WaynesboroGenerals.com: Geaux, Tigers!

Story by Chris Graham
WaynesboroGenerals.com
  

WaynesboroGenerals.com has the news on the signing announced today of LSU baseball players Wet Delatte and Michael Reed.

Get the story here.

AFPBusiness.com: Business News Notebook

Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
  

Local Business News: $21.2M plant expansion in Shenandoah Gov. Bob McDonnell today announced that Mercury Paper Inc. will invest $21.2 million to expand its current facility in Shenandoah County and relocate its North American headquarters to the site, creating 150 new jobs in the process. Mercury Paper’s parent company, Sinar Mas Group, one of the world’s leading pulp and paper companies, is headquartered in Shanghai, China.
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Local Business News: Agroterrorism conference at BRCC  The Virginia Agroterrorism Conference will be held at Blue Ridge Community College, 1 College Lane, Weyers Cave, on Tuesday, March 23. The one-day conference is designed to inform people who work in agriculture and law enforcement how state and federal agencies would respond to an incident of terrorism that affected the food supply and all other aspects of agriculture – from veterinary medicine to dairy farmers to food processors.
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Local Business News: JMU’s business school gets straight A’s You could say James Madison University’s College of Business made the dean’s list again in 2010. The business school remains in the top 5 percent of undergraduate business schools ranked by “BusinessWeek” magazine, receiving exceptionally high marks from students and straight A’s for teaching quality, services and job placement.
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Local Business News: DCCU hosting Social Security workshop DuPont Community Credit Union and Member Investment Services will be conducting a workshop on Social Security titled: “Social Security – Understanding Your Options and Benefits.”
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Editors’ Business Blog: 10 tips to profit from the Home Show The Home and Garden Show arrives at the JMU Convocation Center on Friday, April 16 – 18. What a great opportunity for exhibitors. It may be the single largest source of leads and profitable business for an entire year. Many of my clients have said so.
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UVa. gets win in O’Connor homecoming

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

Before the game, Brian O’Connor caught up with Bob Wease, who had recruited him to pitch for the Valley League’s Harrisonburg Turks back in 1990. The game itself worked out well for O’Connor’s top-ranked Virginia baseball team, which broke up a close game with a pair of unearned runs in the ninth to defeat James Madison 6-3. Afterwards, the UVa. skipper was gushing about the homecoming of sorts that had played itself out with a school-record baseball crowd of more than 2,400 including approximately 600 fans that watched the game from a hill before the left-field fence at JMU’s new Veterans Memorial Park.

“I was really, really impressed. Obviously JMU has a beautiful facility here, first-class, and to have this kind of crowd is exciting for them, and also equally exciting for us,” O’Connor said. Read more

City … finally … names economic-development director

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

The search for a new economic-development director in Waynesboro that had dragged on for 19 months is over. City Manager Mike Hamp announced in a press release Thursday morning that Greg Hitchin, currently the business development manager in Onondaga County in New York, has taken the job effective April 12. Read more

GOP candidates press Perriello – and each other

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

Fifth District Congressman Tom Perriello is facing a full-court press from the Republicans gunning for the chance to knock him off in November. The press might work better if the GOP’ers weren’t trying at the same time to steal the ball from each other.

“My opponent Jim McKelvey put out a statement challenging Congressman Perriello to ‘go ahead and make my day’ by voting for the pending health-care bill. This is exactly the type of arrogant thought process the people of Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District and the country cannot afford to tolerate any longer.” Read more

Ken Plum: A time of intolerance

Column by Del. Ken Plum
www.kenplum.com
 

Last week I took the extraordinary step of making a motion on the floor of the House of Delegates that a bill be discharged from a committee. The rules provide for such a motion, but it is seldom made and almost never approved. Had my motion been approved, the full membership of the House of Delegates would have had the opportunity to debate a bill prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. Read more

Smith to host tourism summit

Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

Waynesboro City Councilwoman Lorie Smith is hosting a Tourism Summit tonight at 6 p.m. at the Charles T. Yancey Municipal Building.

The summit is bringing together local leaders and residents to begin work toward developing a plan to promote Waynesboro as a tourist destination.

The meeting is open to the public, and refreshments will be provided.

Weekend Watchdog: 64 … 32 … 16

Column by Mike Judge
WeekendWatchdog.blogspot.com
 

Ready for your TV screen to be divided into four parts, to show all the live games? Ready for your bracket to be shredded?

Thursday at noon, the first NCAA tournament game tips off on CBS. I expect Notre Dame-Old Dominion to be seen on WUSA9 in the Fishersville area, and the hard-working people at this website are trying to map all coverage of the first three rounds for wherever you are in the nation.

The first round, coverage is on from noon until 5 p.m., and resumes at 7 p.m. Read more

Live Blog: #1 UVa. at JMU

Hosted by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
  

We’re trying something new tonight – a live blog using Twitter and Facebook.

I will be live at Veterans Memorial Park on the campus of JMU for tonight’s baseball game between the Dukes and #1 UVa.

The first pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Follow us live on Twitter and Facebook. Links to our live coverage of the game are below. Read more

Schmookler: ‘Don’t trust the people who have been lying to you’

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

If you’re a rock-ribbed conservative, you would probably already think that WSVA needs to rein in that liberal kook Andy Schmookler.

Well, that liberal kook Andy Schmookler that you know and have come to loathe was Andy Schmookler playing nice. Read more

CSAs: Get your taste on

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

You might find out what a tomato is actually supposed to taste like. That’s one advantage to community supported agriculture.

“It’s picked fresh that day, so you end up with an incredibly fresh selection of vegetables that have not been treated with Clorox to preserve them,” said David Beebe, the owner of Cherry Ridge Farm in Rockbridge County, which makes its produce available to local subscribers through a community supported agriculture, or CSA, program. Read more

Chris Graham: The rest of the story

Column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

Congratulations are in order to Phil and Ellen Winter, whose persistence in their search for information about the workings of the city treasurer office in Waynesboro led to their collection of dozens of pages of e-mails, memos and audit reports, an investigative report in The New Dominion Magazine, more reporting on the matter in the News Virginian, the defeat of Sandee Dixon in her bid for re-election as city treasurer, and recognition for their efforts from the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Read more

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