Commentary

Miles touts effect of ‘no cash bail’ policy

By Public Comment on August 27, 2019 Letter to the Editor

Editor: As you may recall, the first policy I issued after taking office last November was designed to reduce Chesterfield courts’ reliance on “cash,” or secured bail. This was prompted by concerns in our community that the use of cash bail mistreats lower-income people. The policy requires that prosecutors oppose any bail for dangerous defendants while agreeing to unsecured bail for defendants who pose no apparent threat. Some critics of this approach predicted that it would undermine public safety. That has not been the case. Our most reliable measurement of the effects of the bail policy has been in the…

Superintendent provides info on Legionella, budget issues

By Public Comment on August 27, 2019 Letter to the Editor

Editor: Our outstanding staff members have been diligently preparing for the return of our 61,000-plus students. We’re excited for the upcoming school year and are proud to share that for a second straight year we expect all of our schools to be fully accredited. The result shows the power of what can happen when you provide amazing learning experiences in a remarkable learning environment. This is a tremendous accomplishment for our students, staff and community! By the end of last week, we will have proactively cleaned and treated cooling towers at 33 of the 34 schools that were not in…

Life is a bed of roses….

By Walter "JR" Wilson on August 27, 2019 Commentary, Dogpound

Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. Hard to believe that we have blown through August and will celebrate Labor Day in a few days. This is the general signal that summer is over, and it is back to school for many kids. Some, I understand, have already gone back to school. At my age that is not something I have to worry about anymore, but I did pick up some extra labor around the house. The previous owners of my house put in a very nice flower garden in front of the house. It took…

Food on the stove

By Pete Hypes on August 27, 2019 Fire & Life Safety

Our English language is full of idioms, phrases like, “it is raining cats and dogs” or “it is raining buckets.” I just walked in and told my wife that it was “lightning up a storm.” If you ask a firefighter, “What caused that fire?” the answer given is often: “Food on the stove.” This answer might baffle most, but makes perfect sense if you understand the words left out of the statement. Two recent kitchen fires on the same day in Chesterfield County displaced two families. Cooking-related fires account for the largest number of single-family and multi-family dwelling fires. When…

My VA experience

By Pete Hypes on August 23, 2019 Commentary, Fire & Life Safety

For many years, we have heard that the Veterans Administration medical system is broken. For about the past two to three years, I have been helping a veteran get to his doctor’s appointments at the VA hospital. I feel like I have an idea of how this system works and thought that I would share my VA experience. No system is perfect and ways to improve processes should be sought. Keep in mind, I am sharing this from a caregiver’s perspective. Everything that we do takes time to figure things out. I do not offer solutions, but would like to…

A dirty wedding

By Walter "JR" Wilson on August 23, 2019 Commentary, Dogpound

Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. I recently had the opportunity to attend the wedding of sister’s son, which was held on the Eastern Kentucky University campus where they first met. It was a bit unusual for several reasons. It was held outside on one of the hottest days in July. It was 95 in the shade, and we had to sit in the sun throughout the ceremony. Second, the theme was more on the comic/con side, where the best man was dressed as Hans Solo and the maid of honor was Princess Leia. Most…

A miracle baby

By Pete Hypes on August 13, 2019 Commentary, Fire & Life Safety

Since June 29, I have walked alongside a family that never saw it coming. The mother was in the late stages of her third trimester, two weeks from her due date. She had seen her doctor on Wednesday, June 26, and was told that everything looked fine. On Friday, the pregnancy took a turn. The expectant mom thought that she was not feeling the baby move, but she wasn’t sure. On Saturday, she was sure. She had talked to a number of people, but one family member told her that if she was not sure that the baby was moving…

The almost Dogpound: Be careful out there!

By Walter "JR" Wilson on August 13, 2019 Commentary, Dogpound

Hello and welcome back to my world of the Dogpound that almost came to an abrupt end a few days ago. I have driven for many years and consider myself a pretty safe and defensive driver. Thank the good Lord, I have not been in any really serious accidents. I have had a few fender benders and one good bang-up, but none that would have been considered life-threatening. Now there have been several potentially “bad” situations that could have had serious consequences, but they never materialized. None where I thought “this is it,” this is the end of the road.…

In the heat of the car

By Pete Hypes on August 6, 2019 Commentary, Fire & Life Safety

It is unthinkable to me that this continues to happen, but children continue to die after being left in a hot car. Accidents are preventable. People who leave a child in the car have expressed a wide number of excuses, but this scenario is absolutely preventable. I sat in my running car yesterday, waiting for my wife. With the AC on, the dash was hot to the touch, indicating that he would not take long for a non-running vehicle to heat up quickly. There is no amount of time that is acceptable to leave a child alone in a car,…

Sequel

By Walter "JR" Wilson on August 6, 2019 Commentary, Dogpound

Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. Went to a movie for the first time for quite a while and saw the new Disney “The Lion King.” This is a remake of the first one but there is no comparison. The first was drawn as a cartoon, this one is made as if the animals were very real. The animation was seamless, and the scenery was rich in dimension and detail. You could call this a kid’s movie but there were far more adults than kids at this presentation. One other plus, we went to a…

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