Loudoun’s illegal immigration problem: a report from the front lines

Joe B. over at novatownhall Blog has an absolutely stellar post detailing his personal experience with the illegal immigrant problem here in Loudoun County complete with pictures, histories, and all the trimmings. It’s a positive must-read for anyone even remotely interested.

His details on the workings of Loudoun’s government as regards this issue (or, should we say, lack of workings) are quite valuable and raise some very interesting questions. Like why does all of Loudoun County, with a population 10 times that of neighboring town of Herndon, have only 1 spanish-speaking Zoning investigator when Herndon has 8? Herndon has worked their caseload down tremendously and they’ve handled quite a bit of the blight and zoning and immigration violations. Loudoun, apparently, hasn’t. Can’t or won’t? Another one is how a person who works part time at an “immigration law firm” manages to get employed as an inspector whose job it is to investigate whether zoning violations spawned from immigration issues have occurred? Certainly gives the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Where is the Commonwealth’s Attorney on this? Where is the manager for the zoning office? And, if he’s not doing the job, where are the Supervisors who are supposed to be making sure the organs of government are working as they should?

As they say, read the whole thing. Be sure to read the comments, too, for Joe’s update regarding a call to Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Loudoun’s Minchew on Tim Russert’s passing

A reader was kind enough to point out a letter published in the Loudoun Times-Mirror by Randy Minchew, a former LCRC chairman and a man who can honestly be called a pillar of our community. Mr. Minchew took the moment to write about Tim Russert and his own encounter with him at the GOP Convention in 2004. I would imagine it’s a completely different take on things to actually be standing squarely in the focus of a journalist like Tim Russert rather than watching him on TV. Russert was a special kind of sword in his field; the kind so sharp you usually don’t know you’re even cut until you start to bleed.

Take a wander over to the LTM link above and spend a moment or two reading the letter. It’s a good and we need more of them. The letter, the author, and journalists like Tim Russert.

(Hat tip: Adrienne T. Thanks!)

Supreme Court overrules on Kennedy c. Louisiana; rules that death penalty cannot be applied for rape of a child. (See update.)

SCOTUSblog also points out that the Court ruled in the matter of Kennedy v. Louisiana today. The case involves a lower court ruling upholding a Louisiana law that allowed for the death penalty in cases of child rape. The Court reversed that ruling, declaring that the 8th Amendment prohibits such laws.

You can read SCOTUSblog’s liveblog here. The decision was a 5-4 deal with Justice Alito, Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas dissenting. Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion.

I think this one was wrongly decided, too. The majority opinion is that the 8th Amendment keeps a law from being passed and applied that applies the death penalty in a crime against an individual where the victim doesn’t die and death was not intended. I gotta tell you, I can think of all kinds of situations where a victim can be put through an experience far worse than death. I don’t know the condition of the victim in this case, but it’s easy to imagine the kind of trauma, physical and mental, that a child being brutally raped would undergo. The damage, physically, can easily be debillitating for life. To suggest that just because the child survived via the grace of God that the perp should somehow be protected from society exacting the maximum penalty for the act just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I wish I could feel shocked by the decision, however. Given how the vote went, I’m unsurprised.

Update: This decision was worse than I thought. Michelle Malkin has the information on this case and a more realistic sense of just what Justice Kennedy and the liberal bloc on the Court has wrought.

SCOTUS on DC v Heller: not happening today, either.

From SCOTUSblog, it appears the Court will not be issuing a ruling on DC v. Heller today, either. People were expecting it Monday, then today after Monday came and went. This time, however, Chief Justice Roberts made a point of announcing that all of the rest of the sitting’s rulings (3 are named on SCOTUSblog) will be issued tomorrow at 10:00 am.

So, we wait until tomorrow, then.

Jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney gets it in gear

One of the most recognized names in the aviation field is that of Pratt & Whitney, manufacturers of aircraft engines since as far back as WWII. Their engines have been on commercial passenger jets for decades but they’ve clearly not been sitting on their laurels. Wired magazine has a story today on P&W’s latest effort, a geared turbofan:

One of the biggest names in aviation has developed a jet engine that is more efficient, less polluting and cheaper to use than almost everything else in the sky, and it could revolutionize an industry facing skyrocketing fuel prices and mounting pressure to clean up its act.

Pratt & Whitney has spent the better part of two decades developing the geared turbofan engine that burns 12 to 15 percent less fuel than other jet engines and cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 1,500 tons per plane per year. It’s being called one of the most exciting developments commercial aviation has seen in years, and it was a hot topic at the Eco-Aviation Conference, where the aviation industry spent two days charting the course to a greener future.

This is huge, folks. With the US alone having 6 or 7 major airlines comprised of several hundred aircraft each, the savings in fuel and emissions adds up to a massive difference. The trick was in separating the speeds of the turbofan up front and the turbine in the center of the engine:

Current jet engines have fans that suck air into the combustion chamber, where it is compressed, mixed with fuel, and ignited. Then it’s blown through a turbine, generating thrust. It works, but it’s inefficient because the fan is connected to the engine and turns at the same speed as the turbine. Fans work best at low speed, while turbines work best at high speed.

Pratt & Whitney solved that problem with a gearbox that lets the fan and turbine spin independently. The fan is larger and it spins at one-third the speed of the turbine, creating a quieter, more powerful engine the company says requires less fuel, emits less C02 and costs 30 percent less to maintain.

Nicely done. The testing process has already cycled the engine through over 40,000 simulated flights, takeoff and landing. At that rate, there’s a real chance that the engine will be available in the next 5 years. Time for an upgrade, guys!

Skyscrapers as ever-changing art form

An interesting concept, even if it’s a bit difficult to believe it’ll really work:

An Italian architect said he is poised to start construction on a new skyscraper in Dubai that will be “the world’s first building in motion,” an 80-story tower with revolving floors that give it an ever-shifting shape.

The spinning floors, hung like rings around an immobile cement core, would offer residents a constantly changing view of the Persian Gulf and the city’s futuristic skyline.

The images from the story show the building in a variety of configurations showing its ability to transform its shape. While I’m intrigued by the idea, the concept of electrical power connections, HVAC, and plumbing would seem to make this an unworkable design. Even if it’s not completely unworkable, the maintenance and sheer ongoing cost of making this work would make the building so much more expensive to build and maintain than a standard design.

Hey, good luck, tho.