Waynesboro’s growing pains

Story by Chris Graham 

Waynesboro City Council members have come across in recent weeks as being at odds among themselves and with city manager Doug Walker over issues involving the debt load that the city can take on and the city government’s handling of a recent political controversy regarding a proposed West End fire substation.

As a Friday-morning vote looms on Walker’s reappointment, at least his job appears to be safe. Read more

What you didn’t know about the Memorial Day MC

Column by Max Friedman

Should a man whose support for an ideology that has killed more than 100,000 Americans, plus tens of millions of people around the world, have been the proper choice to host a national memorial concert in memory of our servicemen and women? Read more

Swing like a pro

Golf Things Considered column by John Rogers
JSpencerRogers@msn.com

Golfers often wonder how and why professional golfers’ swings look so effortless. They wonder why their own swings feel and look so different. Instead of the fluid, quiet power of Ernie Els or Fred Couples, most amateurs get that little white ball moving with a swing that amounts to a patchwork of moving parts, compensations and tension. So what makes the tour players’ swings so different? Read more

And here’s the pitch from Warner …

Story by Chris Graham

Staunton Braves fans know their baseball.

This is a warning to Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who will be throwing out the first pitch at Sunday night’s Staunton-Woodstock game in John Moxie Memorial Stadium.

They’re going to expect a strike, Mr. Governor. Read more

Allen fights back at Kaine remarks

U.S. Sen. George Allen isn’t taking the political attacks being lobbed at his former secretary of public safety, Republican Party gubernatorial nominee Jerry Kilgore, lightly.

“I read with bemusement Tim Kaine’s reaction to Jerry Kilgore’s positive proposal to continue battling violent street gangs in Virginia, many of which are made up of young people who have moved to Virginia just recently,” Allen said in a statement released to the media Wednesday morning. Read more

On being ‘frightened’ to be an American

Column by Max Friedman

Back to the mailbag …

From the Jan. 20 issue of Time comes these lovely quotes (barf bag required while reading them): Read more

Flight #90 – The Forgotten Anniversary

Column by Max Friedman

On Jan. 13, a medical helicopter went drop into the Potomac River with the loss of two lives and one person rescued. It was also the ignored 23rd anniversary of the crash of Air Florida Flight #90 into the 14th Street Bridge and the Potomac River, a disaster which killed 74 out of 79 passengers and crew members, as well as four people on the bridge. Read more

Bolling lays out health-care plan

Story by Chris Graham

You don’t hear a lot of Republicans talking about health-care reform.

“And I don’t know why that is, because one of the things that I believe in very strongly is that one of state government’s most important responsibilities is making sure that we have a system of health care in Virginia where health care is accessible and affordable for every Virginian,” Republican Party lieutenant-governor nomination candidate Bill Bolling said Wednesday during a campaign stop in Fishersville, where he talked up his ideas for reform of the state health-care system. Read more

Matalin breaks down ‘05 gubernatorial race

The eyes of the nation are on the 2005 Virginia gubernatorial race, said Mary Matalin, a political commentator and former advisor to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

“This race is and will be the most-watched race in the country,” Matalin told Republicans across the state gathered for a series of “Cookouts with Kilgore” events held Tuesday night. Read more

Cutting through the Gitmo detainee issue

The Top Story by Chris Graham

Amnesty International human-rights advocacy director Jumana Musa has some advice for the Bush administration as far as its handling of the most recent flareup of controversy regarding the treatment of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay is concerned. Read more

A beautiful game

Golf Things Considered column by John Rogers
JSpencerRogers@msn.com  

Gene and I started playing golf, or some bastardized slash-and-burn version of the game, when we were about 15 or 16 years old.

I don’t remember why we started playing. Gene was a baseball player; they called him Hoover, like the vacuum cleaner, because his long, gangly arms sucked up baseballs left and right before they could slip past the infield. I played basketball, which would have been a very short career with my height, or lack thereof, and my tectonic plate-like speed, but they instituted the three-point shot while I played high-school ball, and I wasn’t afraid to launch the ball from the hash mark, or even halfcourt, if given a chance. Read more

Kilgore fleshes out tax-relief plan

Story by Chris Graham

Backdoor tax increases resulting from increases in local property-value reassessments are “unfair,” Republican Party gubernatorial-nomination frontrunner Jerry Kilgore said on Wednesday.

“I don’t know about you, but the only number that I care about as a taxpayer goes in that little box on the right-hand side of each check that I write. If that number goes up, my tax burden goes up,” the former attorney general said in a conference call with reporters Wednesday morning. Read more