Zehr named to federal advisory body

Jim Bishop

Item by Jim Bishop The United States government has named restorative-justice expert Howard Zehr to be one of six members of a new Victims Advisory Group, a move that represents a major step toward addressing the needs of victims at the federal level. “I am pleased that U.S. Sentencing Commission has made this effort to…

Supersized summer dropshot

AFP

Bass Strategies Column by Skeet Reese From the time the weather began to warm early this year until now, every lake in the country has seen the local angling population hammer the resident bass with every bait and presentation under the sun. And now, with the return of summer’s heat, long days and rising water…

You can smearmonger better than that, can’t you?

Chris Graham

Fear and Loathing in Waynesboro column by Chris Graham [email protected] Stewart Hall wasn’t around for the end of the now-infamous interview of John Lawrence that was conducted late last year by a group of self-styled business conservatives for their informal nomination to run for city council’s Ward B seat. According to Lawrence, Hall got upset…

How much longer must we suffer this idiocracy?

Chris Graham

Column by Chris Graham [email protected] Most of us agree that Virginia has itself a roads problem. You don’t have to sit in traffic for too long in Northern Virginia or Hampton Roads or Richmond or deal with congestion on U.S. 29 in Charlottesville or Interstate 81 anywhere in Western Virginia to recognize that much. The…

Where’s the beef?

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Fear and Loathing in Waynesboro column by Chris Graham [email protected] “The market is closed.” That’s the quick rendering from Gregg Doud, the chief economist at the Washington, D.C.,-based National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, regarding the access that U.S. beef producers currently have to the China market. Which is to say, none. This would seem to shed…

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…

That giant sucking sound

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Op-Ed by Sanford D. Horn A quarter of a million dollars. Let’s look at that figure in numerals – $250,000. That is the salary, before benefits, the Alexandria School Board has awarded Dr. Morton Sherman to become the new schools superintendent – effective Aug. 15. Effective Aug. 15? Dr. Sherman will be on the job…

A Generation of Wimps

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Dull Ache column by W.R. Marshall “There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all…