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Published Jul 08, 2008 Hanover will stay red this fall Ken Odor It was interesting to see both candidates for the seat of retiring Sen. John Warner show up for Hanover County’s annual Tomato Festival. And indicative of the importance the growing county could play in the fall election, at all levels. For Democrats, the goal is just peeling off some of the enormous majorities Republicans usually poll in the county. Just showing up and drawing attention forces the GOP to campaign in a county they should already have in the bag. For Republicans, with the changing demographics and the teetering of Northern Virginia toward Maryland style politics, making sure Hanover stays strong for conservatives is essential for success in November. … Read more...Published Jul 08, 2008 It’s the Urban Service Area, silly! Ken Odor What a difference a prefix makes! Just add sub to urban and you get an area almost twice the size when talking about Hanover County. The editor’s mistake, I might add, not reporter Jim Ridolphi’s. In our correction on page three, the area marked for possible prohibition of firearms discharge under the Weapons Safety Committee’s proposals (except for lawful hunting) is clearly marked. Some further recommendations of the committee not yet mentioned may also be worth looking into. One, unanimously endorsed by the committee, is that the county offer firearms safety classes. And some members also suggested the county consider constructing a public shooting… Read more... Published Jul 01, 2008 More Good News Ken Odor Just a hundred miles up the road in D.C., nine folks in long robes settled a controversy that has roiled politics for decades, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that the Second Amendment means what it says. Which is, that the right of individual citizens to keep and bear arms is protected by the Constitution. The “collective right” argument is now dead. But the nanny state folks, while licking their wounds, are now busy hatching more strategies, and reviving old ones like a renewed “ assault weapons ban,” to restrict individual Second Amendment rights so as to keep citizens who don’t know what’s good for them from doing something… Read more... Published Jul 01, 2008 Good news Ken Odor Last week brought some good news for Hanover. After a pretty decent tempest in a teapot over who to appoint as Ashland representative to the Hanover County School Board, supervisors did the sensible thing, re-appointing Sue Forbes Watson to another term. The groundswell of support that erupted when word went out that Watson might be passed over for another candidate evidently proved sufficient to convince Ashland supervisor Ed Via and the other supervisors that no change was needed. It was the right thing to do. Still, some questions remain unanswered. Did the episode show the strength of the appointed school board process, or its weaknesses? Should… Read more... Published Jun 24, 2008 If it ain’t broke… Ken Odor It will be interesting to see the result of the school board appointments at tonight’s (June 25) Board of Supervisors meeting. What was most likely seen as a routine re-appointment of long serving veteran school board member Sue Watson for the Ashland seat became a news story last week, when e-mails circulated stating that first term Ashland supervisor Ed Via had told Watson he would not support her. This prompted the local press to delve into the matter to see what could be found out, and also at least one area commentator to urge consideration of the broader question of elected versus appointed school boards, Hanover being one of the few counties in Virginia that still… Read more... Published Jun 17, 2008 Nice work Ken Odor If you can get it. And I got it. But like all good things, it had to come to an end someday. So it was with mixed feelings that I decided to step down from the editor’s job here at the Mechanicsville Local, and look around for something new. Working here for a couple decades, first as a photographer, then as a photographer/reporter and finally as editor has been great. I’ve been telling my friends for years now that somehow, someone designed a special continuing adult education course just for me, where I could go about meeting all kinds of interesting folks. I got to talk to them and take some photos and then head back to the office,… Read more... Published Jun 10, 2008 Hitch-hiker Ken Odor I hopped in the car last Saturday to drive to Ashland for the Strawberry Faire and found I had an unexpected hitch-hiker. It was Hillary Clinton, who when I switched on the radio, explained to me in her not-quite-concession speech, why she was suspending her campaign and throwing her support, for now, to Barack Obama. It was really quite a good speech, well delivered, and I could see how one, if they were a little vague on U.S. history and weak on how the economic system works, could be taken in by it. It was easy to see how one might be enthused by the appeal of a unified Democratic party, a party that seems ready to tack on that single word that defines the European… Read more... |
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