It looks likes we may be about to see food prices jump, along with prices for utilities and energy.

It is fantastic to hear that the people from our county law enforcement went out of their way to run in honor of the Special Olympics and to carry the Special Olympics torch down Route 1.

David Kerr’s editorial last week, “The BPOL debate continues,” failed to stick to the facts concerning this important issue for Stafford’s future.

After reading the news, I was glad to hear that the State Fair of Virginia has moved from the Richmond Raceway Complex to Caroline County and will be there for the September opening.

Readers share their views on Anne Holton’s speech and parental legislation.

I’m inclined to believe it is much too soon to be issuing grades on the new administration’s performance.

I have closely followed the actions and agenda of community leaders and have worked ‘behind the scenes’ on various issues for the past 28 years.

Reader shares view of autism story

The [conditional-use] permit proposed sounds like a great idea to have a Stafford SPCA.

Unfortunately, due to the weather conditions in my area I was not able to make it to the epilepsy walk this year held in Washington, D.C.

I was very pleased to read about the federal and state funding that will be used to purchase Phase 2 of Crow’s Nest.

During the March 10 meeting of the Stafford County School Board over 30 people showed up to express their disapproval with the recent adoption by the county AP History Program to use Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” as a “supplemental textbook.”

Republican committee leader recalls dinner
I had the pleasure of [Sun columnist]Ben Blankenship’s company at my table at the 2nd Annual Stafford County Republican Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner.  It was with surprise that I read his rather codgery summation of the evening.

I am appalled that the majority, led by democrat George Schwartz, voted down a proposal by Supervisors Cord Sterling and Mark Dudenhefer (and supported by Paul Milde) to tie a portion of the pay of supervisors to advancing universally held goals of a balanced budget, improvements to education and public safety.

In response to [Sun columnist] Harvey Gold’s viewpoint, “Install ‘parental control’ in adults”, I’ve got to say, we’re in a lot of trouble!

I wanted to write to commend Speaker Bill Howell for finding common ground with Gov. Kaine on the smoking ban in Virginia. I realize that this was not any easy choice, as many within his party believe this is a free market issue. I want to thank Speaker Howell for making this tough choice and for doing what he thought was right. I wish there were more elected officials willing to govern that way.

Reader gives thoughts on travel article

With the dismal, gloomy economic conditions that we all are going through these days, not many of us would like to travel on Thanksgiving and the holiday season due to the economy, rising and falling prices of everything and the way things are going, like the gas prices, food prices and the hotel/motel prices.

Reader: What planet is Blankenship writing from?
After reading Mr. Blankenship’s election postmortem it’s hard to figure out what planet he is writing from.

Article regarding pumpkin-carving a hit

The questions and answers [in last week’s edition of the Stafford County Sun] on page five of Section B seem to come in handy, not only for Halloween but for the holiday season.

Rob Wittman man for job

Thank goodness we have Rob Wittman representing America’s First Congressional District in Washington.

Rob Wittman gets support 
With the presidential election dominating the headlines it is easy to forget that we are also casting votes for our Congressional representative.

Imagine you’re Russian, and a VP candidate has just been nominated.

The new Stafford Hospital “ state of the art medical facility”, being built on U.S.1 has a new chief to help guide the facility. Cathleen Yablonski is ready for the hospital to open and has been preparing, making plans and hiring people to help make this a working and functional medical facility. Ms. Yablonkski has a great background in hospital administration and operations.

As a breastfeeding mother of five children, I am very concerned about the Street Talk question on page A7 of the August 29-Sept. 4 edition. In this day and age, when so many benefits of breastfeeding are known, what would cause you to even ask this question? 

Having spent time around rescued chickens, I view National Chicken Month, September, as a time to celebrate these sweet, inquisitive birds. I only wish everyone would learn to appreciate chickens for their personalities — not for the taste of their flesh.

There has been a lot of rhetoric on BPOL with views on both sides of the issue. What has been written, especially in the Letters to the Editor section of the Free Lance-Star, has expressed views for or against the BPOL tax or criticizing or supporting the supervisors who voted for or against it. But what seems to have been lost in the debate is a much greater issue of the disgraceful manner in which the public hearing process continues to be conducted.

Editor’s Note: Sent to the editor, the following is written as an open letter to Stafford County Supervisor Paul Milde:
Mr. Milde — a good friend of mine explained the problem you are having with folks attacking your position on BPOL, in just four basic words and quite well I might add— “You can’t fix stupid.”

I am interested in knowing more about the county that I live in and just received the insert in today’s Stafford County Sun. I want to say thank you. I am learning different places and different things that one can do on the side with the time provided. I would love to help around in my community, along with try to keep my credits up in becoming a master gardener.

Twelve individual private landowners from across the state sat in a room at the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Headquarters in Richmond.

This was a very interesting article in section B, page 9 on the gypsy moth. The gypsy moth has returned and our oak trees are being stripped of their leaves.