President, Webb, Warner mark enactment of New GI Bill

At George Mason University on Monday, Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) was joined by President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, former Sen. John Warner, and student veterans at an event celebrating the enactment of Webb’s “Post-9/11 GI Bill,” which offers comprehensive educational benefits to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Saturday, August 1, the Department of Veterans Affairs began distributing tuition payments to schools across the nation participating in the program.  Read more

Holding the line at the pump

Up and down, up and down - that’s where gas prices are right now.
“With five weeks remaining in the summer driving season, AAA expects gas prices to remain fairly stable,” said Martha M. Meade, manager of public and government affairs for AAA Mid-Atlantic. Read more

Staunton businesses looking to take advantage of sales-tax holiday

Mommy and Me Children’s Consignment Shop and Off the Wall Photography in Staunton are teaming up for an all-day event on Saturday coinciding with the annual state school sales-tax holiday. Read more

News from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Monday, Aug. 3, 2009
- Press Briefing with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
- Remarks by President Obama and Kuwait Amir Sheikh Sabah before Oval Office meeting
- Remarks by President Obama at George Mason University on the Post-9/11 GI Bill
- Statement by the press secretary on the visit of President Mubarak of Egypt to the White House Read more

State funds focus on disability employment

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced last week that the Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services (DRS) awarded $500,000 in federal funding to 12 Employment Services Organizations (ESOs) with projects designed to increase employment for Virginians with disabilities. The funds were made possible through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), a portion of which serves as recovery funding directed to the state’s vocational rehabilitation system. The projects range from expanding a laundry service operation, to purchasing a multi-passenger van for transporting workers, to creating local community enclaves (small mobile crew of workers with disabilities). Read more

A new class of landlords

As homeowners contend with a chilly housing market, many are turning to others to pay their mortgages for them - by renting out their properties. Through first quarter 2009, Allstate saw approximately a 25.3 percent increase in the number of Virginia homeowners switching to landlord policies over prior year. Read more

The issues, please

People in Wise County prefer to be on welfare, to hear the chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia tell it.
Mullins made a comment to that effect last month, according to a report in The Recorder, a weekly newspaper based in Highland County, in summing up a story about a Wise County insurance company that had to close two offices because he said it couldn’t find employees. Mullins told a gathering of local Republicans at a Monterey restaurant that the company owner tried to recruit employees from a nearby college campus to work, but “(t)hey preferred to be on welfare,” Mullins was quoted in the report. Read more

The Agenda | Tuesday, Aug. 4

A look around the Virginia and Valley politics landscape as we head into Tuesday, Aug. 4 …
- Creigh Deeds continues his Deeds Country Tour. The updated schedules that we keep getting haven’t let us in on when and where the Creigh Deeds campaign will make it here to the Staunton-Waynesboro area, and I haven’t gotten any phone calls or e-mails asking me to help coordinate a Waynesboro event, so … .
My guess is we’ll get a Staunton visit on Thursday or Friday. Read more

Voting trends and distracted drivers on today’s ‘Chris Graham Show’

It’s talk radio on the web the way it oughtta be. “The Chris Graham Show” returns with an interview with Virginia Commonwealth University professor Cary Funk discussing a recent study showing that despite recent voting results in Virginia trending blue, the political direction of Virginia is still very much up in the air. Also featured is an interview with a Virginia Tech researcher confirming what we would all expect about cell phones and their impact on us when we use them while driving. Length: 19:31. Read more

RMH adds two to breast health navigator team

Patricia Cheeks, RN, MSN, and Libbi Fitzgerald, RN, have joined RMH Women’s Health Focus as breast health navigators.
The RMH breast health navigator position was created in 2005 to provide help for women diagnosed with, or undergoing evaluation for, breast cancer. Annually, more than 300 women receive integrated care provided through this role.  Read more

EMU forges ties with Korean school

A little over one year ago, representatives of two schools with similar values, including a strong commitment to international learning, gathered on the Eastern Mennonite University to get better acquainted and to formalize an agreement between the two institutions. Read more

Tom Perriello | Fifth District Report

As I return home from Congress for an extended work period in the district, I will be devoting most of my time to discussing health care reform with constituents and doctors. For weeks, I made clear to Congressional leaders that we should not rush a vote on health care. I have already met with over 150 doctors and medical professional in our district about health care, and each meeting produces better ideas for improving health care and reducing costs. So my stated position was that Congress should take the month of August to present ideas to the American people and give them time to understand, critique and improve those plans so that we could get this done right, rather than just done right away. Read more

Earth Talk | Cosmetics testing

Dear EarthTalk: Is the “Draize Test” using live animals still used to test cosmetics?
- Jim M., Bridgeport, Conn.

The Draize Test was devised back in 1944 by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) toxicologist John H. Draize to evaluate the risks of normal short-term exposure to new cosmetics and other personal care products. Still used today by some companies, the test involves applying a small amount of the substance under study to an animal’s eye or skin for several hours, and then observing whether or not irritation occurs over the following week or two. In most cases the animal subjects—usually albino rabbits bred for the lab—are put to death after the sometimes maiming and often painful test. Read more

A Dad’s Point of View | Summer vacations are for parents, too

Remembering Chevy Chase in those summer vacation movies reminds me of the fact that most so-called “family vacations” are, at best, vacations for the kids and torture for the parents. I’m generalizing, of course, but most generalizations as well as clichés, have a strong basis in truth. I stand by the proposition that we parents usually need a vacation after our family one, if only to recover and rest. Read more

Dukes loaded for another title run

I thought it was a done deal. Redshirt junior Drew Dudzik was Rodney Landers’ backup in 2008 and got his baptism-by-fire when Landers went down in the first half of James Madison’s 35-27 national-semifinal loss to Montana, throwing for 70 yards and running for 88 yards, two touchdowns and a two-point conversion for the highlight reels that brought the Dukes within striking distance late. Read more

The Latest

Friday, Aug. 7
- State News: New online resources for teachers

Thursday, Aug. 6
- Local News: 40th anniversary of Camille disaster this month
- Elections ‘09: Wagner releases statement on Bolling’s absence from revenue meeting

Wednesday, Aug. 5
- Local News: Harrisonburg traffic alert
- State News: ACLU of Virginia weighs in on sectarian prayers at Chesapeake City Council meetings
- Regional News: Events planned to mark 75th anniversary of Parkway

Tuesday, Aug. 4
- State News: State’s infant-mortality rate drops to record low
- State News: SPJ Legal Defense Fund supports student paper’s open-records lawsuit
- Local News: Parks and rec league meetings in Waynesboro

Monday, Aug. 3
- Local News: Progress Augusta meeting set for Tuesday in Staunton
- Local News: Board of Zoning Appeals to meet Thursday
- Local News: VDOT road-work schedule

Read more

Mickey Matthews talks JMU football

AFP editor Chris Graham talked James Madison University football recently with JMU Coach Mickey Matthews. Matthews talks about his quarterback controversy, what the Dukes need to do to shore up things on defense and gives us some insight on where former R.E. Lee standout Dae’Quan Scott fits into the plans this year. Length: 7:20. Read more

VMI QB tabbed Big South preseason offensive player of year

VMI senior quarterback Tim Maypray was tabbed 2009 Big South Conference Offensive Player of the Year in the league’s preseason squads announced Friday afternoon at the annual Media Day in Charlotte. Read more