Live Blog | UVa.-Oral Roberts
ACCVirginia.com will be live at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville for today’s men’s college basketball game between the University of Virginia and Oral Roberts University.
Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.
Editor Chris Graham will be courtside reporting on the Live Blog with score updates, commentary, analysis and more. Feel free to join in with your questions and comments. Read more
Focus | Smith running on jobs, low taxes platform
Story by Chris Graham
With AFP Video
A campaign website to rival that of any statewide candidate. A ground operation that pledges to knock on thousands of doors and make as many phone calls. Lorie Smith is ready for May 2010.
“I feel so strongly about the message that I carry, and I feel so strongly about this city, as a native of Waynesboro, and the plans that I want to see to fruition, with the work that I started in 2006, that really, I’m not done. It’s important that I let the citizens know that I’m here, and that I’m here for the long term,” said Smith, who on Friday announced her candidacy for re-election to Waynesboro City Council. Read more
Focus | Perriello ’10: A safe bet? Hardly
Story by Chris Graham
We’re about a year away from the November 2010 elections, though you wouldn’t know that by watching local TV and seeing the wall-to-wall commercials telling you about what Fifth District Congressman Tom Perriello has been doing up in Washington.
First it was the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with an ad in heavy rotation that has come under fire for the tagline at the end saying that the freshman congressman is “Wrong on Health Care, Wrong for Virginia” in apparent violation of federal campaign-finance laws. The new ad in heavy rotation has come from Americans United for Change, which is encouraging Fifth District voters who support health-care reform to call Perriello’s Washington office to thank him for his vote earlier this month on the House reform package. Read more
Sustainability plan for Stuart Hall gets OK
Staff Report
The parent organization to Stuart Hall in Staunton has endorsed a plan for long-term sustainability developed by the private school’s Board of Governors in the face of economic challenges faced by the school in the continuing economic downturn.
“We recognize that the critical keys to our sustainability are recruitment of new students, retention of current students and fundraising,” said Mark Eastham, Head of Stuart Hall School, outlining specifics of the sustainability plan. Read more
WHS alum Brown leads Liberty to 3-0 start
Staff Report
Devon Brown’s first career double-double helped Liberty to a 63-52 win over Tulane in the opening game of the Navy Classic on Friday.
Brown scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for the Flames, who improved to 3-0 for the first time since the 2006-2007 season. Read more
JMU falls to 0-2
Staff Report
Senior Tony Easley’s 12 early points helped Murray State jump out to a quick 11-point lead en route to a 71-43 men’s basketball win over James Madison on Friday afternoon at Florida International’s U.S. Century Bank Arena as part of the 2009 2K Sports Classic benefitting Coaches vs. Cancer.
MSU improved to 2-1 on the season while JMU fell to 0-2. Read more
Keep religion out of health-care reform
Column by M. Patricia West
Elected officials’ religious views should be their own private affair, neither imposed by them upon the nation, nor imposed by the nation as condition to holding public office. This means their private religious views should not be imposed via the current debate over health-care reform.
Important life decisions are responsibilities of individuals and families, not of government or religious groups. On that, most of us can agree. There is also a strong history of separation of church and state in America, and one of our founding principles is of freedom from religious intolerance. That’s why I was deeply offended when Roman Catholic Church bishops lobbied Congress on health-care reform in order to deny millions of women access to abortion. Read more
Another look at the Medicare Fair Drug Pricing Act
Column by Ken Johnson
A recent op-ed in your paper (“Medicare Fair Drug Pricing Act,” Nov. 18 AFP) ignores the fact that America’s seniors are receiving unprecedented access to needed medicines at affordable costs through the Medicare prescription drug program. Medicare Part D has been a proven success for both seniors and taxpayers.
Here are the facts: Average premiums for Medicare drug coverage in 2010 are $30, only $2 more than in 2009, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The 2010 premium is 40 percent lower than originally predicted when the program was established. And, seniors are saving, on average, $1,200 a year on their medicines. Read more
Collision course on health care for state employees
Column by Mark Obenshain
Here’s a sobering statistic: In the last decade, the cost of providing health care to state employees has risen an astonishing 135 percent, and now costs $770 million a year. If that weren’t startling enough, consider this: a further $325 million cost increase is anticipated for the 2010-’12 biennium, and it is now apparent that unless we do something, health-care costs and balanced budgets are on a collision course.
Virginia continues to face a serious revenue shortfall, and we’re up against the limits of what traditional responses can accomplish to get us back on course. We need to set aside conventional notions and start having some discussions that may be uncomfortable. Read more
Can I openly say, ‘In everything, give thanks?’
Column by Jim Bishop
“And I think to myself
what a wonderful world . . .”
-Louis Armstrong (1963)
What a breathtaking, surprising experience early Monday morning.
I was still struggling to defrost my bleary-eyed vision while motoring in my Miata to start another work week after another blur of a weekend. Read more
Schmidt headlines Staunton Music Festival event this weekend
Harpsichordist Carsten Schmidt will perform the music of Johann Sebastian Bach Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009 at 7 p.m., at Central United Methodist Church, 14 N. Lewis St., Staunton.
Schmidt continues his traversal of the six Partitas of Johann Sebastian Bach with a performance of numbers three, five and six. Read more
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Live Blog | ‘Rogue’ review
Posted on November 21, 2009 · 15 Comments
Column by Chris Graham
It took 60 pages to get there. That’s longer than most of you would’ve gone, Palin fan or not.
Those first 60 pages were interminably long and drawn out.
I’m done complaining. I want to do my review as my reading continues, mainly because I’m not one with the kind of free time to just do a marathon-read.
(Which makes me like most actual fans of Palin. Which I admittedly am not.)
So here we go – with my Live Blog review of Going Rogue. Read more
Filed under Blogs · Tagged with "going rogue", republican party, sarah palin, vice president