http://hamptonroads.com/node/32092 Readers' Opinions en-us Copyright 2012 PilotOnline.com / HamptonRoads.com. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:38:23 -0500 RE 'DOMINION'S BAIT AND SWITCH,' Mike Tidwell guest column, Jan. 25: Once again Dominion gets bashed with little or no fact-checking. A New York Times report of Nov. 9 ('Cost of Green Power Makes Projects Tougher Sell') stated that deals to buy renewable power have been scuttled or slowed in states including Florida, Idaho, Rhode Island and Kentucky, as well as Virginia. It said that through the first nine months of 2010, installations of new wind power dropped 72 percent from 2009 levels, according to the American Wind Energy Association, a trade group. Not only Virginia has cut wind programs http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/wind-energy-pipe-dream Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:00:05 -0500 Re 'Pre-abortion ultrasound: Too invasive?' front page, Feb. 3: SB484 makes it mandatory for a woman seeking an abortion to be subjected to an invasive 'transvaginal' ultrasound and a waiting period before the procedure can be performed. What right does Virginia have to force a woman to submit to any invasive medical procedure? No matter which side of the abortion issue one may be on, it is incomprehensible that the government should dictate when or how any medical procedure is performed. It should be the woman and her doctor, not the state, making the decision as to whatever medical procedure http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/government-overreach Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:00:05 -0500 Re 'Open government, in black and white,' letters, Jan. 19: The author cites the necessity for greater openness in city government (issues were cited with the town of Onancock) and speaks to the importance of not imposing further restrictions on the Freedom of Information Act. I, too, had similar problems with the city of Chesapeake and the Virginia Retirement System when I requested documents relevant to my retirement.Government agencies such as city and town councils as well as the VRS are well aware of the difficulties they impose on citizens requesting information. Imposing obstacles and r http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/peoples-information Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:00:05 -0500 Re 'Campaigns awash in cash,' Michelle Washington column, Feb. 7: Did John Kerry's money keep Michelle Washington awake at night in 2004? That's a fair question, considering it is how she opened her column. She mentioned Mitt Romney's name negatively no fewer than five times. I would even give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she is not making a partisan hit, if only she would mention the wealth of a Democrat. Any Democrat. We wouldn't have to look far. How about our own Sen. Mark Warner, one of the richest in Congress? Washington could certainly argue that Super PAC dollars are di http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/no-rich-democrats Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:00:05 -0500 ONE OF THIS NATION'S most insidious little secrets is that, for self-serving reasons, our politicians are slowly ceding control of the country to corporate America. To witness this firsthand, one has only to look here in Virginia. First, Gov. Bob McDonnell places our local tunnels in hock to a private entity for a generation, leaving local citizens to foot the bill. And if that is not enough, it is only fitting, in a perverse way, that he has now proposed the final insult inviting corporate America to place its names on our infrastructure for a price as well. To the electorate, both state and http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/government-giveaway Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:00:04 -0500 Is it too late to stop the VDOT boondoggle labeled the Midtown-Downtown Tunnel improvement project? Has the check for $2.1 billion already been signed, on the backs of local commuters? I am a longtime resident of Port Norfolk and have commuted to Norfolk for more than 30 years through the Midtown Tunnel. I read with interest the report on Del. Kenny Alexander's bill to limit tolls on new projects. I have been against this proposed tunnel expansion project from the start, but at all the project hearings and civic league meetings that I've attended, it seemed like it was a done deal, ready to be http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/choking-portsmouth Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:00:04 -0500 Re 'Pre-abortion ultrasound: Too invasive?' front page, Feb. 3: It took many decades for Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and other heroes to shine enough light on the unimaginable horrors of the slave ships, the Civil War, the indignities of the KKK and the Jim Crow South to finally let a nation and the world see the truth.Likewise, shining light and constant reminders were necessary because people who were aware of what was happening inside the barbed wire of Auschwitz and the gulags often chose to ignore the reality they would rather not have faced the torture and http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/painful-truth Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:00:04 -0500 Re 'Pre-abortion ultrasound: Too invasive?' front page, Feb. 3: Some lawmakers think it's a good idea for a doctor to be forced to perform a transvaginal ultrasound on a woman who seeks an abortion in the early part of pregnancy. They have apparently not considered Virginia state law, which states that an attempt to commit rape, forcible sodomy, or inanimate or animate object sexual penetration shall be punishable as a Class 4 felony. Doctors who abide by the intrusive mandate of this ill-conceived law would essentially be committing rape by sexual penetration with an object. Those who think t http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/rape-proxy Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:00:04 -0500 Outrage over Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky's alleged acts has typically prompted calls for more legislation. While intentions may be in the right place, this is a hollow gesture without calls for and funding for more child protective workers to handle the increase in reporting that will result. Whenever a child protective case falls through the cracks, the system is vilified. You don't hear much about the fact that agencies are understaffed and caseloads are beyond recommended numbers. Years ago I worked in child protective services. Caseloads were too big to cover adequately then http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/abusive-budget-cuts Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:00:04 -0500 RE 'HUNTING FOR END TO ANOTHER BLUE LAW,' Hampton Roads, Jan. 31: To state Sen. Ralph Northam and other residents of the urban and suburban areas of Hampton Roads, the issue of lifting the ban on Sunday hunting may be abstract and theoretical. It's possible that they do not often see hunting activity near their homes and are therefore not at all inconvenienced by it. http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/day-rest-hunting Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:00:04 -0500