AFPTheMagazine.com

Local beef in local schools: A win-win

Special Report by Chris Graham
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It would seem to stand to reason that the breadbasket of Virginia could probably provide at least something in the way of homegrown food for schoolchildren.

And then you think about it for a second, and it occurs to you that, you know, maybe it makes sense that like everybody else we just order food for school lunches the way everybody else does, by going the mass-supplier route.

I mean, seriously – it’s not like you can just call up Farmer Fred over in West Augusta and get him to save you a side of beef and a bushel of corn without having to have the USDA and numerous other acronyms involved in the effort.
   

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Boxing coach: We’re all in the same gang

Story by Chris Graham
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Coach, as he is known around the gym, has worked with top-level amateur boxers and for a time was a personal trainer for Hollywood celebs including Al Pacino and Julia Roberts.

Working with gang members in Waynesboro has Frank Burchette’s attention now.

“That’s what drew me here,” said Burchette, a former U.S. Army drill sergeant and top amateur boxer who now heads up the boxing program at Annese Martial Arts in Waynesboro.
  

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Chris Graham: Behind the Crookshanks resignation

Column by Chris Graham
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It can be the case that a resignation offered one day to take effect the next can be an indication of something salacious having happened behind the scenes, but that’s not what I’m hearing in regard to the surprise resignation last week of longtime Waynesboro tourism director Lianne Crookshanks.

My sources indicate that it simply became obvious to higher-ups in the Yancey Building that it was time to move in a new direction in the tourism area.
  

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The AFP Show: Monday, March 15

Hosted by Chris Graham
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A new format for The AFP Show – now featuring audio and video.

This week’s show includes:
- Video interviews with Staunton Mayor Lacy King and Staunton City Councilman Bruce Elder. Both King and Elder are running for re-election in May.
- Audio interviews with WSVA-550AM talk-show regular guest Andy Schmookler and David Beebe from Cherry Ridge Farm in Rockbridge County.
  

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AugustaFreePress.com

AFPBusiness.com: Business News Notebook

Edited by Chris Graham
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Local Business News: $21.2M plant expansion in Shenandoah Gov. Bob McDonnell today announced that Mercury Paper Inc. will invest $21.2 million to expand its current facility in Shenandoah County and relocate its North American headquarters to the site, creating 150 new jobs in the process. Mercury Paper’s parent company, Sinar Mas Group, one of the world’s leading pulp and paper companies, is headquartered in Shanghai, China.
Story Link.
 

Local Business News: Agroterrorism conference at BRCC  The Virginia Agroterrorism Conference will be held at Blue Ridge Community College, 1 College Lane, Weyers Cave, on Tuesday, March 23. The one-day conference is designed to inform people who work in agriculture and law enforcement how state and federal agencies would respond to an incident of terrorism that affected the food supply and all other aspects of agriculture – from veterinary medicine to dairy farmers to food processors.
Story Link.
 

Local Business News: JMU’s business school gets straight A’s You could say James Madison University’s College of Business made the dean’s list again in 2010. The business school remains in the top 5 percent of undergraduate business schools ranked by “BusinessWeek” magazine, receiving exceptionally high marks from students and straight A’s for teaching quality, services and job placement.
Story Link.
 

Local Business News: DCCU hosting Social Security workshop DuPont Community Credit Union and Member Investment Services will be conducting a workshop on Social Security titled: “Social Security – Understanding Your Options and Benefits.”
Story Link.
 

Editors’ Business Blog: 10 tips to profit from the Home Show The Home and Garden Show arrives at the JMU Convocation Center on Friday, April 16 – 18. What a great opportunity for exhibitors. It may be the single largest source of leads and profitable business for an entire year. Many of my clients have said so.
Story Link.

City … finally … names economic-development director

Story by Chris Graham
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The search for a new economic-development director in Waynesboro that had dragged on for 19 months is over. City Manager Mike Hamp announced in a press release Thursday morning that Greg Hitchin, currently the business development manager in Onondaga County in New York, has taken the job effective April 12. [Read more...]

Smith to host tourism summit

Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

Waynesboro City Councilwoman Lorie Smith is hosting a Tourism Summit tonight at 6 p.m. at the Charles T. Yancey Municipal Building.

The summit is bringing together local leaders and residents to begin work toward developing a plan to promote Waynesboro as a tourist destination.

The meeting is open to the public, and refreshments will be provided.

VirginiaPoliticsToday.com

GOP candidates press Perriello – and each other

Story by Chris Graham
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Fifth District Congressman Tom Perriello is facing a full-court press from the Republicans gunning for the chance to knock him off in November. The press might work better if the GOP’ers weren’t trying at the same time to steal the ball from each other.

“My opponent Jim McKelvey put out a statement challenging Congressman Perriello to ‘go ahead and make my day’ by voting for the pending health-care bill. This is exactly the type of arrogant thought process the people of Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District and the country cannot afford to tolerate any longer.” [Read more...]

Ken Plum: A time of intolerance

Column by Del. Ken Plum
www.kenplum.com
 

Last week I took the extraordinary step of making a motion on the floor of the House of Delegates that a bill be discharged from a committee. The rules provide for such a motion, but it is seldom made and almost never approved. Had my motion been approved, the full membership of the House of Delegates would have had the opportunity to debate a bill prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. [Read more...]

Cuccinelli: ‘We gotta have proof’ that Obama is U.S. citizen

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, fresh off the controversy that he generated with his letter to Virginia public colleges and universities earlier this month advising them against going too far in policies protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination on campus, is back in the hot seat again, this time over comments from late last year questioning President Obama’s citizenship.

The comments came to light in a posting on the left-wing political blog Not Larry Sabato on Monday that included audio from an interview conducted by an unnamed man of Cuccinelli in the post-election transition period. [Read more...]

Blogs/Commentary

The Rant: We get what we elect

Video Essay by Chris Graham
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David Reynolds: Paradise lost

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

Does anyone out there in paradise care about anybody besides themselves? If not, then we have lost a community. We have lost paradise.

Over 700 area residents attended the SRO public hearing held last week at the Rockbridge County High School to hear comments on the inevitable cuts the School Board and the Board of Supervisors must make for 2,600 students in their 2010-2011 budgets. [Read more...]

Bourne Again Christian invades the ‘Green Zone’

Column by Carl Larsen
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Nothing gets my dander up quicker than a healthy dose of good old American Righteous Indignation. And believe me, Matt Damon is so full of it in “Green Zone,” currently playing at the Regal Staunton Mall Cinema, that this erstwhile star of “The Bourne Identity,” “The Bourne Supremacy,” and “The Bourne Ultimatum” could easily be known as The Bourne Again Christian.

You can tell right away this tale, set in the chaotic early days of the Baghdad invasion (when Weapons of Mass Destruction were more real than Bush’s fantasy) is chock-a-block with Righteous Indignation. All the characters – government guys, CIA peeps, only-following-orders soldiers, reporters and noble savages all speak in deadly serious clichés. [Read more...]

ACCVirginia.com

WaynesboroGenerals.com: Geaux, Tigers!

Story by Chris Graham
WaynesboroGenerals.com
  

WaynesboroGenerals.com has the news on the signing announced today of LSU baseball players Wet Delatte and Michael Reed.

Get the story here.

UVa. gets win in O’Connor homecoming

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

Before the game, Brian O’Connor caught up with Bob Wease, who had recruited him to pitch for the Valley League’s Harrisonburg Turks back in 1990. The game itself worked out well for O’Connor’s top-ranked Virginia baseball team, which broke up a close game with a pair of unearned runs in the ninth to defeat James Madison 6-3. Afterwards, the UVa. skipper was gushing about the homecoming of sorts that had played itself out with a school-record baseball crowd of more than 2,400 including approximately 600 fans that watched the game from a hill before the left-field fence at JMU’s new Veterans Memorial Park.

“I was really, really impressed. Obviously JMU has a beautiful facility here, first-class, and to have this kind of crowd is exciting for them, and also equally exciting for us,” O’Connor said. [Read more...]

Weekend Watchdog: 64 … 32 … 16

Column by Mike Judge
WeekendWatchdog.blogspot.com
 

Ready for your TV screen to be divided into four parts, to show all the live games? Ready for your bracket to be shredded?

Thursday at noon, the first NCAA tournament game tips off on CBS. I expect Notre Dame-Old Dominion to be seen on WUSA9 in the Fishersville area, and the hard-working people at this website are trying to map all coverage of the first three rounds for wherever you are in the nation.

The first round, coverage is on from noon until 5 p.m., and resumes at 7 p.m. [Read more...]

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