Jay and Stephanie Burkholder never had much of a chance, really. They held title to a building in Roanoke that housed a flooring company, where fewer than 50 people worked. And they were going up against Carilion—a $2 billion health system that wanted to build a biomedical complex on their land. They also were going up against the City of Roanoke, whose former economic developer was employed by Carilion to scope out locations for the center—not to mention Virginia Tech and UVa, each of which had a hand in the project, as well as the Commonwealth of Virginia, which kicked in $59 million in case Carilion ran short of cash.

The Leave It to Beaver Child Care center occupies a modest building on German School Road in working-class Richmond. It’s a short walk south of a mixed-martial-arts studio and a Food Lion, and a short walk north of a tidy apartment complex and a few houses that either have been boarded up, or look as though they soon might be. Most of the parents who bring their children to the owner, Wanda Beavers, for daytime care are single black moms. Maybe that made the commonwealth figure it could roll right over her. Two years ago, as Angela Pellerano of WTVR first reported, the City of Richmond asked VDOT to acquire part of Beavers’ property—about half the front yard—so German School Road, which could use widening, would get some. VDOT offered the underwhelming sum of $6,683. Beavers made a counter-demand: $30,000.

If the preferences of congressional Democrats hold sway, President Obama eventually will sign a health care bill imposing an individual mandate to purchase insurance. If it survives court chal lenge, Uncle Sam will not only tax your paycheck, but also tell you how to spend what’s left. Americans who are not opposed to this measure might feel sanguine about what the Congressional Budget Office has termed an “unprecedented form of federal action” because they support the broader aim of health care reform, so-called. But some might support reform less if they knew it really amounts to Washington trying to clean up its own mess—with a dirty sponge.

You would think that the Obama Justice Department, having badly embarrassed itself in a Philadelphia voter-intimidation case, would take pains not to smear any further egg on its face. But if the case of Kinston, N.C., is any guide, you would be gravely mistaken. In November the black-majority community of Kinston voted by a margin of almost 2-to-1 to switch from partisan to nonpartisan elections. That would have brought it in line with the vast bulk of localities in North Carolina, where only nine out of 551 hold partisan elections.

MINNEAPOLIS—CC Sabathia was superb, A.J. Burnett followed suit and Andy Pettitte added to his résuméof postseason success. While everyone was talking about Alex Rodriguez’s breakthrough playoff performance, the New York Yankees got three strong starts in a row during their first-round sweep of Minnesota. And that sort of pitching is probably the key to building a run through October.

The seamier side of the story often gets left on the cutting-room floor. So the eminent-domain case related here a few days ago—involving Roanoke’s attempt to seize a building owned by a cou A. BARTON
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ple of small business owners—merits revisiting, in order to give a fuller picture. The case, which looks remarkably like the Kelo v. New London case that united the political left and right in outrage four years ago, pits Roanoke authorities against Jay and Stephanie Burkholder, who own a building in part of the city targeted for redevelopment by Carilion Health Clinic. A lawyer for the city’s housing authority says the city wants to condemn the building in order to eradicate blight. This despite the fact that the Burkholders’ building was not found to be blighted itself; it merely sat in an area that was called blighted.

I hope you will not think me a presumptuous goldbricker for taking a few moments away from washing the team’s practice socks—they are drying on the line as I pen these words—to convey to you my solemn concern about the discussions regarding the new team name.

In a 2003 piece for The New York Times, Booker Prize-winning author A.S. Byatt questioned the merit of the Harry Potter series. Her basic argument: Young-adult novels like these are safe, comfortable, and lacking in what she refers to as “a compensating seriousness . . . a real sense of mystery, powerful forces, dangerous creatures in dark forests.“

When the Supreme Court handed down its disastrous 2005 ruling on eminent domain in Kelo v. New London, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor made a prediction. “Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party,“ she lamented, “but the fallout from this decision will not be random. The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms.“ Kelo, in effect, took away David’s slingshot and gave Goliath a bigger club.

Republicans, says Mitt Romney, “believe in allowing people to have a choice in their health care.“ Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell concurred a few days ago, when he said “Americans have A. BARTON
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been . . . clear: People want more choice.“ Virginia’s Eric Cantor agrees that choice is good. The House minority whip says the GOP’s health care plans “are designed to . . . protect Americans from being forced into a new government-run health care plan that would . . . limit your choice of doctors and medical treatment options.“

As historians begin to sift through papers from the Bush administration, the extent of its nefariousness is slowly but surely coming to light. We already knew U.S. attorneys were sacked for holding the “wrong” types of political views. We knew the EPA censored technical papers on climate change. We knew, from Imperial Life in the Emerald City, that job applicants seeking work in the Iraq-reconstruction effort were asked for their views on Roe v. Wade.

Last weekend tens of thousands of fired-up Americans gathered in Washington to protest the most rapid inflation of government since WWII. Meanwhile, in a hotel conference room in Old Town Alexandria, a group of journalists and academics wrestled with a related question: Why does government grow? The discussions were sponsored by the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University in partnership with the Liberty Fund. Here are some questions and insights that emerged from the weekend.

Last week a group of retired military leaders held a press conference to make a novel pitch for a surprising cause: early childhood education. Noting that roughly 70 percent of military-age young people are ineligible for enlistment, the warriors warned (as a retired Air Force general put it) that “we cannot allow today’s dropout crisis to become a national-security crisis.“ Virginia Attorney General Bill Mims, who joined the press conference, called “dollars spent on early-childhood education” a “force multiplier.“

• Editor’s note: The following excerpt from ‘Dyspeptic Dominion: A Political History of Virginia’ (Copyright 2024) is reprinted by permission.

Word is going around Washington that the president might not be able to keep his promise not to raise your taxes, much as he would like to be able to do so. News reports say his economic advis ers have “refused to rule out” a tax increase. But take heart: “Democrats say Obama is highly unlikely to break the pledge before next year’s congressional election, and observe that it would be safer to wait until his second term if a tax increase becomes unavoidable.“