Virginia State Senator Whipple discusses legislative issues

Virginia State Senator Mary Margaret Whipple spoke about recent legislative issues at the RAFOM meeting on November 17 at Prospect House. Video of her talking about all the issues except for the first are available at the links below and on YouTube. Issues she addressed:

1. Discussed inability to get a new transportation bill. The 2007 legislative session passed a billed establishing a regional transportation authority for Northern Virginia, but it was declared unconstitutional because the members of the authority were only elected officials, but not officials elected specifically to the authority. The Senate passed a new bill, but the House of Delgates rejected it.
   
2. Discussed bills banning smoking in public places, bars and restaurants, or other slight variations. These bills have passed the Senate, but are being killed in sub-committee in the House of Delegates.
3. Discussed new pay-day lending regulations. Some forms of pay-day lending have been misused. The new regulation attempts to ensure that pay-day lending occurs in proper circumstances and for sound reasons.
4. Discussed new common-interest community, e.g. condo association, regulations. The criminal activity that occurred with condo associations funds that the Koger Management Group managed (including some River Place Condo funds) stimulated this legislation. More information about the regulations is available from the Common Interest Community Board of the VA Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation.
5. Discussed the response to Virginia's state budget revenue shortfall. It now appears that there will be a $2.5-3 billion state budget revenue shortfall over the next two years. Some noticable cuts will have to be made in the next fiscal year's budget.

Meeting attendees were grateful that Senator Whipple extended her long day to address RAFOM.

great dentist

Here at the Ode Street Tribune, I want to bring you good news. My dentist is Steven R. Johnson. If you need to go to the dentist, I highly recommend him. His dental practice is good news.

What I like about Dr. Johnson and his practice:

1. I have complete confidence in Dr. Johnson's integrity in diagnosing and treating my dental situation in light of my treatment preferences. The friend who recommended Dr. Johnson to me went to Dr. Johnson after having been subject at his previous dentist to what he judged to be unnecessary dental work. I came to Dr. Johnson seeking a second opinion after being told by another dentist that I needed four "caps" (four dental crowns; cost, about $5000). From Dr. Johnson's evaluation, I learned that four caps was a reasonable treatment approach for my situation. However, I prefer a "if it's not broke don't fix it" approach to dental work. Dr. Johnson clearly and factually communicated to me the trade-offs in doing two caps and two fillings rather than four caps. I decided to go with the former option. I am happy to have had the opportunity to make an informed, reasonable treatment choice, and I'm happy with the treatment results.

2. Dr. Johnson is smart and up-to-date with dental technology and knowledge. He mentioned to me that he had bought an expensive CAD/CAM machine for in-office milling of ceramic crowns, but he never used it in practice because he wasn't satisfied with its precision. That indicates to me that he not only is aware of new dental developments, but critically evaluates them with respect to their benefits to his patients. His office is newly renovated (and includes fun gaming consoles for kids in the waiting room), and all his equipment looks new. Of course looks are a crude way of evaluating equipment. But I remember going to a dentist in the early nineties and receiving a full-jaw x-ray from a machine that looked like it was twenty-years old. I credit those x-rays for all the fine thinking I've done since then. But, all in all, I would prefer to have a newer machine aiming x-rays at my head.

3. The dental assistants at Dr. Johnson's office are friendly, sympathetic, professional, and do good work. When you're gagging on an upper jaw mold, it's good to know that the person making the mold is keeping an eye on you and will not let you suffocate. You count on dental assistants to get a lot of tasks right. You can count on Dr. Johnson's team to work as a team and get things right.

4. Dr. Johnson's office is exceptionally well run. You actually see the doctor at your appointment time; you don't spend a half-hour or more after the appointment time waiting in the waiting room. Of course, a big problem for doctors in scheduling is probably that many patients show up late, at the wrong time, or not at all. Dr. Johnson's office calls me a few days before an appointment to remind me of the appointment and to ask me to confirm the appointment. I would guess that they do that for all their patients. I also guess that these reminders help to explain why their appointment schedule seems to work so well.

5. Dr. Johnson's office handles insurance claims efficiently. I've got general health insurance, dental insurance, and a health expenditure savings account. It's a potential paperwork nightmare. Dr. Johnson's office has always accurately reviewed my coverage to tell me what's covered and correctly submitted claims.

Having Dr. Johnson as a dentist is good news. I'm sure there's a lot of other good news around Arlington, northern Virginia, the DC area, the U.S., and the whole world. Let's start hearing more of it!

Wilson and Rosslyn precincts primary voting

At 7:40 am, I had a 20-minute voting wait for presidential primary voting in the Wilson precinct at Wilson Elementary School in Rosslyn. Waiting time appeared to have been similar next door for Rosslyn precinct voting at Fire Station #10.

Obama signs and supporters were much more visible in the vicinity of the voting places than were signs and supporters for other candidates. The Obama supporters included persons holding hand-written signs and persons with big cardboard cut-out letters spelling "Obama."

I also saw a curious indication of grass-roots support for Obama when riding my bike this past Sunday morning. A woman and three young children were standing on the side of the road waving Obama signs and holding Obama leaflets. A red light made me stop in front of them. The woman and the children yelled, "Vote for Obama." I said, "I will." Then the woman said, "I went to law school with him. He's a great person." At that point the light turned green so I sped off.

At the Wilson precinct I noticed a Reuters cameraman along with a female assistant. His video camera was much bigger than mine. I was standing behind them shooting, along with them, the voting officials checking the registration of voters. A voting official came up to me and said you can't take video here. My feelings of inadequacy raised even higher, I sputtered, "What about them?" She said, "They have permission. You have to ask the person in charge."

I explained to the person in charge that I live in the neighbor, I'm a local news blogger, and I'm covering the voting for my neighborhood blog. The official looked at me as if I were truly a manly reporter. He said that the concern was only that I didn't take video from any position that might reveal how a person is voting at a voting machine. He said nothing about my camera size. This made me feel good about U.S. democratic culture.

Additional note: Uploading video to youtube seemed much slower than normal. I don't mind taking annual leave to cover important public events as a volunteer citizen journalist. But burning annual leave while waiting for video to upload is annoying. I hope the hard-working and dedicated FCC bureaucrats will succeed in helping to get the public cheaper, faster connectivity.