Editor,Dr. Rinker has had some re-
freshing articles in the Sentin-nel. I am writing to comment on some of his energy policy plan ideas for our nation from his 3/30 column: Overall, his tone seems to be one of mistrust of some
of the natural resources such as Coal. One of the many natural resources found in America's ground is an abundance of coal. To look at the long trainloads of coal moving through Roanoke on their way to ports for overseas exportation is an encouraging
sign in a day when this country runs a trade deficit. While some like Dr. Rinker might consider coal a necessary dirty alterna-tive, I am grateful that many of my relatives have been able to make good livelihoods from its mining.
The attitude Rinker portrays for the future of nuclear energy is confusing. In Part 3 of his en-ergy plan he advocates building 200 to 400 new nuclear plants by 2025, but also favors phasing them all out later in Part 7. First of all, building this many new plants would take a prohibitively long time with the necessary reg-ulations that are in place. (Some of the regulations are actually there to encumber this industry from new development. Nuclear energy has already been proven to be safe and efficient in other countries such as France, Swe-den, and Germany. The U.S. Na-vy's nuclear safety record is still perfect after almost 60 years.) In Part 4 Dr. Rinker favors shut-ting down all "carbon admitting stations, including natural gas." Why should we severely hand-cuff ourselves this way. We have already slipped as an energy generator in the international scale. I tend to be very skeptical of any plans that give credits to "carbon footprints".
- Doug Phillips, Roanoke
Rinker’s Argument Not Complete
Kaine Should Lead by ExampleDear Editor Chairman Kaine has been sending notes to
his minions, to pressure Senator Allen to refuse to take any form of PAC Money in the upcoming 2012 Virginia US Senate election.
When Kaine was an ACLU lawyer, then Chair of the Democrat National Committee, did they
not teach him about the value of leadership? Kaine should first refuse to take all money
from Union Bosses. Lead by example, Chairman Kaine.
- Earnestine Dayton, Vinton
General Assembly Off TrackDear EditorThat delegate Greg Habeeb would write a letter to his constituents congratulating himself and mem-
bers of the General Assembly over something so politically driven and trivial as 2nd amendment rights is astounding. Given the GA's inability to deal realistically with transportation issues, education, and the gasoline tax should convince any thinking voter that priority for re-election is the driving force behind all floor votes. Sadly, what is best for Virginia seems to be forgotten
I suspect that disappointment fails to capture the feelings of many about the recent session. -J. Hayden Hollingsworth
Obama Does Little For StudentsDear Editor,This week Vice President
Biden was in Virginia speaking about making college affordable. This is quite ironic consider-ing the fact that since President Obama has taken office, the cost of tuition at a four year in-state college has increased 25%. Fur-thermore, in Virginia the aver-age college student graduates with $23,327 in student loan debt.
For someone who was so concerned with the youth in 2008, he has an interesting way of showing it. Obama’s most re-cent plan for increasing college affordability has done next to nothing to address the problem; rather, it is simply pandering to get the youth vote. In fact, it is estimated that his proposals would save the average student less than $10 a month.
“If the President wants to help
recent college graduates, why are 40% of us forced to move back in with our parents? Why is our unemployment rate still much higher than the national average? Mr. President thanks, but no thanks. We don’t need your handouts. I’d rather elect a President who can fix the econ-omy and reduce the size of gov-ernment in order to get my gen-eration back in the workforce.”
-Michael Cogar, Chairman - College Republi-
can Federation of Virginia
Commentary: The Times They Are A Changing
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal ad-vises that student loan debt is now greater than either total credit card debt and all auto loans. Additionally, if these loans are not paid within 20 years, the balance due is suddenly forgiven. Is this a part of the ‘nanny’ state? How many of us went to college with the understanding that our educa-tion would be underwritten by our fellow taxpay-ers and would be forgiven if not paid within 20 years?
The article also pointed out that states like Vir-ginia that have right-to-work laws tend to have lower unemployment. Is it ‘fair’ that a worker MUST join a union to work in some states?
The article included a table titled, ‘Banks Get Stronger’, showing that the weakest of the banks on the list is Ally Financial. Do we all understand that Ally was formerly GMAC, a financing arm of the General Motors Corporation? In the bank-ruptcy and restructuring, GMAC was divested and became Ally Bank. Guess who owns Ally Bank, the poorest performer on the list. Well, 73.8% of Ally is owned by you and me. And all other US taxpayers. This information suggests that the government can’t run a bank any more than it can run the US Postal Service ($3+ Billion loss in the most recent qtr.) or Amtrak ($500+mil-lion loss in 2010, $32 subsidy for each ticket sold), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (losses of $150 Bil-lion and growing daily), losses at Solyndra and other enterprises (more than $500 million with billions more in guarantees) and the list goes on
and on. Oh yes, remember that the GM bailout of the unions is still on your ‘receivables’ list (taxpay-ers) of more than $50 Billion and the OMB just announced that when you read their recent report carefully, you will find that the new healthcare laws and rules of more than 2,000 pages will cost more than $1.76 TRILLION over 10 years, about double the original stated cost by the administra-tion. And that amount does not include govern-ment administration costs!
Finally, consider the following facts regarding entitlements. Life expectancy of US citizens in 1935 when Social Security went into operation, was 59.9 years for men and 63.9 for women. Now, life expectancy for men is 75.7 and for women it is 80.8 years. In 1935, there were 17 workers paying into the system for each retiree and now there are just 3 workers for every recipient, soon it will fall to just 2 workers per recipient. And our legislators of both parties are too gutless to move up the age for benefits qualification by even a year or two. What this reflects is that while we have the best form of government in the world, we are slipping into a government of the lobbyists and pressure groups, by the corrupt elected officials and appointees and for the entitlements that a pandering government can supply. We have lost our way. Let’s start find-ing our way back at the next national election.
-Dick Baynton, Roanoke
1910 Loch Haven Drive • Roanoke, VA 24019 • 540-562-4596Cinthia L. Honeycutt, DVM Todd C zarnecki, DVM, C VA Laura Nelson, DVM
At Hanging Rock Animal Hospital, we offer traditional, as well as holistic treatments for your furry family members.
We now offer Acupuncture,
Laser therapy, & Homeopathic
treatments!
www.hangingrockah.comPlease stop by to meet our great team, tour our hospital, and �nd out why
we o�er the best compresensive wellness care for you pet.
Sammy G. Oakey, PreSident • www.OakeyS.cOm • 982-2100rOanOke, nOrth, VintOn, SOuth and eaSt chaPelS
Exploring the Special Features of Sudden Death and Suicide Grief:A “Companioning” Philosophy of Caregiving
Featuring Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D. Author, Educator, Grief Counselor
Dr. Wolfelt is Director of the Center for Loss and Life Transition located in Fort Collins, Colorado. He is known throughout the U.S. and Canada for his educational contributions in the areas of both childhood and adult grief.
Date: Thursday, May 17, 2012Time: 9:00 am - 3:30 pmLocation: Vinton War Memorial | 814 E. Washington Ave. | Vinton, VirginiaRegistration fee: $44.00 (Lunch, materials & refreshments are included)Registration requested by: April 25, 2012
For further information or clarification, please call Grace Poff at 800-638-010 or 540-982-2100.Seating is limited.
Oakey’s presents
Bill & Cathy Fandel Local Ownerskitchentuneup.com
540.365.2990Each Kitchen Tune-Up franchise independently owned and operated.
4 INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONSTO UPDATE YOUR KITCHEN
(THAT DON’T REQUIRE A TON OF TIME, MONEY OR A GIANT MESS!)
1. REFRESH with a 1 Day Tune-Up.
2. REDOOR for 50% less than a new kitchen.
3. REFACE your cabinets in only 2 to 4 days.
4. REPLACE with new custom cabinets.
VISIT USAT THE HOME SHOW
March 23 - 25 Stop by booth #208 or call to
choose from 3 March specials!
Community | news | Perspective540-400-0990
Publisher | Stuart Revercomb | [email protected] News Editor | Gene Marrano | [email protected]
Production Editor | Leigh Sackett | [email protected] Technical Webmaster | Don Waterfield | [email protected]
Advertising Director | Vickie Henderson | [email protected]
Call Today for a FREE Quote!(540) 966-2808
$1,000 OFF10 Windows
orBuy 4 Windows
Get the 5th FREE
Send pictures, announcements and
story ideas to [email protected]
The Anchor of Hope Community Center’s Community Health Promoter Program is
based on the Helping Hands Community Health Promoter Program, for more
information call 540.362.5158.
Participants will learn valuable information about health promotion, how to recognize early signs of illness and diseases, and where to �nd helpful resources for health care and health information. Participants will also learn how use that information to promote their own health and wellness and how to share the information that they learn with others in their
Class Series is Scheduled for:Mondays - 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM
(except Tuesday, May 29th)April 30, 2012-July 2, 2012
Anchor of Hope Community Center’sCommunity Health Promoter Program
This 10 week--30 hour course is o�ered for $10.00(to cover cost of printed materials and class supplies)With attendance of at least 80% of class-time, partici-pants will earn a Certi�cate of Completionas a “Community Health Promoter”. Pre-registration is required (see application form) by Monday, April 23, 2012.
To Register Contact:Sabrina Law, Director of ProgramsAnchor of Hope Community Center2302 Florida Avenue, N.W.Roanoke, VA 24017540.563.1444 or [email protected]
Arts & culturenewsRoanoke.com 4/13/12- 4/19/12 |The Roanoke Star-Sentinel |Page 9
5646 Cloverdale Road, Roanoke, VA 24019(Just up from Wal-Mart next to Murray's Apple Cider!)
Sunday School - 10:00 / Worship - 11:00
Any Questions? Call Stuart Revercomb: 330-7335w w w.p eace - church.net
Alex Kendrick Movie SeriesFlywheelMarch 3
Facing the GiantsMarch 17
Fire Proof April 14
CourageousApril 28
No Charge | Love O�ering and Canned Goods Donationsfor the Presbyterian Community Center Food Bank Accepted
Practicing the Truthleads to a new
kind of life.
Never give up.Never back down.
Never lose faith.
Never leave yourpartner behind.
Honor beginsat home.
presents
At Peace Presbyterian Church - Start Time is 6:30 with Free Popcorn
2:30 pm Sunday April 15
Jefferson Street Patio
Roanoke Main Library
540-853-1057
www.rayabrassband.com
Wiggle-Waggle... 4 months old, in need of a home Shenzi is special in every way. Stop in to meet her, she’s got kisses & tail wags & energy to spare. Adopt a homeless pet and help us share the love.
339-WAGS rvspca.org Your unconditional love headquarters
At Your Service!Your Hometown Business Directory
Tree Removal • Deadwooding • Gutter CleaningSpring Aeration • Overseeding
Free Estimates • Fully InsuredMulch Delivered and Spread • Spring Cleanups
Angel Tarabay
540-293-6303Angel’s Tree Service
540-904-7104SERVING THE ROANOKE VALLEY
1618 Roanoke BlvdSuite A
Salem, Virginia 24153540-389-5252
Dust Bunnies, Inc.Professional House Cleaning
www.dustbunniescorp.com • gift certificates available
!
!
JSSRemodelingGeneral Home Repairs
Complete Bathroom Remodeling • Tile WorkInterior/exterior Carpentry • Plumbing
Window/door installation • Hardwood Flooring
For a Free Estimate Call or email James725-7343 [email protected]
Licensed/insured with 24 years experiencereferences available
Use it to call Mr. Handyman.
“The tool I recommend most?
The telephone.”“The tool I recommend most?
The telephone.”
www.mrhandyman.com
RICHARD KARN TV star and “home improvement guru.”
000-000-0000Fully Insured-General Liability and Workers’ Compensation.
Each franchise independently owned and operated.
540-977-4444
Data TransfersTrainingDisaster RecoveryWireless Setup and Security
www.bridgebyte.com Bridgebyte Computers LLC
Virginia Tech Corps Of Cadets To Host First 'Jazz On The Upper Quad' Event
The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets will present the first ever "Jazz on the Upper Quad" event on Friday, April 20. The South-ern Colonels, the Corps of Ca-dets 18-piece jazz orchestra, will perform from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in front of Lane Hall. They are one of three ensemble groups of the Highty-Tighties, the corps regi-mental band. The concert is free and open to all. Blankets and lawn chairs are encouraged.
The group will play music from the big band swing era, Latin, rock, and standards fea-turing, on vocals Cadet Emma Riegert of Leonardtown, Md., a sophomore majoring in politi-cal science in the College of Lib-eral Arts and Human Sciences who is a recipient of the Tom Dobyns Memorial Emerging Leader Scholarship and Cadet Tamiko Krish Acuna of New-port News, a freshman major-ing in architecture in the Col-lege of Architecture and Urban Studies. Both are members of Air Force ROTC.
Skipper, the Corps of Cadets cannon, will be on display with members of Skipper Crew avail-able to answer questions.
The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets has produced military, public, and corporate leaders since the university was found-ed in 1872. It is one of just two military corps within a large public university. The corps
holds its members to the high-est standards of loyalty, honor, integrity, and self-discipline. In return, cadets achieve high academic success and a long-lasting camaraderie with fellow members.
By Carrie Cox [email protected]
The 2010 remake of “Clash of the Titans” was a less than stellar movie. Though it man-aged to gross nearly $500 million at the box office, the movie re-ceived mostly nega-tive reviews due to its thin plot, aver-age action scenes, and one of the most infamous 3D con-versions. Of course due to the financial success of “Clash of the Titans,” Hol-lywood has gone ahead and made the sequel “Wrath of the Ti-tans,” which promises to be bigger and more epic than its predecessor. While its special effects and 3D certainly im-proved this time around, the unengaging plot and disap-pointing action scenes make this an underwhelming sequel to an underwhelming movie.
It isn’t necessary to see the first movie before going into “Wrath of the Titans,” but even doing so won’t make much of a difference. Compared to the first movie, which at least put some effort into its story, this movie hardly feels like it’s try-ing at all. The entire premise of the movie is explained in the first ten minutes, and ev-erything after that is straight-forward and surprisingly un-engaging. The acting is flat for the most part, with the exception of Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, and Bill Nighy. The worst of the bunch is Sam Worthington, who is painfully dull and lacks the emotional depth to carry his role.
The character development was significantly lacking in the first Clash of the Titans movie, but to its credit there was at least something. Here, there’s almost nothing. All of the hu-man characters lack even the remotest bit of development. As a result, there is no sense of danger for these characters. The gods are the most inter-esting characters of the movie, but even they hardly have any-thing impressive to work with until the end of the movie. It’s painfully obvious from the get-go that the movie’s focus is solely on expensive and
technically-impressive action sequences.
Without a doubt, the special effects look great, especially
some of the crea-tures in the movie. Unfortunately, the action is in some ways less impres-sive than the first movie. There’s de-struction and mas-sive creatures, sure, but that’s about it. Even the final fight
against Kronos, who is literally bigger than a vol-
cano in size, is very under-whelming and anti-climatic.
As for the 3D, it has prac-tically no comparison with “Clash of the Titans” in terms of quality. Though the brown color palette and sometimes shaky camera work doesn’t make for a perfect 3D experi-ence, the overall depth is de-
cent and works especially well during the massive special ef-fects shots.
There are many problems that “Wrath of the Titans” stumbles on, but it makes one fatal mistake: it’s boring. Even at a running time of 100 min-utes, this movie is a chore to sit through. Wrath of the Titans lacks both edge-of-your-seat action and a reason to invest in the story, and the impressive special effects can only do so much to hide that. The charac-ters are all dull, the plot is thin, the dialogue is weak, and the movie is largely forgettable. Without any reason to care for the characters or any reason to care in general about the story, this Titan just falls flat.
Rating: 4/10 (Below Aver-age)
The Reel Deal: “Wrath of The Titans”
Seth Childers
By Seth Childers [email protected]
Professor Explains Role of Radio Waves in Titanic Tragedy
If Guglielmo Marconi had not been so stubbornn, perhaps 1,600 would not have perished when the Titanic sank in the icy Atlantic 100 years ago.
Maybe that's putting too much blame on the man cred-ited with inventing radio, but as a member of a commission examining the cause of the di-saster stated, those lost lives "might have been saved if wire-less communication had been what it should have been."
A new book by Bill Kovarik, media historian and professor in Radford University's School of Communication, details the role of radio in the Titanic di-saster, which led to the Radio Act of 1912 requiring ships at sea to monitor for distress sig-nals 24 hours a day. Kovarik's book, "Revolutions in Commu-nication: Media History from Gutenberg to the Digital Age," is an in-depth social and tech-nological history covering that and numerous other topics.
Published by Continuum International Press, Kovarik's book includes a quick history lesson about how a ship, the Californian, eight miles away tried to warn those on the Ti-tanic through radio communi-cation about lurking icebergs.
However, Kovarik writes, the Titanic's radio operators rudely told the Californian's operators to "keep off" the air so the Brit-ish passenger liner could re-ceive weak signals from New-foundland. The Californian's radio operator obliged and re-tired to his bunk.
Like those on the Califor-nian, radio operators on the Titanic were using Marconi's
spark system, rapidly becom-ing obsolete, instead of con-tinual radio-wave transmitters that operated on a variety of frequencies. The newer tech-nology would have allowed Titanic operators to pick up Newfoundland—they were gathering news and stock in-formation to pass along to pas-sengers the next morning—and still receive warning calls from the Californian.
At the time, Kovarik writes, better radio systems were be-ing researched by smaller com-panies that lacked Marconi's marketing power. "Marconi
was not a scientist, and when he found an effective system based on previous scientific work and his own trial-and-error results, he used the patent system to freeze the technol-ogy into place and buttress his commercial monopoly," Ko-varick writes.
Fifteen years after the Ti-tanic disaster, Marconi realized his error. He told a gather-ing of radio engineers in New York, "Everyone followed me in building stations hundreds of times more powerful than would have been necessary had short waves been used."
Kovarik, who presented the topic in March at an Associa-tion for Education in Journal-ism and Mass Communica-tion symposium, describes in his book an incident after the address in which Marconi ex-pressed his lasting regret.
The professor writes: "In a bitterly poignant moment af-ter the speech, Marconi laid a wreath at a small Battery Park memorial for Jack Phillips, the wireless operator who had gone down with the Titanic, still sending out distress calls to the last."
The Southern Colonels, the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets jazz ensemble.
Bill Kovarik
Q T CQuality Tub Care
UglyBath Tub?
Complete Bathroom Remodeling
Remove Old Tub and Install New Tubor Walk in Shower
From Chip Repairs toComplete Re�nshing
Call Now: 992-2406 or Visit Us at www.qualitytubcare.com
Page 10 | The Roanoke Star-Sentinel | 4/13/12- 4/19/12
NewsRoanoke.com
Call Today for a FREE Quote!(540) 966-2808 or (540) 362-1567
RENOVATIONS
R E N O VAT I O N SDIRECT
Virginia’s Gold Sales Award Winning Window Company!
Virginia’s Gold Sales Award Winning Window Company!
RENOVATIONS
R E N O VAT I O N SDIRECT
Virginia’s Gold Sales Award Winning Window Company!
Virginia’s Gold Sales Award Winning Window Company!
$1,000 OFF10 windows
Buy 4 windowsGet the 5th FREE
or
Save
$$ Now!
This Months Specials!
RENOVATIONS
R E N O VAT I O N SDIRECT
Virginia’s Gold Sales Award Winning Window Company!
Virginia’s Gold Sales Award Winning Window Company!
$1,000 OFF DECKING
$1,000 OFFSIDING
Minimum 1500 sq ft home
Save
$$ Now! Plus 18 months same as cash with
approved credit!
Plus 18 months same as cash with
approved credit!
160 sq ft or more
Looking for room with a view?
Joey CornweLLLoan Officer 540.977.5707 | 866.868.3307
From a lender that can make it happen!
Lynne PoLLoCkLoan Officer
We’ve been financing rural america for more than 90 years. farmcreditofvirginias.com
We Finance:
u Small & large tracts of land with no acreage limits
u Homes and home construction
u Home and lot improvements
u Mortgage refinancing
u Recreation property
u Outbuildings and barns
THE CHOICE IS CLEAR.It isn’t the end of the world, but it can be the start of a new one.
For over 40 years we’ve been Virginia’s leading provider of prosthetic and orthotic technology. When you consider that we have the knowledge, experience, and 16 locations to help you live your life to the fullest, the choice becomes clear.
Believe in Your Possibilities540.366.8287 | 888.366.8287 | www.virginiaprosthetics.com
Roanoke | Fishersville | Charlottesville | MartinsvilleChristiansburg | Lynchburg | Harrisonburg
South Boston | Tazewell | Low Moor | Danville | Richlands | StuartRocky Mount | Eden, NC | Reidsville, NC
THE BEST ENCHILADASON THE PLANET.
Each one is hand-rolled and made with pride, fresh-to-order! Get ‘em sauced, double-sauced, whatever,
but if you Enchilada, you gotta’ Enchilada with us.
STARTING AT JUST
$8.99
4802 Valley View Blvd. NW • (540) 265-3555 www.rickwoodsonhonda.com
NEW SATURDAY SERVICE HOURS8:00 AM TO 3:00 PM
$11,995
2006 CHRYSLER SEBRING CONV.Stock #:P4810A
$6,995
1999 HONDA ACCORD LXStock #:P4855A
$8,995
2004 CHEVY TRACKERStock #:220261A
2008 CHEVROLET IMPALA LS #220306B .............$13,9952008 TOYOTA PRIUS #220594A ...........................$13,9952009 NISSAN CUBE #P4835 ...............................$13,9952006 SUZUKI GRAND VITARA LUXURY #220558A ..$14,9952005 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER LIMITED #220243A ...$14,9952005 AUDI A4 QUATTRO #P4875 .........................$15,9952009 VOLKSWAGEN NEW BEETLE #220374B .......$15,9952007 PONTIAC G6 GT #220236A .........................$16,5952004 FORD F150 SUPERCAB #220556A ..............$16,9952005 SUBARU LEGACY #PB4856 ........................$16,9952008 HONDA CIVIC HYBRID #P4879 ....................$17,9952005 ACURA MDX #P4838 ..................................$17,9952008 HONDA CIVIC EX #210665B ........................$17,9952006 BMW 3 SERIES CONV. 325Ci #220618A ......$18,995
2008 FORD RANGER XLT #P4836 ........................$18,9952011 TOYOTA CAMRY LE #P4878 ........................$19,9952009 HONDA CR-V EX #210738A ........................$19,9952008 HONDA ODYSSEY EX-L #220207A ...............$20,9952008 TOYOTA RAV4 LIMITED #210780B ...............$20,9952008 SUBARU TRIBECA LIMITED #220596A ........$20,9952006 ACURA TL #220523A ..................................$21,5952008 JEEP WRANGLER SAHARA #PA4626A .........$22,9952010 FORD FLEX #220433A ................................$23,9952009 AUDI A3 TURBO #P4852 .............................$23,9952007 HONDA PILOT EX-L #220505A ....................$23,9952007 LEXUS ES350 #220318A ............................$24,9952008 CADILLAC CTS #PB4869 ............................$25,9952009 HONDA ODYSSEY EX-L #PA4793 ................$26,995
$12,995 $12,995 $12,995 $12,995 $12,995All prices plus tAxes, title, tAgs, And $299 Processing Fee. All vehicles preowned unless stAted As new. photos for illustrAtion purposes only. offer ends 4/19/11.
3311 Peters Creek Rd • 540-366-0888800-633-1210
$13,995
2005 HONDA ELEMENTStock #:220524A
$6,995
2003 FORD FOCUS SEStock #:220462A
$9,995
2005 FORD EXPLORER XLTStock #:PF4691B
$11,995
2004 TOYOTA CAMRY XLEStock #:220290A
$12,995
2007 TOYOTA CAMRY LEStock #:220528A
$12,995
2007 HONDA FIT SPORTStock #:220489A
$11,995
2007 KIA RONDOStock #:220576A
$10,995
2006 CHRYSLER TOWN & COUNTRYStock #:P4850A
$10,995
2008 SUZUKI SX4Stock #:PB4876
