Waynesboro: River City 2020

Chris Graham

Column by Chris Graham [email protected] Lee Wolverton and I don’t agree on much, so when we agree, that means something. And we agree that Waynesboro is facing a critical challenge. Lee has seen what we both think is happening to Waynesboro happen elsewhere. A small town struggles with its identity when the factories close up…

Augusta: Brass 5 to play BRCC

Chris Graham

Staff Report The Roanoke-based Brass 5 will make the trek up I-81 Sunday for a concert at the Blue Ridge Community College Fine Arts Center. The 3 p.m. show will showcase the band’s repertoire that ranges from from Renaissance and classical to Dixieland, jazz, rock and country. Brass 5 been featured on local public radio…

Politics: Bogus registration claims a ‘smokescreen’ for GOP suppression efforts

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Republicans and their allies in the mainstream news media are stating publicly that it’s Democrats who are trying to rig the 2008 elections by submitting voter-registration applications with phony names and other such chicanery. Funny how the media is either missing out on the real story or is working in…

Education: How many children left behind?

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Twenty, twenty-five, close to thirty percent of students who start the ninth grade in the Shenandoah Valley aren’t graduating high school in four years, according to figures released by the State Department of Education on Wednesday. But are the numbers an accurate reflection of how many children are…

Sixth District: Goodlatte, Rasoul, Allen to debate

Chris Graham

Staff Report There are two Sixth District congressional candidate debates on the schedule this week. Republican incumbent Bob Goodlatte, Democratic Party nominee Sam Rasoul and independent Janice Lee Allen will appear at a candidates forum sponsored by the Roanoke County PTA tonight at 7 p.m. The forum will be held at William Byrd High School…

Business and Politics: Bailout rescue passes House

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] And just like that, we had ourselves a bailout rescue. The House voted 263-171 today to pass a compromise $850 billion plan to buy up securities from Wall Street lenders to take pressure off the financial and credit markets, just four days after a vote on a similar legislative proposal…

Local Politics: A view of the ’08 election from BRCC

Chris Graham

Story by Riley Murray blueridgedata.blogspot.com In the swing state of Virginia, the deadline of Oct. 6 for voter registration is fast approaching. Across Virginia, voter registration efforts are breaking records. With the race for the White House entering its last full month, the focus is on the Shenandoah Valley region. This rural region, in the…

Waynesboro: An open invitation to Barack Obama

Chris Graham

Column by Chris Graham [email protected] So now the world knows how badly Waynesboro wants its Obama-Biden signs. I wasn’t aiming at getting coverage on the front page of the Washington Post’s Virginia section, but sometimes these little crusades that you start at 2 in the morning trying to post an item on what you assumed…

Staunton: 73 New Americans

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Dayanara Delgado Najarro came to America a few years back for the same reason that my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents did back in the 1730s. The operative word here is opportunity. “I’m trying to get a better education than what I had and a better opportunity than I would have in my country….