The Lynchburg Times

The Lynchburg TimesFREEVol. II, Issue 34 • December, 2011

in Kroger, McDonalds & More • 35,000 local readers!FREE

The joys of Virginia’swintercamping

• Community Calendar 2• A Virginia Marine’s Christmas in Afghanistan 5• Lynchburg Chamber gets rare 5-star accreditation 9• No, you didn’t really win that $500,000 sweepstakes you never entered 10• James River Day School 11• Holiday shopping tips 15• One-time bonus for schools 19• Virtual education popular, unfunded 20

Page � • The Lynchburg Times • December, �011 Read every issue online at www.lynchburgtimes.com

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Holiday Open House from 4:30pm-6:30pm at Wingate by Wyndham, 3777 Candlers Mtn. Rd. in Lynchburg. 434-845-1700 Email:[email protected] On the 1st day of December the Wingate by Wyndham gave to me... a wonderful Holiday Open House! The evening will be full of holiday music, sweet treats and great prizes! In the Spirit of Giv-ing, we encourage you to bring a canned food item to benefit the Salvation Army, the Miller Home for Girls, the Liberty Godparent Home and the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.

Friday, December 2, 2011

First Fridays from 5:00pm-8:00pm at Lynchburg Museum System, 901 Court Street in Lynchburg. 434-455-6226 www.lynchburgmuseum.org The Lynchburg Museum in the Old Court House is open for First Fridays. Free admission from 5 pm to 8 pm on the first Friday of each month. The Art Trolley will drop you off and pick you up at the front door at 901 Court Street as it makes its way between art galleries, studios, and other places of interest in Downtown Lynchburg. There will be a featured topic for each First Friday and a staff member will be on hand to show artifacts that are not usually on exhibit and talk with visitors. FREE

First Fridays Events from 5:30pm-8:00pm in Downtown Lynchburg & Various Locations. 434-

847-1811 It’s First Fridays time in Lynchburg. The art galleries will be open for an evening of strolling along the streets downtown or hopping the trolley to a gallery not located in the downtown area. En-joy the exhibits and various activities while partak-ing of light refreshments. Brochures are available, if needed. So, meet your friends for an evening in the Arts!

“Romeo & Juliet” from 7:30pm-9:30pm at LU Tower Theater, Liberty University Green Hall, 1971 University Blvd. in Lynchburg. 434-582-2085 Email:[email protected] www.liberty.edu/Theatre The chronicle of world literature abounds with ill-fated lovers, be it Troilus and Cressida, Tristan and Isolde, or Lancelot and Guinevere. It is likely that none, on the stage, are more eminent than Romeo and Juliet. People become acquainted with it from such varied sources as their high school English class, a graphic novel, a trip to the local Shake-speare festival or Tom Stoppard’s colorful treat-ment in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love. We invite you to once again take this darkly romantic journey through the streets, back alleys and tombs of Renaissance Verona, where the sins of the fa-thers, and their children, will drive them all into the maelstrom of romantic and reckless obsession. Ad-ditional Performance Dates: December 3, 8, 9*, 10 – 7:30pm; December 3, 10 – 2:00pm; December 4 – 2:30pm. Tickets go on sale August 22. Regular ticket prices apply. Rated PG-13

Friday Salsa Dance Night from 9:00pm-12:00am at Dance Theatre of Lynchburg, 722 Commerce Street in Lynchburg. 434-942-1197 Email:[email protected] A beginner salsa lesson from 9pm-10pm and social dancing from 10pm-12am. Cover charge is $5 which includes the les-son. No smoking or drinking.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Christmas Time’s a Coming Open House from 12:00pm-5:00pm at Peaks of Otter Winery, 2122 Sheep Creek Road in Bedford. 540-586-3707 Email:[email protected] www.peaksofot-terwinery.com Warm apple cinnamon wine and cider will be in the wine tasting room. Gift packs of wine and canned products will make wonderful Christmas gifts. FREE. You may bring your own glass, purchase a souvenir glass or taste out of a free plastic cup. Visit the Christmas lights at the Elks National Home in “The Christmas Capital of Virginia”

Home Holiday Tour from 1:00pm-5:00pm at vari-ous locations in Appomattox County. 434-352-7373 Email:[email protected] www.appomattoxchristian.com Home Holiday Tour to benefit Appomattox Christian Academy (ACA). Four historical and unique homes will be open for touring in Appomattox County. Homes in-clude, “Eldon”, the birthplace of Congressman Hal Flood; “Maples End”, the circa 1919 home of Dr. & Mrs. Ken Powell; the original Methodist Parsonage and current home of Mr. & Mrs. Allen Austin; and the masterful traditional/contemporary home of Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Boone. Tickets are $12 each.

Christmas on Ice from 2:00pm-8:30pm at La-Haye Ice Center, Liberty University, 1971 Uni-versity Blvd. in Lynchburg. 540-586-8979Email:[email protected]:www.lynchburgfsc.com The Lynchburg Figure Skating Club presents their annual Christmas on Ice, featuring a “A Story-book Christmas” on December 3, 2011 Showings at 2:00pm & 6:00pm. Tickets $10 in advance ~ $12 at door. Tickets available at: Givens & Little Dickens, LifeWay Christian Bookstore and online

at www.lynchburgfsc.com

Sounds of the Season from 2:00pm-4:00pm at E.C. Glass High School Auditorium, 2111 Memorial Avenue in Lynchburg. 434-845-6675 Lynchburg Symphony Youth Orchestra & Junior Strings per-form selections such as The Polar Express, Sleigh Ride, Auld Land Syne, O Holy Night, A Christmas Festival and much more. Special Guest: Lynch-burg City Schools Elementary Honors Strings. Tickets available in advance at various locations or online at www.lynchburgtickets.com. For more information call: 434-845-6675

“Romeo & Juliet” from 2:00pm-4:00pm. (See de-scription Dec. 2.)

Christmas Concert from 7:30pm-9:30pm at Timberlake United Methodist Church, 21649 Tim-berlake Road in Lynchburg. 434-528-5700 Email:[email protected] www.jefferson-choralsociety.org Jefferson Choral Society and Jefferson Youth Chorale perform “Peace on Earth” - Vivaldi’s “Gloria” and other seasonal music. Ad-ditional performance on December 4, 2011 at 4pm. Tickets: Adults $20 ~ Students 12+ $8 ~ Children $0

The House Band 7:30pm-11:00pm at The Ellington, 421 Rivermont Ave. in Lynchburg. 434-845-2162 Email:[email protected] www.theellington.org The House Band is an 11 piece band that plays oldies R&B music - best known for playing music by Earth, Wind, and Fire - though the group has a large variety of music that it covers. Members of the groups ages are from different eras which add to versatility of group. Some members have played on cruise ships, while others have played with local gospel, jazz, and R&B groups. Doors open at 7:30 with music at 8:30. Tickets price varies by show (go to our ticketing page for more info). Cash bar available. Ellington age policy: no children under 12, under 21 with a parent.

“Romeo & Juliet” 7:30pm-9:30pm (See descrip-tion Dec. 2.)

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December, �011 • The Lynchburg Times • Page �Read every issue online at www.lynchburgtimes.com

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Christmas Open House from 12:00pm-4:00pm at Point of Honor, 112 Cabell Street in Lynchburg. 434-847-1867 Website:www.pointofhonor.org Point of Honor, one of Lynchburg’s architectural jewels, will host its 29th Annual Open House. Decorated for Christmas ca. 1815 with native greens, yule log, and other customs of the period. Enjoy period music, refreshments, and special items on sale in the Gift Shop. FREE

Christmas Open House from 2:00pm-4:00pm at Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation, 1250 Red Hill Road in Brookneal. 434-376-2044 Come join the holi-day celebration as Patrick Henry did in 1796. Red Hill will again welcome neighbors and friends to Henry’s home this Christmas Season...Docent-guided tours of the historic buildings, Complimentary hot mulled cider and cookies as well as Brunswick stew. The gift shop will offer a 10% discount. Enjoy festive live music. Quilt raffle tickets available as well as the pur-chase of locally grown boxwood wreaths and Kissing balls. Call to reserve your wreath or kissing ball as supplies are limited.

“Romeo & Juliet” 2:30pm-4:30pm (See description Dec. 2.)

Christmas Concert from 4:00pm-6:30pm (See de-scription Dec. 3.)

Lynchburg Christmas Parade from 5:00pm-7:00pm at Main & Church Streets in Downtown Lynchburg. 434-455-6369 Website:www.lynchburgva.org A Lynchburg Tradition. Central Virginians of all ages love the annual Lynchburg Christmas Parade. Ev-ery December they turn out along the streets of his-toric downtown Lynchburg for two hours of marching bands, colorful floats, antique cars and motorcycle clubs, equestrian and military units, beauty queens, emergency vehicles, and much more. The Lynch-burg Christmas Parade is the only annual parade in Lynchburg and it’s even more exciting when it’s held “under the lights” as dusk falls across Lynchburg. The theme for this year’s parade is “Christmas Stories”.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

VA Christmas Spectacular 2011 from 7:00pm-9:00pm at Thomas Road Baptist Church, 1 Mountain View Road in Lynchburg. 888-244-2178 Website:www.virginiachristmasspectacular.com For the 41st year, the historic Thomas Road Baptist Church pres-ents the Virginia Christmas Spectacular. This annual event, located in the heart of Virginia, attracts more than 40,000 people each December. This year’s musical is titled: “Let There Be Light!” Experience the story of the Light like never before with dazzling Christmas lights, powerful choir, full orchestra, a cast of 350, live animals, creative video and special ef-fects. For more information on ticket purchase, loca-tion and seating options, please visit www.virginia-christmasspectacular.com Additional Performances: Dec. 7-10 at 7:00pm; Dec. 11 at 2pm; Dec. 11 at 6:30pm.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

VA Christmas Spectacular 2011 from 7:00pm-9:00pm (See description Dec. 7.)

“See How They Run” from 7:00pm-9:30pm at Heri-tage High School Pioneer Theatre, 3020 Wards Ferry Road in Lynchburg. 434-582-1147 ext. 206 www.lynchburgtickets.com See How They Run is a classic English comedy in three acts by Philip King. Its title is a line from the nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice. It is considered a farce for its tense comic situations and headlong humour, heavily playing on mistaken identity, doors, and vicars. Performance Dates: De-cember 8, 9, 10 at 7pm; December 11 at 2pm. All Tickets: $5

“Romeo & Juliet” from 7:30pm-9:30pm (See de-scription Dec. 2.)

Friday, December 9, 2011

Ellington Fridays from 5:30pm-9:00pm at The El-lington, 421 Rivermont Ave. in Lynchburg. 434-845-2162 www.theellington.org Do you want to hear some of the best local bands and grab a bite to eat for only 10 bucks? Join your friends to hear Work Release. Doors open at 5:30pm with music from 6:00pm-9:00pm. Tickets are $10 and available at the door only. Cash bar available.

VA Christmas Spectacular 2011 from 7:00pm-9:00pm. (See description Dec. 7.)

“See How They Run” from 7:00pm-9:30pm. (See description Dec. 8.)

“Romeo & Juliet” from 7:30pm-9:30pm. (See de-scription Dec. 2.)

Friday Salsa Dance Night from 9:00pm-12:00am at Dance Theatre of Lynchburg, 722 Commerce Street in Lynchburg. 434-942-1197 Email:[email protected] Friday Salsa Dance Night in Downtown Lynchburg at the Dance Theatre of Lynchburg. A beginner salsa lesson from 9pm-10pm and social dancing from 10pm-12am. Cover charge is $5 which includes the lesson. No smoking or drinking.

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Lunch with Santa from 11:00am-1:00pm at Wingate By Wyndham, 3777 Candlers Mtn. Rd. in Lynchburg. www.wingatehotels.com For the second year in a row, the Wingate by Wyndham is hosting “Lunch with Santa”. Children who bring a new, unwrapped gift for Toys for Tots will enjoy crafts with Santa’s Elves, arts & crafts, a special lunch including our famous fresh baked cookies and a personal visit with Santa. Professional pho-tos by The Portrait Place will also be available for $12.95 (Photos are optional).

Christmas Time’s a Coming Open House from 12:00pm-5:00pm at Peaks of Otter Winery, 2122 Sheep Creek Road in Bedford. 540-586-3707 Email:[email protected] Website:www.peaksofotterwinery.com Warm apple cinnamon wine and cider will be in the wine tasting room. Gift packs of wine and canned products will make wonderful Christmas gifts. FREE. You may bring your own glass, purchase a souvenir glass or taste out of a free plastic cup. Visit the Christmas lights at the Elks National Home in “The Christ-mas Capital of Virginia.”

Wreaths Across America from 12:00pm-2:00pm at Old City Cemetery, 401 Taylor Street in Lynch-burg. 434-847-1465 Email:[email protected] www.gravegarden.org This special ceremony honors all veterans who have served in times of war and peace. After a brief service, attendees lay evergreen wreaths on hundreds of veterans’ graves in the Cemetery.


“Romeo & Juliet” from 2:00pm-4:00pm. (See description Dec. 2.)



A FACination Christmas from 7:30pm-10:00pm at Academy of Fine Arts, 600 Main Street in Lynchburg. 434-846-8499 Email:[email protected] www.academyfinearts.com Songs of the Holiday, Cocoa with peppermint sticks, Christmas Cheer, and a Surprise Guest abound in this chorus’ frolic through this magic season.

“Romeo & Juliet” from 7:30pm-9:30pm. (See description Dec. 2.)


Christmas at Historic Sandusky from 1:00am-

6:00pm at Historic Sandusky, 757 Sandusky Dr. in Lynchburg. 434-832-0162 www.HistoricSan-dusky.org Enjoy Christmas at Historic Sandusky with Book signings, house tours, Victorian deco-rations, and Santa Claus! Great Christmas Gifts! Book Signings: Jim Elson: Lynchburg, Virginia: the first 200 years from 1pm-2pm. Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr.: The Untold Civil War from 4pm-6pm. Get your copy of Hunter’s Raid!

Holiday Tours from 10:00am-4:00pm at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, 1542 Bateman Bridge Road in Forest. 434-525-1806 Email:[email protected] www.poplarforest.org Tours will focus on holiday traditions and dining in the early 19th-century. Museum Shop open for holiday shopping.

A FACination Christmas from 2:00pm-4:30pm. (See description Dec. 10.)





Holiday Open House from 1:00am-4:00pm at Old City Cemetery, 401 Taylor Street in Lynch-burg. 434-847-1465 Email:[email protected] www.gravegarden.org The Cemetery’s his-toric museums will be open to the public and decorated for the holidays with greenery from the grounds. Enjoy mulled cider and cookies in the Cemetery Center.

Christmas Time’s a Coming Open House from 12:00pm-5:00pm at Peaks of Otter Winery, 2122 Sheep Creek Road in Bedford. 540-586-3707 Email:[email protected] www.peaksofot-terwinery.com Warm apple cinnamon wine and cider will be in the wine tasting room. Gift packs

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Dancing with Strings and Christmas Things from 7:30pm-10:00pm at Academy of Fine Arts, 600 Main Street in Lynchburg. 434-846-8499 Email:[email protected] www.acade-myfinearts.com Exquisite dancers, fine musicians and angelic voices in this Holiday sensation.


Dancing with Strings and Christmas Things from 2:00pm-4:00pm. (See description Dec. 17.)

- [email protected]

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Meet one Virginia Marine about to spend Christmas in Afghanistan

By Dan McDermottThe Lynchburg Times

As we enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families here in the United States, we

thought it would be a good idea to remember the young men and women who serve in our armed forces and can’t be with their families this holiday season. 2007 James Wood High School graduate Matthew Miller, of Winchester, will turn 23 years old on January 4. He’ll be celebrating it at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan where he is a U.S. Marine Corporal currently serving as a Mobile Facility Repairman with Marine Aviation Lo-gistics Squadron 40. I spoke with Cpl. Miller via the technical operations center of the Defense Video & Im-agery Distribution System just days before the news broke of increasingly strained relations between the United States and Afghanistan’s neighbor Pakistan.

The Lynchburg Times: What prompted you to enlist in the Marine Corps?

Cpl. Matthew Miller: Well my mom’s side of the family had a collective 97 years of service in the Navy and they really wanted me to go that route and complete the 100 years but from all the challenges I had heard about the Marine Corps I was drawn in that direction.

LT: I know you are a mechanic. What exactly do you do there?

MM: Right now we work on generators to sup-ply power. We assist all the other squadrons with aircraft to keep them flying. We also work on air conditioning units in the shelters the other marines work out of . They have to keep certain equipment within certain temperature ranges.

LT: When did you join and when did you get overseas?

MM: I took the summer after high school to have some fun before I went to boot camp. I was in the delayed entry program. From boot camp I went to school down in Pensacola, FL for about 7 months then I was in Cherry Point, NC for about two months and finally to my sta-tion which is Marine Corps Air Station New River in Jacksonville, NC. Late last year I went to Pakistan for three months on a humanitar-ian mission and now I am in Afghanistan.

LT: How do you celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas when you are on a base in Afghani-stan?

MM: Well they have some nice Thanksgiving dinners at the chow halls. My unit actually has a competition where they try to make the best looking and best tasting meal out of MREs. It is us and nine others. We call it Iron Chef Af-ghanistan.

LT: How is the food on the base? Is it good?

MM: It’s edible. (laughter)

LT: How does it feel having to spend the holi-days away from your family?

MM: Well you get kind of lonely around the holidays but I know what my job is out here. I know what I’m supposed to be doing and I know when I get back I’ll be able to have great moments like I would having Thanksgiving Dinner with the family.

LT: What do you feel you are accomplishing in Afghanistan? What difference are you mak-ing?

MM: I would say our main mission over here is to win the hearts and minds of the locals and what I have read in the newspapers and such I believe we are doing a good job.

LT: Do you think most of the locals you en-counter are glad we are there or do they want us to leave tomorrow?

MM: The ones I have come into contact with, they support what we are doing over here. The majority are really friendly, really talkative.

LT: How much interaction with the locals do you have in your job? Are you stuck on a base or do you get to go into town?

MM: I’m stuck on base right now. The only time we get interaction with Afghans is when we get on the bus or go to chow hall.

LT: Tell me something about living in Paki-stan and Afghanistan that most Americans wouldn’t know.

MM: Well, I knew it was hot but personally I don’t think people know just how hot it is during the summer. When I first got here it was 120-130 degrees and the sun was beating down on me pretty hard.

LT: What is the humidity?

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MM: Pretty much zero. It is really dry heat. It is about 45 degrees now. The coldest it gets is around 30.

LT: Do you feel relatively safe where you are?

MM: Well it wasn’t exactly too dangerous but we had indirect fire a few weeks ago. It was a mortar round that landed on our compound. It was about 20-30 yards from where I was. I didn’t explode but it went through some metal material the marines use for runways. It land-ed right beside the compound and everyone was shook up but then we went back to doing what we do.

LT: What goes through your head when some-thing like that happens?

MM: Luckily for me I was off shift when it happened. I was already back in my room but when I came and saw exactly what it did it made me realize that I know that I’m here in a dangerous area but I’m here to do my job and make sure it gets done.

LT: Early in the war there were news reports of families buying all sorts of things for the sol-diers, even armor. How well equipped are you. Are there things you need?

MM: The gear I have been issued is all top-of-the-line stuff. It’s what everyone else is issued. I don’t know why they were saying there were armor issues. We do get care packages. I know one marine who talked to his father back home in Washington and all he wanted for Christ-mas was Christmas lights. So we got all these boxes of Christmas lights and we’re going to decorate it up and take pictures and send them back to the newspapers back home and show them exactly how we are doing.

LT: If some folks would like to send you some-thing, what would it be and where should they send it?

MM: Well we have a mailing address for care packages. It is Corporal Matthew R. Miller, MALS 40, DET A, Work Center 990, Unit 78369, FPO AE 09510.

LT: What would be good send. Obviously chocolate wouldn’t work if it gets that hot but what do you not have that would be a good idea?

MM: Well I know we’re all big fans of jerky. There are a lot of hunters in my family so they’re going to be sending me deer jerky here soon. We get some creative packages that come in. We get letters from the elementary school kids and the little pictures that they draw. We try to respond back but we get so many in that

it is hard to keep up with them and still get our work done.

LT: How long does it take for a package to ar-rive?

MM: It is about a week or two depending on the mail.

LT: How do you communicate with your fam-ily? I know we are speaking through a military communications network. Do you have inter-net access?

MM: Yes, I contact my wife through email and

I usually call my immediate family once or twice a week depending on how busy we are.

LT: Any final thoughts to share?

MM: I wish everyone a great holiday. They should spend it wisely with their family and enjoy the moments. There are a lot of people who are over here and can’t get home and would gladly trade places in a second to be back with their families.

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McDonnell’s reform measures have little budget impactBy Bill McMorrisVirginia Statehouse News

Gov. Bob McDonnell released a flurry of re-form proposals aimed at streamlining govern-ment, but his plan would do little to reduce a state budget gap of $1.5 billion. The governor endorsed several proposals Nov. 29 put forward by his hand-picked Com-mission on Government Reform and Restruc-turing. The governor’s office claimed the plan to eliminate or merge more than 50 state boards and agencies would save around $2 million. The details behind how it arrived at the number, however, proved murky. “We are fine-tuning the individual numbers, but we are confident the total will be greater than $2 million,” said Jeff Palmore, McDonnell’s deputy policy adviser who served as executive director to the commission. Commission members said cost cutting was a secondary factor behind their proposals. “We were more concerned about making the services more accessible,” commission member Jack Rust said. Rust pointed to the merger of the Department of Aging, Department of Rehabilitative Services and adult protection programs operating under the Department of Social Services as an exam-ple of increased accessibility. A senior citizen in

need of home care could register with the post-merger Department for the Aging and Rehabili-tative Services rather than separately approach the departments of Aging and Social Services. McDonnell’s plan would eliminate the Vir-ginia National Defense Industrial Authority, or VNDIA, and Board of Towing and Recovery Operators, or BTRO, as well as 19 boards. “The agency eliminations and mergers will produce the most savings,” Palmore said. “Some will be realized in this coming budget because if there’s a duplication of function, they will streamline quickly.” The governor warned that some reforms could produce layoffs, but his plan would af-fect a handful of state workers. VNDIA employs three people and BTRO, four. VNDIA Executive Director Stan Scott said the future of the program will not be known. “The reform commission made the same rec-ommendation last year, but the General Assem-bly did not act on it,” he said. “If they do pass it, our role would likely be taken over by the Sec-retary of Veterans Affairs and Homeland Secu-rity.” The 19 boards the governor has proposed eliminating would not affect employment since board members are not paid and have other em-ployment in the public or private sector. Commission members told Virginia State-house News that the commission did not know

exact cost-savings details or layoff estimates for all of its proposals. Commission Chairman Fred Malek said the figure sounded like a ballpark es-timate. “I think $2 million was the minimum the gov-ernor’s people could put their arms around,” said Malek, who was at McDonnell’s side in Orlando for a Republican Governor’s Association confer-ence. There could be short-term costs associated with the reforms, including the acquisition of office space, new letterhead and moving of per-sonnel. The governor’s office has yet to make these estimates. “There will certainly be transactional costs with mergers, but we think there will be net sav-ings in the end,” Palmore said. “We don’t have the details finalized.” In addition to the Reform Commission’s pro-posals, the governor has asked state agencies to draw up plans for spending cuts of 2, 4 and 6 percent. The proposed agency mergers and eliminations will not affect the budgeting in place. “Until we get this done, the individual agen-cies will have to prepare their own cuts, but if a merger happens, I expect they would do so un-der a unified department,” Rust said. Department of Rehabilitative Services Com-missioner Jim Rothrock said the proposed merger may end up increasing the budget share

of elderly services, rather than lead to cost cut-ting. Adult services under the Department of Social Services attracted about $7 million in state and federal spending in 2011. Rothrock said that once these services are lumped together with the $43 million budgets of rehabilitative services and aging, lawmakers will be more inclined to increase spending on the program. “The consolidated forces will ensure there will be more of a magnet for (budget) attention,” he said. The governor created the 32-member reform commission after taking office in January. The committee’s primary task is “creating efficien-cies in state government, including streamlin-ing, consolidating, or eliminating redundant and unnecessary agency services,” according to its report. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents several thousand state employees but carries no collective bargaining rights, did not return calls for comment. The General Assembly will consider McDon-nell’s reform measures when it reconvenes on Jan. 11. The governor is working on his first two-year budget.


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By Benjamin SheltonThe Lynchburg Times

On November 2, the Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce received 5-star ac-creditation from the U.S. Chamber of Com-merce for the second time. It first received the distinction in 2006, placing it in the top 1% of approximately 7,000 Chambers nationwide and the top .5% which have managed to do it twice. 18 oth-ers also received accreditation, including 9 that also earned five stars. “Accreditation validates a chamber as having programs that benefit their local economy and for positively influencing their community,” said Raymond P. Towle, IOM, CAE, U.S. Chamber Executive Director of Political Affairs and Federation Relations. “We call it the Good Housekeeping seal of approval,” said Rex Hammond, president and CEO of the Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce. Despite the prestige, only 234 Chambers are currently accredited. “Most chambers have elected not to go through it. I think that’s unfortunate. I would assure any one of those chambers that they

would be better for the experience,” said Hammond. The Danville, Pittsylvania and Halifax County Chambers are the only other 5-star accredited Chambers in Virginia. Hammond described the application as “a lengthy, introspective process” which in-volves both objective measurements and es-says. The application can take six months to a year to complete and accreditation must be renewed every five years. “Our goal in the accreditation process is to be the best we can possibly be. The Chamber needs to attempt to be as good as our com-munity and members are,” said Hammond. Hammond stressed that he tries to meet the needs of the 900 business members of the Chamber and claimed the Lynchburg Chamber has a good reputation nationwide for its public policy initiatives. “I would be proud to work with any other Chamber in Virginia to get that accredita-tion. We don’t compete against other com-munities,” said Hammond and claims the Lynchburg Chamber has already started working on the next application.


Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce earns 5-star accreditation

Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce earned 5-star accreditation for the sec-ond time.

A celebration of Kwanzaa

The Legacy Museum of African Ameri-can History offers two opportunities for the public to learn about and plan for Kwanzaa, a craft workshop from 10:30-1:30 Saturday, December 10 and an Open House from 2:00 to 4:00 Sunday December 11. Both events will be held at the Legacy Activity Center, 415 Monroe ST.. Kwanzaa is an African American celebra-tion of family, community, and culture that traces its origins to the first harvest festivals held throughout Africa. Its name is derived from the Swahili phrase for first fruits, ‘ma-tunda ya kwanzaa’. It is celebrated through-out the African diaspora from December 26 through January 1. Legacy celebrates Kwanzaa as part of its mission to stimulate an appreciation of the

diversity of the African American experi-ence. At the craft workshop for children and families participants will learn about the seven principles of Kwanzaa while they de-sign and make Kwanzaa gifts using stamps of Ghanaian adinkra symbols. The Open House on Sunday December 11 will fea-ture information, displays of home decora-tions, and refreshments. Special Kwanzaa wreaths will be sold to benefit the Museum. The Museum featuring the retrospective ex-hibit, “Celebrating Commuity! The Legacy Museum’s First Ten Years’ will also be open at those times. Both programs will be held at the Legacy Activity Center, 415 Monroe ST. They are free and open to all. For information and reservations for the workshop, call the Mu-seum at 434-845-3455.

Page 10 • The Lynchburg Times • December, �011 Read every issue online at www.lynchburgtimes.com

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Train fatality

The Amherst County Sheriff ’s Office investigated a fatal pedestrian / train crash on River Road in Madison Heights. At 10:45 p.m. Nov. 17, five Liberty University students were caught out on the river road rail-road trestle by a train headed north into Amherst County from Lynchburg. The five freshman college students had apparently walked onto the trestle to watch the stars. As a result of injuries received when struck by the train, 18 year old Hannah Emmaline Williams, of Sanford North Carolina was killed. Additionally, 18 year old Juianne Ashbaugh, of Temple Georgia was treated by Lynchburg General for critical injuries she received when falling from the trestle. Treated for minor injuries were; Patrick Marshall, an 18 year old male of Yorktown Virginia: Javier Da-vid Duque, a 19 year old male of Arlington Texas and Kaitlyn Hermening, an 18 year old female of Mosinee Wisconsin Two of the surviving victims were able to jump to a nearby piling and avoid the train while another hung down below the track by his arms.

No, you didn’t really win that $500,000 sweep-stakes you never entered

The Lynchburg Police Department is warning citizens to beware of recent telephone scams in-forming potential victims they have won a publish-er’s sweepstakes or other contest with prizes over $500,000. One purported scam involved a sweepstakes publisher, based in Shawnee Mission, Kansas. The

potential victim was instructed to meet a courier at her bank to sign a form authorizing them to pay the taxes out of her “winnings.” This particular fraud tends to focus on senior citizens. If a person wins a legitimate contest or sweep-stakes, they are not required to pay anything up-front to receive their prize. It is important to note that you should never give out your banking infor-mation to anyone over the phone, or sign any legal documents without first verifying the contents and the legitimacy of the business. Another potential victim was notified that she had won $2.5 million and a new Mercedes. The potential victim was advised that all she had to do claim her prize was to go buy a specific type of money order for $150 and then call the initiating party back when she had purchased it. Clearly, this is a fraud and if the money order had been purchased, the victim would have been out of the money once it was sent to the fraudulent prize company. As a reminder, never give out personal informa-tion over the phone to anyone who calls you. You should not agree to allow a courier to come to your home to deliver a prize or pick up a check or money order from you. If you have any questions about frauds, please contact the Lynchburg Police Depart-ment’s Crime Prevention Unit at 455-6070. Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission’s web site has valuable information to help avoid being the victim of a scam. The FTC works to prevent fraud-ulent, deceptive and unfair business practices and provides information to help consumers to avoid them. For more information on consumer issues, or additional scams, visit ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261.

Middle School All-District Band Honors Fifteen Lynchburg City Middle School students made the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association All-District Band. Auditions were held at Linkhorne Middle School on November 12. More than 400 middle school band students traveled from all over Central Virginia to audition for one of 180 spots in this elite ensemble. Congratulations go out to the following LCS student musicians: Anna Beck, Clarinet - LMS, Morgan Bush, Alto Sax - LMS, Sung min Cho, Clarinet - SMS, Jackson Cobb, Oboe - DMS, Rhyan Cooper, Alto Sax - LMS, Isaac Howard, Trombone - SMS, Brandon Johnson, Baritone - SMS, Allison Johnston, Oboe - LMS, Daniel Kim, Clarinet - SMS, Sam Lefew, Percussion - LMS, Riley Millward, Trumpet - LMS, Liam Shee-han, French Horn - LMS, Jake W. Smith, Percussion - LMS, Leon Strange, Tuba - LMS, Sarah Wilkins, Oboe - SMS

Nine die on Va. roads during Thanksgiving - more than half not wearing seatbelts

Preliminary reports indicate nine individuals lost their lives in nine traffic crashes during the 2011 Thanksgiving holiday weekend. State Police in-creased its visibility and traffic enforcement efforts during the heavily-traveled holiday which began at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday (Nov. 23) and continued through midnight, Sunday (Nov. 27). During the 2010 holiday weekend, 10 motorists died in traffic crashes on Virginia’s highways. Of the nine individuals killed during the 2011 Thanksgiving holiday, five were not wearing seat-belts.

“What makes this so troubling is that law en-forcement just participated in a statewide Click-It-or-Ticket project the previous week – which is an educational and enforcement campaign aimed at increasing seatbelt usage in Virginia,” says Colonel W. Steven Flaherty, Virginia State Police Superin-tendent. “Sadly, half of the traffic crashes involved victims who weren’t buckled up. As we begin this holiday season, public safety responders are strong-ly encouraging driver and passenger to take two seconds and fasten your seatbelt – it costs nothing and could save your life.” The Thanksgiving holiday crashes occurred in the counties of Appomattox, Chesterfield, Hanover, Henry, Loudoun, Rappahannock and Washington. Two of the nine fatalities occurred in the cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach. One fatality involved a pedestrian and another involved a motorcyclist. Alcohol was a factor in two of the crashes. Those killed ranged in ages from 17 to 54. As part of the 2011 Thanksgiving Operation C.A.R.E. initiative, 75 percent of state police’s uni-formed workforce was on patrol during the five-day statistical counting period. Operation C.A.R.E. is the acronym for Combined Accident Reduction Ef-fort and is a nationwide, state-sponsored campaign intended to reduce crashes, fatalities and injuries caused by speeding, impaired driving and failure to wear seatbelts by drivers and passengers. In addition, state police arrested 103 drunk driv-ers during the Thanksgiving weekend. Troopers cited 8,526 speeders and 2,898 reckless drivers on Virginia’s highways statewide. Another 687 sum-monses were issued to individuals who failed to buckle up and 250 child safety-restraints were is-sued. Troopers also investigated 884 traffic crashes.

December, �011 • The Lynchburg Times • Page 11Read every issue online at www.lynchburgtimes.com

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James River Day School supports local farmers and healthy eatingBy Ben SheltonThe Lynchburg Times

James River Day School realizes the im-portance of children’s nutrition. Earlier this month, it participated in the week-long Farm to School initiative, which seeks to connect schools with local and regional farmers to promote good nutrition, organic foods and supporting the local farmers. Every day, students were taught about nu-trition while being served locally grown items such as eggs, sausage, apples, pumpkins, whole grains and sweet potatoes in the cafeteria and participated in games and activities related to

nutrition. “It’s not just delicious and healthy for them but also fun and educational,” said Natalie Trost, who helped coordinate Farm to School week. This culminated in a lunch and farmer’s market that was open to parents on Friday in which all the food served was grown or raised locally. Several farmers and groups supporting local farming, including Auburnlea Farms, Lynch-burg Grows, and Horse & Buggy Produce, comprised the farmer’s market where locally grown foods could be purchased. “I think it’s very smart to be teaching kids these habits early,” said Bill Varner, a parent of two JRDS students. “They’re mindful of what’s served in the cafeteria. The meals here are very healthy.” The students seemed to respond positively to healthy eating. “They are into it because it’s not their par-ents teaching them” said Tiffany Tatom, the JRDS health and wellness nutrionist. “The whole idea is keeping it fun.” Tatom is working for JRDS to get its own chef within the next two years and for more schools in the community to focus on their students’ nutrition. Children and parents enjoy a lunch with ingredients provided entirely by

local farmers.

Mayor Joan Foster drops by the Farm to School lunch and farmer’s market.

Page 1� • The Lynchburg Times • December, �011 Read every issue online at www.lynchburgtimes.com

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Financial Crutches Can be Addicting Three addicting financial habits can cost you ex-tra money in the long run, according to The National Foundation for Credit Counseling. Here are the cul-prits: Pawn shops will loan money in exchange for an item you own, such as a television or stereo. It’s considered an easy way to get money, and it can be addicting because of the immediacy. At the end of the agreed upon period, you can buy your item back -- by paying the original amount plus interest. If you can’t pay at that time, you can extend the loan pe-riod, with additional interest tacked on to the original amount. The interest rates are more than you’d ever pay at a bank. To break the pawn-shop habit, set aside money until you accumulate an emergency fund. Payday loans can be addictive because of the im-mediate payoff (you get the cash right now) and the delayed payback (you write a post-dated check). At the end of the agreed upon period, the lender will cash your check -- which is for the amount you bor-rowed plus interest. As with pawn shops, the inter-est rates can be astronomical. To break the habit of using payday lenders, open a savings account at a credit union. When you need a loan, ask there first. Rent-to-Own is considered an easy way to get furniture, televisions, appliances and even com-puters for your home by making small weekly pay-ments. As with anything that sounds too good to be true, once you add up the fees and interest, along with the payments, you could end up paying five or six times what you would have paid in a store. To break the rent-to-own habit, save your money and buy one item at a time. If you use a credit card, don’t charge more than you can realistically pay off in three months. While NFCC doesn’t mention it, buying a new ve-hicle every year can be an addictive habit as well. A shiny car or truck, without a scratch, with that new-car smell and brand-new tires -- it’s easy to want one in the driveway. The problem is that vehicles depreciate quickly. The longer you keep a vehicle, however, the less it depreciates each year. Invest in a complete vehicle detailing service twice a year, and keep the vehicle at least three years.

David Uffington regrets that he cannot personally answer reader questions, but will incorporate them into his column whenever possible. Write to him in care of King Features Weekly Service, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475, or send e-mail to [email protected]

© Copyright 2011 King Features Syndicate, Inc.

December, �011 • The Lynchburg Times • Page 1�Read every issue online at www.lynchburgtimes.com

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By Peter SmithVirginia Statehouse News

Virginia will pay nearly $600 million to credi-tors in 2012 after borrowing record amounts during the past few years, diverting money from services and programs facing budget cuts. Paying down Virginia’s debt ate up $1.19 bil-lion over the past two years — 3.7 percent of the $32 billion allocated for the general fund oper-ating budget over that period. Legislative analysts for the state Senate Fi-nance Committee said that number will rise even more next year. Bill Echelberger, a Senate fiscal analyst, told lawmakers gathered at the committee’s fall retreat that Virginia had seen the “four larg-est tax-supported debt acquisitions” in history during the past four years, including Gov. Bob McDonnell’s $600 million transportation pack-age. The large scale borrowing is expected to in-crease debt payments by $50 million in fiscal

2012, which comes as the state prepares for budget cuts. McDonnell has asked state agencies for 2 per-cent to 6 percent across-the-board budget cuts, exempting Medicaid, kindergarten through grade 12 education, and higher education from the austerity measures. Debt payments bind the hands of budget writers, because they operate on a fixed sched-ule, which can detract from government ser-vices and programs. A flat debt level could have nearly the state Department of Corrections from the $60.7 mil-lion that could be cut from its budget, if 6 per-cent cuts are enforced. A 6 percent cut across the board would save $220 million for the up-coming biennial budget. Debt has more than doubled in the past six years, increasing from $5.8 billion in fiscal 2005 to $11.9 billion in fiscal 2011. Annual interest payments have increased at an even faster rate from $236 million in 2005 to a projected $593 million in 2012.

Virginia’s debt total is among the lowest in the country, a big reason for its AAA credit rating. Some budget hawks, however, said the state’s fiscal picture ignores an issue that could further strain its ability to pay for services and programs. “What’s not included in that analysis is $54 billion in unfunded pension obligations,” for-mer Government Accountability auditor Bob Williams said. “It’s government accounting gimmicks that allow them to get away with it — a private company in Virginia would not have that luxury.” Williams, a former Republican politicians, is president of State Budget Solutions, a nonparti-san budget policy group with conservative lean-ings. State estimates put the pension debt at about $20 billion. Williams said his estimate is based upon the stricter accounting standards required for the private sector. The committee’s report is based on fiscal pro-jections on recent tax revenue and spending.

The Debt Capacity Advisory Committee, a state body that makes recommendations to the governor on how to issue debt responsibly, will release its own long-term estimates on Dec. 19.

Virginia debt service begins slow toll on budget

Crime Stoppers

The Amherst County Sheriff ’s Office is investigating a larceny from the highway / bridge construction area of Rt. 29 in north-ern Amherst County. Over the weekend of Saturday / Sunday November 19th and 20th, a 500 gallon fuel tank, with diesel fuel and a pump were tak-en from the construction area of the Tye River Bridge in northern Amherst County. A smaller 100 gallon tank and pump were also taken during the larceny. Anyone with any information regarding this crime or the identity of the suspects is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-888-798-5900, visit the Central Virginia Crime Stoppers website at www.cvcrimestoppers.org to enter a web tip, or text “CVCS plus your message” to 274637. Crime Stoppers will pay up to $1,000 for information re-garding this crime. All information is to-tally confidential.


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By Peter SmithVirginia Statehouse News

Virginia lawmakers could call the day before Thanksgiving “Black Wednesday” as a fed-eral debt committee’s failure means the state must face a $500 billion cut in federal defense spending that could hurt jobs, revenue and its AAA credit rating. The General Assembly and Gov. Bob Mc-Donnell already face a potential $1 billion to $1.5 billion budget shortfall for the 2012-2014 budget, according to Senate and House Finance Committee estimates. The super committee’s failure could further strain the tight budget. “Nobody really knows what to expect,” Sen-ate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Col-gan, D-Manassas, said. “This is going to make our job harder, because the cuts are not going to happen tomorrow — it’s going to happen by early 2013 — and that’s when we’ll know how this all affects Virginia.” Analysts for the Senate Finance Commit-tee told lawmakers at the committee’s recent retreat in Fairfax that Virginia stands to lose than 70,000 jobs, reducing sales and income tax levels needed to fund the 2012-2014 bud-get. Federal grants and contracts also make up 26.1 percent, or $10.8 billion, of Virginia’s $41 billion in revenue for fiscal 2011. And no one

knows which, if any, of these programs will be spared from the federal budget ax. Virginia has weathered the Great Reces-sion better than most states and the nation as a whole. The state has the 10th lowest unem-ployment rate at 6.5 percent, compared with 9 percent for the United States in October, ac-cording to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. McDonnell, a Republican, said Tuesday that the United States cannot support a $15 trillion debt, but he opposed the steep defense cuts. “The day of reckoning is here, the bills are due, and we have got to find ways to reduce spending,” McDonnell said. “But we certainly cannot sacrifice the security of the United States in the process.” The congressional “super committee” of six Republicans and six Democrats failed to find $1.2 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years by Wednesday’s deadline as required by the Bud-get Control Act of 2011, or BCA. Now the BCA will trigger those cuts automatically, with 50 percent from defense spending and 50 per-cent from domestic spending. The BCA was created as a compromise to raise the federal debt ceiling in August. Congress’s fight over the debt ceiling spooked markets in July and August, and wiped out $3 billion from Virginia’s $50 billion pension sys-tem, which is $19.9 billion underfunded, ac-

cording to some estimates. However, Matt Mitchell, an economist with the state’s Joint Advisory Board of Economists and senior fellow at George Mason Universi-ty’s Mercatus Center, said Virginia’s pain from federal cuts “could be good in the long run.” “No economy can be really healthy, if it’s dependent on one source,” he said. “Arizona, Florida and Nevada depended heavily on the housing sector, and looked great until the bubble burst. Virginia has a federal bubble, be-cause it is just not sustainable.” The credit rating agency Moody’s assigned Virginia a “negative outlook” on its AAA debt rating in August, when the United States seemed headed for a first-time national default on its $15 trillion debt. Moody’s cited Virgin-ia’s connection to the federal economy as the reason. A credit downgrade could make debt service even costlier than the $593 million price tag that state legislative analysts project for fiscal 2012. Debt service ate up $1.19 billion, or 3.7 percent, of the $32 billion in the 2010-2012 general fund operating budget. Colgan said lawmakers, despite the challeng-es, will make ends meet, when they reconvene Jan. 11, but the difference will come from state agencies and programs, since Republicans op-pose tax increases.

“We can balance the budget, but it’s going to be awfully tight,” he said. McDonnell has ordered all state agencies with the exception of education and Medicaid to prepare for 2 percent to 6 percent budget cuts.

Supercommittee failure puts Va. jobs, debt, credit on the line

Headstones vandalized

The Bedford County Sheriff ’s Office is investigating the vandalism to seven head-stones located in the First Baptist Church of Goode cemetery. Five had been pushed over and the other two were broken. There was also a stone cross pushed over and broken. The damage is believed to have oc-curred Saturday night, Nov. 19, or Sunday morning, Nov. 20, 2011. The church is lo-cated at 1285 Cannery Road, Goode, Va. Anyone with information on this crime can call the Bedford County Sheriff ’s Of-fice at 586-7827 or Central Virginia Crime Stoppers at 1-888-798-5900. Crime Stop-per callers remain anonymous and may re-ceive a reward up to $1,000.00 for informa-tion leading in the arrest of the person(s) who committed the crime.



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Nature or Nuture? Scouts say you can pick them out when they’re little kids. “The rest of the good playing kids in little league are hitting a respectable .300, and then there’s that one kid hitting .700 with a dinger each game,” one such scout told me. “We can see the kid’s already gonna be a pro, and he’s not even in high school yet.” Maybe he’s got a hitch in his swing. Perhaps he’s unsuited for the position he’s currently playing. Doesn’t matter. “Everybody is coachable,” a coach once told me. “But the player has to respond to the coach, or you can forget it.” Larry Bird couldn’t stand Bobby Knight so he bailed on Indiana. Former Atlanta Falcons head coach Jerry Glanville once proclaimed that Brett Favre would never play a down in the NFL. Martina Navratilova was too chubby to ever become a real contender on the wom-en’s tennis circuit. Heck, Reggie Jackson couldn’t get a guaranteed spot in the Yankee lineup underneath Billy Martin. There was a theory making the rounds a few years ago that posited anybody can attain expert level in just about anything if they spend 10,000 hours or more practicing that particular craft. If you spent every wak-ing hour practicing, every day, that would come to about two to three years. For a more reasonable timeframe, let’s just say it’s five to six years. One of the examples they used was The Beatles. They went off to Hamburg before they became famous, honed their craft by play-ing jet-fueled all-night sets and returned to Liverpool as stars. Sounds easy, right? Of course, the notion is pretty much absurd. If that were the case, every minor league baseball player would be in the show and everyone down at the country club would be competing in the Ryder Cup. With the exception of tennis players, quarterbacks, switch-hitting baseball players and, for whatever rea-son, Chinese violinists -- players who had parents who really take the time to drill them (which is why the coach’s kid is usually one of the best players on the team) -- most people practice what it is they’re truly talented at. There can be late bloomers, sure ... for instance, I recently had an epiphany that led me to begin playing the guitar. A friend of mine said something that clicked, taught me the A chord, and I was off and running. Now, I can confidently say that I am at the expert level at guitar, so long as you only want to hear “Wild Thing,” by The Troggs. My kid is 2. He wants to be a drummer. So I bought him some maracas and told him the ottoman was a drum, have at it. I’ll let you know in another 9,000 hours how that’s working out.

Mark Vasto is a veteran sportswriter who lives in Kan-sas City.


Answers1. Pete Schourek (18) and John Smiley (12) in 1995; Bron-son Arroyo (17) and Johnny Cueto (12) in 2010.2. Kansas City’s David Cone was 16-5 when he won the A.L. Cy Young Award in the shortened 1994 season. 3. The Colts’ Marvin Harrison accomplished it in 102 games.4. It was 1998 (George Washington, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Temple and Xavier).5. Bud Poile.6. Argentina.7. Thomas “Hitman” Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard.

1. The past two times the Cincinnati Reds made the playoffs (1995, 2010), they did so despite having only two pitchers win 10-plus games each time. Name two of the four pitch-ers. 2. When was the last time a pitcher captured the A.L. Cy Young Award with 16 or fewer wins in a season before Zack Greinke in 2009?3. In 2010, Baltimore’s Anquan Boldin became the fastest NFL receiver to 600 career receptions (98 games). Who had been the fastest?4. When was the last time the Atlantic 10 Conference had five teams make the NCAA Tournament in men’s basket-ball? 5. Name the person who was the first general manager of both the Philadelphia Flyers (1967) and the Vancouver Ca-nucks (1970). 6. In 2011, Uruguay won the men’s soccer COPA America for a record 15th time. What country had been tied with Uru-guay at 14?7. In 1988, two boxers, within three days of one another, became the first two to win five world titles in five different weight divisions. Name them.




[email protected]

* or less

In advance of the holiday season, the FBI re-minds shoppers to beware of cyber criminals and their aggressive and creative ways to steal money and personal information. Scammers use many techniques to fool potential victims including fraudulent auction sales, reshipping merchandise purchased with a stolen credit card, sale of fraudulent or stolen gift cards through auction sites at discounted prices, and phishing e-mails advertising brand name merchandise for bargain prices or e-mails promoting the sale of merchandise that ends up being a counterfeit product.

Fraudulent Classified Ads or Auction Sales

Internet criminals post classified ads or auc-tions for products they do not have. If you receive an auction product from a merchant or retail store, rather than directly from the auction seller, the item may have been pur-chased with someone else’s stolen credit card number. Contact the merchant to verify the account used to pay for the item actually be-longs to you. Shoppers should be cautious and not pro-vide credit card numbers, bank account num-bers, or other financial information directly to the seller. Fraudulent sellers will use this in-formation to purchase items for their scheme from the provided financial account. Always use a legitimate payment service to protect purchases. Diligently check each seller’s rating and feedback along with their number of sales and the dates on which feedback was posted. Be wary of a seller with 100% positive feedback, if they have a low total number of feedback postings and all feedback was posted around the same date and time.

Gift Card Scam

The safest way to purchase gift cards is di-rectly from the merchant or authorized retail merchant. If the merchant discovers the card you received from another source or auction

was initially obtained fraudulently, the mer-chant will deactivate the gift card number, and it will not be honored to make purchases.Phishing and Social Networking Be leery of e-mails or text messages you re-ceive indicating a problem or question regard-ing your financial accounts. In this scam, you are directed to follow a link or call the number provided in the message to update your ac-count or correct the problem. The link actually directs the individual to a fraudulent Web site or message that appears legitimate; however, any personal information you provide, such as account number and personal identification number (PIN), will be stolen. Another scam involves victims receiving an e-mail message directing the recipient to a spoofed Web site. A spoofed Web site is a fake site or copy of a real Web site that is de-signed to mislead the recipient into providing personal information. Consumers are encouraged to beware of bargain e-mails advertising one day only pro-motions for recognized brands or Web sites. Fraudsters often use the hot items of the sea-son to lure bargain hunters into providing credit card information. The old adage “if it seems too good to be true” is a good barom-eter to use to legitimize e-mails. Black Friday has traditionally been the “big-gest shopping day of the year.” The Monday following Thanksgiving has more recently (2005) been labeled Cyber Monday, meaning the e-commerce industry endorses this spe-cial day to offer sales and promotions without interfering with the traditional way to shop. Scammers try to prey on Black Friday or Cy-ber Monday bargain hunters by advertising “one day only” promotions from recognized brands. Consumers should be on the watch for too good to be true e-mails from unrecog-nized Web sites. Along with on-line shopping comes the growth of consumers utilizing social network-ing sites and mobile phones to satisfy their shopping needs more easily. Again, consum-ers are encouraged to beware of e-mails, text

Holiday shopping tips from the Lynchburg Police Dept.


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[email protected]

messages, or postings that may lead to fraud-ulent sites offering bargains on brand name products.

Tips

Here are some tips you can use to avoid be-coming a victim of cyber fraud: Do not respond to unsolicited (spam) e-mail. Do not click on links contained within an unsolicited e-mail. Be cautious of e-mail claiming to contain pictures in attached files, as the files may

contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders. Always run a virus scan on at-tachment before opening. Avoid filling out forms contained in e-mail messages that ask for personal information. Always compare the link in the e-mail to the web address link you are directed to and de-termine if they match. Log on directly to the official Web site for the business identified in the e-mail, instead of “linking” to it from an unsolicited e-mail. If the e-mail appears to be from your bank, credit card issuer, or other company you deal with frequently, your statements or official

correspondence from the business will pro-vide the proper contact information. Contact the actual business that suppos-edly sent the e-mail to verify that the e-mail is genuine. If you are requested to act quickly or there is an emergency, it may be a scam. Fraudsters create a sense of urgency to get you to act im-pulsively. If you receive a request for personal informa-tion from a business or financial institution, always look up the main contact information for the requesting company on an indepen-dent source (phone book, trusted internet

directory, legitimate billing statement, etc.) and use that contact information to verify the legitimacy of the request. Remember if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. To receive the latest information about cy-ber scams, please go to the FBI Web site and sign up for e-mail alerts by clicking on one of the red envelopes. If you have received a scam e-mail, please notify the IC3 by filing a complaint at www.ic3.gov. For more informa-tion on e-scams, please visit the FBI’s New E-Scams and Warnings webpage at http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/escams.htm.

McDonnell to head GOP Governors Assoc.

ORLANDO- Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell was elected Chair-man of the Republican Governors Association Nov. 30 at the group’s quarterly meetings in Orlando, Florida. With the vote the Governor will continue his service as head of the organization. Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey was elected to continue serving as RGA Vice-Chairman. Del. Clay Athey (R-Front Royal) said “Governor McDonnell has been an innovative and effective Governor. He will also continue to be an outstanding and effective Chairman. Bob is obviously a rising star in the Republican Party and I predict that his name will appear sooner rather than later on a Republican national ticket.” Speaking about the election, Governor McDonnell remarked, “I am honored to be elected by my peers to chair the Republican Governors Association in 2012. Our country is facing unprecedented economic

and fiscal challenges that require bold leadership and innovative solu-tions. Unemployment is unacceptably high, too many of our citizens lack access to a good paying job and the American Dream, and for too long our leaders in Washington have over-promised, over-spent, and under-delivered. Republican governors across the country have been showing the way forward by balancing budgets by cutting spending, not raising taxes; reforming state governments to make them more efficient, effective and user-friendly to taxpayers; and focusing on pri-vate sector job creation to get our fellow citizens back to work and reignite the economic engine of America. Across the country these efforts are producing positive results, and I look forward to working with my colleagues over the next year to continue implementing good, fiscally responsible policy, and to working hard to build on the RGA’s successes of 2009-2011 to add to the ranks of our 29 outstanding Re-publican governors.”



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ARIES (March 21 to April 19) Make your holiday preparations one step at a time in order to avoid being overwhelmed and leaving things undone. That confusing family situation continues to work itself out.TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Ease this year’s holiday money pressures by letting your thrifty side guide you as you look for those perfect gifts that typically reflect your good taste and love of beauty.GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) You’ll have a good handle on potential holiday problems if you del-egate tasks to family members, friends or co-work-ers -- most of whom will be more than happy to help out.CANCER (June 21 to July 22) Right now you are especially vulnerable to holiday scams that seek to take advantage of your generosity. Best advice: Check them out before you send out your checks.LEO (July 23 to August 22) The upcoming holiday season gives the Big Cat much to purr about. Re-lationships grow stronger, and new opportunities loom on the horizon, just waiting to be pounced on.VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) A changing situation brings conflicting advice about how to go forward with your holiday plans. Your best bet: Make the decision you feel most comfortable with.LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) Holiday plans get back on track after some confusion about the direction you expected to take. A potentially troublesome money matter needs your immediate attention.SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) Your holiday preparations are on track. But you need to confront a personal situation while you can still keep it from overwhelming everything else.SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) Tight financial matters ease a bit during this holiday season. But the sagacious Sagittarian is well-advised to keep a tight hold on the reins while shopping for gifts.CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) Don’t put off making decisions about this year’s holi-day celebrations, despite the negative comments you’ve been getting from several quarters. Do it NOW!AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) The holi-days will bring new friends and new opportunities. Meanwhile, be careful to use your energy wisely as you go about making holiday preparations.PISCES (February 19 to March 20) There’s good news coming from a most unlikely source. And it could turn out to be one of the best holiday gifts you have had in years. Remember to stay posi-tive.BORN THIS WEEK: You are respected for your honesty and loyalty. You make friends slowly -- but with rare exceptions, they’re in your life forever.


Chocolate Chip Jumbos

These cookies are super-large and chock-full of everything -- butter, sugar, chips and nuts. You actually spoon out the batter with an ice-cream scoop! Just remember that one of these jumbos is equivalent to six regular-size cookies.

3 large eggs1 pounds (4 sticks) butter or margarine, soft-ened1 package (16-ounce) brown sugar1 1/2 cup granulated sugar2 tablespoons vanilla extract1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda1 1/2 teaspoons salt6 cups all-purpose flour2 packages (12-ounce) semisweet chocolate chips1 bag (16-ounce) chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. In very large bowl,

with mixer on medium speed, beat eggs 4 minutes or until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; beat in butter, sugars, vanilla, baking soda and salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips and walnuts (mixture will be very stiff).2. Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper. Drop dough by level 1/3 cups (or use 2 1/2-inch ice-cream scoop), 2 inches apart, onto prepared cookie sheets.3. Bake cookies 23-26 minutes or until golden around the edges, rotating cookie sheets be-tween upper and lower racks halfway through baking. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool.4. Repeat with remaining dough, reusing the same parchment. Store your cookies in a tightly covered container at room tempera-ture for up to 1 week or in the freezer up to 3 months. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

• Each cookie: About 425 calories, 25g total fat (11g saturated), 45mg cholesterol, 265mg sodium, 50g carbohydrate, 3g dietary fiber, 6g protein.

For thousands of triple-tested recipes, visit our website at www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/


• It was English biologist Thomas Henry Hux-ley who made the following sage observation: “Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.”

• If you put your rubber bands in the refrigera-tor, they’ll last longer.

• It’s not just the tiger’s fur that has stripes; its skin is striped, too.

• You probably know that the iconic film “Rocky” starred Sylvester Stallone in the lead-ing role, but you might not be aware of the fact that he wrote the script, as well. The sale of the rights to the script came just in time; he had a total of $106 in his bank account and was trying to sell his dog for lack of the means to feed it.

• In the winter of 1932, Niagara Falls froze solid.

• Madame Tussaud started creating her fa-mous wax figures in 1777 and created many models during the French Revolution. She traveled around Europe displaying wax figures (both the ones she created and ones she in-herited from her mentor), and she opened her first museum in London in 1831. Today there are branches located in the United Kingdom, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Vienna, Moscow, Bangkok, Dubai, Berlin and Ham-burg, plus five U.S. locations. It’s appropriate that there are more locations in American than in any other country, since so many Hollywood celebrities are recreated in the museums. In fact, in 2006, Shiloh, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s baby, became the first infant to be me-morialized in wax for Madame Tussauds.

• Those who study such things say that apples are more effective than caffeine at waking you up in the morning.

• It’s not clear why, but a duck’s quack doesn’t create echoes.

Thought for the Day: “The trouble with being punctual is that nobody’s there to appreciate it.” -- Franklin P. Jones


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• On Dec. 18, 1620, the Mayflower docks at what today is Plymouth, Mass., and its passen-gers disembarked to begin their new settlement, Plymouth Colony. The winter of 1620-1621 was brutal, and by spring, only 52 of the original 102 Mayflower passengers were still alive.

• On Dec. 16, 1773, in Boston Harbor, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mo-hawk Indians board three British tea ships and dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor in pro-test of the British Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773. The value of the tea was more than $700,000 in today’s currency.

• On Dec. 14, 1909, workers place the last of the 3.2 million 10-pound bricks that pave the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana. Since then, all but a 1-yard-wide strip at the start-fin-ish line has been buried under asphalt. Kissing those bricks after a successful race remains a tradition among Indy drivers.

• On Dec. 13, 1916, a powerful avalanche kills hundreds of Austrian soldiers in barracks near Italy’s Mount Marmolada. Over a period of several weeks, avalanches killed an estimated 10,000 Austrian and Italian soldiers.

• On Dec. 17, 1961, a fire at a filled-to-capac-ity circus in Brazil kills more than 300 people and severely burns 500 more. The cause of the fire was never conclusively determined, but it may have been the result of sparks from a train passing nearby.

• On Dec. 15, 1973, Jean Paul Getty III, the grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, is found alive near Naples, five months after his kidnapping by an Italian gang. Getty had initially refused to pay his 16-year-old grandson’s $17 million ransom, but finally agreed after the boy’s severed right ear was sent to a newspaper in Rome.

• On Dec. 12, 1980, American oil tycoon Ar-mand Hammer pays $5,126,000 at auction for a notebook containing writings by the legend-ary artist Leonardo da Vinci. The manuscript, written around 1508, contained 72 loose pages featuring some 300 notes and detailed draw-ings, all relating to the common theme of water and how it moved.

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Join Brian and Mari Weekdays from 6am - 10am on The Morningline. Keep up with what’s going on around the Greater Lynchburg area. If it’s happening locally, we’re talking about it on the Morningline. Join the conversation by calling the studio line at 846-8255 or 866-338-1059.

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Council approves one-time bonus for schoolsBy Emily WilliamsThe Lynchburg Times

The Lynchburg City Council voted Novem-ber 22 to approve a one-time bonus for City School employees, a group that has not seen wage increases since 2008. The 2 percent bo-nus will be funded by LCS rollover funds from fiscal year 2011. The one-time bonus, totaling just over $1 million overall, will appear in LCS pay checks

before the end of the year. Both full-time and part-time employees will be eligible with the exception of retired employees that continue to work part time. Un-used LCS funds revert back to the city each year, at which point the School Board is able to request their use for what have tra-ditionally been capital gains projects. At the close of the 2011 fiscal year, there was an ex-cess of almost $3.4 million dollars available for re-appropriation. This amount, said city Man-

ager Kimball Payne, was verified by the audi-tors in the first clean audit report the schools have seen in several years. Councilmember Randy Nelson drew at-tention to the fact that much of money came from a decrease in instruction expenditures. This amount, confirmed Interim Superin-tendent Dr. Larry Massie, was a result of not hiring for vacant positions. Nelson pointed to this as proof that teachers were being asked to cover more and more responsibilities and deserved an incentive to reward their efforts. Councilmember Jeff Helgeson, who was the only dissenting vote on the request, worried that because everyone in the LCS will receive the same bonus, that undeserving incompe-tent employees would also benefit. He argued that money should only be awarded to spec-tacular teachers that proved themselves wor-thy of reward. “I would be more inclined to vote for this if we were not giving an across the board per-cent,” said Helgeson. Councilmember Michael Gillette disagreed with Helgeson’s assertion, arguing that he trusted that the city schools were able to iden-tify good employees and remove the bad. “I don’t want to start this conversation by assuming that there are a lot of incompetent people and that somehow tons of them will be getting bonuses,” said Gillette. Councilmember Helgeson later went on to express concerns that with declining incomes in the city, giving a raise to teachers was inap-propriate and that the funds might be better spent on the future of Heritage High School. Helgeson suggested that the schools coming in under budget was not so much a result of the schools cutting back but instead because the city council had allocated too much mon-ey for education in the budget. Councilmember Hunsdon “H” Cary was in favor of the request in light of improvements that had been made to the LCS administra-tion. “Any beef I’ve had with LCS was with the

previous school administration and what I be-lieved was extremely poor financial manage-ment,” said Cary. During the recent Teacher for a Day event, said Cary, he was able to see LCS staff in ac-tion up-close and was impressed at their abil-ity to manage a classroom. “My admiration for teachers was only en-hanced by that experience,” said Cary of the teacher for a day program. Mayor Joan Foster, who also attended Teacher for a Day, told the story of a teacher who wandered the lunch room with scissors, swooping in to help students open various items in their bag lunches. She also drew at-tention to the one-time bonus given to city employees this year.

Interim Lynchburg City Schools Super-intendent Dr. Larry Massie said part of $3.4 million dollars left over at the close of the 2011 fiscal year was a re-sult of not hiring for vacant positions in the school system.

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Page �0 • The Lynchburg Times • December, �011 Read every issue online at www.lynchburgtimes.com

By Bill McMorrisVirginia Statehouse News

Nearly 19 months have passed since law-makers approved the state’s virtual education program, but Virginia has yet to establish a permanent funding system. Lawmakers established the program with strong bipartisan support from Gov. Bob Mc-Donnell, Senate Democrats and Virginia Edu-cation Association, the state teacher’s group. School districts around Virginia have used the Internet and other tools to teach students from afar for more than 10 years, but the law opened the door to full-time state-subsidized classrooms. The program attracted more than 400 full-time students. Thousands more use online programs to take advanced placement classes and remedial schooling. The legislation asked the state Board of Education to design a system to compensate school districts for admitting out-of-town students to virtual classrooms. But the board declined. After several failed overtures to design a permanent funding system, lawmakers and education professionals hope to correct the funding issue when the 2012 legislative ses-sion begins Jan. 11.

“When we passed it, it was all about educa-tion opportunities as far as I was concerned, but we should have addressed the funding,” said the law’s author, Delegate Richard Bell, R-Staunton. State school board member Chris Braunlich laid out a proposal to address the funding gap in a study for the Thomas Jefferson Institute, a nonpartisan, free market, public policy group based in Springfield. Braunlich is vice presi-dent. “Funding for virtual education in Virginia is based on the state’s share of school spending,” he told reporters on a Wednesday conference call. “Ultimately, the state will have to pay more and, in the long haul, state funds would be inadequate.” The state reimburses virtual classrooms on a per-pupil basis based upon the hub of the virtual school. As a result, online learning cen-ters, which operate as publicly funded charter schools, have been established in some of the poorest areas of the state to maximize the state’s portion of funding. One of the largest online learning pro-grams is in Carroll County where the state pays $5,697 per pupil, more than double the state’s share in wealthier regions, such as Fairfax where schools receive $2,228 per pu-

pil from the state. Under the existing funding structure, the state pays virtual schools Car-roll County rates even if the student is from Fairfax. State Sen. George Barker, D-Alexandria, said the system is ripe for abuse. “What we have right now makes no sense … we’re cutting funding to traditional schools and, at the same time, spending exorbitant amounts of money to virtual schools,” said Barker, who serves on the Senate Education

and Health Committee. “It was profitable for the companies and school districts, but we’re actually penalizing systems operated by dis-tricts getting less state dollars.” Braunlich said the state needs to take a step back from traditional education funding structure to account for the cross-county line appeal of virtual learning. “We need to treat kids as students without borders and fund them with the average state share of education funds,” he said.

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“For me there is a parallel here and for me it’s the right thing to do,” said Foster. Councilmember Turner Perrow applauded the schools for a clean and on-time audit and the fact that they were well on the road to consolidating health care program with the city. “If the school board believes that this is the right thing to do for their teachers, and with the progress that you all have made as a sys-tem, I am willing to vote in favor of this,” said Perrow. Councilmember Gillette argued that with-out good schools and an educated youth,

Lynchburg would never rise from the hard economic times. He pointed to schools as a large factor in whether technology firms would decide to locate offices in the city. “Without good workforce development, we will never get our way out of economic distress,” said Gillette. After the request passed in a vote of 5-1, School Board Chair Charles White thanked the council for recognizing improvements to LCS financial management. “I just want to thank you all for your sup-portive comments…we continue to do our best to improve every day,” said White.


SCHOOLS, from 19

See EDUCATION, 22

One year into virtual education, no funding plan in place

December, �011 • The Lynchburg Times • Page �1Read every issue online at www.lynchburgtimes.com

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Medicare Health Checks Can Catch

Problems Early

Medicare has added another preventive ser-vice to our benefits: a yearly consultation with our health-care provider to look at ways to pre-vent cardiovascular disease, such as coronary heart disease and stroke. This additional con-sultation can include exploring changes to diet, screening for hypertension and more. Until now, the covered service was a blood test every five years. The list of Medicare preventive services is long, and it’s to our benefit to use as many of these as our doctors think we need. Here is a sample of what is available:• Colon cancer screenings: Can include a colo-noscopy every 24 to 120 months, depending on your level of risk for colon cancer. A blood test can be ordered every 12 months.• -Bone-mass measurement: Tests for the risk

of osteoporosis, and can be done every 24 months, or more often if indicated.• Pneumococcal shots: Vaccine covers pneu-mococcal pneumonia, bacteremia, meningitis and otitis media, and generally only needs to be given once, although some at risk might need a booster shot.• Glaucoma test: For those with a risk due to diabetes, a family history or other indications, this test can be a sight saver.• Mammograms: Free yearly breast cancer screening if the doctor accepts the assignment.• Prostate cancer screenings: Both the exam and a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test is suggested once a year for men age 50 and older. To see the rest of the preventive services, go to the Medicare website (ww.medicare.gov), click Manage Your Health, then Preventive Ser-vices. There’s even a printable chart you can take to your doctor to ask whether the assess-ments and screenings are right for you. Matilda Charles regrets that she cannot per-sonally answer reader questions, but will incor-porate them into her column whenever possible. Write to her in care of King Features Weekly Service, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475, or send e-mail to [email protected]


Antibiotics Usually End Kidney InfectionDEAR DR. DONOHUE: I am recuperating from a kidney infection (pyelitis). The doctor did a cul-ture of my urine, which showed a gram negative rod. What kind of infection is that? -- S.B.

ANSWER: The more common urinary tract infection is infection of the bladder -- cystitis. Pyelitis (PIE-uh-LITE-iss), now usually called pyelonephritis, is an infection of the kidney itself. It is a much more serious infection, and one that usually makes people take to their bed. Pyelitis causes high fever often alternating with chills. People have intense flank pain, the side area between the lowest rib and the upper part of the pelvis. The infection also might make people urinate more frequently and with pain. These two signs, however, are more apt to indicate bladder infection. The most frequent cause of pyelitis is the bacte-rium E. coli. Bacteria are classified into two large groups based on how they react to a stain used to visualize them with a microscope. The stain is the Gram stain, named after the doctor who devised it. Bacteria are either gram positive or gram negative. A gram positive bacterium turns blue with the stain; a gram negative turns red. Bacteria also are classified by their shape. Some are elongated sticks -- rods. Others are oval-shaped. E. coli is a gram negative rod.

Pyelitis is a situation that calls for immediate and usually intravenous antibiotic treatment. It responds promptly to such treatment. The temperature often returns to normal within two days. The booklet on urinary tract infections describes both upper urinary tract infections (kidney -- pyelitis) and lower urinary tract infections (bladder -- cystitis). Readers can obtain a copy by writing: Dr. Donohue -- No. 1204W, Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Enclose a check or money order (no cash) for $4.75 U.S./$6 Canada. with the recipient’s printed name and address. Please allow four weeks for delivery.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I have seborrheic kerato-ses and have had them for many years. Doctors say nothing can be done. I had them cut off and frozen off, but they come right back. Can you help?

ANSWER: Seborrheic (SEB-uh-REE-ik) keratoses are brown, warty-looking spots on the back, chest, arms, legs and sometimes the face. They are not cancers and don’t become cancers. There may be only a few, but there can be hundreds of them. Their cause is a mystery, but they appear at older ages, so aging is somehow involved. A doctor can scrape them off or freeze them. They might come back, but they can be retreated if they do. The tendency to develop them is inherited.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Years ago, after the birth of my son, the doctor said I had milk leg. It was very painful. What would this be called today? -- A.R.

ANSWER: I’ve never heard the term “milk leg” used by a doctor, but I have seen it in print. Today the condition is called thrombophlebitis (THROM-boh-flea-BITE-iss) -- a clot (thrombo) in an inflamed vein (phlebitis). In milk leg, the vein is the femoral vein, the large leg vein. It can be a complication of preg-nancy even today.

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer in-dividual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newslet-ters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475.

Incentive Bonuses Sometimes Go Awry

The Department of Veterans Affairs uses bo-nuses to retain employees, and they spend a lot of money doing that. Specifically, last year they spent $111 million to retain 16,487 employees. However, the VA’s Office of Inspector General found that of the incentives it studied, 80 percent were either questionable or weren’t justified, bringing the unsubstantiated amount to $1.06 million of the total spent. To be fair, the VA does use financial incentives to keep people in positions that are hard to fill or that require employees who have special qualifi-cations. According to the criteria for awarding in-centives, there must be a scarcity of candidates who can fill the position, efforts to recruit new employees must have been unsuccessful and

the job must require special abilities. The problem with this $1 million in incentives is that there wasn’t adequate documentation, information was missing from case files (annual reviews, for example, to determine if a bonus was deserved), incorrect salary surveys were used to determine amounts of incentives, documents were signed off without question, financial limits were exceeded and there was a lack of training and oversight. According to the OIG’s report, the VA was often lax about it: Extra salary increased didn’t always stop when they were supposed to, with extra payments continuing until it was brought to someone’s attention. In one case, a senior executive received a hefty retention bonus and shortly after received a second one. There was no documented justification. Based on the OIG’s sample of selected facili-ties that uncovered the 80 percent problem rate, it’s recommended that in the next 12 months, 100 percent of incentive payments be reviewed and unnecessary payments stopped. If you want to report wrongdoing in VA Pro-grams and Operations, call 1-800-488-8244, or send email to [email protected]. Write to Freddy Groves in care of King Fea-tures Weekly Service, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475, or send e-mail to [email protected]. © Copyright 2011 King Features Syndicate, Inc. © 2011 North America Syndicate, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Page �� • The Lynchburg Times • December, �011 Read every issue online at www.lynchburgtimes.com

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His proposal would prevent charter schools from taking advantage of the state’s reim-bursement system by providing average allot-ments of state and local dollars.The program would cost the state $4,083 per student, and local districts would have to sub-mit $2,559 per pupil, bringing the total cost to $6,642 per student — about $3,000 cheaper than the average state and local money spent on each student. Braunlich presented his findings to a bi-

partisan group of lawmakers and educators following the November election. Bell, who was at the meeting, said it received a mixed response. “The proposal has merit, but we need to get more creative,” Bell said. “I favor creating a separate virtual school district that will cover the entire state, so we have consistency and accessibility.” Braunlich said the state should focus its creativity on holding schools accountable. His proposal would link local payout to perfor-mance. School districts would not have to pay

a virtual school unless the student passes. “If the student doesn’t pass, the local gov-ernment doesn’t have to pay,” he said. “We need to create a new form of accountability, so taxpayers can ensure that funds spent for education are spent well.” Some education groups said that does not go far enough. “That approach assumes that the cost of providing a virtual education is the same as a brick-and-mortar school, but you don’t have a cafeteria, library, athletic fields or bus,” said Robley Jones, director of government rela-tions for the Virginia Education Association, which represents more than 60,000 educators.

“We need a more analytic approach to fund-ing, to study the issue rather than base a figure off of brick-and-mortar systems.” Jones worked with McDonnell and lawmak-ers to establish virtual school systems in Vir-ginia in 2010, but he said he wants to return the focus of state budgeting to local school districts, while using virtual schools to reach out to rural areas and under-performing dis-tricts. Barker said Braunlich’s proposal is “a step in the right direction,” but he prefers a system in which state and local money follows individu-al students traveling from district to district, rather than a blanket system.

EDUCATION, from 20

Sheetz larceny The Bedford County Sheriff ’s Office is seeking information on the identity of a subject who was seen taking a wallet from Sheets located at 12259 East Lynchburg Salem Turnpike in Forest. On October 25, 2011 Sheriff ’s Office deputy responded to the Sheetz on Route 460 in Forest in reference to a larceny of a wallet. The deputy spoke to the complainant who advised that he had made a purchase at the business and had ac-cidentally left his wallet on the counter when he left, but when he returned to get his wallet it was gone. Upon review of the store security surveil-lance, it shows where a subject enters the business and picks up the wallet. He then takes the wallet and leaves the store without turning it in to the employee. Anyone with information on the identity of the subject seen in video surveillance is asked to con-tact the Bedford County Sheriff ’s Office at 540-586-7827 or Crime Stoppers at 1-888-798-5900.

December, �011 • The Lynchburg Times • Page ��Read every issue online at www.lynchburgtimes.com

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Page �� • The Lynchburg Times • December, �011 Read every issue online at www.lynchburgtimes.com

ACROSS

1 Meat cut 5 “- You Babe” (‘65 song) 9 Skimmer material 14 Chauvinist 19 Othello’s ensign 20 - contendere 21 What the nose knows 22 Greene or Michaels 23 Be a blacksmith 24 Start of a remark by James Dent 27 Appropriates 29 Dutch artist Jan 30 Let up 31 Rep. 32 Speakeasy patron 33 Hoover, for one 35 Part 2 of remark 40 Beginning on 42 ‘72 Michael Jackson smash 44 Impact sound 47 Downey of “Touched by an Angel” 48 Woodworking tool 50 New York university 52 “Butterfield 8” author 54 Rouse 56 Singer Payne 58 Plant disease 59 Ponti’s partner 60 Become a prune 61 Islands instrument 62 Baby - 64 Like Hercules 65 “Malcolm X” director 66 - Mahal 68 Widespread 69 Shed

70 Part 3 of remark 75 Ambush man 80 Ripped 81 Periodontists’ org. 83 Bud 86 Tweety Pie, e.g. 87 Highlands tongue 88 Nobelist Octavio 90 Man from Malmo 92 Hersey setting 93 They may be personal 94 Ornamental mat 96 “Salome” character 97 Like some paper 98 Covenant100 Opie’s aunt101 Unit of area102 Archaic preposition103 Conductor Queler105 Snake sound107 Part 4 of remark111 Slalom curve113 Ruby of “A Raisin in the Sun”114 Limit115 Sink119 Dust busters121 - squash126 End of remark129 Peace of mind130 Soviet cooperative131 “He’s making - . . .”132 Buffalo waterfront133 Jocular Johnson134 Director Sergio135 “Beau -” (‘39 film)136 Equipment137 Actor Wallace

DOWN

1 Speech problem 2 Neighbor of Molokai 3 Violinist Oistrakh 4 Playwright Coward 5 Spectrum shade 6 Discuss 7 Auto pioneer 8 Petite pooch 9 Prepares onions 10 “. . . baby on the -” 11 Emulate Sinbad 12 Improve 13 Violent card game? 14 Hunk of gunk 15 Pindaric character 16 Pluck 17 Fairy-tale start 18 Golfer’s gadget 25 Disney rabbit 26 Tom, Dick, or Harry 28 No Einstein 34 Encourage a culprit 35 Go fishing 36 Long of football 37 Stun 38 Daily receipts 39 TV’s “- Shadows” 41 Remote 43 Nick of “I Love Trouble” 44 Strauss aristocrat 45 Common contraction 46 Chutney ingredient 49 Minuscule 51 Reindeer name 53 Israeli dance 55 Tolkien creation 56 Japanese volcano 57 Rubbed the wrong way 63 Garage supply 64 Runners carry it

67 Crooked 71 Bara of the silents 72 Judd of “George & Leo” 73 “- a Rebel” (‘62 hit) 74 Unclear 75 It’ll give you a weigh 76 Lowest point 77 Absurd 78 Sheet of stamps 79 Carve a canyon 82 Furniture wood 83 “Thanks, Robespierre!” 84 Idolize 85 Surrenders 88 In-your-face item 89 Guinness or Baldwin 91 Sport 93 Does Little work 95 Preoccupy 99 Most methodical104 Jacket feature106 Hardly hyper108 Small shrub109 Foam110 Choose, with “for”112 Face lift?115 Wet blanket116 Concerning117 WWII gun118 Tropical spot120 Handel’s “- and Galatea”121 Spotless122 “- of the Cat” (‘77 hit)123 Reduce, with “down”124 - Spumante125 Poverty126 Baseball’s Ripken127 Witty one128 Foster or Tilly

The Lynchburg Times Crossword: WAIST OF MONEY

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The Lynchburg Times

Sudoku!by Linda Thistle

How to play: Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.


Difficulty this week: Moderate


The Lynchburg Times

Hocus-Focusby Henry Boltinoff

Question: Mr. Glenn, Can we be sure that God exists?

The short answer to this one is, yes. I know that proponents of atheism, agnosticism and rampant immorality all attack the idea of God. These folks would like to say that all the ap-plicable scientific fact disproves God and all scientists have considered God debunked and irrelevant. But, actually, science supports God and the Bible and many scientists are still believers in God. The fact is there are six irrefutable arguments for the existence of God that have never been successfully contradicted even though disbelievers continuously ignore them. They are simple arguments that anyone can understand. If you would like to talk about them, you may feel free to contact me. More on this subject next month. For more information or to ask a question, contact me at [email protected].

toward the unity of all believers:

Documents

The Lynchburg Times