Debbie Ryan has been in our Hall of Fame for years.

The good news: The United States no longer needs vast stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

With his family literally starving, John Lawrence Locher, like so many people in the Great Depression, dropped out of high school to help feed his family. Not only was his father out of work, he also was stricken with tuberculosis. And then, like so many of his peers, Mr. Locher went off to fight in World War II, serving in the Pacific.

A bridge collapse in Giles County pictures what might have been in Albemarle.

State prisoners crowding cells has eased lately at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail, we hear.

Pedestrian safety in Albemarle County’s growth corridor may be gaining the attention it deserves.

Charlottesville-Albemarle is fortunate to have business people like the Jessups, third-generation owners of the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. of Central Virginia.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men [and women] do nothing.”

As we look at rail service to solve some of the nation’s transportation problems, we’d better look far ahead. In just about 20 years, the nation’s rail lines could become as congested as a gridlocked freeway.

Hanging your clothes out to dry is once again permissible in Southampton.

So. Praise for Charlottesville’s yurt plan was premature.

Our hearts go out to the family and friends of “ZZ” Booth, the 11-year-old boy who was shot to death in his home in Charlottesville.

Get out of the way.
We don’t mean that disrespectfully.

Truth is not a technicality.

Virginia saw not just one, but two major news stories last year involving cruelty or neglect of dogs.
But birds?
Birds suffer from neglect and cruelty as well — proportionally perhaps even more often than do dogs.
Almost everyone remembers Michael Vick dogfighting trial last year. Then there came the raid on the puppy mill near Hillsville, where nearly 1,000 dogs and puppies were seized.
Less well known to most of us is the plight of neglected birds.

Providing an inexpensive yurt for a woman now living in a tent is a compassionate proposal.
Workable? We’ll see.

Charlottesville has offered to work with local charitable groups to buy a yurt for Pauline E. Mallard, who currently lives in a tent on her overgrown property on Angus Road.
A yurt is a kind of a tent — although more substantial than the type Ms. Mallard is living in now. It would sit on a platform and feature electricity and running water.

Can you kazoo? Can you believe that the Original Kazoo Co. is still rolling out kazoos nearly 100 years after producing the first metal instrument?

If he were writing this, George Garrett would shun sentimentality, expunge cliched thinking and generally advise gentle restraint

“The General Assembly shall provide for a system of free* public elementary and secondary schools for all children of school age throughout the Commonwealth… .” So reads the Virginia Constitution. But we’ve added the asterisk, because in many places public education is not free for all children.

Sentencing guidelines have come under fire recently from critics who say the guidelines may impose penalties that are harsher than necessary — such as for non-violent drug crimes. But on one score, sentencing guidelines have proved a major boon for justice and fairness: They reduce variations in sentencing based on race or economic status. And to the surprise of researchers, Virginia ranked well against other states for the fairness and consistency of its sentencing.

More power for the energy grid.
More grid for the energy power.
But eventually — a smarter grid that will help consumers make smarter use of their power.

Albemarle County schools and Virginia’s fourth public charter school should make a good partnership, benefiting students and the county’s educational goals.
Sandy Richardson and Bobbi Snow had tried to persuade Charlottesville to approve the Community Public Charter School, for children who need a non-traditional educational environment in which to thrive.
Those efforts hit a wall.

The value of civility, virtue of ethical campaigning and some traditions of bipartisan cooperation, already long lost in Washington, now often seem diminished in Richmond and the rest of the Old Dominion as well. The public values a determination to do better than Washington in these leadership skills. One uniquely Virginia effort to rise above the tide is the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia.

A former public employee from Madison County has won an award named for a Charlottesville leader in a case heard by an Albemarle judge.
For all its local connection, that case should advance freedom for Virginians.
Leigh Purdum received the Laurence E. Richardson award for individual citizen contributions to open government from the Virginia Coalition for Open Government.

Sitting at a diner downing coffee and doughnuts may be the stereotype for cops, but experts say the problem of the pudgy police officer is a little more complicated than that. Overweight officers pack on the pounds largely because the nature of their job doesn’t allow for regular meals. They’re captured by the trap that a lot of us fall into: fast food grabbed at odd hours and wolfed down on the go.

What’s fair?

l Cab drivers shivering in the cold?
l Cab drivers running their engines for hours at a time to keep warm — but burning expensive fuel and adding to air pollution?
l Cab drivers staying warm inside the airport terminal — but being away from their taxis when passengers need them?

Phew! Crisis averted.OK, so loss of the canopy at Barracks Road Shopping Center wasn’t the biggest controversy in town.
But what sets this disagreement apart from many others is that this time “the people” won. That doesn’t always happen.
Shopping center owners had proposed removing the continuous canopy that shelters strollers from Panera Bread to Richey & Co., and replacing it with individual awnings over each store.

The “Please Brake for Sydney” signs are heartrending. So are the masses of flowers at the entrance to Forest Lakes South near the spot where she died.

Let’s see if we have this straight. Albemarle County allows rural landowners to defer a hunk of their real estate tax annually. That’s if they agree not to develop their property.

In the Commonwealth of Virginia, public universities have witnessed state support for higher education on a relentless march toward zero since the early 1990s.