Webb marks one year of Post-9/11 GI Bill
Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va. marked on Wednesday the one-year anniversary of the implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which has offered more than a quarter of a million veterans and their families the opportunity to attend college or training programs.
After introducing the bill on his first day in office, Sen. Webb successfully spearheaded the greatest expansion of veterans benefits in the past 25 years.
Signed into law on June 30, 2008 and implemented one year ago, the bill offers returning service members up to 36 months of benefits including payment of tuition, room and board, fees and educational costs plus a $1,000 a month stipend while enrolled in full-time training. Read more
Waynesboro gets streetscape funding
Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Funding for phase two of the Downtown Waynesboro streetscape improvement project has been approved by the Commonwealth Transportation Board, the city announced on Wednesday.
The $486,000 grant would go toward improvements on West Main Street between Wayne Avenue and Church Street. A grant application for the funds was submitted by the city in December 2009. Read more
Outdoor Life touts Waynesboro
Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
In its third annual ranking, Outdoor Life has ranked Waynesboro as one of the top towns in the United States for hunting and fishing. In the 2010 survey, Waynesboro was ranked number 200 and was the only Virginia town to be named on the survey. The City of Waynesboro has been ranked each year that the survey has been published.
Outdoor Life evaluates 15 different categories of socioeconomic and outdoors-related factors, including population growth, cost of living, proximity to public land and water, gun-friendliness, and huntable and fishable species nearby. Read more
Good news, bad news about West End traffic
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Lost in the discussion over the merits of the Waynesboro Place rezoning and its potential impact on traffic in the already-congested Lew Dewitt Boulevard-Rosser Avenue-Windigrove Drive area – the part about traffic in that part of town already being congested.
“It doesn’t function to Level C that VDOT would like it to now at the peak. That’s a key distinction. If you’re going to design just for peak and level of service for peak, you’re going to have a lot of asphalt out there. And from an urban planner’s standpoint, we can almost end up overdesigning intersections to meet VDOT’s minimum peak standards. You have to balance everything, and the costs associated with it,” City Planner Michael Barnes said.
Traffic congestion is a direct function of the increased economic activity in the Lew Dewitt-Rosser-Windigrove area dating back to the 2004 grand opening of the new Wal-Mart Supercenter in the West End and the flood of commercial development that followed. The good news is that the Waynesboro economy has nearly doubled in size in the past seven years as a result of the development spurt. The bad news comes in the form of the frustration that we sometimes have to endure trying to get to where we’re going.
More bad news in that respect could cancel out the good news. Read more
Defensive issues hamper Generals
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Four unearned runs on four Waynesboro errors spelled the difference as Front Royal defeated the Generals 8-5 Tuesday night at Mathers Park.
WaynesboroGenerals.com has the story.
Shepherd Bliss: No blow movement grows
Column by Shepherd Bliss
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Peter and Susan Kendall of Orinda, Northern California, are not your typical political activists. This couple really wants some peace and quiet, so they can be comfortable within their suburban home and with their backyard chickens, berries and tomatoes.
But wait! While at their home recently a siren-pitched, shrieking scream interrupted that serenity—a leaf blower, which some call a debris blower, since it kicks up far more than leaves. The couple had bought three different kinds of leaf blowers, not to use, but to demonstrate how much noise and air pollution they make, even the allegedly quieter ones.
The Kendalls founded Quiet Orinda in 2009 in order to educate their neighbors about the multiple hazards of leaf blower pollution and gather support for taking defensive actions. Read more
‘Open for business’ at the Mill
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Three years, more than $3 million of investment, and now it’s official.
“Today is to announce that South River is open for business,” said Michael Bryan, an attorney for South River Inc., the development company owned by Winchester-based developer Beverly Shoemaker, who has been working on plans for a $45 million repurposing of the old Crompton Shenandoah plant in Waynesboro into a mixed-use office, commercial and residential development.
The site was formally rechristened Tuesday as the Mill at South River with a groundbreaking ceremony involving Shoemaker, her planning team and city officials. Read more
Bain: ‘I don’t think big-government solutions work’
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
One of the major parties, Sixth District congressional candidate Stuart Bain says, wants to tax and spend. The other “wants to spend, but they don’t want to tax.”
“Both of the major parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, have progressive government plans. It’s just a matter of, do they want to grow it to the left, or do they want to grow it to the right?” asks Bain, the Libertarian Party nominee on the ballot in the Sixth, challenging incumbent Congressman Bob Goodlatte, a Republican, in the November general election.
“I’m a proponent of smaller government across the board. I don’t think big-government solutions work. I think we need to take a real strong look at how we can actually shrink our federal government back into the box that the Constitution had drawn around it to prevent it from becoming what it is today,” said Bain, a Marine Corps veteran and Roanoke native who decided to run for Congress after “taking a look at the economic issues that are challenging my generation and deciding that I really don’t want to see my children have to foot the bill for my generation’s poor choices.” Read more
Music exchange brings France, Staunton together
Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
An international music exchange between Staunton and France gets back going this week with a visit by a group of French gospel singers to the Queen City.
The group will arrive in Staunton later this week to begin preparations for a concert tour beginning Sunday, July 11, with a performance at R.E. Lee High School at 7 p.m.
The schedule also has the French-American group performing at The Paramount Theater in Charlottesville on Monday, July 12, at 7 p.m., and in Washington, D.C., on Bastille Day, Wednesday, July 14.
The American group will make a return trip to France in December to perform three concerts, including a finale in Besancon.
Tickets for the July 11 show in Staunton are $7 and are available at Blue Mountain Coffees, Bookworks and Celebrate!
Community Foundation announces scholarships
Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
The Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge announces awards of nearly $50,000 in scholarships to 38 area students.
“We are so excited and thankful to be able to offer these scholarships that potentially open doors that may have otherwise remained closed. By minimizing the financial concerns of these young adults, they can focus on their studies and achieve what they set out to do,” said Becky Kohler, president/CEO of the Community Foundation. Read more
Ken Becker: The Fair Tax
Column by Ken Becker
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I want to introduce to the public a new concept for funding the federal government. A new efficient tax system that is completely voluntary. This tax plan has been introduced to the United States Congress as the Fair Tax Act (H.R. 25/S. 296).
Imagine keeping every dime of your paycheck. No federal income tax taken out, no social security or Medicare tax taken out, no taxes on business and no taxes on investment income. In addition you would get a monthly payment to cover taxes on all necessities up to the poverty level. All of this replaced with a consumption tax of 23 percent on new purchases only.
No, the cost of everything you buy will not necessarily go up 23 percent under this plan. While the cost of new products would go up, many of the costs to produce products would be eliminated which would reduce retail prices. How could this be? All taxes and tax compliance costs like tax preparation and accounting fees on production of a product are passed on through each process and then eventually passed on to you the consumer. These are called embedded costs. Economists estimate that there is roughly a 22 percent increase in the cost of merchandise due to embedded costs. The Fair Tax would remove these costs. Read more
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David Reynolds: One America!
Posted on June 30, 2010 · 1 Comment
Submit guest columns: freepress2@ntelos.net
How was your coffee this morning? If it was a special blend it was likely very good. If not, if there was no theme, you may have spit it out.
Next Question: How do you believe the experiment is going? You know, the great American experiment. You have a long Fourth of July weekend to come up with an answer. So please spend a few minutes between the fun and games to consider why the United States of America is the envy of the world, why our enemies are so envious of us that they wish to destroy us.
The answer to both questions is the same: It depends on the blend. With coffee it is the beans; with America it is the people. This nation has done special things because we are a special blend of people. This blend of individual responsibility, high self-esteem and opportunity has taken us to heights we never imagined 234 years ago. Read more
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