Potts down to last strike: Candidate running out of polls, time

Story by Chris Graham

Independent Russ Potts may have only one chance left to qualify for an Oct. 9 televised gubernatorial-candidate debate.

Three organizations – Mason-Dixon, Rasmussen Reports and The Washington Post - have been regularly polling Virginia voters as to their preferences for governor in the 2005 elections. Only one of those three, the Ocean Grove, N.J.,-based Rasmussen Reports, is definitely coming out with survey results before the Oct. 6 cutoff for determing if Potts has reached the 15 percent voter-support threshold needed to secure inclusion in the Richmond debate, which will be broadcast statewide. Read more

The man who stopped the Unabomber

The Top Story by Chris Graham

David Kaczynski didn’t believe for a second that his brother, Ted, could have been the man known to the world as the Unabomber.

“My initial reaction was, ‘Well, Ted’s never been violent. I can’t imagine him harming other people like this,’ ” said Kaczynski, whose wife, Linda, confronted him in the summer of 1995 with her suspicions that Ted Kaczynski was the man behind the trail of package bombings that had dated to the late 1970s. Read more

Butterflies and moths: God’s angels on Earth

Column by Max Friedman

With the turmoil and tragedy of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the devastation and heartbreak of Hurricane Katrina, we should pause for a moment and take a deep breath. We need to look around us and see what is beautiful in our world, a stop-and-smell-the-flowers break, if you will. Read more

Staunton races heating up

Story by Chris Graham

Constitutional-office races are generally afterthoughts – if they’re even given that much thought.

At best you’ll see a heated race when a long-time revenue commissioner or sheriff or treasurer decides to retire – but even then, the issues, such as they are, come down to ones of personality.

Which is why the commissioner of the revenue and treasurer races on the ballot in Staunton this fall are so interesting. Read more

Where all is bright and gay: Virginia at forefront of gay-rights debate

There was an unspoken tension in the room – beneath the surface, but very much palpable.

The Valley Family Forum hosted an event last week in Bridgewater titled “Gay Activism: Its Impact on America.” The idea was to get Shenandoah Valley residents together to hear from a group of speakers who haven’t bought into the increasingly prevailing conventional wisdom that the gay and lesbian rights movement has had a decidedly positive impact on America. Read more

Escape from New Orleans: Refugee, Staunton native, talks about Katrina, rebuilding

The Top Story by Chris Graham

Scott Obenschain is glad he answered his phone.

“I was going to stay, originally, but on the Sunday before the storm hit, a friend of mine called me up and said, ‘It’s a Category 5, and it’s heading our way. Let’s go,’ ” said Obenschain, a Staunton native who moved to New Orleans five autumns ago to pursue a career in jazz music. Read more

The web of 9/11 conspiracy intrigue

The Top Story by Chris Graham

David Ray Griffin is the least likely conspiracy theorist that you’ll ever meet.

A theologian by trade, Griffin was working on a book on Western imperialism at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.

At the outset, Griffin said, he viewed what was going on, “as many liberals did,” as a “blowback from our foreign policy.” Read more

Boy, do they have a surprise coming

Column by Max Friedman

In light of the epidemic threats that came out of the December 2004 tsunami, and even the possibility now of widespread diseases due to Hurricane Katrina, it is time to review how another epidemic is being handled – or not handled. Read more

Being Russ Potts

Story by Chris Graham

Russ Potts is running for governor as an independent – to the consternation of Republican Party officials in Richmond and elsewhere in the Old Dominion.

The state party asked Potts to resign his Virginia Senate seat – and declared that Potts is no longer a member of the GOP.

Potts, for the record, doesn’t consider himself a former Republican – and he sees his campaign as a move to bring the party of his father back to the political center. Read more

Who will Dems field to challenge Allen in ‘06?

Story by Chris Graham

Gov. Mark Warner is not going to seek the Virginia Democratic Party nomination to run for the United States Senate in 2006.

The question now turns to … who will seek the Dem nod in ‘06?

“Gov. Warner, like many other Virginia Democrats, doesn’t want to see Sen. Allen given a free ride in 2006, if only because he’s being talked about as a presidential contender in 2008,” University of Virginia Center for Politics analyst Matt Smyth said. Read more

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