AFP.com Local/State

Clean the streets already

How soon should it take to get the roads passable?

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

It can be hard, to say the least, to manage expectations with regard to cleaning streets and roadways after snowstorms. Which is to say, it can be hard to manage the high level of expectations that we have following storms, namely to have streets and roads cleared as soon as is humanly possible, if not sooner than that.

“Some folks like to think we can spend an unlimited amount of time and money and remove all snow from all street surfaces. That is not a reasonable goal or outcome as we certainly do not have an unlimited amount of time and money,” said Jim Halasz, the assistant city manager in Staunton, which does not have in place specific guidelines setting time deadlines for having streets cleared of snow and ice following storms.

The same is the case in Waynesboro, according to City Manager Mike Hamp. Waynesboro officials do try to operate within a general guideline of having streets in passable condition within 24 hours of a storm in snow events up to 8 inches in accumulation, but dealing with amounts over that threshold can be and has proven to be problematic this winter. [Read more...]

Climatologist: Snowy winter ‘just one of those things’

  
Column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

Take solace, folks. The meteorologists can’t explain why it’s snowing all the time, either.

“To a large extent, it’s just one of those things. But one of those things means we don’t fully understand all the dynamics that go on with this, all the atmospheric physics involved,” said Jerry Stenger, the director of the Virginia State Climatology Office at the University of Virginia.

I had Stenger on the line for a segment on The AFP Show news podcast. My question led him to the “one of those things” quote, the thrust of where I was going with the topic being, Surely you guys know what’s going on, right, or is it just one of those things? [Read more...]

Forecast: 5 to 10 inches of snow Tuesday, Wednesday

 
Staff Report
News tips: freepress2@ntelos.net

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for Augusta County, Staunton and Waynesboro effective 9 a.m. Tuesday to 4 p.m. Wednesday.

The Greater Augusta region is in line for a possible 5 to 10 inches of snow accumulation due to the storm.

Harrisonburg and Rockingham to our north are in line for a possible 6 to 12 inches of snow from this storm, and the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Md., metro areas could see 10 to 20 inches of snow in the next two days.

AFPBusiness.com

Unemployment rate takes unexpected dip

 
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

Don’t get too excited, but the nation’s unemploynent rate made a move in the right direction in January, falling to 9.7 percent from 10.0 percent in December.

“It is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative. It is essential that we continue our efforts to move in the right direction and replace job losses with robust job gains,” said Christina Romer, the chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, in a statement on the numbers released Friday.

There are still likely to be “bumps in the road ahead,” Romer warned, and the good news today itself came with some of the bumps, the most noticeable being the revised estimate that has the economy losing more than 1 million more jobs due to the recession than had previously been estimated.

But even slightly good news is good news in an economy that was in freefall for months since the start of the recession in December 2007. Today’s figures show employment in manufacturing in general and motor-vehicle manufacturing in particular on the increase for the first time since January 2007, and the unemployment rate that includes all persons marginally attached to the labor force and workers working part-time for economic reasons falling by a full percentage point.

Obama administration proposes $30B small-business loan fund

  
Staff Report
News tips: freepress2@ntelos.net

The Obama administration on Tuesday released plans for a Small Business Lending Fund that will transfer $30 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to a new program supporting small-business lending.

The Fund would divert resources from the big-bank TARP bailout to community banks that have as their core customers small businesses.

Fifth District Congressman Tom Perriello backs the move. [Read more...]

The earnings report for Main Street

  
Column by Prakash Laufer
Submit guest columns: freepress2@ntelos.net

To add insult to injury to working America, in came the earnings reports from Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. At these mega banks, balance sheets are healthy, profits are up and bonuses for top executives are bigger than ever. JPMorgan Chase just reported $11.7 billion in profits and $26.9 billion in compensation and bonuses. Goldman Sachs made a record-high profit of $13.4 billion in 2009 and is slated to hand out $16.2 billion in compensation and bonuses.

These are some of the same institutions whose predatory and unethically risky actions brought our economy to its knees. But, thanks to billions of dollars in government resuscitation, they seem to be recovering nicely from their near-death experiences.

The “earnings report” for the rest of the U.S., however, includes – drum roll, please – higher unemployment and continued foreclosures, with no relief in sight. It sounds like a raw deal because it is. Big banks and Wall Street financiers ignited the foreclosure crisis, setting our economy ablaze, resulting in the loss of millions of homes and jobs. [Read more...]

AFP.com Op-Eds and Blogs

Defining moments

  
Column by David Reynolds
Submit guest columns: freepress2@ntelos.net

Let’s cut right to the chase. Last month tens of millions of Americans witnessed a president break his oath of office. Ten hours later millions of others saw and heard a vice-president do the same on NBC’s Today show. The only difference being that the vice president, as is his custom, took more words to say the same thing.

And yet, pundits - from the crazy right to the looney left - missed these two defining moments of this administration. (Historians please note.) Maybe the press herd was too busy searching for the lead sheep. No one was willing to step up and take a swing for democracy.

When the good guys don’t speak up, all of us are in danger. We are in danger because democracy gradually becomes an endangered specie. Forget about our policy differences over reforming health care, protecting the environment, keeping America safe and leveling the burden of taxation. These differences should be cherished in a democracy! They spring from two different political philosophies. [Read more...]

New nuclear energy is old news

And new projects are already under way, benefitting economies and creating jobs

Column by Jarret Adams
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Right now, nuclear energy is expanding around the world. According to the World Nuclear Association, there are 50 reactors under construction across the globe and another 130 (and counting) scheduled to come online over the next decade.

The nuclear renaissance is happening.

Today the world demands clean, low-carbon energy sources to prevent further increases in carbon-dioxide emissions. That is why we are seeing increasing interest in nuclear energy as well as renewable technologies such as wind and solar. [Read more...]

AFP.com Health Desk

Perriello: End antitrust exemption for health-insurance companies

  
Staff Report
News tips: freepress2@ntelos.net

Fifth District Congressman Tom Perriello and Congresswoman Betsy Markey will introduce legislation this week that will repeal the special antitrust exemption for health-insurance companies and medical malpractice insurance companies.

The measure would end special treatment for the insurance industry that allows them to fix prices, collude with each other, and set their own markets without fear of being investigated. Removing this exemption has been a common priority of these two freshmen lawmakers, though they voted differently on the initial House health-care reform bill.

They will formally unveil the bill at a press conference on Friday.  [Read more...]

Profit motive is necessary for quality health care

 
Column by Donald J. Boudreaux
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Not long ago my wife, Karol, and I flew from Bucharest to New York City’s JFK airport. We had two hours to connect to our flight to Washington’s Dulles airport. We missed our flight, and herein lies a lesson about today’s raging debate over government’s proper role in health-care markets.

Part of the reason we missed our flight is that, after landing on time at JFK, our plane sat for more than 30 minutes on the tarmac waiting for another jet to clear away from our gate. JFK International Airport is owned by government (the City of New York) and operated, under lease, by a government agency (the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey). Unlike Delta Airlines, the privately-owned and operated carrier that flew us comfortably, safely, and in a timely fashion over the 4,800 miles that separate Bucharest from New York, the government bureaucrats in charge of JFK airport seem to be short on an asset they control: airport gate space. [Read more...]

AFP.com Entertainment

‘So You Think You Can Dance’ star to teach benefit workshop in Waynesboro

  
Staff Report
News tips: freepress2@ntelos.net

“So You Think You Can Dance” and “High School Musical 3″ dancer Jaimie Goodwin will be in Waynesboro Saturday, Feb. 6, and Sunday, Feb. 7, to teach a benefit workshop in association with Old Dominion Performance Arts Studio.

Goodwin was a finalist on “So You Think You Can Dance” and a featured dancer in the latest hit movie in the “High School Musical” series.

The benefit workshop will be held at Kate Collins Middle School in Waynesboro. Proceeds will go to Hayley Kudro, a 5-year-old Waynesboro girl and Old Dominion dancer who is battling cancer. [Read more...]

Parkway: Happy 75th!

 
Staff Report
News tips: freepress2@ntelos.net

The Blue Ridge Parkway’s 75th Anniversary is officially here with the advent of 2010. Construction of the 469-mile All American Scenic Byway began Sept. 11, 1935, at Cumberland Knob, near the North Carolina and Virginia border.

A celebration of this special American treasure and its importance as a cultural, historical, and natural resource includes events and activities throughout the year in communities that line the Parkway.

A list of events, which may be searched by community or region or by month, is on line at www.blueridgeparkway75.org and is updated regularly. To date, over 400 events have been identified as part of the year-long celebration. [Read more...]

VaPoliticsToday.com

Capitol Hill Notebook

- Taxpayer Fairness Act
- Stand on Social Security

Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

Webb, Boxer introduce Taxpayer Fairness Act: U.S. Sens, Jim Webb, D-Va., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., today introduced the Taxpayer Fairness Act, legislation that would impose a 50 percent tax on excessive bonuses paid by Wall Street banks and other firms that benefited from billions of taxpayer dollars in 2009.

“This is not class warfare,” said Webb. “This is not something that’s going to run the gamut of all executive compensation and bonuses. This is a one-shot deal. This is a tax on excessive bonuses of TARP recipients that received more than $5 billion from the American taxpayer in 2009.

“The Financial Times, a paper dedicated to the free market, editorialized in favor of this position at the end of last year,” continued Webb. “We believe this is a fair and reasonable approach. It offers equity and a level of fairness to the American taxpayers who bailed these companies out. [Read more...]

General Assembly Notebook

- ‘Triggerman rule’ repeal passes House
- McDonnell comments on conservation easement

Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

Repeal of “triggerman rule” passes House: A capital-murder bill sponsored by Del. C. Todd Gilbert, R-15th, passed the Virginia House of Delegates this afternoon by a vote of 74 to 24.

The repeal of the “triggerman rule” ensures that equally guilty co-defendants in a capital homicide will face the possibility of the ultimate punishment. It requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt that accomplices in a capital murder share the premeditated intent of the actual perpetrator.

The existing rule has had a number of implications for Virginia case law in recent years, including a narrowly decided issue in the John Mohammed sniper case. But for the creative efforts of Prince William County prosecutors, who showed Mohammed was acting as a scout to his young cohort’s role as sniper, he never could have been deemed an “actual perpetrator” of the capital murders he ordered and oversaw. [Read more...]

VaPoliticsToday.com Blogs

A Wolf looking out for the folks

  
Column by Sanford D. Horn
Submit guest columns: freepress2@ntelos.net

In children’s literature, the wolf is portrayed as the ruffian, the evil-doer. He went after grandmother in Little Red Riding Hood, he huffed and puffed in The Three Little Pigs, and of course there’s Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf.

Back in the adult world, I say three cheers for the wolf – Frank Wolf, that is. The Virginia congressman (R-10th) sponsored legislation last week that in reality had the president and the Justice Department had any common sense, would never have been necessary in the first place.

The Wolf bill seeks to prohibit the use of Justice Department funds for the purpose of civilian trials for Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his co-conspirators for perpetrating the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. KSM is also responsible for the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl.  [Read more...]

Richmond Reports

Featured: Sen. Creigh Deeds, Sen. Mark Obenshain

Creigh Deeds: Weekly Update
www.creighdeeds.com

The third full week of the General Assembly session ended in unusual fashion. For the first time in recent memory, the General Assembly took a snow day. Granted we have had difficult weather this winter, beginning with the snow storm in the middle of December and continuing with several significant snow events throughout January and into February, but the General Assembly, limited by the constitution to a 60 day session this year, always conducts its work. I read in the newspaper that Lacey Putney, the longest-serving member of the General Assembly, could not remember the legislature ever being snowed out. I ran into a friend who served in the cabinet for Gov. Baliles who remembered a prior incident of a snow day being taken in 1977 or 1978.  [Read more...]

ACCVirginia.com

Hokies release 2010 schedule

Opener against Boise State moved to Labor Day Night

Staff Report
Virginia Tech sports: www.hokiesports.com

ESPN, along with the Virginia Tech Athletics Department, officially announced Wednesday that Tech’s football game against Boise State at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., has been moved to Labor Day (Monday, Sept. 6) to open the 2010 season.

Kickoff for the game, scheduled to be televised to a national audience on ESPN, is set for 8 p.m. at the home field of the Washington Redskins.

The game had originally been scheduled for Oct. 2 (Saturday).

This will mark the first time Boise State and Virginia Tech have faced each other in football and it will be Tech’s second game at FedEx Field (Southern Cal, 2004). [Read more...]

Wright’s 25 push UVa. past Clemson

  
Staff Report
UVa. sports: www.virginiasports.com

Senior guard Monica Wright (Woodbridge, Va.) moved into fifth place on the ACC’s all-time scoring list and No. 24 Virginia defeated visiting Clemson, 82-60, Thursday night at John Paul Jones Arena.

With the victory, Virginia improved to 16-6 overall and 5-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Clemson’s record fell to 11-13, 2-6 in the league.

Wright finished with 25 points, bringing her career total to 2,293. Already Virginia’s all-time leading scorer, Wright moved into sole possession of fifth place in the history of the ACC. She passed former North Carolina guard Ivory Latta (2003-07; 2,285 points). Fourth place on the league’s all-time scoring list is occupied by N.C. State’s Linda Page (1982-85; 2,307 points). [Read more...]

AFP.com Sports

Sports Roundup: Monday, Feb. 8

- Bridgewater rallies to knock off Randolph
- VMI rally falls short
- Former Keydet named D-League all-star

Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

Bridgewater rallies to knock off Randolph: Bridgewater College erased a 10-point second-half deficit Sunday afternoon to defeat Randolph College, 61-57, in ODAC men’s basketball action.

With 2:02 left in the game, Segar Jordan worked free for a layup off an assist from Cody Griffith to give the Eagles a one-point 52-51 lead.

Following a Randolph turnover, Jordan scored again, this time following an offensive rebound to give BC a three-point advantage, 54-51, with 1:15 left to play.

The WildCats answered with a layup by Jason Rutschman to pull with one with 1:00 remaining, but the Eagles responded when Jake Johnson knocked down a 3-pointer with just 31 seconds left, giving BC a four-point lead. [Read more...]

Sports Roundup

Hot-shooting VMI powers past Pres, EMU women sting Wasps, 10 and 6 from Brown helps Liberty to win

Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

Hot-shooting VMI powers past Pres: A 20-4 run midway through the first half gave VMI a lead it would not relinquish, as the Keydets powered by the Presbyterian College Blue Hose, 97-78, in a Big South contest played Thursday night at Cameron Hall.

After PC sprinted out to a 22-8 lead, a Joe Carr three-pointer at the 13:09 mark launched VMI on the spurt that gave the Keydets the lead for good. The run included twelve unanswered VMI points, and was helped by five Presbyterian turnovers.

VMI (8-14, 3-9) was led by Stan Okoye and Austin Kenon in the victory, as each player notched 23 points. The home team’s 18 three-pointers tied a season-high, and came after the squad misfired on its first eight treys. The Blue Hose were led by Chase Holmes’ 21 points, including 13 in the second half.

2008 Waynesboro High School graduate Nick Gore scored two points in 15 minutes off the bench for VMI. [Read more...]

AFP.com Video

The Rant | Snowbody knows

  
Video Essay by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

We’re hearing from people who are annoyed with the endless speculation about how much snow this weekend’s winter storm is going to dump on the Valley.

AFP editor Chris Graham is annoyed wtih the annoyed. It’s human nature to fill in the blanks on something this potentially big. It doesn’t mean that those who engage in the speculation are as misguided for doing so as the thought police seem to want you to believe.

The advice for those who want to stay above the fray - don’t look at Facebook, among other things. [Read more...]

The Rant | The Winter of Our Discontent

  
Video Essay by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net 

And our discontent - that the city is doing a shoddy job of clearing city streets following winter storms. Which it is.

Keep in mind, AFP editor Chris Graham says in his Rant, that the city is dealing with a still-cramped city budget. And that the people who have been showing up for elections here the past few years have made it clear that they want the city run as a tight ship.

When you’re past cutting fat and muscle and are digging straight into the bone to make ends meet, some things suffer. And since City Council can’t legislate a mild winter, well, this is going to be a problem until the spring. [Read more...]

AFP.com Podcasts

The AFP Show: Winter weather, Fifth District politics

  
Hosted by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

Today marks the return of The AFP Show. The show features editor Chris Graham talking about the news of the day with guests who add perspective to what is happening in the world around us.

Today’s guests are:
- Jerry Stenger, the research coordinator at the Virginia State Climatology Office at the University of Virginia, who joins us today to talk about winter weather.
- Bradley Reese, a blogger and podcaster who is actively covering the Fifth District congressional race and joins us today to talk politics. [Read more...]

The AFP on WREL | Cold outside, heating up in the ACC

 
The AFP on WREL
www.wrel.com

Editor Chris Graham joins WREL-1450AM’s “Online with Jim Bresnahan” for their weekly sports chat.

Today the guys discuss:
- Virginia Tech’s thrilling 76-71 comeback win over UVa. last week, and the different directions the two teams took on Sunday on the road in the ACC.
- How the ACC is shaking out this year.
- The freefall that defending national champion North Carolina seems to be in right now.
- Super Bowl XLIV. [Read more...]

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