The People v. Rick Krial: Staunton obscenity case has national attention

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] The subject isn’t evolution, and the barristers aren’t William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow. But the upcoming trial of a Staunton adult-video store owner on obscenity charges has some of that Scopes Monkey Trial flavor to it. Doesn’t it? I mean, on the one side, you have the fundamentalists who…

Cambria has been there before

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] He has represented Larry Flynt – which says most of what you need to know about the legal background of Paul Cambria. Let’s just say that he’s done this – defending someone standing accused on obscenity charges dealing with the production or sale of pornography – before. Which could explain…

Obscenity v. The First Amendment: Why the prosecution of X-rated films affects books

Chris Graham

Story by Matthew Warner What’s so horrible about porn other than the poor quality of most of it? And why should you care? ‘LITERARY OBSCENITY’ Watch out, you writers and purveyors of erotic horror and explicit romance. The folks here in my Bible Belt city of Staunton, Virginia, care quite a bit. Last summer, when…

Big fish in a small media-market pond: These broadcast mainstays in Valley, Charlottesville aren’t going anywhere anytime soon

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] When you’re a TV weatherman, a trip to the local burger place can be a challenge not unlike the 10K races that Eric Pritchett runs when he’s not standing in front of a television screen telling us what Mother Nature has in store for us tomorrow. “What’s it going to…

Downtown vs. The West End: Is economic development a zero-sum game?

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] It wasn’t that there was much left downtown, but Phil Lemons knew that whatever traffic there had been before the West End took off with the opening of Wal-Mart in Waynesboro in 2003 was pretty much going, going, gone. “Having experienced it in other towns, whenever a shopping center comes…

Reaching out to victims of crisis

Jim Bishop

Story by Jim Bishop Brenda C. Fairweather wanted to respond in some way to a hostage crisis in Russia in which more than 300 civilians eventually lost their lives. On Sept. 1, 2004, terrorists linked to the Chechen independence struggle took more than 1,200 people hostage in a school in the town of Beslan. Shootings…

Groups file suit to block 81 widening

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] A lawsuit is not a great option when your goal is to get government to reconsider what it’s doing relative to a road project. But the group that filed suit in federal court in Charlottesville on Monday to block further movement toward a massive reconstruction of Interstate 81 in Western…

Questions about Vick case still linger for me

Chris Graham

Best Seat in the House by Chris Graham [email protected] Two questions have my attention right now regarding Michael Vick. One, was 23 months enough for leading a dogfighting ring and personally participating in the executions of several dogs that had been deemed not up to standards to complete in the bloodsport? Two, is 23 months going to…