ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 17, 1996 TAG: 9610170028
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO WHAT'S ON YOUR
SOURCE: RAY REED
Q: With traffic on Interstate 81 getting worse all the time, why don't we have a law requiring that headlights be turned on whenever windshield wipers are in use? This certainly would save lives.
C.S., Rockbridge County
A: The lights-and-wipers law, which several states enforce, hasn't made it out of the political morass in the General Assembly.
Maybe next year it will pass. The House of Delegates approved the measure in 1992, but it died in the Senate. This year, the Senate passed the bill 35-4, but it died in the House Transportation committee.
Sen. Henry Marsh, D-Richmond, says he'll sponsor the bill again in '97, and if it gets past the committees it'll be approved.
"We'll get 'em next year. It will save lives, and that's why it should pass," Marsh said.
The Senate amended the bill several times this year to meet objections to the headlight requirement. Police would not have been able to issue a citation unless they stopped a driver for some other violation; during the law's first year, officers would issue warnings but not tickets, and failure to turn on lights in rain could not be argued as negligence in lawsuits arising from accidents.
Mayoral offices
Q: I recently read that former Mayor Noel Taylor had been appointed to the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. I know that both during and after his years in office, Mayor Taylor served on a number of regulatory, academic, community and corporate boards of directors. How many does the current Roanoke mayor, David Bowers, serve on, and what are they?
C.D., Roanoke
A: Bowers was chairman of the Roanoke City Democratic Committee from 1981 through 1983 and was a board member of Arts Place at Old First before a fire destroyed its home, in the old First Baptist Church on Jefferson Street.
Bowers is active in the Sister Cities program, is a board member of the statewide Urban Partnership Committee and is a member of the National Mayors Association and the Virginia Municipal League.
He's listed as a member of Kiwanis, the Knights of Columbus Council 562 and the Riverland Road Alert Neighbors Association.
In his capacity as mayor, Bowers is head of several committees and attends about 20 events a week. He said he's curtailed some personal-interest activities.
What's in the index?
Q: What's included in the Consumer Price Index?
D.J., Roanoke
A: Everything the urban resident purchases.
Food, both home-use and restaurant; housing, including rent, heat and maintenance; transportation, including cars, repairs, air fares and bus fares; clothing, medical care, entertainment - all these are in the CPI announced monthly by the U.S. Labor Department. One of its chief uses is for cost-of-living allowances in labor contracts or Social Security benefits.
A subset of the CPI is called the core inflation rate, and it includes all products and services except gasoline, heating oil and food. These prices can fluctuate monthly because of supply and demand.
Got a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Call us at 981-3118. Or, e-mail RayR@Roanoke.Infi.Net. Maybe we can find the answer.
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