Columns

This week saw unseasonably warm temperatures come to Richmond, immediately followed by the customarily frigid temperatures that bring in the month of February.  We are now at the halfway point of the General Session, and during the week ahead we will pass crossover and both the House and Senate will consider respective their respective versions of legislation amending the state’s two-year budget.  As a result, the week to come is one of the most eventful of the General Assembly session.

    I’ve long been a fan of Sheriff Mike Brown’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC). I thought it was a great idea from the time it first got rolling as Operation Blue Ridge Thunder just before the turn of the century.
    The Internet is a wonderful thing. I use it for research and I use it to buy things. It also makes it possible for me to talk with Oksana, my favorite Russian, via Skype without having to pay a long distance charge.

Taking offense

By Tandy Amburgey
Vinton

    I take offense at Mr. Howell’s slanderous comparison of the NRA with Nazi leaders Goebbels and Hitler! He forgets that this “gun lovers” group marched off to war along with the Bedford Boys to fight a guy named Hitler. They went with skills given them by the NRA.

    It may be snowing outside, but the General Assembly is heating up.  Committees are busy considering bills. The House and the Senate have even begun holding floor votes on legislation and sending them across the Capitol to the other chamber for consideration.  And, several organizations have flooded the halls and offices of the General Assembly Building, seeking to sway the votes on legislation they favor or oppose.