Southwest Virginia Blogs

FORECLOSURE SOLD

This foreclosure in northwest Roanoke was a great deal for the investor who purchased it. I sold it for only $47,000!! Can you believe that? Foreclosing banks and the government are eager to get rid of their inventories.

There are many many foreclosure deals like this to be had in Roanoke. Why don’t you contact me to receive a regularly updated list of deals?

That is the question that 7th District voters have been asking themselves lately.

Just after the new civil remedial fees went into effect, a local news station asked Republican Del. Dave Nutter about the new fees and who they applied to. Because of his blind partisanship, voting however his party bosses tell him to, and being so far out of touch with the citizens of the 7th District, he had no clue what he was supporting.

The Democratic challenger, Peggy Frank, offers the 7th District a clear alternative to Dave Nutter, and will do what is best for the district instead of what is best for a political party.

Peggy Frank, via press release, stated:

The abusive driver fees, which my opponent supported in last session’s transportation bill, are yet another example of how out of touch the House of Delegates is with the people of the 7 th District. The fees my opponent approved grant immunity to out of state drivers for dangerous driving on Virginia ’s roadways while taxing only Virginians. These fees unfairly penalize Virginia drivers and are neither a reliable nor sustainable source of revenue for our transportation needs.

If you live in or near the 7th District, now is your chance to send someone to Richmond that will put your interests first. Contact Peggy Frank’s campaign to find out you can help.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit have now weighed in on which company can have its logos on Virginia native, Jeff Burton’s car.

For the last few years, the car driven by Burton has been bright orange and sponsored by Cingular. When Sprint, then Nextel, took over as Nascar’s sponsor, it obviously sought and obtained language in its contract which would prohibit other wireless companies from sponsoring cars. The wireless companies already in Nascar at that time (e.g., Cingular, Alltel), however, were grandfathered in and allowed to continue.

Once AT&T purchased Cingular, it attempted to change the branding on Burton’s car to AT&T. Nascar and Sprint obviously refused to allow AT&T to do so. AT&T then requested and received an injunction allowing it to change the logos on Burton’s car to the familiar AT&T ones. I have never checked, but I have speculated that the injunction only allowed the logos to be changed, since they kept the car orange.

Today, the Court of Appeals, held that AT&T lacked standing and dismissed the injunction.

It will be interesting to see what Burton’s car will look like at the next race.

Via Shawn, I see that Gov. Mark Warner will be joining Susie Garner (5th Dist.) on the campaign trail later this month.

Susie is a great candidate from Galax, who is challenging Republican Bill Carrico. Carrico last ran for Congress in 2006, against Rick Boucher. Congressman Boucher won by a large margin. Susie will have a little tougher race, but she can also win if the folks in the 5th District will work hard to help her, which I expect they will.

Please join Susie and Gov. Warner on Wednesday, August 22, 2007, at 5:30 PM, at the Marion Court House.

The White House and Rove have announced that he will be resigning at the end of August.

“I just think it’s time,” Rove told the Wall Street Journal. “There’s always something that can keep you here, and as much as I’d like to be here, I’ve got to do this for the sake of my family.”

I believe this will likely help Bush’s approval ratings. Too many stories lately have been about Rove, and not about Bush. Almost all of those articles - maybe all of them - have been negative.

Personally, I say ’so long, Karl’ and good riddance. His departure should be a good thing for all of us.

I think I neglected to mention we were going on a cruise, so being back from it is probably not that important. Since I decided to share a few photos, though, mentioning that we were in Mexico last week seems relevant.

Jayne and I joined several of our friends on a whirlwind vacation which included a cruise aboard the Enchantment of the Seas, with visits to Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Key West, Florida; and, Cozumel, Mexico. The latter, obviously, being the most interesting. With the exception of my quick trip to Canada in 2005, I have not traveled out of the United States. Going to Mexico, however, was certainly a great experience. We really enjoyed the entire trip.

We took a lot of photographs, but here are a few that I pulled out of our pile.

In two jurisdictions now, General District Courts have held that the civil remedial fees are unconstitutional. Defense attorneys from all across the state are anxious to also challenge the fees.

The two successful challengers so far have been in the Richmond area (Henrico County and City of Richmond). I, unfortunately, do not know anything about the two judges involved in those cases. It would be interesting to know when they were first appointed and if they have had any political leanings. I would bet our friend Ken, formerly of the Richmond area and now over in Wise, could tell us about these two judges.

What this means politically is anyone’s guess. Ben is doing a good job of keeping score and trying to predict who it hurts, helps, etc. Here is his latest post on the issue.

Here is a YouTube video of John Edwards in Wise.

The fellow in the video, James Lowe, has a remarkable story that is unfortunately all too common.