We’re sharing today a shot of local broadcast news professionals Tracy Sears and Jack Rusak as they tour the North Anna Nuclear Power Plant in Central Virginia.
Tracy Sears and Jack Rusak were only two of a media contingent that toured the plant that day, almost a year the day after the Dominion Power Plant made history as the first in the United States to be shut down as the result of an earthquake.
The plant of course was soon up and running in good order
@VotingFemale check this one out
Right-wing Doc Thompson and NPR's Brooke Gladstone in cartoon form
It’s been a bad week for National Public Radio. A video sting made by a right-wing activist (James O’Keefe) made the scene that purported to expose a left-wing bias on the part of staff and management of this organization that depends to some small degree on raids on the United States Treasury for it’s funding.
Cell Phone picture of Dr. Yvonne Brandon provided by member of the audience
Certainly, the school system wanted to take full advantage of their visual aids, but did Dr. Brandon have to look like she was speaking from inside of a tin can?
Another oddity were the foreign Countries the Richmond Virginia School System chose to close out their presentation.
The bit consisted of some area school children singing and say “goodbye” in various languages from around the world. It was nicely done but their choice of countries included, and even more importantly, those EXCLUDED seemed rather bizarre.
Those included were America, Africa, Spain, Mexico, Hawaii (a State, not a Country by the way), Israel and France.
Notable by their absence was the whole of China, Japan, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the whole of the Middle East, Russia, Germany of course, and Scandinavia and South America and Canada.
What on earth were they thinking and what if anything can we read into excluding some of the most important countries on earth when it comes to the well-being and security of these children as they grow into adulthood in an increasingly hostile world?
Perhaps the school leaders wanted to pick countries that are noncontroversial in keeping with the tone of Dr. Brandon’s speech itself. Some negatively was directed at the news media and no mention made of the challenges that have faced the Richmond Virginia School system lately such as the resistance by many in the community to the new Patrick Henry Charter School and the use of iron grates at George Wythe High School in Richmond’s South Side during lunch hours.
Nice effort, it’s just too bad they never heard of a back light and the concept of background separation.
Some shocking news from our neighbors back East in Virgina’s Capitol City.
Another woman died by violence in Hillside Court this week, on the same street where two people were gunned down at around 4 am New Years Day.
Hillside Court is a housing project in South Richmond Virginia, and has been the scene of a number of violent acts the past year.
Police Chief Bryan T. Norwood is the top cop in Richmond Virgina and his reaction to this latest homicide can be found in this article in a local news paper.
Additional City of Richmond police units have been assigned to patrol Hillside Court, but some local residents are skeptical that it will change anything.
One of our local television stations in the Roanoke area reports that homicides in the Capitol City were up 19 percent in 2010. You can read see their story here .
Richmond Virginia is no stranger to high murder rates. At one time, it had the second highest in the country per capita, but has since declined on the national scene.
Sidebar :City of Richmond Police Chief Bryan T. Norwood’s resume can be found here.
His primary public relations contact is a former local television news anchor Gene Leply. Leply heads the well staffed public relations arm of the Richmond Police Department and according to their web page, they can be reached at this 804.646.6842 number.
In the set up to this opus, we asked if honest citizens have anything to fear from the explosion of “biker gangs” that are in growing numbers roaring up and down our highways and byways in menacing fashion.
In spite of their unkempt appearance and snotty looks, most take them as nothing more than middle-aged men dealing with the loss of their youth and seeking the company of buds and what passes these days as the “open road” to get them through their mid-life crises.
This is an image promoted by the bikers themselves, when local governments seek to bring some law and order to these self-styled “knights of the highways”.
“Who us?”, they ask with wide-eyed innocence, “We’re just harmless and lovable fuzz balls looking for a ride”.
I bought into that too. Until a recent encounter with a small pack of them on a suburban byway that is. Now I wonder if honest citizens need to start packing heat.
It was an average weekend in the Fall in the Mid-Atlantic region. I was tooling down a four lane divided suburban roadway.
The speed limit was 45, I was going 50. I was traveling south bound, staying in the left lane because I was tooling along faster than the other traffic.
In my rear view mirror I could see a gang of 6 bikers about 2 city blocks back traveling at the same speed I was.
They seemed a jovial group, making with the “bro-sign” to north bound bikers as we made our way to the bridge.
When we hit the stop light just before the bridge, they caught up with me and came to a halt a respectable distance back.
I was studying them in my rear view mirror, interested in the variety of head-gear they were wearing, some of which was clearly illegal.
A dude in the back, wearing what could best be described as a “half moon” or “skull cap’ type helmet maneuvered his hog to the front of the pack.
“Skull cap” was a real piece of work, and it turns out, he had his eyes on me.
As he drew up beside the LoP (leader of the pack) he shouted while pointing at me “You need to do something about that asshole. You need to move him out of the way”.
The LoP said something I couldn’t make out, due to his full helmet and dirty beard. Whatever he said, “skullcap” was satisfied and withdrew to the back of the pack, shouting ”make it happen”.
“Scum”, I said to myself, doing a slow burn while trying to reach the video camera I always have beside me for this kind of incident. But I had bought apples and couldn’t reach the camera before the light changed.
Coming up, how this pack of bikers ”made it happen”.
A half century ago, the sight of beefy men wearing dirty denim and ”colors” astride powerful bikes would strike fear into the hearts of honest motorists, especially those with hot buxom wives and daughters.
The movies and media were full of tales of violent attacks on lonely rural roads and the debauching of virgins (so-called).
That fear is a thing of the past. Today most people see these roving gangs of bikers as middle-aged men going through a mid-life crisis, finding companionship and comfort with a throbbing machine between their legs and the wind in their face as they tool around the urban landscape with their buds
I bought into that too, based largely on the comments of the bikers themselves who promote their sport as simply another social club when the “squares” and local government bureaucrats (or the fuzz) seek to “regulate” them in some form or fashion.
I bought into it, until today that is. Now I’m wondering if we aren’t selling them short. In an upcoming post, we’ll pose the question “does the honest citizen need to fear these hog of the highway?”
At least one personal encounter sez they should.
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