Never say die.
All Night Long, the Charlottesville-Albemarle after-prom party, will go on this year as usual despite some atypical obstacles.
The survival of All Night Long might not have been in question, but organizers have had to battle extra burdens this year because the alcohol- and drug-free event had to be moved forward to avoid conflicting with Albemarle County’s exam time.
April 26 was chosen as the day that city and county high schools could accommodate.

I made time stand still for the young teen behind the counter, shutting down his universe by paying my $3 tab with a bill and a coin that made exact change.

Virginia, once the mother of presidents, is now the proud parent of a boatload of political figures who insist there is “no higher honor” than serving as governor.
Virginia also is the only state remaining with a one-term-and-gone governorship, perhaps to en-courage the long line of would-be governors who seek to occupy the two statewide governor-in-waiting positions.

The March 29 story in The Daily Progress about sniper shootings in Albemarle County (“2 arrested in snipings”) tells another sad and tragic story of a senseless act of gun violence in our state.

The entire country has again been given a glimpse on the national news of a society caught in the firm grip of a state legislature owned lock, stock and barrel by the gun lobby.

We agree completely with the excellent letter of April 9 urging the Charlottesville School Board to vote against the transfer of school land to the Virginia Department of Transportation for the Meadowbrook Parkway (“Don’t use school’s land for road,” The Daily Progress).
We have tried for years to persuade the city councilors to reject the increasingly expensive plan to carve a road through McIntire Park that will not benefit the city.

What nation would conclude a treaty with the United States knowing that Congress can change the rules of the game after it is negotiated?” asked House Minority Leader John Boehner.
Indeed.
Political gamesmanship on Capitol Hill is now putting at risk the very honor of the United States.
Also in peril, of course, are the economic and political advantages of the trade treaty with Colombia that is now being subjected to rewritten rules in Congress.

I had some time the other day to visit the SPCA at 3355 Berkmar Drive.
It is a very nice building, and the people are friendly and gracious. The place is very clean, and there are things you can buy for your pet at decent prices, but it is a sad place.
You go through the doors to the animal area.
There are many cats and dogs, and many of them are beautiful animals.

There seem to be an increasing number of fatal accidents in which the person killed was not wearing a seat belt.
This could happen to you if you choose not to wear that seat belt — for whatever reason. Perhaps the belt will wrinkle your clothes.
Please consider the indescribable pain you will cause your family and friends if you died so needlessly. 

Grrrls rule.
Hillary Clinton might or might not become president, but in the small Panhandle city of McLean, Texas, women already run just about everything in sight — in both the public and private sectors.
A woman mayor leads five women aldermen (yes, aldermen).

They’re painting and hammering, priming and coating, from the sanctuary to the classrooms to basement fellowship hall to better suit their mission.

I’d like to thank The Daily Progress for bringing attention to the fact that Albemarle County is in desperate need of “soccer fields” (“Soccer fields need urgent,” April 6).
I would, however, like to take issue with the use of the words “soccer fields.”
While this may have made the local soccer organizations smile, it made those of us who have children involved in other field-related sports disappointed.

Headlines about the funding gap for U.S. 250 interchange and Meadowcreek Parkway, and the possibility of changing the design, combined with the news that more property is needed from Charlottesville High School (The Daily Progress, April 4), confirm my feeling that the parkway project is way overdesigned for the community’s genuine needs — unless, in the 40-year process from idea to design, it has been massaged from a simple improved connection between Rio Road and the U.S 250 Bypass to a first-generation Eastern Connector.

Hiding the light from the world is a symbol that powerfully speaks for itself.
San Francisco officials understandably wished to prevent violence in their city as the Olympic torch made its way toward China. The ceremony is meant to be uplighting.
But hiding the torch from protestors and spectators alike serves as prima facie evidence of the debacle into which the Beijing Olympics has devolved.

A Daily Progress story on March 26 headlined “New UVa grad center to serve as Jefferson Scholars’ base” clarifies important issues.
The graduate center design, with its four connected buildings facing a courtyard, could have easily incorporated Eugene Bradbury’s historic Compton House.

What is it with signage in Charlottesville?
Every few years, someone proposes redoing the city’s signs, as if it were a fresh and inventive idea. Better signage would boost business, bring more tourists downtown, encourage shoppers to linger by making it easy for them to find their way around.

So it comes down to nine acres of land on Charlottesville High School property. In order to gain final right of way for the Meadowcreek Parkway, the Virginia Department of Transportation has asked the city School Board to donate what is now a practice field.
And thus seven people have, at least for now, the power to move the project forward or stand, as it were, in front of the bulldozers.

A judge bans witnesses from using the words “assailant,” “rape” and “sexual assault kit” during a sexual assault trial.
A police officer arrests a woman for cursing inside her own house — and a prosecutor puts her through a trial.
A university president expels a student for protesting the construction of two campus parking garages.

Recently an informed group of citizens challenged the $142 million water supply plan that local authorities have drafted in recent years. The issues are complex, but the core objection is simple.
Our water plans should start with maintaining the supply we have. We should dredge the South Fork Reservoir before we go off and create a huge dam at Ragged Mountain, lose 130 acres of parkland there, and build an expensive pipeline.

The University of Virginia athletics program leads UVa’s fund-raising campaign — but does not dominate. If this were a sports contest, we might say that athletics holds a comfortable lead.
This truth, from survey of how UVa programs are doing roughly halfway through the campaign, shatters the assumption by many people that athletics overwhelms other fundraising efforts.

The Germans have a saying: Aus Schaden wird man klug.
No one exemplified that proverb, “sorrow and pain makes one wiser,” more than Bernhard Leipelt, who went from Hitler Youth and Wehrmacht officer in World War II to a Charlottesville social activist in his retirement.

Any candidate, Democratic or Republican, who wins the presidential elections will face a great challenge of understanding Iran.

He’s not the first in this campaign to want a fresh start. When she launched her presidential bid in January 2007, Hillary Clinton called herself “the most famous person you really don’t know.” She wasn’t hard as nails. To the contrary, she’s tough enough – and warm and caring besides. She’s still fighting the image battle.

One item in my morning newspaper stood out like a ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds in one of those old inspirational paintings, against the necessary but often sad background of bad news about the economy, politics and crime.

It announced that Bob Gibson, longtime political writer for The Daily Progress, has been named to head the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia.

I would like to commend the Albemarle County Police, Virginia State Police and all the surrounding counties of law enforcement officers (too numerous to mention) who worked so diligently to apprehend the I-64 gunmen.

It’s comforting to know that we, as citizens, have that kind of protection. 

The rivalry between the Washing-ton Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys lives on, regardless of how good each team may be at the moment.
The Redskins have a big stadium in suburban Maryland just outside Washington, so the Cowboys, being Texans and all, have a big case of stadium envy and are building a bigger one.
The new Texas Stadium for the Dallas Cowboys is a whopper.

Cleaning out a desk after 31 years, OK, four desks really, but this one is quite the messiest, yields nice little nuggets of what made yesterday’s news a few years back, having escaped the fleeting flirtation of an editor’s knife and the lure of the landfill.

This animal, so dangerous that in Denver it would be confiscated and killed upon discovery, sniffs my pant leg.
It’s a pit bull named Zena, like the warrior princess, but spelled with a Z because she’s so much cooler. The breed is one of the most popular in Our Fair City with nigh unto as many pits as hounds awaiting adoption at the SPCA to prove it

In March a letter was sent to the mayor and Charlottesville City Council with heartfelt sentiment, more than about a dollar, though the dollar could cost me my home. I have not gotten a response.
I’m a very fortunate person. I had the pleasure and privilege of growing up here with the Paramount Theatre, Bibb’s Fish Market and Woolworth’s. I have been here since age 3, am 49 and have lived on the same street the last 20 years. I love this town and support it wholeheartedly.

According to TV news, the City of Charlottesville is spending $500,000 on a green roof for City Hall.
While that may be commendable from an environmental point of view, it leaves something to be desired from a taxpayer’s point of view.
If they can save $1,000 a month on heating and cooling, that will take a little over 40 years to amortize the expense and that is without counting the cost of maintenance of that green roof over 40 years.

The Charlottesville area is about to get an economic shot in the arm courtesy of the federal government, which decided to move some defense and intelligence operations southwest from Northern Virginia by roughly 100 miles.
In short, the Washington area’s loss of approximately 1,000 defense-related jobs is Albemarle County’s gain.