Hundreds of the Richmond area’s homeless population turned out today for Homeward’s third annual Project Homeless Connect at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

Raised on a tobacco farm near Dungannon that had the first television set in the area, Tazewell County native Frederic David Fraley grew up fascinated by media. He played his guitar with a band on a daily radio show in the 1950s in Norton and was talking to fellow ham radio operators in Morse code by the time he was 15. After retiring from a career in social work in 2005, he started Fraley Family Videography and later produced and was host of a cable TV program called “People Helping People,“ which attracted national attention.

In his budget forecast on Aug. 19, Gov. Tim Kaine emphasized his efforts to minimize borrowing our way through the recession and Virginia’s current budget crisis. He argued admirably that our state should avoid passing along debt to future generations. Although these sentiments are well-placed, we must also remember that outright cash debt is just one aspect of fiscal responsibility. Instead of bonds and interest payments, Virginia faces the looming possibility of massive “social debt.“

Hard on the heels of news that the Richmond school system’s grant-making department is riddled with financial-control problems comes word that the Department of Social Services has overbilled the state by nearly $4 million. The revelations come on top of audits revealing horrendously poor management of procurement in the city school system and the city as a whole; widespread abuse of city gasoline credit cards; the abuse of automobile allowances by top city officials; and much more.

Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones announced yesterday plans to correct “major financial management failures” in the city’s Department of Social Services after the discovery of an estimated $3.8 million overbilling to the state. “We have no evidence that any of this is based in fraud or corruption, but rather poor management and record keeping which indicates a need to make significant procedural changes and improve the department’s operations,“ Chief Administrative Officer Byron C. Marshall said in a statement.

Children have been left unattended in licensed day-care center vehicles at least 11 times in the past 2½ years in Virginia in procedural lapses similar to last week’s tragedy in Richmond, state regulators say. The Virginia Department of Social Services recorded 11 cases since January 2007 that violated the agency’s licensing code requiring day-care center staff to verify that all children have been removed from a vehicle at the end of any trip.

Not being able to find a job is frustrating in the best of circumstances, but it may be even more frustrating when welfare-to-work reform requires you to have one. Sholana Woolridge, 29, knows the feeling.

If you’re looking for a way to help a needy family or person this year but don’t know how, Hanover County’s holiday program might be just what you’re looking for.

The Commonwealth of Virginia has the distinction of leading the nation in a number of impressive categories. We were recently named the best state for business and one of the best states in which to live. Unfortunately, Virginia also ranks high in a category with significant negative implications. A study by the Pew Charitable Trusts determined that more children “age out” of foster care in the commonwealth than any other state - 21 percent stay in our public system until they turn 18, when they leave their foster families and go out on their own.