Loudoun County Crowned the Richest

MoonHowler
The Seal of Loudoun County
The Seal of Loudoun County

 

Loudoun County is #1 jurisdiction in wealth.  Prince William takes a paltry 14th place in national wealth, according to Forbes Magazine.   The rankings were done on the median household income from the 2008.  The following local counties are as follows:

 

 

Here are the  local jurisdictions in the top 25:

 

    1.  Loudoun County
    2. Fairfax County
    3. Howard County
    6. Fairfax City
    9. Arlington County
    10. Montgomery County
    12. Stafford County
    13. Calvert County
    14. Prince William County
    16. Goochland County, Va.
    21. Charles County
    23. Alexandria City

Dr. Stephen Fuller, economist at GMU, informed WTOP that one reason so many local counties made the top 25 list because unemployment in this area is low.

We’re getting richer and probably this reflects the fact we were less damaged during the recession. Our unemployment is only 6.2 percent, which is high for us, but it’s way down compared to the nation.”

Fuller says most of the local counties are also fueled by duel incomes

The Forbes Magazine link shows all 25 of the richest counties/jurisdictions. Some of them are surprising. Virginia and Maryland certainly came out with the most winners.

Congratulations to all the winners.  Does everyone feel like they are just rolling in dough?

No Jail Time Would Save Commonwealth $$$

MoonHowler

convict-looking-out_~LJU_109

 

 

Any time a person  can serve jail time because of charges, the person is advised to get an attorney.  If they cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for them.  According to and article in the Virginia-Pilot:

No jail time. No attorneys. No need for the state to spend its scarce dollars.

At least, that was the thinking of some Virginia prosecutors who proposed a novel way to save money: They won’t seek jail time for misdemeanor charges and the judge won’t have to appoint a state-paid attorney to represent indigent defendants.

Supporters of HB1394 suggest that it will save Virginia several million dollars, although how much is unclear.

“I haven’t seen anything like this,” said Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney Harvey Bryant, a supporter of the measure. “The funding situation is so serious that we’ll look for cases where we’ll say, ‘We’re not seeking jail time.’ ”

Commonwealth’s attorneys floated this idea as a way to prevent deeper cuts into their budgets and staff. Instead of laying off prosecutors, the state would pay less for court-appointed attorneys.

So is this a good way to save the Commonwealth of Virginia millions? Should we skip the jail time for drug users, drunk drivers and wife beaters and just fine them out the ying yang?

Further support of the bill is explained:

A supporter of the bill, Springfield Republican Del. David Albo, said that in many cases, people convicted of misdemeanors, such as first-offense marijuana possession or simple assault, aren’t sentenced to jail anyway. Prosecutors already have the authority to waive jail – this bill makes sure they do so when possible, he said.

Not everyone is on board with this bill, including the governor who also felt there could be unintended consequences for those who relied on court appointed lawyers to prove their innocence.

Big Love Post-Mortem

MoonHowler
The Wives
The Wives

There are a few Big Love aficionados here at Moonhowlings.  Today was the end of a very short season.  Lots happened, so this thread is for us!

So where is all this headed?  Will Margene stay with Ana and Goran?  Will Nicki conceive?  Will Barb leave Bill and will she hook up with Tommy (played by Adam Beach)?  How about Bill’s state senate seat?  Will he be recalled because he stupidly announced he was a polygamist?  How will the incest at the compound spill over into their lives?

Click for the family tree

Next Sunday: “The Pacific” Arrives March 14

MoonHowler

No, not a tsunami, but the epic saga by Hugh Ambrose has been made into a mini series being shown on HBO.  “The Pacific”  starts Sunday March 14 and is getting quite a billing. 

The book has been published and is being billed as a companion book.  Hugh Ambrose will be in McLean the week the miniseries starts. 

 

 

According to the History Channel:

….executive produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and Gary Goetzman-Hugh Ambrose reveals the intertwined odysseys of four U.S. Marines and a U.S. Navy carrier pilot during World War II.

Between America’s retreat from China in late November 1941 and the moment General MacArthur’s airplane touched down on the Japanese mainland in August of 1945, five men connected by happenstance fought the key battles of the war against Japan. From the debacle in Bataan, to the miracle at Midway and the relentless vortex of Guadalcanal, their solemn oaths to their country later led one to the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot and the others to the coral strongholds of Peleliu, the black terraces of Iwo Jima and the killing fields of Okinawa, until at last the survivors enjoyed a triumphant, yet uneasy, return home.

In The Pacific, Hugh Ambrose focuses on the real-life stories of the five men who put their lives on the line for our country. To deepen the story revealed in the miniseries and go beyond it, the book dares to chart a great ocean of enmity known as The Pacific and the brave men who fought. Some considered war a profession, others enlisted as citizen soldiers. Each man served in a different part of the war, but their respective duties required every ounce of their courage and their strength to defeat an enemy who preferred suicide to surrender. The medals for valor which were pinned on three of them came at a shocking price-a price paid in full by all.

Just a glimpse:

 

 

 

Author Hugh Ambrose will be at Tyson’s Barnes and Noble on Wednesday, March 17 for an author event.

Hugh Ambrose

The Pacific

Author Event
Wednesday March 17, 2010 7:00 PM

Tysons Corner Mall
Tysons Corner Center, 7851 L. Tysons Corner Center, McLean, VA 22102,
 703-506-2937

R.I. Community in Crisis When all Teachers Fired

MoonHowler

How sad for all concerned. Given: One of the poorest communities in Rhode Island and the rigors of No Child Left Behind (which is what is behind all this educational crisis.) Depending on who you talk to, there are lots of fingers being pointed. Faulty statistics are being bandied about. Administration is drawing its line in the sand. Teachers have refused to take on extra burdens without compensation. The teachers’ union doesn’t seem to be supporting the teachers. Somewhere out there, there is the truth. I expect it is in the middle.

The one missing part of the puzzle seems to be what the students are doing. What is the community doing? How fast can attitudes in poor, immigrant communities be turned around? Should teachers of students in low achieving communities be compared to teachers in wealthier areas?

Who will be willing to go in and replace all those teachers? The nation will need a million new teachers by 2014. Where will they all come from? When will communities, parents and students start to assume responsibility for their own learning? You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink. After all, its all about accountability.

The Rhode Island teachers will have the last laugh, in all probability. The data-driven replacement crowd will come in all full of themselves and will soon find out that perhaps the job isn’t so easy. The newcomers will probably not do much better, they will burn out and move on. And one day very soon, there will be no one to teach the children. Younger people simply will not want to put up with the insult and there are lots of easier ways to earn $75,000. (that amount was NOT starting pay, btw)

Cuccinelli Says Public Colleges Can’t Protect Gays

MoonHowler

According to the Richmond Times Dispatch the Attorney General has advised public institutions of higher learning in Virginia that they cannot make sexual orientation a protected class.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says Virginia’s colleges and universities cannot prohibit discrimination against gays because the General Assembly has not authorized them to do so.

In a letter Thursday to the presidents, rectors and boards of visitors of Virginia public colleges, Cuccinelli said: the law and public policy of Virginia “prohibit a college or university from including ‘sexual orientation’, ‘gender identity’, ‘gender expression’ or like classification, as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy, absent specific authorization from the General Assembly.“


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Legislative Gun News

MoonHowler

virflagberretta

It looks like Virginians will have to stick with buying only one hand gun a month in the Old Dominion. 

The Senate Courts of Justice Committee killed House Bill 49 which would have lifted the 16 year old restriction on the number of handguns a person can buy.  The purpose of the law that was enacted in 1993 was to prevent gun running.  Crooks bought guns by the case in Virginia and resold them in the North East where gun pruchase was more restricted.  Tracing the guns used  felonies were traced back to Virginia in greater number than any other state.  Governor Douglas Wilder was a strong supporter of the one hand gun a month legislation.

Many moderates feel comfortable with things the way they are.  Others will not be happy with the fact that this bill got stalled in committee.  Our neighbors to the north, however, are probably very glad that we wont be back to being the gun running state.

Here’s Al’s interview on KSRO 3/4/10

MoonHowler

 

UPDATE:  Al Alborn’s Radio interview

Listen to Al Alborn  on KSRO

Part 1:

http://www.ksro.com/Programs/KSROAMNews/Interviews/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10100979

This is Al’s first interview with KSRO.  He did a great job.

I would embed it but it didn’t work out so well for me.

And here is part 2 of the Al interview.  It took place Thursday night at 8:40

Part 2:

 http://www.ksro.com/Programs/TheDrive/Interviews/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10101061

Way to go Al!!!

“When Hate Comes to Town”

Elena

richmondrally1

richmondrally2

 

 

 

 

 

 
This as a great article  , from March 4th, that Cindy Brookshire sent me, Thanks Cindy!

Hate is meant to incapacitate righteousness; literally cut its head off. We witnessed hate this week in Virginia when the Westboro Baptist Church came to the Commonwealth. They’re the jewskilledjesus.com and godhatesfags.com crowd. While we rarely use protests to draw attention to an issue, the fact that the Kansas-based anti-Semites sought to protest the Virginia Holocaust Museum motivated us to turn out folks to that sacred space.

Last is the professional hater, those like the Westboro crowd who earlier this week looked at Holocaust survivor Jay Ipson and shouted that “Hitler was God’s answer to the Jews.” These are formalized family groups who work at the fringe of the fringe to develop a social or religious orthodoxy that uses untempered hate and extremism to generate a self-fulfilling paranoia suggesting the entire world is against “the family.” We have seen this with David Koresh and other cult leaders who are masters of pitting society against a faux-sacred that claims an orthodoxy so far out of the mainstream that the majority of society shakes its head and simply ignores the shouting as crazy background noise. Many who have commented on the news accounts of this group’s presence in Virginia had wished for just that: a broad ignoring of their visit; a roll of the eys, a brief verbal expression of disgust, and nothing more.

But there’s a monument in Richmond to what can happen when hate goes unchecked. It’s called the Holocaust Museum. And that’s where we stood – Jews, Christians, Muslims, Unitarians and none of the above — with a survivor, supporting him, and each other, so that together we might never forget that big hate can start small and needs to be met with compassion, love and strength.

Some UMD Students Need to Grow Up

MoonHowler

Duke (#4) is a big rival of UMD (#22). I have heard about the Duke Flukes from Mr. Howler for years.  In fact, all sorts of hollering, yelling and cussing was going on in my house for the big game Wednesday night.  When the Terps won 79-72, there was great joy here at Howler Acres.  I feel certain most of you heard it from your houses. 

In College Park, however, the big win celebration  ended up in  unruly revelling and rioting that might result in  some expulsions from the University of Maryland.  The AP picked up the story and some very embarrassing pictures.  Most universities don’t take kindly to being made to look like a thug school. PG County police in riot gear and on horses tried to control a disorderly mob after the UMD win.

What a shame that joy has to be expressed by burning trash cans, cars and other things. Mob mentality is unacceptable. Most of the rioters are students although townies and some high school kids were in the mix, hoping to find a good party.

From Boston,com:

COLLEGE PARK, Md.—Police say they arrested 28 people when a rowdy celebration got out of hand after No. 22 Maryland beat No. 4 Duke in college basketball.

Police say those arrested face charges ranging from civil disturbance to destruction of property. Campus police say smaller groups there set a tree and trash cans ablaze.

Police say 23 of those arrested were students. One officer and four of those arrested had minor injuries.

Prince George’s County police Cpl. Larry Johnson says about 1,500 people poured onto a main road near Maryland’s campus after the Terrapins won 79-72 Wednesday night.

TV footage showed officers on horseback dispersing the crowd and police in riot gear patting down young men. Johnson says some threw snowballs and ice at police.

PG police arrested 28 and video tapes will be reviewed to identify other violators. Those found to be rioting face suspension or possibly expulsion from college. Alcohol was considered a major fact in this out of control behavior.   Those who were present at the riots were interviewed on TV tonight.  Naturally they were doing nothing and had to whine about ‘police brutality.’  Yawn. 

The smart thing to do when mob mentality is ruling is to walk, very quickly, away in the other direction.  A few hundred students have embarrassed their university, the alumni, and fellow students who cheered their team on and didn’t turn into cavemen over  a much deserved win.  Those rioting should be expelled.

Political Asylum for Home-School Family from Germany

MoonHowler
Give me your tired, your poor...
"Give me your tired, yor poor...

Political asylum in the United states is usually granted when a person feels he or she may be persecuted or have a  well-founded fear of imminent  persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.  We think of political asylum being granted to avoid torture, imprisonment,  physical harm.  We do not, as Americans, think of giving political asylum to avoid going to private or public school. 

A Tennessee judge has granted asylum to a German couple and their children so the couple may home school their children.  German is one of the few European countries that enforces compulsory attendance in a recognized school.  According to Yahoo News:

 

The Romeikes are not your typical asylum seekers. They did not come to the U.S. to flee war or despotism in their native land. No, these music teachers left Germany because they didn’t like what their children were learning in public school – and because homeschooling is illegal there.

 “It’s our fundamental rightto decide how we want to teach our children,” says Uwe Romeike, an Evangelical Christian and a concert pianist who sold his treasured Steinway to help pay for the move.

 Romeike decided to uproot his family in 2008 after he and his wife had accrued about $10,000 in fines for homeschooling their three oldest children and police had turned up at their doorstep and escorted them to school. “My kids were crying, but nobody seemed to care,” Romeike says of the incident

 
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Prince William Coffee Party Chapter !!

Elena

The Prince William Coffee Party Chapter has been formed and we will have our first coffee talk on March 13th, click here for details.   We will be serving coffee, donuts, and free Coffee Party buttons to the first 50 people!  Now Slowpoke, the buttons are to wear, not to throw!  Seriously though, I really am hoping that people will take this opportunity to start having a civil dialogue.   This is one of my favorite quotes that was posted on the Coffee Party Page:

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone…, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again …touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” Lincoln, March 4, 1861

 

Al Alborn is being interviewed, via phone, by CNN/KSRO Radio, at 10:48 this morning. Al and I don’t agree on everything, but we can disagree and still honor our different points of view. Vigorous debate has been at the very birth of our nation and there is no reason to stop now. But vigorous debate is not accusing the other person of not being a true American  because they don’t agree with you.  It isn’t about yelling the loudest so others are too afraid to participate.  I believe we all love our country, we just don’t necessarily agree on how to solve our problems.  I believe THOSE differences, and our ability to express them,  is what makes us a Democracy.

Kids Direct Planes at JFK

MoonHowler

air towerAn air traffic controller and his supervisor have been put on leave because the air traffic controller allowed his kids to come to work with him. On the first day, the son spoke with pilots from the tower. Day 2, the daughter repeated the behavior. FAA folks are furious. “Take your child to work” wasn’t such a good idea in this case.

The cable news channels have been filled with the audios of the kids talking with pilots. The pilots have also come under criticism for not asking to speak with an adult. General consensus has been How stupid can you be!

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