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	Idle thoughts At the Jesup library last week I participated in a discussion about the effects of rising oil costs. An audience of 35 people tackled the question: What are you doing, if anything, to scale back your petroleum usage? Read Article »
	Football, baseball, and… birding? Down two love and things are not looking up. You think I would pay more attention to the task at hand. With tall pines in front of me and open grass to the back I find myself smack dab in the middle of an evening throughway. Read Article »
	The opposite of upscale The truth is, I rarely heard anyone say upscale out loud until I started working here, where sometimes it seems everything under the sun either aspires or claims to be just that. Read Article »
	More to the story Dear Editor: Thank you for addressing the housing bailout bill in your editorial on Saturday. There are three portions of the bill which you failed to mention and as a result your editorial lacked the "punch" to enrage the readers. You should have pointed out that only 400,000 Americans would qualify, that they are people whose credit is so shaky that they don’t qualify for other government sponsored loans, and ... Read Article »
	Blame game In a perfect world, people would follow the rules of the road and drive carefully and considerately. But as a story on our front page about the damage done to one woman’s property by speeders on Clarktown Road shows, this obviously isn’t a perfect world. Read Article »
	Not the right fix Trying to understand the rules and regulations behind Georgia's badly-in-need-of-fixing property tax system can be like trying to learn physics without knowing anything other than basic math. But the bottom line is county assessments are tied to market values - and for years local officials have pointed the finger at the state when doing revaluations, saying it's a state requirement that it be done every few years. Read Article »
	Lock and load Last Thursday, the United States Supreme Court ruled to overturn the Mayor of Washington D.C. in his efforts to enforce a thirty-two year ban on prohibiting the possession of handguns to those who live in his city - the nation’s capital. It was the Court’s first ruling on the subject in 215 years - that’s two hundred and fifteen years! Okay, they did rule against the possession of owning "sawed off" shotguns in ... Read Article »
	Upscale memories of another place As Georgia continues to grow and thrive, it needs power generation capable of sustaining that growth. But the options seem to be shrinking among the body politic for varying environmental, economic and aesthetic reasons. Read Article »
	Distracted drivers are a dangerous menace Dear Editor, From cell phones and iPods to fast-food snacks and driver drowsiness, there are more than enough distractions to keep Georgia motorists from focusing on our four-lanes. And now new national data is showing driver inattention is a key cause in most crashes and near-crashes. According to a 2006 study of real-world driver behavior, distraction, and crash factors, about 80 percent of crashes were caused by some ... Read Article »
	Do the right thing Dear Editor: What follows is my first hand, on-the-job experience of the distinct, immediate, continued and expanded need for funding for the Georgia Emergency Trauma Care Services at hospitals in Savannah and selectively positioned other areas in our state: On June 10, as I approached the Bamboo Gardens on Hwy. 17 southbound I saw what appeared to be an automobile accident of some sort about 200 yards ahead ... Read Article »
	Our View Bailout is wrong Responsible homeowners should be angry at news that Congress is working on a massive bill to stem the tide of foreclosures resulting from the housing bubble gone pop. Why? If it passes, it promises $300 billion in cheaper, government-backed fixed rate loans for homeowners in trouble of losing their homes due to the current subprime credit crisis. That’s unfair to the millions of Americans who have ... Read Article »
	The needless burden of LAGs When Governor Sonny Perdue signed Georgia’s $21.1 billion budget for fiscal 2009, it contained $6 million for Local Assistance Grants (LAG), funds appropriated and allocated to a specific recipient or local government for a specific purpose. Lawmakers try to use the fact that these handouts are a relatively small part of the state budget - about 0.03 percent the ‘09 budget - to defend the spending. Read Article »
	Take a rational look With the price of gasoline escalating at a dizzying pace, it’s tempting for our elected leaders to say things the public may interpret as a solution to the economic nightmare from which America cannot awake. For example, President Bush on Wednesday urged Congress to lift a long-standing ban on offshore oil drilling. And Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, Monday made lifting the ban a key part of his campaign. Bush’s ... Read Article »
	Good news We believe it’s good news that Pembroke officials plan on launching another festival to replace the ill fated Balloon Fest - a great idea in theory but one which ultimately was unable to make a go of it. Read Article »
	Coming home on the Silver Meteor I leave the farm in the dark and drive thirty miles to Jesup, through wisps of lowland fog, and park at the dilapidated train station. The building looks as if it suffered a fire and now it is rotting away, boulder-sized holes in its low-reaching roof. Read Article »
	Democrats fizzling again As Georgia’s 2008 political campaign scene develops, the missed opportunity for state Democrats becomes increasingly clear. A recent poll showed competition in a Georgia presidential campaign for the first time since 1996. Read Article »
	As cars are to Detroit As cars are to Detroit, real estate is to South Bryan and Richmond Hill. Read Article »
	What the surveys say If you believe our online polls at bryancountynews.net, a majority of you don't trust your public officials and the possibility of school uniforms was the biggest issue in the county last year . Read Article »
	Birding bug bites I guess I am a glutton for punishment. With the temperature still hovering around 90 degrees, I spent two and a half hours in my sweat lodge of a photo blind in attempt to document the comings and goings of my now four painted buntings yesterday. Despite their beauty and character, my focus was lured elsewhere. Some 10 feet away off to my left sits my lone bluebird box with its four nestlings. Read Article »