Funeral service sounds wakeup call

Jim Bishop

Column by Jim Bishop Attending a funeral isn’t all tears and sorrow. I came away from a funeral service for Kenneth Seitz, Sr., 91, of Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community in Harrisonburg, with a fresh sense of hope and resolve to seize the moment, recognizing that we won’t pass this way again. The service, held June…

For the good of the party, for the good of the country

Chris Graham

The Politics Beat column by Chris Graham [email protected] I was planning to use this column to blast Hillary Clinton. “I will be making no decisions tonight.” Famous last words, right? But then Barack Obama took the stage in St. Paul, Minn., and did what Hillary should have done in New York. “You chose to listen…

Has the local GOP passed its moderate wing by?

Chris Graham

The Politics Beat column by Chris Graham [email protected] One guy gets more votes, the other guy has friends in high places, and you can guess who wins. I could be talking about George Bush, Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000, but I’m not. I’m talking about the Augusta County Republican Committee, which elected Larry…

The Senior Boom: Are we ready to expand services to increasingly aging population?

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] It was hard enough getting Kitty Lough to go into an independent-living facility, harder still to get her to accept the change in her lifestyle. She never would have guessed back then that she’d miss it as much as she does now. “She’s finally gotten over the stage of saying,…

County Republicans to decide future this week

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] This has been coming for some time. You could say dating back to the walkup to the 2007 Republican Party primary that saw Scott Sayre challenge Emmett Hanger for the 24th District GOP nomination, though I think it was significantly before that. The discord between Hanger, who held off Sayre’s…

Transportation shocker

Chris Graham

General Assembly Report column by Del. Ben Cline With the final week of the 2008 General Assembly session upon us, 100 delegates and 40 senators have begun to close up their Richmond offices and return to their homes, families, and communities to discuss the accomplishments of the past 60 days. But just as we began…

Inside Tuesday’s Valley primaries

Contributors

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] I look at the voter turnout in Tuesday’s presidential primaries here in the Central Shenandoah Valley, the breadbasket of the Virginia GOP, and have to wonder about the fall elections. It was a bare majority, but still a majority, of voters who voted the Democratic primaries in Greater Harrisonburg and…