If they gave an Oscar to the locality whose governing body voted to go behind closed doors the most times during 2009 to conduct public business, the Amherst County Board of Supervisors would win it handily.

With traffic jams clogging interstate highways in Northern Virginia and Richmond, it’s no wonder that Virginia is taking a harder look at rail transportation for the future. The General Assembly’s unwillingness to find sustainable sources of revenue for highways only adds to the future reliance on rail passenger service.

The predatory lending practice waged by car-title lenders against consumers caught in a cash squeeze will finally be regulated if Gov. Bob McDonnell signs the legislation.

A majority of the Amherst County Board of Supervisors has done it again. It has fired a key county employee without even suggesting a specific reason to the public. It’s the latest example of closed-door government in the county that keeps the public in the dark.

The job of elected officials at any level of government is, at its core, simple: govern wisely in the public’s name, keep the people informed and listen to them.

A majority of the Amherst County Board of Supervisors has done it again. It has fired a key county employee without even suggesting a specific reason to the public. It’s the latest example of closed-door government in the county that keeps the public in the dark.

With local school boards facing budget shortfalls in the realm of several million dollars for the next school year, they will have to take big steps to make up the losses. The state has put them in that position because the dwindling economy has created budgetary shortfalls reaching into the billions of dollars.

At least one member of the General Assembly agrees that the state needs to increase its gasoline tax to keep the highway trust fund from going broke. But that doesn’t mean he has been able to sell the idea to tax-averse Republicans who dominate the House of Delegates.

It’s an old story. But in these tough budget times for localities, the state must uphold its share of the load. That isn’t happening at the Amherst County jail, where crowded conditions are caused in part by the state’s refusal to accept state prisoners.

At this time last week, Lynchburg College President Kenneth Garren was worried, as likely were the leaders of other private colleges and universities across the commonwealth.

Earlier this week, President Barack Obama finally ... finally ... acknowledged a fact many Americans have known for years: that nuclear power is essential to this nation’s future.

The other shoe dropped in Richmond last week, and it was a 12EEE, heavy-duty work boot.

Back in the mid-1990s, when the Internet was in its infancy, the position of political leaders across the country was to maintain a hands-off policy toward the emerging information superhighway. That included Internet commerce, and former Gov. Jim Gilmore was at the forefront of national efforts to develop this new business arena. The former Virginia governor was a key figure in making the argument that sales entered into over the Internet should be free of any local and state taxes.

The one-gun-a-month limit on the purchase of handguns was a legislative triumph in 1993 of then-Gov. Douglas Wilder. It was enacted as gun homicide rates soared in Richmond and as the state gained a reputation as an East Coast armory for violent criminals.

A consultant’s report on removing some truck traffic from Interstate 81 bears good news. The report’s chief finding is that a plan to move freight traffic off the highway and onto train tracks could shift about 13.5 percent of trucks off the crowded interstate highway.

Virginia could be on the verge of celebrating the days of the old Wild West. That’s because a State Senate committee has approved legislation that would allow bars to admit people carrying concealed weapons.

The magnitude of the problem facing public school divisions in much of Virginia, and definitely here in Central Virginia, is quickly coming into focus.

Let’s just state this point right off the bat, lest anyone think we’ve gone off the political deep end: There is nothing wrong or illegal about campaign contributions, whether they come from individuals or corporations, unions or businesses, conservatives or liberals. That being said, politicians should be very wary about accepting contributions and always be cognizant of even the appearance of impropriety or conflict of interest.

The anguished cries generated by Appalachian Power Company’s bills last month are reverberating around the halls of the General Assembly. The lawmakers could be on the verge of doing something about lowering the bills, but the legislative process is anything but certain.

With localities worried about diminishing revenues from the state, it’s no wonder they are taking a closer look at regional services.

The next time you — or a passenger in your vehicle — consider tossing a plastic bottle or aluminum can out the window, think again. The criminal act could be reported to city police.

These are tight economic times for the country, and there’s nothing different here in Central Virginia. Companies have had layoffs, imposed furloughs and salary cuts and frozen wages. Some businesses have closed, unable to turn a profit when customers just aren’t there. Families have had to cut back on their expenditures, especially in light of rising fuel and electricity costs.

While the new administration of Gov. Bob McDonnell is busily searching for money to pay for programs designed to create jobs, it is ignoring for now the potential loss of as many as an additional 23,000 jobs statewide — good paying jobs that are critical to the future of every locality from Accomac to Wise.

Local school boards have chafed under the thumb of politicians in Richmond for decades, having to implement one unfunded mandate or instructional policy after another hoisted upon them by office-bound bureaucrats.

When it comes to government employees, they’re often overlooked, unfavorably compared (especially at budget time) to police or firefighters or even completely ignored.

In an impassioned plea before the Senate Transportation Committee recently, state Sen. Harry Blevins, R-Chesapeake, said he has attended too many funerals, visited too many hospital rooms and comforted too many grieving parents of young men and women killed because they weren’t wearing seat belts.

Across the commonwealth, the story’s the same: Government budget cuts this year will be deep, and there will be no sacred cows among programs and services. The story’s no different in City Council, boards of supervisors or school board meetings here in Central Virginia. There’s going to be pain ... lots of it.

President Barack Obama and his advisers, who had to do a rushed rewrite of the State of the Union following the victory of Republican Scott Brown in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race, have evidently taken a page from the script of “Dallas” in their efforts to revive his flagging presidency.

Ethics investigations in the General Assembly have generally been one of the best-kept secrets in the legislature. A citizen or lawmaker can file what he or she believes to be a legitimate complaint about a conflict of interest, for example, and that’s the last anyone beyond the ethics panel hears of it.

Given the financial stress the state is putting on its localities, the timing of a new proposal for a civic center in Lynchburg may not be great. It’s a proposal, nonetheless, that’s worth looking into.