Corey Stewart will run for re-election

MoonHowler

Tomorrow at 1:3o, Corey Stewart will announce that he is running for re-election for Prince William County Board of Supervisor for the Chairman’s seat.  Stewart currently holds that position.

Prince William County voters need to ask him one question:  Does he plan to serve as chairman for the entire 4 years if elected chairman?

Stewart has toyed with running for Senate and other state election during this past election cycle.  Prince William County residents don’t need to  have their chairman campaigning the entire time in office.   Either he runs for Chairman of the BOCS or he sits it out and campaigns for another office.  There is simply no reason for him to campaign for another office on our time.

 

Public Broadcasting: A ‘luxury’ we can’t do without

MoonHowler

Often PBS Television comes into the sights of some Republicans for defunding.  This year is no exception.  Already the speeches are being made with various people holding Kermit and Big Bird puppets.  TV commercials are beginning to pop up on shows on PBS.  What disturbs me is why PBS.  I can’t see what’s not to like.

Most people don’t give a rat’s ass about the politics of PBS, if there are any.  Most people just like NOVA, Antiques Road Show, Masterpiece, and American Experience.  There are numerous kids shows, some entertainment and some educational.  At least 2 or 3 generations grew up on shows like  Sesame Street and the Electric Company.  These shows were on the airwaves.  No cable was needed.  Poor kids got some solid education, even if their parents didn’t have cable or if there were no satellite TV. 

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Last WWI Veteran Frank Buckles Dies

MoonHowler

The last living WWI veteran Frank Buckles of West Virginia died Sunday at age 110.  His death was not unexpected.  Buckles was born in Missouri.  At age 16, he wiggled his way into the military by lying about his age. 90 years later, he had the distinction of being the only surviving WWI veteran,

The Washington Post  reports:

In 1917 and 1918, close to 5 million Americans served in World War I, and Mr. Buckles, a cordial fellow of gentle humor, was the last known survivor. “I knew there’d be only one someday,” he said a few years back. “I didn’t think it would be me.”

His daughter, Susannah Buckles Flanagan, said Mr. Buckles, a widower, died of natural causes on his West Virginia farm, where she had been caring for him.

Buckles’ distant generation was the first to witness the awful toll of modern, mechanized warfare. As time thinned the ranks of those long-ago U.S. veterans, the nation hardly noticed them vanishing, until the roster dwindled to one ex-soldier, embraced in his final years by an appreciative public.

“Frank was a history book in and of himself, the kind you can’t get at the library,” said his friend, Muriel Sue Kerr. Having lived from the dawn of the 20th century, he seemed to never tire of sharing his and the country’s old memories – of the First World War, of roaring prosperity and epic depression, and of a second, far more cataclysmic global conflict, which he barely survived

Another piece of living history has been lost to the annals of time.  There are no living survivors of WWI.  How long before we will be forced to say the same about those who served in WWII? 

East Coast Rapist Search Goes Digital

MoonHowler

 

Now a rapist even has his own webpage.  East coast police forces have  stepped up the search for the individual known as the east coast rapist:

-866-411-TIPS

A brazen, cold-blooded rapist has terrorized five communities across the East Coast for 14 years. Police need your help to find him.

A neighborhood stalker who won’t stop until he’s caught, this man has violently attacked 17 women in:

These attacks have been linked through DNA. Police have looked at and cleared over 700 suspects. Call police if YOU have information; with DNA it’s easy to rule out innocent people. Your tips are vital and may be the information police need.

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State Budget Highlights

MoonHowler

Yesterday around 7 pm both chambers of the General Assembly ajourned until the special session in April.   Negotiations on the budget went on until the early morning hours of Sunday.  Here are the highlights of this year’s budget directly from the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Budget

highlights

 

Here are highlights of legislators’ amendments to the state’s two-year, $32 billion general-fund budget.

•Added $64 million to the state’s rainy day fund.

•Put $30 million into the Behavioral Health Trust Fund to help move intellectually and developmentally disabled Virginians into community care.

•Eliminated 80 percent of mostly smaller merchants from having to pay the accelerated sales tax.

•Authorized the filling of 21 vacant judgeships.

•Kept the 50 percent “hold harmless” payment to schools that would have seen a decrease in funds under an adjustment to the index that determines state aid to local districts.

•Reduced funding for public broadcasting by 10 percent.

•Included budget language that requires Virginia Commonwealth University to remove the asphalt from land it is transferring to the city of Richmond.

•Restored funding to VCU that the governor attempted to withhold in reaction to the school’s increased tuition rates.

•Rejected a Senate proposal to spend about $500 million on new office buildings in the Capitol Square area, including a new $300 million building for the General Assembly.

•Added $1.2 million to state parks to add 15 staff positions that had been reduced in recent budget cuts.

$32 Billion dollars is not chump change. 

Public Television was cut by 10%.