Augusta Free Press launches NewDominionTourist.com
A website highlighting options for tourists and hometown tourists is being launched this week by Augusta Free Press LLC.
NewDominionTourist.com will be the online complement to the New Dominion Tourist magazine that will hit the streets in Waynesboro, Staunton and Harrisonburg in April.
The print and web editions will work together to highlight what’s going on in the Central Shenandoah Valley. Sections on the website are devoted to the arts, books, film, food and dining, history, music and theater.
The front page of the NewDominionTourist.com website will highlight content in the print magazine and the latest news on goings-on. The site will also become home to the extensive calendar of events that has been hosted at AugustaFreePress.com since that website’s inception in 2002.
Democrats: Where do you go from here?
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
You talk to one Democrat, and the party definitely, no question, needs to restrategize toward the middle. The blowback from voters in Massachusetts is an obvious clear signal. The nation isn’t comfortable with the direction things had been headed on health care and the stimulus. Time to pull things back in for a while.
Talk to another Democrat, and that first Democrat is either an idiot or worse, a sellout. Exit polls in Massachusetts indicate that a strong majority of voters there like their state-level version of universal health care. The blowback was local, aimed at a poorly-run campaign on the part of the Democratic nominee, Martha Coakley.
Changing the course now will bring about a repeat of 1994, when Democrats threw in the towel on health-care reform and suffered at the polls in a historic GOP takeover of the House that November.
“There’s no profit in moving to the center,” said Robert Borosage, the co-director of the Washington, D.C.,-based Campaign for America’s Future, which bills itself as the “strategy center for the progressive movement.” Continue reading “Democrats: Where do you go from here?” »
McKelvey: Rage against the machines
Candidate for GOP nomination pushes power to the people
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
That the political winds are shifting, as evidenced by the upset win in Massachusetts by Republican Scott Brown in the race for the late liberal scion Teddy Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat, is not a surprise to Jim McKelvey.
“The problems are the politicians in D.C. They’re elitist. They think they know more than we do. Since getting involved with the Republican Party, I realize it’s not just the politicians. It’s the political machines. They’re all hellbent on power,” said McKelvey, who despite his concerns about party machinery is running for the Republican Party congressional nomination in the Fifth District.
The Moneta-based real-estate developer went into “defense mode” with his business interests after the 2008 election. “I made a conscious decision back then that until the 2010 election in Congress, I’m not doing a thing, because my take is, that’s where the problems originate,” said McKelvey, who announced his candidacy for the nomination in November on the radio talk show of former Charlottesville City Councilor Rob Schilling. Continue reading “McKelvey: Rage against the machines” »
Guess who’s funding the anti-Perriello ads?
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
An article in the Jan. 12 National Journal reported that America’s Health Insurance Plans and its member insurance companies funneled $20 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for ads designed to scare Americans into opposing health-care reform.
The ad campaign included $94,740 in media buys attacking Fifth District Congressman Tom Perriello in the wake of the vote in the House of Representatives in December to pass health-care reform.
The Virginia Organizing Project is working to raise public awareness of the ad buys – and the implications to the effort. Continue reading “Guess who’s funding the anti-Perriello ads?” »
The value of service
Column by Tom Perriello
www.perriello.house.gov
Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
In 1994, Congress designated the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday a national day of service. Each year, Americans of all ages and backgrounds come together on this day to take up Dr. King’s call to action and make it “a day on, not a day off.” The King Day of Service empowers individuals, strengthens communities, bridges barriers, addresses social problems, and moves us closer to Dr. King’s vision of a “beloved community.”
Last year, I had the privilege of joining students from Longwood University at their annual MLK Service Challenge. We went to the Stepping Stones Preschool in Farmville and painted a classroom. I was so impressed and humbled by these young people’s dedication to serving their community, and the gratitude of the children and parents was evident on their faces. All over the Fifth District, there are schools, churches, community groups and nonprofit organizations organizing service activities. I encourage you to call community groups in your area to find out what’s going on. Continue reading “The value of service” »
Constituent service
Column by Tom Perriello
www.perriello.house.gov
One of the most important parts of my job is to assist constituents with any issues or problems they are facing when dealing with federal government agencies. The caseworkers in my offices in Charlottesville, Danville, Farmville, and Martinsville helped nearly 800 Fifth District residents in 2009 cut through government red tape and solve individual, sometime complex, problems with federal agencies. Here are the kinds of cases we helped with and some of the stories behind the numbers. Continue reading “Constituent service” »
Focus | Morton: A ‘principled conservative’
Fifth District GOP candidate builds support toward run for party nod
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
The Fifth District is a living laboratory to Fluvanna County biology teacher Feda Morton, a veteran Republican Party activist seeking the GOP nomination to run for Congress in the Fifth. All Morton has to do over the course of the next 11 months is dissect a seven-candidate field in a June primary and then get to the heart of the Tom Perriello phenomenon that turned the Fifth blue in ’08.
“I’m very concerned about the economy, about states’ rights, about the people’s rights. I feel that our constitutional rights are being run roughshod over, and that we need to have principled conservative leadership in Washington to get back to what the founders meant for this country to be, and for the free-market and free-enterprise system to be stabilized so we can prosper. And Tom Perriello is not a match for the Fifth District, and is not voting the will of the people of this district,” said Morton, who has been working to build a campaign strong both at the grassroots and at the top, picking up the endorsements of Republican National Committee members Morton Blackwell and Kathy Hayden Terry. Continue reading “Focus | Morton: A ‘principled conservative’” »
Fifth District Report
Column by Tom Perriello
www.perriello.house.gov
As we close out 2009, here is a summary of all that we have accomplished during my first year in office.
When I was sworn in almost a year ago, our economy was on the brink of collapse. While we still have a long way to go toward complete economic recovery, I believe we took actions that prevented the next Great Depression. At the same time, we have made investments in Central and Southern Virginia that will benefit our region’s long-term competitive advantage: improved infrastructure, a well-trained workforce, and getting us ahead of the curve in the new energy economy.
Continue reading “Fifth District Report” »
Focus | McPadden: ‘(C)hange the party from the inside out’
Congressional candidate pushes back-to-basics GOP campaign
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
The tea-party protests of the summer motivated many on the right. It was another protest half a world away that motivated Mike McPadden to run for Congress.
“Those kids were out there in the streets fighting for their liberties. That was a watershed moment for me,” McPadden said of the student-led protests in Iran raising issue with that country’s controversial presidential elections. Continue reading “Focus | McPadden: ‘(C)hange the party from the inside out’” »
Fifth District Report
Column by Tom Perriello
www.perriello.house.gov
Last week, I held a conference call with Chambers of Commerce and other business leaders from across the Fifth District to gain their ideas on job creation and how to create new competitive advantage in Central and Southern Virginia. Supporting small businesses is one of the best ways we can turn our economy around. Here are some of the ideas and issues they raised. Continue reading “Fifth District Report” »
Focus | Perriello: Baptism by fire
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
With AFP Audio
Tom Perriello picked a great time to be a freshman congressman, what with the country in January on the verge of the next Great Depression and with so much unresolved in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the push from the electorate in the ’08 elections for change on health care.
“Never a dull moment. It’s hard to imagine a more contentious year,” said Perriello, D-Fifth District, who was elected in 2008 on a mandate of change in the country and in the Fifth and will head into his first re-election battle in 2010 on the heels of news that a Danville-area conservative group had broached publicly the idea of burning him in effigy to protest his votes on cap-and-trade legislation and the still-contentious health-care issue. Continue reading “Focus | Perriello: Baptism by fire” »
Fifth District Report
Posted by afp on December 21, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Column by Tom Perriello
www.perriello.house.gov
First, I have once again signed on as co-sponsor of a measure to block members of Congress from receiving automatic pay increases, this time for the 2011 fiscal year. On Jan. 7, 2009 — the day after being sworn into office — I co-sponsored H.R. 156, which blocked the automatic pay increase for FY2010. The measure was successfully adopted by congressional leaders over the summer. Continue reading “Fifth District Report” »
Filed under Blogs · Tagged with central virginia, congress, fifth district, southside, tom perriello, virginia