Local News

Robbery reported at county hotel

A pizza-delivery driver was robbed at gunpoint Tuesday night at a hotel just outside of Staunton, and Augusta County sheriff’s deputies are looking for a young white male suspected in the incident.
The suspect in the 11:23 p.m. robbery at the Days Inn on the 300 block of White Hill Road in the county is described as a white male, 18-25 years of age, 5-5 to 5-9, 160-180 pounds. He was wearing a black sweatshirt, a toboggan hat and a blue bandana at the time of the robbery.  [Read more...]

Waynesboro gets CDBG funds for Arch/Market improvements

Waynesboro is on tap to receive a $684,000 Community Development Block Grant to go toward a rehabilitation project in the floodprone Arch Avenue/Market Street neighborhood. The grant was announced today by Gov. Tim Kaine in conjunction with more than $14 million in Community Development Block Grants awarded statewide. [Read more...]

Health director urges continued vigilance against swine flu

Central Shenandoah Health District Director Dr. Doug Larsen said today that local residents need to continue to protect themselves against the H1N1 flu virus, with new cases being confirmed each week in the state. The Virginia Department of Health is closely monitoring the outbreak to keep Virginians informed of this rapidly evolving public health issue. [Read more...]

No more big bangs?

We may have seen the last community Fourth of July celebration in Staunton. At least that’s what I’m hearing.
“Our committee is going to meet at the end of the month to make decisions about whether this festival goes on next year or not,” America’s Birthday Celebration organizer Terri Corey told me before Saturday’s big Fourth events at Gypsy Hill Park. [Read more...]

Waynesboro seeks citizen volunteers to guide public policy

Seats are open on the following Waynesboro boards and commissions in Waynesboro. If you are a city resident and are interested in being considered for one of these openings, please request an application from the Clerk of Council or submit a letter of interest and resume to the Clerk at the address provided. If you have any questions or would like further information on these and all City Boards and Commissions, please contact the Clerk of Council at 540-942-6669 or by e-mail at bortleje@ci.waynesboro.va.us, or write to Julia Bortle, Clerk of Council, 503 West Main Street, Suite 210, Waynesboro, VA 22980. [Read more...]

Harrisonburg announces fourth Citizen Academy

The City of Harrisonburg is taking applications for the annual Harrisonburg Citizen Academy beginning today.
The Citizen Academy will begin its fourth annual session on Sept. 3 and run through Nov. 19. The program is open to all city residents ages 18 and older. [Read more...]

Business/Economy

Unemployment claims down last week

In the week ending July 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 565,000, a decrease of 52,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 617,000, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor today.  [Read more...]

Earth Talk | Thinking green

Dear EarthTalk: What kind of job opportunities might be opened up by the new federal emphasis on green projects?
- Dick Wetzler, St. Paul, Minn.

If it’s a U.S. industry that has the potential to be cleaner and greener, chances are the Obama administration has already set aside some stimulus money for it. In February 2009, the new president signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law. Besides creating jobs, the bill promises to spur American companies to greener heights through investments totaling over $75 billion. [Read more...]

Page Shields | Can coal be clean?

With all of the controversy surrounding the construction of a coal plant in Wise County, VA it bears repeating that coal is not clean energy. The phrase “clean coal technology” fosters hope that scientists will find a way to take harmful elements, especially carbon, out of coal. Unfortunately this is a lost hope as the harmful elements of coal cannot be simply scrubbed away.  [Read more...]

Thoraya Ahmed Obaid | Addressing crisis by investing in women

None of the crises we face today - whether it is the food crisis, the water crisis, the financial crisis or the crisis of climate change - can be managed unless greater attention is paid to population issues.
World Population Day is the right time to put the issue of population back on the radar screen. And it is not a moment too soon. By 2050 our current global population of 6.8 billion could grow to the United Nation’s median projection of 9 billion, or even soar to 11 billion people.  [Read more...]

Unemployment ticks up in June

The national unemployment rate inched up a bit in June, to 9.5 percent, a tenth of a point higher than May and getting close to double where we were at the start of the recession in December 2007.
Another measure that factors in people working part-time who would prefer full-time work, the long-term unemployed who no qualify for unemployment benefits and those who have been out of work for a year or longer who have suspended their job searches puts the unemployment/underemployment rate just shy of 20 percent, from my analysis of figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Thursday morning. [Read more...]

Unemployment up slightly in May

Unemployment ticked up a bit across the Valley in May, though the slight increases were called seasonal by a Virginia Employment Commission economist today.
Waynesboro still has the highest unemployment rate locally, at 9.1 percent, up from the 8.8 percent mark in April, according to VEC data released today. Staunton was up from 6.9 percent in April to 7.0 percent in May. Augusta County went from 6.4 percent in April to 6.9 percent in May. [Read more...]

Life

David Reynolds | You can’t lose

Or can you? We don’t know because of what we don’t know. And that is the problem. So we take chances thinking that the more we know the better our chances of success. And that creates an even bigger problem - one that allows us to believe that we are smarter than we really are. [Read more...]

Shepherd Bliss | 3-year-olds and cell phones

“The 3-year-old just walked right past me,” the Santa Rosa, Calif., pediatrician reported, “talking into a cell phone.” That stark image of toddler attached to machine has troubled me. “I was amused at first,” the physician continued. “Then I felt sad. She was learning how to relate to people through a machine. It was so mechanical. Cell phones can connect people, but they also speed things up.” Must we rush even toddlers into machines?  [Read more...]

Chris DeWald | Fourth of July for all

The ’60s rock group Steppenwolf sang a song that included a lyric “get your motor running”… . Well, my power wheelchair was burning the electric motorways” at the Staunton Fourth of July 2009 event held in Gypsy Hill Park. I wanted to render a view on accessibility for those from a wheelchair or other similar device.  [Read more...]

Dad’s Point of View | Can a relationship survive this much stress?

How much stress can a new relationship survive? I am fond of quoting the cliché that most of us would rather keep our own problems vs. trade with someone else. Yet, lately, I wonder. Okay, I’ll keep our troubles, but it does raise the notion of enough is enough. [Read more...]

Arts and Culture

ShenanArts to stage Annie next month

ShenanArts is proud to announce its upcoming production of the immensely popular, classic American musical Annie. The 1977 Tony award winner for Best Musical will open on Friday, Aug. 7. There will be performances on Aug. 7-9 and 14-16 at Stage4 Theatre in Verona.  [Read more...]

Heritage Foundation seeks volunteers

The Waynesboro Heritage Foundation, Inc. is seeking volunteers to help us do small jobs at our museums. At the Plumb House Museum we could use help with sourcing a destination of pine needles, raking and bagging needles for use in museum gardens. Bags will be furnished. We also need help with weeding and readying the gardens for the pine needles. [Read more...]

Stop the Presses | Post-MJ music royalty

Elvis Presley was the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” when he passed in 1977. Michael Jackson was the “King of Pop” when he died last month. So who’s the new King, or, er, Queen, of, you know, Whatever, in music now that MJ has joined Elvis in leaving the building? [Read more...]

Carly at the Movies | Public enemies bite the dust

Ah, Johnny, we hardly knew ye!
In “Public Enemies,” currently playing everywhere in the universe, Johnny Depp does an adequate job as old timey bank robber John Dillinger, but any nuances the script had were drowned out by the incessant chatter of Tommy guns. [Read more...]

Sports

Golf Things Considered | Are your golf clubs too long? Even if you seek distance, it might be true

There is a good chance that your golf clubs are too long. Over the past twenty years, golf club manufacturers have been making clubs stronger (meaning they have less loft on the face), and longer so that they can sell hopeful golfers the newest “hot” weapon that will knock the ball unimaginable distances. But when golfers arrive at the driving range with long clubs, what I see is a lot of people with poor posture, inefficient shaft angles, awkward or mismatched swing planes, off-center contact with the ball, unhelpful trajectory, little accuracy, and none of the distance the long clubs were supposed to provide.  [Read more...]

The AFP on WREL | Valley League, college football, NFL

AFP editor Chris Graham joins WREL’s “Online with Jim Bresnahan” for their weekly local-sports wrap. Today Chris and Jim analyze the ‘09 Valley League baseball season at the halfway point of the campaign, talk some Major League baseball and look ahead to the start of training camps in college football and the NFL. Length: 36:17. [Read more...]

BeatTech

Years ago, right after the Scott Stadium expansion had been completed, I had UVa. football season tickets with a group of friends sitting in the new upper deck behind the end zone. I remember that first year, must have been 2001, when there was practically nobody up there with us most of the way, and we were left thinking, I thought it had been announced that we’d sold out all the season-ticket allotment this year. Hunh.  [Read more...]

ACC passes on political controversy

The Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Championship will be held at NewBridge Bank Park in Greensboro, N.C. (2012), and the Durham Bulls Athletic Park (2011, 2013), as announced today by ACC Commissioner John Swofford. This will give the championship a home through 2013, as it was recently released that the 2010 ACC Baseball Championship would be held in Greensboro, N.C.  [Read more...]

News Updates

Government

VDOT getting word out on rest-area closings

The Virginia Department of Transportation has begun notifying motorists today of impending changes at the rest areas slated for closure later this month.
“These are hard decisions for us to make,” said VDOT Commissioner David S. Ekern. “It is difficult to cut back on these popular motorists’ services, but we must prioritize our limited funding to emergency response and maintaining our roads and bridges. We have worked with the trucking, tourism and commuter communities to ensure that those impacted are aware of the impending changes and to address adverse impacts wherever possible.”  [Read more...]

Raymond R. Ratke | Transforming child welfare in Virginia

Imagine if you could no longer care for your children and that they had to leave your home and be separated from one another. You would want your kids to be in a safe home, close to school and friends, with plenty of support as they adjust to a new family. But for nearly 7,000 children in Virginia’s foster care system who have been separated from their families, these things have never been guaranteed. [Read more...]

Tom Perriello | Fifth District Report

Our region of Virginia that once gave birth to the Declaration of Independence now stands poised to lead a new revolution that grants our nation energy independence. Whether one is for or against the new energy bill, most Americans are sick of going to the gas station to pour our hard-earned dollars to petro-dictators overseas instead of investing those same resources in homegrown energy and industry. Most also agree that bringing jobs back to Southside requires a major shakeup, not just business as usual. The key to that shakeup is game-changers that redefine our competitive advantage. The time has come to change our trade policy and to embrace a new energy future that transforms our rural areas into the frontlines of our struggle for energy independence. The time has come to let consumers decide how much they want to invest in America instead of dictators like Ahmadinejad.  [Read more...]

Charles Goldstein | A Fourth of July for everyone

This Fourth of July, America celebrates its 233rd birthday. Concurrent with the celebration, over 6,000 immigrants were naturalized as citizens in commemoration programs throughout the United States (including New Jersey’s Liberty Island and Betsy Ross House in Pennsylvania).
Unfortunately, millions of American residents who are “yearning to breathe free,” who work hard, pay taxes, and even some who protect and defend our republic in the military do not have a path to citizenship … yet. [Read more...]

Billy Parish | The first step is the hardest

The House recently passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act , an important step toward protecting our environment and building a clean energy economy.
ACES has generated a lot of strong opinions, for and against, especially in the environmental community. Now, I’m not a scientist or a policy wonk, but I did help start and run the Energy Action Coalition, the largest youth clean energy organization in the country, and following the debate over the 1,200-page proposal has been confusing, even for me. [Read more...]

Earth Talk | ‘Clean’ coal?

Dear EarthTalk: As I understand it, “clean” coal really isn’t—yet the Bush Administration gushed strongly for it. What is Obama’s take on it?
- John Zippert, Eutaw, Ala.

Barack Obama and George W. Bush differ in many ways, but both have embraced so-called “clean coal” for providing an ongoing supply of cheap and readily available energy for electricity generation.  [Read more...]

Money, money, money

How can you tell that we’re near a supposedly critical political fundraising deadline? By checking your e-mail.
“May I have just five minutes of your time?” one in my in-box yesterday from Republican guberatorial nominee Bob McDonnell asked, then got to the point. “In just 36 hours, I reach one of the last critical benchmarks before the November election - the June 30th fundraising deadline. This deadline is important as it will help set the tone for the remaining four months of the campaign.” [Read more...]

Politics

Chris Graham | Do the right thing, Tim

I get that the flap over Gov. Tim Kaine’s travel schedules got going because Republicans didn’t have anything better to do with their time this summer. But the wild swing by GOP chair Pat Mullins has connected solidly and sent the political baseball uncomfortably toward the cheap seats in deep left-center, uncomfortably, that is, for us Democrats out here trying to lay the groundwork for Creigh Deeds and other Democrats toward the state elections in November.  [Read more...]

The Deeds’ Obama question

Wonder if there might have been more to the scheduling conflict that kept Creigh Deeds away from that Barack Obama health-care town hall in Annandale last week?
“You could argue in light of these numbers that it wouldn’t be that helpful for Creigh Deeds to have Barack Obama come and campaign for him. At the same time a primary purpose of Obama appearing would be to generate interest in the election among his base voters who turned out last year but wouldn’t generally vote in an off-year election and thus aren’t getting polled,” Public Policy Polling president Dean Debnam said today in talking about approval numbers for Obama among likely November voters in Virginia.  [Read more...]

Stop the Presses | The GOP’s Palin Quandary

Let’s pretend for a minute that I’m a Republican Party strategist. So I’m musing on the news that somehow, some way, Sarah Palin is even more popular among the GOP base now that she’s up and quit her job as governor of Alaska barely halfway through her one term in office, that two-thirds of my faithful want her to continue being a major political figure.  [Read more...]

McDonnell leads Deeds in poll

Bob McDonnell is on the air in early summer, Creigh Deeds is where he’s supposed to be in the silent phase of the general-election campaign. So that McDonnell has a lead in the first July poll of the 2009 campaign season should be no surprise.
“The race for governor right now is in a very similar place to 2005. The Republican atorney gneral has a modest lead four months out from Election Day,” said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling, which has McDonnell leading Deeds by a 49 percent-to-43 percent margin in its poll out today. [Read more...]

Waynesboro Dems to meet, discuss EFCA

The Waynesboro Democratic Committee meeting set for Wednesday night will feature a forum on the Employee Free Choice Act led by a local labor organizer.
Jody Grogan, a retired local schoolteacher who is helping the Service Employees International Union with its Virginia Change That Works labor advocacy program, is the special guest at this month’s committee meeting, which will take place Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Meeting Room A at the Waynesboro Public Libary. [Read more...]

Team Coverage | Business Leaders for Deeds

The economy has to be the driving issue of the 2009 Virginia governor’s race. The Creigh Deeds campaign looks to get a leg up in the race with the announcement on Thursday of the formation of Business Leaders for Deeds. AFP editor Chris Graham was on the phone with the Democratic Party nominee, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner and Washington Capitals owner and former AOL chairman Ted Leonsis as the campaign rolled out the new advisory group. Hear from the three with analysis from Chris today on “The Chris Graham Show.” Length: 13:10.  [Read more...]

McDonnell flip-flops on debates

“This letter is nothing more than grandstanding by a struggling campaign,” the campaign manager said regarding a letter from a political rival issuing a challenge for a series of debates across the Commonwealth.
“For a politician who claims to be all about straight talk, this letter is more about publicity than public service,” the campaign manager continued. [Read more...]

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