Letter: Reston Traffic: From Difficult to Impossible
Monday evening the county’s Department of Transportation (DOT) staff presented the Master Plan Task Force its latest analysis for traffic in Reston in 2030. The presentation was based on the task force’s current planning proposal for Reston near the Dulles Corridor, called “Scenario G.”
Letter: Sad and Unfortunate
Letter to the Editor
This letter is a response to a recent column by Jack Kenny regarding the testimony of Sandra Fluke before Congress ["Creating a Need," Reston Connection, March 28-April 3, 2012].
Column: Taking Care of the Newborn
I am in Richmond on April 18 for the Reconvened Session of the General Assembly to consider vetoes and amendments proposed by the Governor to legislation passed in the regular session of the General Assembly.
Column: Where the Bison Roam—RFM 2012
Let’s make it official. Northern Virginia’s number one farmers market, the Reston Farmers Market, will sound its opening bell of the 2012 season at 8 a.m. Saturday, May 5. Less than three weeks from now.
Column: “Meagulpa”
As a veteran of the chemo wars, I should have been better prepared mentally for the food/taste challenges often caused by the infusion of such cancer-fighting chemicals, but I wasn’t.
Column: A Different Perspective
Listening to two or more eyewitness accounts of an incident helps us understand how perspective influences the way we see things. Accounts can differ based on the physical location of a witness in relation to an event, but the testimony of someone who saw what happened can also be influenced by that person’s beliefs and attitudes towards the persons and circumstances involved.
Column: Reston Growing?
Ever read Supervisor Cathy Hudgins monthly newsletter and understand it? I am speaking specifically of the Land Use section. It is written in legalese to be designed (perhaps deliberately) to obfuscate the uninitiated. Do we know where to find a copy of the Planned Residential Community (PRC) plans? Do we know where to locate a Tax Map? Can one readily read and understand a Tax Map? Occasionally, an address is given to help us mere mortals locate a property. Clue: check the Reston Regional Library.
Column: Look What I Saw, Really
A male patient sitting directly across from me being infused with his unique chemotherapy cocktail, a bit too far for a conversation, but certainly close enough for a knowing/empathetic glance.
Editorial: On Funding the Silver Line
Commonwealth will collect the dividends, but refuses to invest; Northern Virginia pays.
Northern Virginia localities should together commission a study now to determine how much growth is stimulated by the opening of the Metro stations in Tysons and along the toll road out to Dulles, how many new jobs created, quantify how much that growth leads to increased income and sales tax, and how much revenue (taxes) would get shipped off to Commonwealth coffers.
Column: Strengthening, Not Blocking, Health Care Law
I am one of millions of Americans waiting for the Affordable Care Act to be put into law so that I can have some relief from my troubles with our broken health care system. March 23 marked the two-year anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
Column: Back to the Classroom
I am spending some more time back in the classroom recently. Last week I taught social studies to fourth graders at Lake Anne Elementary School. The students were courteous and well behaved, clearly eager to learn, and as diverse as the world around them.
Column: Class Warfare From the Top Down
Don’t know about you, but I am getting fed up picking up the paper nearly every day and reading of the latest efforts to weaken worker organizations, freeze pay, cut benefits, and downsize jobs across the economy. Corporate CEOs and Boards of Directors have been terrorizing workers for years. Now, politicians have their sights set on civil servants, especially down the road in Washington.
Column: Infusing Is Semi Amusing
So here I go again; heavy-duty chemotherapy for the first time in nearly three years. As such, I thought I’d try and write another column while actually sitting in the Barcalounger at The Infusion Center (as I did three years ago: “Chemo-Cocktailing at the Depot” was that column’s title) and see what my pen has to say.
Column: Peculiar Presence
In the last few months, out of the blue, I have received electronic correspondence from each of my three oldest childhood friends (none of whom have remained adulthood friends, though all three remain of interest to me) commenting on my cancer diagnosis; each having stumbled across one of my cancer columns online, presumably after initiating a Google-type search for yours truly.
Column: Reversing Bad Fortune
The Virginia General Assembly is not having a very good year. After making the national evening news shows and late-night comedy programs for weeks about which ultrasound to require of women, the Assembly joined many other states in passing voter suppression bills that might affect the outcome of the presidential election.