Patrice McDermott: Farm Bill threatens our right to know

Letters

Families who live near or share waterways with large corporate farms or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have a critical need to know some basic facts about these operations. The public’s right to this information, however, could be stripped away by the Farm Bill currently under debate in Congress.

VDOT roads report

Chris Graham

The following is a list of highway work that might affect traffic in the Staunton VDOT transportation district during the coming weeks. The Staunton district is comprised of 11 counties, Alleghany, Bath, Rockbridge, Augusta, Highland, Rockingham, Shenandoah, Frederick, Page, Warren and Clarke.

Karen Kwiatkowski: Thoughts on the McAuliffe win in Virginia

Contributors

For many conservative and libertarian Virginians, there is a dull sense of horror at the somewhat close election of uber-slimy Terry McAuliffe. We were subjected to nonstop negative ads, in particular focusing on women’s body parts. Anyone with a uterus was encouraged to “see something, say something,”

Earth Talk: Protecting private lands

Roddy Scheer

Indeed, private property makes up about 60 percent of the total land base across the United States. In 42 states there is more private land than public, and by a wide margin in most cases. (Only Alaska, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Arizona, Wyoming and California have more public land—that is, land owned by a federal, state, county or municipal government—than private.) Of course, all this private land isn’t just the parcels where our houses sit.