Live Blog: UVa. vs. Duke
Moderated by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
ACCVirginia.com is live at the John Paul Jones Arena for tonight’s men’s basketball game between the University of Virginia (14-12, 5-8 ACC) and #5 Duke (24-4, 11-2 ACC).
The opening tip is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. The game is being broadcast on Fox SportsNet.
Editor Chris Graham is courtside and will provide score updates and analysis and commentary during the game.
I Love The ’90s, Part Two
Are we about to reprise the pendulum swings of the Gingrich-Clinton era?
Report by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Might we see a repeat of 1994 in 2010? The short answer: yes. Next question: Might we then see a repeat of 1996 in 2012? Well, maybe.
“For all the trouble Barack Obama’s had lately voters still prefer him to any of the top Republican contenders for 2012,” said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling, which polled 743 registered voters in February and found the Democrat Obama leading all of the top potential 2012 Republican Party hopefuls at this very, very early stage more than two and a half years out from the November 2012 presidential election.
An Obama win might have to come after a November 2010 switch in majority-party status in at least the House of Representatives, which would mirror the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 that was followed by the re-election of Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1996.
An analysis from the University of Virginia Center for Politics released last week suggests that Republicans could be poised to gain 37 seats in the ’10 midterms, which would put the GOP within hailing distance of taking majority control of the legislative chamber. A switch of 40 seats from the D column to the R column would give the Republicans the majority in the House. Read more
Can Waynesboro be a tourist destination?
Special Report by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Waynesboro doesn’t have a facility like The Biltmore to pull people down off the Blue Ridge Parkway like Asheville, N.C., has. But what if it did?
Consider that between 2 and 3 million visitors go in and out of the Shenandoah National Park each year, and 20 million people travel the Blue Ridge Parkway each year.
“When you consider that you’re strategically located between those two, that’s something that no other community can boast. No one else can say that they are located in between those two huge tourism assets. That’s tremendous untapped potential there,” said Brian Ososky, the executive director of the Shenandoah Valley Travel Association, which coordinates tourism-marketing efforts for localities from the Roanoke Valley to the Winchester area.
Waynesboro is perhaps the best situated from a tourism-marketing standpoint of any locality in the Valley. We are literally at Milepost Zero, the entrance both to the Blue Ridge Parkway that runs south and the Skyline Drive and the Shenandoah National Park that runs to the north. Read more
Weekend Watchdog: See you in Sochi
Column by Mike Judge
WeekendWatchdog.blogspot.com
Sunday night, the Olympic flame will go out in Vancouver. Two weeks of speed and gold medals will close out.
Before the world packs up to return home, there’s plenty of big events. Men’s ice hockey semifinals are Friday, with the United States playing Finland at 3 p.m. and Canada and Slovakia meeting at 9:30 p.m. The losers go to the bronze medal game Saturday, then the gold medal contest is Sunday before the Closing Ceremonies.
The women’s figure skating champion will be crowned Thursday, and Saturday there’s the Champions Gala to give you one more chance to see the best skaters.
Then if you’d like to see more ice dancing or short-track speed skating, you’ll have to wait for the torch to be lit in Sochi, Russia in four years. Read more
Just rearrange the deck chairs
Why are our local school systems going to a job fair when they’re cutting jobs?
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
It seems counterintuitive at first glance – to have a job fair to recruit potential new employees when the economic reality that you’re facing has you considering deep and painful cuts to staff. So when it was brought to my attention that the Waynesboro school system was spending what I was told was more than $3,000 to take part in a teacher-recruitment fair at James Madison University this weekend, yeah, I did a doubletake.
Turns out that the figure cited to me was low – it’s actually going to cost the city school system $5,000 to take part in the Shenandoah Valley Job Fair. It also turns out that Augusta County and Staunton and administrators from school systems in several neighboring localities are going to be there. And all, it seems to me, after looking into the matter, for good reason.
“We experience between a 9 and 15 percent turnover in professional staff each year due to attrition – retirements, relocations, life changes, et cetera. Because this may occur within an unpredictable timeline and varied endorsement areas, we must be certain we maintain an adequate pool of applicants with varied levels of experience, licensure and endorsements,” said Vermell Grant, the assistant superintendent in the central office at Waynesboro Public Schools.
Which is to say, the outside-looking-in wisdom that, OK, you’re having to cut jobs, you have some people retiring, some people moving, so just move people around internally, and you’ve got it all covered, doesn’t work in practice. Read more
Carly at the Movies: Heroes never wear Band-aids
Column by Carl Larsen
Submit a review: freepress2@ntelos.net
Why would Martin Scorsese, probably the world’s most-respected film director, give away the mystery to his latest movie in the very first scene?
If you pick up that clue to “Shutter Island,” currently playing at the Regal Staunton Mall Cinema, you’ll just sit there for the next two-and-a-half hours waiting for it to turn out just as you’d expected.
In the meantime, you can enjoy the standard Scorsese cinematic touches and revel in a plot that seems straight out of the beloved old WWII radio adventure series called “I Love a Mystery” by Carlton E. Morse.
Yep, there’s Master Martin’s patented 360-degree camera turn and, oh yes, there’s his gorgeous, shadowy photography, set to wonderful use on the bleak and mysterious island that’s the setting for this tale of weird goings-on in an isolated hospital for the criminally insane. Read more
Chris DeWald: Neurofeedback
Column by Chris DeWald
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Neurofeedback is a technique in which the brain is trained to help improve its ability to regulate all bodily functions and to take care of itself. When the brain is not functioning well, evidence of this often shows up in the EEG (electroencephalogram). By challenging the brain, much as you challenge your body in physical exercise, your brain learns to function better.
A better-functioning brain can improve sleep patterns. When you sleep more efficiently, you are more alert during the day. It can help with anxiety and depression, and with syndromes like migraine or chronic pain. Secondly, it can be helpful in managing attention – how well you can persist even at a boring task. Thirdly, it can help you manage the emotions. Emotions may feel like the real you, but your brain has a lot to say about how you feel and react. If the emotions are out of control, that’s trainable. If they aren’t there—as in lack of empathy, for example—that, too, is trainable.
Finally, there are some specific issues where the EEG neurofeedback training can be helpful, such as in cases of seizures, traumatic brain injury, stroke and autism. In these instances the training does not so much get rid of the problem as it simply organizes the brain to function better in the context of whatever injury or loss exists. Read more
AFP editor on TV3, WINA to talk about Chamber controversy
Staff Report
AFPBusiness.com
AugustaFreePress.com editor Chris Graham appeared on WINA’s “Charlottesville-Right Now!” with Coy Barefoot on Tuesday to talk about the controversy over the firing of Greater Augusta Regional Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Ben Carter.
You can listen to the interview here courtesy the Charlottesville Podcasting Network.
Graham was interviewed on Wednesday for a story on the Chamber news by WHSV-TV3 news. We have the web video of the story here courtesy TV3. Read more
Babysteps toward moving forward?
Column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
It’s another report bound to collect dust on a forgotten bookshelf. That’s the cynic’s view of the latest and greatest Downtown Vision Report aiming at guiding whatever it is that Waynesboro is going to do to breathe life into its downtown.
The people leading this particular Save Downtown effort will tell you that the reason that we’re not going to fail this time is because this time we’re engaging the community to share its vision. If you ask me, the reason that we have a shot this time, and that’s as far as I’ll go right now, that we have a shot, is, OK, sure, we’re engaging the people, but more to the point, we’ve got a deadline.
“It’s a pretty ambitious timetable,” said Tom Carlsson, the director of development at the Waynesboro Redevelopment and Housing Authority, which is leading a joint effort with the city and Waynesboro Downtown Development Inc. toward filing for Community Development Block Grant funds from the state that could jumpstart design and infrastructure work that could itself jumpstart a larger-scale downtown-redevelopment project. Read more
Some weight to sustainability
Author overcomes skepticism, builds net-zero residential development
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Stu Rose has an interesting authenticity to his musings on sustainability. The author of a recent book on sustainable living admits to being “a little jaundiced” when it comes to the buzz words that people throw around.
“I’m a little jaundiced when it comes to terms like ‘green’ or ‘environmentally friendly’ or ‘ecofriendly’ or ‘energy-efficient,’ because they’re not measurable terms,” said Rose, the author of Sustainability: A Personal Journey to a Built Sustainable Community … and an Amazing Picture of What Life Will Soon Be Like, in an interview for the Monday, Feb. 22 installment of The AFP Show podcast.
Rose, a registered architect with degrees in structural engineering and organizational development, came to sustainable living through observation, you could say. What he saw in work and his readings on what was going on in the world in the 1990s helped him get over his early feelings that “sustainability” was a word that environmentalists were using to avoid having to talk about spotted owls. Read more
The AFP Show: Health-care reform, Congress, emotional balance
The AFP Show
freepress2@ntelos.net
Items for The AFP Show for Thursday, Feb. 25, include:
- Remarks from New York Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner on the ongoing health-care reform debate in Congress.
- An interview with Isaac Wood from the University of Virginia Center for Politics to discuss a recent report from UVa. political-science professor Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball suggesting that the GOP could gain 37 seats in the House of Representatives and push Democrats for majority control.
- A talk with Staunton-based author Jolly Stickley on her new book, Energy Restructure: Set Yourself Free Using the 9 Layers of the Emotional Body.
- A Special Comment from AFP editor Chris Graham on the move by the Augusta County Board of Supervisors to end further study of conducting future real-estate assessments using county-government staff. Read more
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David Reynolds: Sinful solutions
Posted on February 28, 2010 · 1 Comment
Column by David Reynolds
Submit guest columns: freepress2@ntelos.net
By now if you haven’t figured out the subject of this week’s sermon you need to get another bottle. It should be as easy as ABC. In Virginia we know what those three letters stand for. It is All But Competition, in other words, revenue, revenue and more revenue.
So, how do you feel about owning a string of liquor stores? Actually, you should feel good. They make money, and not just during the holiday season. All of our ABC stores operate in the black, No other state agency can make that claim!
Yet in spite of their profitable operations, however slim, our new governor, that good looking Irish fellow, wants to shut them down – and let liquor stores spring up everywhere, except, of course, in the Drug Free Zone surrounding your kid’s school. Read more
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