The Chesterfield County Planning Commission rejected proposed new rules for electronic signs last night. A key issue is how quickly the signs are allowed to change messages. The commission’s vote leaves in place the current practice of considering such signs on a case-by-case basis. But the commission also voted to try to come up with a new policy on such signs so that the county has a standardized approach to the devices.

My health care plan is one of those that covers all sorts of things I will never use, and many I hope to avoid. Maternity care and family planning—I’m almost 55, and so far, childless. The plan covers contraceptive drugs and devices—I’m post-menopausal. Smoking cessation—I’ve gone this far without a puff. A boatload of mental health and substance abuse benefits—the strongest thing I’ve ever imbibed is a couple of cups of morning joe.

PHOENIX—President Barack Obama chastised the defense industry and a free-spending Congress yesterday for wasting tax dollars “with doctrine and weapons better suited to fight the Soviets on the plains of Eu rope than insurgents in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan.“ “Twenty years after the Cold War ended, this is simply not acceptable. It’s irresponsible. Our troops and our taxpayers deserve better,“ he told a national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. “If Congress sends me a defense bill loaded with a bunch of pork, I will veto it.“

For 15 Richmond teachers, the path to a graduate degree is about to get a whole lot cheaper. The city’s school system recently received a nearly $1 million 2009 Teaching American History grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Richmond is one of six school systems statewide and one of 123 in the nation to receive such a grant. The program will pay for the teachers to complete three-year master’s degrees in curriculum and instruction for history and social studies at the University of Richmond. Another 30 teachers will be able to take workshops and participate in other professional development programs. Some teachers will also work with UR President Edward L. Ayers on a project to integrate digital technology in the classroom.

Collegiate School set a record for fundraising during the past academic year, said Alex Smith, vice president for development. The K-12 independent coeducational day school received $13.8 million in donations during the 2008-09 academic year. This represents an increase of $750,000 from the previous year and the largest amount raised in a single year since the school was founded in 1915.

• Editor’s note: The last name of our guest columnist may sound familiar to readers of this section. The author is the son of Commentary editor Bob Rayner, and he obviously shares his father’s affection for free markets and limited government. He is less sanguine than his dad about the economic legacy of our 43rd president. We’ve all heard that the current recession is the result of capitalism run amok—the consequence of too much deregulation and too little government supervision. While this explanation is plausible in some respects, it ignores the myriad ways in which government actions helped cause the crisis.

Details: 3 p.m., at the Richmond Public Library, 1400 Hull Street. Registration: http://www.vacu.org/education/seminars.asp
or (804) 323-6800.
  Decide what type of business entity you are going to establish—a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation and S corporation. The type your business takes will determine which tax form you have to file.

A coal industry group and the lobbying firm behind forged letters sent to three congressmen have responded in part to questions from a congressional committee investigating the recent scandal. The U.S. House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming launched a probe into the bogus letters after The Daily Progress disclosed that U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th, had received a number of fake letters urging him to vote against a landmark piece of climate-change legislation.

Attention All Drivers: Watch for Pedestrians
Editor, Times-Dispatch: We often experience close encounters of the crosswalk kind when trying to walk across Richmond area streets. Virginia law requires motorists to yield to pedestrians in marked crosswalks and also at many unmarked corners and intersections. Yet, when we use crosswalks (yes, with the signal if present), we routinely have to stop in order to avoid being run over.

Everyone Gets Equal Time in Letters Section
Editor, Times-Dispatch: On a recent morning, I opened the newspaper. I always start with the Letters to the Editor. On this day, a particular letter immediately caught my eye. It didn’t stand out because of the headline or the length. In fact, it was rather short, and wasn’t even elevated to the level of Correspondent of the Day, despite the name attached to it—John Grisham.

It was just one of those days. South Richmond, considered to be the favorite to win the Mid-Atlantic American Legion tournament, never was able to get things right yesterday. It fell 18-2 to Mount Airy, Md., ending its season two games short of the World Series. A glance at the box score shows what went wrong—10 walks, six errors, four hit batters and a missing clean-up hitter. It was too much to overcome.

Long considered the heir apparent to Phil Jackson in Los Angeles, Lakers assistant Kurt Rambis is taking a much different, and colder, route to a coaching job. Rambis and the Minnesota Timberwolves have an oral agreement and are completing details of the contract. The deal is expected to be announced early this week, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations. Timberwolves President David Kahn said in a text message he met with Rambis’ agent yesterday but has yet to conclude the deal.

The Democratic candidate for governor is pummeled by Republicans for playing coy on new taxes for roads. The Democrat squirms; somehow, still manages to win and promptly calls a special session of the legislature to, you guessed it, raise taxes. A scenario for 2009? Maybe. This is how events unfolded 24 years ago in the run-up to the last big, tax-fattened investment in transportation under Jerry Baliles, a governor invoked by the frenetic fellow Democrat who mimics him without saying so: Creigh Deeds.

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan’s Taliban chief was killed by a CIA missile strike, a militant commander confirmed yesterday—a severe blow to extremists threatening the stability of this nuclear-armed nation. Pakistani officials vowed to dismantle the rest of the network run by Baitullah Mehsud regardless of who takes over, a move seen as essential to crippling the violent Islamists behind dozens of suicide attacks and beheadings in the country.

Consumers paid down their credit cards and cut other debt in June for the fifth straight month as they rebuild savings battered by the recession. Outstanding U.S. consumer debt fell by $10.3 billion, or 4.9 percent at an annual rate, to $2.5 trillion, the Federal Reserve said yesterday. That’s a much steeper cut than the $4.7 billion analysts expected, according to Thomson Reuters.