It's a very widespread perception that Gerry Connolly and the county are both at a crossroads. People need to feel like they are a full partner in that discussion.

This was one of the most brutal and heinous crimes committed in the county, ... I do, frankly, feel sorry for your family.

For the peace activists, they are good, symbolic results. They can use them to impress people with how widespread opposition is. But they're misleading as far as aggregate public opinion. It's an April election, which has very low turnout. So as a public opinion specialist, I have to point out how unrepresentative highly motivated voters are in an April election.

It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn't in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals. -Charles Kuralt.

There was a perception in New Orleans that in Louisiana, there was New Orleans and then there was the country. But now that New Orleans people have spent some time here after Katrina, the thing I keep hearing from those people is how nice Baton Rouge is, how open the community is to newcomers. And I think that is why people are staying.

Some feel the perception of spam as an annoyance has decreased because of filters and because people are getting used to it. But the bad news is that spam is changing from an annoyance into something actually very dangerous.