Saxman trying to help McCain in his uphill presidential battle

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Chris Saxman sees the political battle up ahead as “an uphill sled.” But the Shenandoah Valley legislator isn’t one to shy away from a fight. And no, I’m not talking here about his own dalliance with a run at the Republican Senate nomination in 2008. “John McCain is an American…

Mad About U Hall

Chris Graham

Mad About U: Four Decades of Basketball at University Hall By Chris Graham and Patrick Hite The following is an excerpt from Mad About U: Four Decades of Basketball at University Hall, a book on the history of University of Virginia basketball at University Hall, which closed in 2006. The book was published in 2006…

Join the ‘Jane Austen Book Club’ today!

Carl Larsen

Carly at the Movies column by Carl Larsen The leaves begin to fall to earth. The air turns crisp. ‘Tis time for a deluge of Relationship Movies – our autumnal harvest of Sensitive Young People getting their hearts stomped on, valiantly facing unspeakable angst, revealing their innermost secrets, and in the end finding their One…

Is the Valley safer?

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., were a wakeup call for those involved in the emergency-services community in the Shenandoah Valley. “The big thing that came out of 9/11 was the thought that, hey, we’ve got to look at our policies and…

The battle for the heart and soul of the GOP

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham   For a brief moment or two after the 2006 midterm elections, it had seemed that the Republican Party was perhaps going off its ideological moorings. The talk was reaching the level of near-clamor regarding how the GOP was going to have to consider retreating from the right-wing conservative…

Declaration of (public broadcast) independence

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham It’s spring, which means it’s probably time for Congress to threaten to cut funding for public broadcasting. A move by a congressional subcommittee to slash funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that was reversed last week by the House Appropriations Committee had people again discussing the merits of taxpayer funding…

Grappling with Attitude: Virginia promoter talks about changes in industry

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham It used to be easier for Travis Bradshaw to draw a few hundred fans to his Vanguard Championship Wrestling shows. “The whole business changed after The Attitude era,” said Bradshaw, whose Smithfield-based promotion runs shows across the Commonwealth. “Kayfabe got killed, and wrestling got a bad reputation. That made it harder…