Reaction: Immigration Raid
The blogosphere is abuzz with reaction to yesterday's raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Lansdowne Resort.

"I certainly hope they’re going to pursue matters to find out who hired these guys and whether they knew the illegals were illegal. ICE says that all 59 are facing deportation. Hopefully, they’ll get that in gear sooner than later and find ways to keep them from coming back outside of legal channels," wrote blogger Ric James over at his blog, HoodaThunk?.

Blogger Paradox13VA thinks otherwise. "So who, exactly, did these raids help?" he wrote. "…The ICE raid in Lansdowne helped no one except perhaps some officials who want to ride to popularity on the backs of the weakest, least-protected members of our community. And that is no help at all."

You can find details about what happened in this story on LoudounExtra.com.

Budget Discussions Continue
"I am very eager to begin writing about topics other than the FY09 budget, but we're not quite done with it yet," wrote School Board member and blogger John Stevens. "We actually get about five different budgets from the Board of Supervisors, the Operating Budget is only one of them. The next big one is the Capital Improvement Plan." Last night, the board met to discuss and vote on the Capital Asset Preservation Program budget. Find more details about the CAPP budget in this story from LoudounExtra.com.

School Board member Tom Reed (At-Large) has posted his thoughts on interactive whiteboards, writing that: "Having actually observed teachers using the boards is what sold me on them. Our student's instruction will benefit from these boards."

Open House Thefts
Real estate bloggers Danilo and Tony have posted some reaction to a recent LoudounExtra.com story about a woman who stole $200,000 worth of items from open houses. "Not only are open houses almost completely ineffective when it comes to actually selling your home, there are an invitation to thieves to walk right in through the front door," they wrote.

A Loss in the Wine Community
Stephen at Notaviva Vineyards writes about the recent death of Ralph J. "Whitie" Hubert, who died at age 83 of Parkinson's disease and prostate cancer. "As members of a new generation of winery owners we are indebted to Hubert's vision and entrepreneurial spirit," he wrote. According to the obituary posted on the blog, Hubert was the founder of Tarara Winery and an early supporter of the Virginia wine industry.

Leesburg Dog Park Update
Leesburg Today is reporting that the Town of Leesburg hasn't yet abandoned plans for a dog park, and town officials are seriously looking at eight possible sites.