More media attention needed in Pfc. Manning trial

I'm writing to call on your paper for increased coverage of Pfc. Bradley Manning's trial.

Manning, who has been accused of leaking the largest document dump in U.S. history to WikiLeaks, will be in Ft. Meade for a pretrial hearing on July 16 and currently faces 23 different charges including one of "aiding the enemy." If convicted, he faces a sentence of life imprisonment.

Despite over 760 days in pretrial confinement, many media outlets have been too silent on Manning's case, allowing the government's mistreatment of him to continue in near secrecy.

A reckless, opaque conviction for Pfc. Manning could have dire consequences for future whistleblowers, journalists and activists. Because of this, the media must do its part to engage the American public in a conversation about this trial and our government's behavior before it's too late.

I ask that you do your part and increase coverage of the Bradley Manning trial, beginning with his hearing on July 16.

Patrick McCann

Rockville

Falls Church charges city, county customers same rate

Re: "Real villain in N.Va.'s water war," Local Editorial, Aug. 14

This editorial incorrectly stated that the city of Falls Church water utility charges differing rates between water customers residing in Fairfax County and those that live within the actual city of Falls Church.

For over 35 years, the city of Falls Church water utility has charged the same commodity water rate for all its customers regardless if they reside in the city or the county.There is no differential commodity rate.

Amy Betor

Online CommunicationsSpecialist,

City of Falls Church

Editor's note: Ms. Betor is technically correct. The editorial should have said that Falls Church's Fairfax County customers are paying two times more than their neighbors who get their water from the county.However, in 2010 a judge ordered Falls Church to halt its decades-long practice of rebating $4.6 million in annual water revenue back to only its Falls Church customers, who also enjoyed lower property taxes as a direct result of the city's overcharging of county customers.

Auto-dependent suburbs are becoming obsolete

Modern social organization and communications technology may be decreasing the relevance of the 20th-century suburb, where most people still live, which is why real high-speed rail can't be used here. We are so heavily invested in suburbs that popular discussion of more comfortable and efficient configurations is seldom heard.

We persist in trying to bring relief from most of the automotive and regional aviation crowding by building more roads and airports, but they get even more crowded and still leave us vulnerable to expensive petroleum, both domestic and imported.Not to mention the inability of the atmosphere to process particulates and exhaust gases.

How soon will individual wealth in advanced personal, communal and experiential computing exceed that now invested in automobiles and houses?What percentage of travel in the near future will be done vicariously through modern electronics?

This socio-technical reality may find free market and government policy moving toward something more useful and desirable than tangles of automobile suburbs.

Peter Esben-Peterse

Belle Mead, N.J.