A park in Isle of Wight tried for a decade to acquire a Nike missile. Hampton may have the answer.
Nike Park in Isle of Wight County is named for the Nike Ajax missile, a 1950s-era surface-to-air missile designed to take out Soviet bombers. Before it was a county park, it was home to four missile launchers, part of a ring of eight bases surrounding Norfolk.
Most of the old base is still standing. But one thing is missing: an actual missile. The county has been trying for years to find one. Now, Isle of Wight and the City of Hampton are close to finalizing a deal to move a missile from the city’s Air Power Park, where it currently sits among several dozen other aerospace artifacts awaiting refurbishment.
Ray Johnson: Why doesn’t Hampton just keep it at their own Nike Park on Grundland Rd.? That is where it came from.
Ron Wyckoff: Where is the missile that is not displayed?
Robert Kimball: There’s one by the Newport News Williamsburg airport.
Insurers now seeking huge increases in Virginians’ premiums for long term care
Insurers are seeking increases of as much as 339.6 percent in the premiums they charge for long-term care policies — the coverage many Virginians expect will pay for any nursing home bills or home health care.
The companies, including Richmond-based Genworth Financial, moved aggressively into the business in the 1990s, but have long faced challenges pricing the product so that it generates enough of a pool of money to cover the ever-rising cost of long-term care.
Now, insurers are asking the State Corporation Commission to grant them double- and triple-digit percent increases in their premiums. All in all, some 26 companies are seeking increases for 60 different policies.
Mark Hughes: I guess they could care less about putting more people on the streets or hastily in their graves!
George Flowe: They got underwriting and pricing wrong at the beginning. Buying a Life policy with an LTC is the strategy now to prevent these increases.
David Taylor: They milked private insurance patients for as much as they can, so now they want to raise the costs for Medicare patients (the majority of patients) in order to maintain/increase profit margins.