Georgia used minimum security - county people to do maintenance along the road way.  Mowing, Weed eating, trash pickup. 

People who had been sentence to like 30 days, kinda like Paris.  Seems fair, community service.

It wasn't a chain gain, but was a system where small timers had to pay back for their crime not just sit in jail for 30 days.

Surely you are referring to those old-time fixtures along Southern roads, the sweating (or shivering) lines linked literally by heavy chains, doing road work, including movwing, weeding, pot hole filling, etc.  All with a couple of smokey-hatted good ol' boys totin' shotguns and rifles keepin' guard. Yeah, man, that was the way to do things.

That brings back memories of Cool Hand Luke.

This sounds eerily familiar.

I recall back in 2002 when Gov. Mark Warner was forced to curtail the hours the DMV was open to make up for the budget shortfall.  The GOP who had tied his hands money-wise, and were still clamoring to continue the car tax phaseout, went ballistic!  How dare the Governor actually do something like show the voters what it means to cut spending!! 

This strikes me as yet another example of their idiocy and complete inability to govern.  The sooner we have a Democratic Legislature in Virginia, the better off everyone will be!

Matusleo
Ut Prosim

This episode is a vivid example of what Republican governing philosophy doesn't work.  Their fiscal policies are short-term, quick fix, regressive shell games, and are ultimately bankrupting the Government.

We should take these examples and show the voters that you get what you vote for with the Republican Party. 

and I await the bumper stickers!

All those lush medians will soon count as "green space" (along with roof terraces) as the Board approves ever denser development.

Soon we will be so starved for greenery that we will be angry when they mow, instead of when they don't!

. . . that I don't have to mow my yard as often.  Seems to me all the County/City ordinances should be revised to match the state policy.

and they can be selected for height, so as not to be obstructive. Birds and other animals can live there, too.

Mowing spews pollutants and is completely unneccessary with the right kind of ground cover, trees, etc.  Why are we planting grass anyway?

Call it the Grover Norquist Gardens!

VDOT could cut any number of useless expenditures but they chose the one that had the greatest visible impact to make the public cry about their woes despite wasteful spending elsewhere.  Besides, the whole thing was signed by Gov. Kaine.  Is Kaine opposed to pretty roadsides?

Really, I'd rather have a pothole filled than the grass cut.