Text the crime, pay the fine

Text the crime, pay the fine

by | Oct 2, 2014 | Musings

The Virginia State Police is using unmarked vehicles, driven by  “covert officers” to track down texters violating newer, tougher laws in the Commonwealth. Texting became a primary traffic offense on July 1 of this year and a ticket costs at least $125 and...
Writing about death is never easy

Writing about death is never easy

by | Jul 3, 2014 | Motorcycle Musings, Musings

In more than a half-century of reporting news, the hardest stories to write have always been about death. In the 1960s, as a young reporter for The Roanoke Times, one of my assignments for the paper required contacting the families of soldiers killed in Vietnam to...
Sheriff Hunt, you are a disgrace

Sheriff Hunt, you are a disgrace

by | Jun 7, 2011 | Featured, FUBAR, Musings

Dear Sheriff Hunt: I read with interest your laughable attempt in Monday’s Roanoke Times to cover your ass for your inept — and some might say criminal — handling of Franklin County Deputy Jonathan Agee’s murder of his ex-wife and shooting of a...
Where you can or cannot pack heat

Where you can or cannot pack heat

by | Apr 5, 2011 | Featured, Musings

So, you went out and got a Virginia Resident Concealed Handgun Permit. Doesn’t take much to pack heat in the Commonwealth. If you don’t have a criminal record, no public record of mental problems and pass a incredibly simple course that can be taken...