Catherine Crabill is going to have a tough time getting elected to the House of Delegates this fall to represent a portion of the Northern Neck.

When it comes to having a voice on whether sewage sludge can be spread in Amherst County, the Board of Supervisors has done just about all it can do. Under state law, however, that is not much.

From the beginning, it looked like one of those win-win situations in which controversy could be put aside for the benefit of the people on both sides.

Off the top, we want to congratulate Republican Bob McDonnell and Democrat Creigh Deeds for the overall tenor of their respective campaigns for governor. Aside from the very real problem of Deeds trying to duck and dodge his opponent’s call for a series of 10 debates across the commonwealth, the two men have, thus far, conducted themselves with the dignity Virginia voters deserve. We sincerely hope that behavior continues as Election Day draws nearer.

When the General Assembly amended the state law relating to voter registration, the idea was to come up with rules that could be applied uniformly across the state. That’s the obvious intent of the laws on voter registration — treat all eligible voters the same.

Whenever the conversation turns toward highways and the cost of maintaining them, the expense of bridge maintenance always seems to stand out. Nationally, the cost of bringing bridges up to acceptable standards has been put in the hundreds of billions of dollars — if not trillions. It’s a staggering figure that only bureaucrats in the federal government can approach with any comfort.

If nuclear power plants are going to have a significant role in the future production of electricity in this country, the folks who operate them will need the best and most sophisticated training centers they can get.

This is one of those “inside politics” stories that the average citizen usually doesn’t care about and that the average reporter dreads because it’s so difficult to tell properly. But it’s a story the public needs to know and that the news media needs to tell: the tale of the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA), defense giant Northrop Grumman and $2.3 billion in taxpayer dollars.

Anyone who has ever driven down Wards Road knows it’s a motorist’s worst nightmare. Now, imagine what it must be like for pedestrians.

Integrity. You either have it or you don’t. Lynchburg City Manager Kim Payne has it, in spades.

An informed citizenry is a key component of a healthy democracy, but recent stories in the news have us concerned for our country.

Elective politics, at any level, is not for the faint of heart; it is face-to-face, hand-to-hand combat.

Driving is one of the most dangerous things an individual can do.

At the start of the great push for health care reform, President Barack Obama told Congress he wanted to have legislation to sign before legislators went home for the August recess.

It’s a story that virtually every community in Virginia can only hope for. The large manufacturing center on the edge of town that has been idle for more than a decade finds a new owner and a new lease on life.

In an effort to turn the ailing economy around, the federal government has stuck its head way too far into the business of the private sector. But the private sector, notably the banks and mortgage buyers and more recently the auto makers, have been only too happy to accept government aid in the form of bailouts.

The wonders of all those communication devices that fall under the general category of high technology have led to this — a study showing that texting while driving really is dangerous.

With the economic data released Friday by the federal government that the nation’s economy contracted at a slower rate last quarter, there’s a glimmer of hope that the downturn may be bottoming out.

When Republicans controlled Congress during the Bush administration, one of the many scandals that just ticked off voters to no end was the never-ending practice of earmarks. When Democrats took over in 2006, they vowed to clean up Congress’ image, but the reality is they’re just as bad.

Traffic safety on a section of U.S. 460 between Concord Turnpike and the Campbell Avenue interchange has trumped the paucity of state highway dollars. It’s a welcome move for the hundreds of travelers who use that piece of road for their daily commute to work.

For a state budget that keeps getting squeezed tighter and tighter, some good news finally emerged the other day. It came as a surprise of sorts, but state officials (and taxpayers) will happily accept whatever budget breaks they can get.

An important piece of land in Nelson County has been preserved for future generations, thanks to Wintergreen Resort.

Just about everyone — liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican — agrees the American health care system is more than a little dysfunctional.

Nearly four years ago, the state announced plans to rebuild the Central Virginia Training Center into a modern institution that would provide outstanding care for its more than 500 residents. The idea was to make the facility for people with profound mental and physical disabilities safer and more efficient for the staff and the residents.

For millions of Americans in the turbulent 1960s and 1970s, Walter Cronkite was the voice of sanity and reason, explaining the news of the day and putting those times into some sort of historical perspective.

Civility on the roads and other public places is getting thinner and thinner these days. So much so, in fact, that a General District Court judge used a traffic case last week to call attention to the lack of it on area roadways.

The National D-Day Memorial needs financial help — and the magnificent structure in the shadow of the Peaks of Otter in Bedford needs it now.

Forty years ago, America and the world held its breath as astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, strapped into their seats aboard the lunar lander Eagle, descended to the surface of the Moon.

You wouldn’t expect elected public servants to have to devise an official code of ethics, but then, Amherst County is not like most localities in Central Virginia.

Informed, educated voters make informed, educated decisions when they enter the election booth. There’s no denying that fact.