For many years, Albemarle County has had a land-use program in which qualifying owners of large, undeveloped properties are taxed at a lower rate on their undeveloped land (their residences are taxed at the same rate as everyone else’s).

A few years ago I saw a teenage girl wearing a sweatshirt with “Help Stamp Out Middle-Class Values” printed on the front.

There are only nine states in the U.S. that have combined local, state and federal gasoline taxes lower than Virginia.

Now that the Democratic presumptive nominee for president has all but been selected, it would appear that the overly extended and convoluted primary process has yielded yet another seriously flawed candidate.

Running red lights appears to have become a Charlottesville tradition

Anyone with a memory of the 1970s may see more than a faint connection between the Khmer Rouge of yesteryear and the “government” of Myanmar (a.k.a. Burma).

Today’s lesson is about excessive taxation on cigarettes and how that encourages crime. It’s brought to you by co-sponsors New York State and New York City.

For those in the audience who have the chilling sensation that this spring has been cooler than normal, now comes the National Climatic Data Center with this news flash:

In mid-March short excerpts from the sermons of Sen. Barack Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, flooded the media. Some excerpts vehemently attacked the United States, making Americans very angry. At the time, I wondered whether these excerpts, published without context, were misleading and unfair.

For years, planners have advocated the construction and development of roads and corridors parallel to U.S. 29 as a tonic for heavy traffic on eight lanes there. Improvements over the years to roads such as Berkmar Drive and Rio Road constitute Exhibit A evidence such corridors help ease the burden on the region’s main thoroughfare.

The latest illustration of that maxim confronts our city and county governments and Piedmont Virginia Community College. With cooperation from local officials, PVCC can truly take advantage of change and seize an opportunity.

Educational Assistance Act (S22) in January 2007. It now has 58 co-sponsors in the Senate. A companion bill in the House (HR5740) was introduced on April 9. It now has 250 co-sponsors.

The old folks are all right.
The upcoming generation of Monticello High School journalists got a chance to meet their grandparents’ generation up close and personal as students photographed and interviewed local seniors for the Leadership Charlottesville-sponsored publication “Voices Through Time.”

The curtain went up to community applause last week on Martha Jefferson Hospital’s plans for a new 176-bed facility on Pantops. The hospital’s design, and its siting on an 88-acre plot at Peter Jefferson Place, were unveiled at an appropriate venue, the Paramount Theater. Those involved in the design and siting discussions deserve rave reviews.

Bill Bramanti will be buried some day in a Pabst Blue Ribbon coffin.

Dressed as she is, for business, it’s hard to imagine that a few short hours ago Linnea Saby was pushing pedals 25 miles across western Albemarle County to the Renaissance School in downtown Charlottesville.

OK, so you don’t ride around in your car carrying a laptop with secret, sensitive information. (Or do you?)
Still, you should be concerned about protecting your valuables from theft, even if those valuables are “just” a run-of-the-mill iPod or a camera containing irreplaceable family photos.
Here are some tips from several law enforcement agencies and safety sites:

On May 1, The Daily Progress published a full-page ad from Dominion Power touting its “new clean-coal carbon capture-compatible power station in Wise County” with “the very latest in emissions-control systems.”

It is important to understand that those of us in the rural areas are not at war with our urban brothers and sisters.

Don’t shoot the cougars. Not that there are any cougars in our neck of the woods — not officially, at least.

The Meadowcreek Parkway is not the true issue.

The university area looks to be losing another mid-sized concert hall, with the announced closure of Satellite Ballroom on the Corner.
Charlottesville has seen the rise and fall of several medium-sized, student-focused, concert-dance spaces.

The Daily Progress article of May 2 concerning the Albema-rle County property-rights issue (“Farm Bureau allies rally for county property rights”) again illustrates how our supervisors are swinging to the left.

It’s one of the most basic of rules: Don’t leave valuables in your automobile in plain sight.

On one coast, the collapse of salmon fishing.
  On the other, the collapse of crab harvesting.
On both coasts, emergency efforts to prevent the collapse of the species.

An April 29 Daily Progress article (“National tours will be stopping by the Jack”) described several Broadway shows scheduled to appear at the new John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville. This is both good news and bad news.

It has been wisely said that perfection is the enemy of the good. No finer example of this thought can be found than in the dysfunctional, ineffective, perpetual dithering of the Charlottesville City Council regarding the Meadowcreek Parkway.

What to get a shelter for battered women and children as a housewarming gift is not the kind of question you mull every morning, but there are some local folks who hope you’ll consider it soon.

A homeless shelter will close in Charlottesville.
  A trailer park will shutter in Fluvanna, creating new homelessness.

In explaining her support for a 71-cent real estate tax rate (“Mallek’s approach becomes clearer,” The Daily Progress, April 26), Albe-marle County Supervisor Ann Mallek decided to hold on for the extra penny, which would be placed in a lock box for future economic downturns, because not ha-ving more money in county coffers to deal with decreasing revenue forecasts would have been irresponsible.