In 1921, Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, wrote “The most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.”

The Virginia Supreme Court building is located across the street from Capitol Square in Richmond. So when the high court neutered the General Assembly’s “landmark” transportation funding plan last week, the chief justice was in perfect position to heave a political hot potato across Ninth Street into the lap of House Speaker William Howell.

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled that only “an elected body can constitutionally impose taxes and fees,” striking down part of the compromise transportation funding bill passed last year.

As I prepare for the final week of the General Assembly session, I wanted to give you a brief update on our activities in Richmond.

According to the U. S. Department of Justice, violent crime in the United Sates has been in a freefall since about 1994.

I am sure that a year from now there will at least be a dozen books written on the Obama campaign regardless of the outcome in November or should he continue to lead on his way to what seems to be the inevitable — the Democratic Party’s nomination. 

A reporter asked President Bush at the end of his news conference last week if he still thinks Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic presidential nominee.

The argument one hears most often for not enforcing illegal immigration laws is that we can’t deport the estimated 12 million people already in this country.

When you write for the newspaper, you learn to develop a thick skin. I am reminded of this whenever I write a column about a potentially divisive topic.

Nominations for the seventh annual America’s Best Restroom Award are being taken now through April 7 with an overall winner announced in August, if you can hold it that long.

CONCANNON FIRE

News is usually serious business, even if stories have a humorous side.

Moods can be very mysterious things. What affects people’s moods can vary widely and even the word “mood” is sort of funny to contemplate. MOOD.

Navy veterans like myself probably did a lot of chest thumping last week when the cruiser USS Lake Erie shot down a crippled U.S. spy satellite as it fell toward earth at 17,000 miles per hour.
Ha! Let’s see the Air Force top that.

“When bright young minds can’t afford college, America pays the price”
— Arthur Ashe

Many hear the call, but few sitting senators actually make the move to the White House. Last week, we saw why.

You may remember Feb. 12. That was the day the ice hit and the traffic stopped.

Since I last wrote about Math Investigations, I have done some additional research into the program.

While we Americans have been busy shooting down our own spy satellites and trying to figure out what a superdelegate is, we have turned a blind eye to what is possibly the most horrific threat to this great nation: devil toads.

CONCANNON FIRE

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

I have some good news for the citizenry as the presidential campaign swiftly winds its way this week through the cheesy dells of Wisconsin, towards the blue-collar havens of Ohio and the cantaloupe fields of the Texas Rio Grande in early March.