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…

Bridging the race divide?

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham   Daryl Davis has plenty of detractors – people who question his motives for wanting to meet with white supremacists, who wonder why an African-American man would of his own volition attend rallies of the Ku Klux Klan, who outright doubt his stories of conversions of racial separatists as…

Virginia Tech’s ACC booster

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham The Big East was going up in flames around them, but Virginia Tech officials knew their bird, as it were, wasn’t cooked quite yet. Because they had a key ally in the moves being orchestrated by the Atlantic Coast Conference to raid the Big East for new members. “The…

Catholicism and the death penalty

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham The death penalty has become the central issue in the 2005 Virginia governor’s race – and by extension, so has the view of the Catholic church toward the death penalty. Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Tim Kaine, a Catholic, has been under fire since the outset of his race against Republican Jerry…