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
Rose Bowl or Bust!
Column by Jim Gordon
Submit guest columns: freepress2@ntelos.net
Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, a young man who is a big sports enthusiast usually becomes an Ohio State football fan.
I was no different and since my dad was a graduate of the OSU Law School, he was able to get tickets to the Buckeye home games and once or twice a year, he took me to see them play before they started showing the games on TV on a regular basis. Back in the 50′s and 60′s, either Ohio State or Michigan went to the Rose Bowl almost every year, depending on who won the showdown in the final game of the regular season.
If the Bucks prevailed, everyone got together with their friends and watched the game on their 12″ black and while TV screens and my mom and I also enjoyed watching the Rose Bowl Parade, especially after more and more programs were shown in color and folks started buying color TVs in the 60′s. Read more
The Pulse | Kaine team needs to work on its media strategy
A long-time friend in the local media who covered the Tim Kaine visit to Staunton last week with me for the News Virginian felt, shall we say, slighted at the treatment accorded him by the Kaine traveling party, and called me to get my input on what had transpired.
The media folks on hand, including Press Secretary Gordon Hickey, seemed to give the conservative NV the short end of the stick when it came to access. It was to a point where I left the impromptu two-reporter press gaggle at the Lowe’s in Staunton after an event which had the governor talking up energy efficiency feeling bad that I’d hogged the Q-and-A time after Hickey tried to cut off the session following my final question. Read more
Landes declines debate invite
Citing issues with fairness, Steve Landes is backing out of a debate invitation from the News Leader and WHSV-TV3 with 25th District challenger Greg Marrow.
“I’ve expressed my concerns of the editorial board – not being fair and balanced – moderating a debate between my opponent and me,” Landes told the News Leader on Thursday. Read more
More than a game
Story by Chris Graham
Sacco has left the building.
Never thought I’d write those words. I thought we had him for life.
Got him settled in Greenville, where the city boy from Chicago who used to take the subway to school could count the stars at night. Read more
Stop the Presses | Don’t do this to me
My friends on the other side of Main Street are making my life difficult. How they are is in an op-ed in today’s News Virginian that cites a New York Times article and a purported Barack Obama 2008 endorser as raising critical points about the Obama-Democratic push for health-care reform. Read more
Chris Graham: Breakfast is overrated, anyway
Posted by afp on February 19, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
You remember Tip O’Neill, of course. Mr. “All Politics Is Local.”
What’s burning my buns today: an editorial in the newspaper put out by our friends up the street at the News Virginian that makes this nonsensical stretch. First to what should make sense to self-styled conservatives, in the form of the proposal by Gov. Bob McDonnell to sell the Staunton-based Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents. With a Franklin, Tenn.,-based company that already runs 10 facilities in Virginia among the possible interested suitors, this would seem to be a win-win – in that the service is something that somebody in the private sector already does, and does at least decently well; and transferring the management of the CCCA to the private-sector entity would take the cost of operations off the government’s hands and then also off the backs of hardworking taxpayers. Read more
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