Editorial: Say Yes to Health Coverage
Governor, state panel must accept coverage for 400,000 Virginians without health insurance.
More than 140,000 residents of Fairfax County have no health insurance. That’s more than 13 percent of the slightly more than 1 million people who live in the wealthiest county in the nation. Arlington and Alexandria have similar percentages of uninsured.
Column: Just Wondering
Having never attended medical school (and not really having had the grades or commitment to do so), and having only completed 10th grade biology and freshman year astronomy, and rarely even driven by a medical school growing up, my understanding and/or instincts regarding how a medical professional plans and/or prepares for his day is as foreign to me as sugar-free chocolate (if I’m going down, I’m going down swinging; in truth however, considering the anti-cancer, alkaline diet I’m following, I do need to swing a little less frequently).
Letter: Discussing Internet On Capitol Hill
Letter: Discussing Internet On Capitol Hill
Commentary: General Assembly to Reconvene
Commentary: General Assembly to Reconvene
Column: Writing What Four
As far as anniversaries go–and I hope this one “goes” a lot further; acknowledging, dare I say celebrating my four-year survival anniversary from “terminal” stage IV (inoperable, metastasized) non-small cell lung cancer, a diagnosis I initially received on Feb. 27, 2009, along with a “13-month to two-year prognosis” from my oncologist, is certainly column-worthy.
Editorial: Hybrid Hijinks
Discouraging innovation in high-tech Virginia.
Consider this as a possible scenario (although perhaps we should have saved this for April 1): Fewer people are smoking, and many of those who do are smoking less. Virginia’s cigarette tax, the lowest of any state at 30 cents a pack, is a declining revenue source. Higher cigarette taxes are proven to reduce smoking. Under current logic in the commonwealth, there would be two courses of action to raise revenue: a) cut the cigarette tax, and b) charge non-smokers a fee to make up the difference and to compensate for the fact that they don’t pay cigarette taxes.
Column: No Place Like Home
A couple of weeks ago dozens of volunteers fanned out across Fairfax County and Falls Church City to interview those who are living under bridges and in the woods because they are homeless. As difficult as the task was to find the homeless, 462 individuals were surveyed.
Column: Reston Loses Community Builder
Patrick Kane: March 5, 1936 to March 5, 2013.
On Saturday, March 9, St. Thomas a Becket Catholic Church on Wiehle Avenue was filled to overflowing to pay a final tribute to Patrick Kane. Patrick died on March 5, his 77th birthday and just five days before the 50th anniversary of his marriage to his beloved wife Susan. He fought long, hard battles with devastating strokes and finally cancer before leaving us.
Letter: Protecting Open Spaces
I am writing to express my concern regarding the current proposal to build a new indoor recreation center at Baron Cameron Park. Our open spaces and parkland are limited. Once our open spaces and parkland are replaced with buildings and parking areas, cement and asphalt, they are gone for good.
Letter: ‘Green’ Tax
You have to laugh. You know how our liberal friends love to raise "revenue" for a variety of self-defined beneficent causes: Rail to Dulles, "transportation," school facilitators, "green" projects, and such. Plunging in to save the world, some folks purchased, at a price, hybrid vehicles. Now no sooner have these environmentally worthy folks been slapped with a small tax directly (with Democrat votes), they are rushing to the microphones at warp speed.
Editorial: Helping to Build a School in Ghana
Reston resident appeals for support in building a school.
My name is Gayle Robinson and I am a Reston resident currently working in Ghana as a health, water and sanitation educator with the Peace Corps. In addition to my primary health projects, I am working with my community to build a new school. I am writing to request support from the Reston Connection in order to spread the word about my project.
Commentary: Back Home
With the adjournment of the General Assembly session on Feb. 23 I am back home in Reston, but my legislative duties for the year are far from being over. Following the Saturday conclusion of the annual session, on Sunday morning I moved from the furnished apartment I had leased for most of January and February. I was living in Richmond in an apartment house that was built at the edge of the falls of the James River and was there long enough to develop a daily routine.
Column: E-male
My oncologist is a man. He has e-mail. He works for an HMO that encourages/advertises its connectivity and responsiveness – electronically, to its members. If I want to get medical answers in a reasonable amount of time – save for an emergency, typing, “mousing” and clicking is the recommended methodology. No more phone calls, preferably. Though pressing keys on a keyboard rather than pressing buttons on a phone might have felt counter-intuitive at first as a means of receiving prompt replies, it has proven over these past few years to be a fairly reliable and predictable information loop. Not in minutes necessarily, but more often than not during the same day – and almost always by the very next day. In fact, I’ve received e-mails from my oncologist as late as 9:18 p.m. (time-stamped) after a sometime-during-the-day e-mail had been sent.
Column: All’s Well That Ends Well
Not only did the 2013 session of the General Assembly end on time last Saturday, but it also ended on a high note. Having sat through a couple of decades of failed efforts to pass meaningful legislation addressing our transportation needs, I was not optimistic that we would be successful this year.
Column: Cautious Optimism for Reston RELAC
Well, we are about to get our wish. According to the Joint Petition filed with the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC), AQUA Virginia, the accidental corporate owner of the antiquated Reston Lake Anne Air Conditioning (RELAC), is going away. AQUA finally found someone to take it off their hands.