The Valley Responds: Life is an adventure

Crystal Graham

(This is the fourth installment in a six-part series on The Valley Responds, an effort that links the Shenandoah Valley with residents of Long Beach, Miss.)   To the average person, a sunflower growing by the roadside isn’t anything unusual. Marsha Allen, however, found it strange. Because the bright yellow sunflower had risen among the…

The Valley Responds: Rebuilding their home, lives

Crystal Graham

(This is the third installment in a six-part series on The Valley Responds, an effort that links the Shenandoah Valley with residents of Long Beach, Miss.)   Running alongside Highway 90, with breathtaking views of the Gulf Coast, is a narrow driveway leading to 629 Scenic Drive. One can imagine that this was the kind…

The Valley Responds: A Halloween to remember

Crystal Graham

(This is the second installment in a six-part series on The Valley Responds, an effort that links the Shenandoah Valley with residents of Long Beach, Miss.)   In Long Beach, Miss., children celebrated Halloween just like most children here in Virginia. At school, the children were outside getting their faces painted – with witches and…

Power to the people?

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham Republican Party gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore wants to give Virginia voters the final say-so when it comes to tax increases. “Taxation is the most basic relationship between a people and its government. I trust the people to make decisions on whether they want to pay more in taxes or less in…

The Valley Responds: Impressions of Long Beach

Crystal Graham

(This is the first installment in a six-part series on The Valley Responds, an effort that links the Shenandoah Valley with residents of Long Beach, Miss.)   Impressions of Long Beach: 2005 A boat. Hundreds of feet from the Gulf Coast. Cars crumpled and littered along streets like paper along the highway. In the distance,…

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…

Liberal use of the L-word

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham   To say that the Jerry Kilgore campaign is efforting to paint Kilgore’s Democratic Party rival Tim Kaine as a liberal would be to understate things by quite a bit. Virginians can hardly turn on their television or radio these days without seeing or hearing the L-word in reference to Kaine,…

The man who stopped the Unabomber

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham David Kaczynski didn’t believe for a second that his brother, Ted, could have been the man known to the world as the Unabomber. “My initial reaction was, ‘Well, Ted’s never been violent. I can’t imagine him harming other people like this,’ ” said Kaczynski, whose wife, Linda, confronted him…

Staunton races heating up

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham Constitutional-office races are generally afterthoughts – if they’re even given that much thought. At best you’ll see a heated race when a long-time revenue commissioner or sheriff or treasurer decides to retire – but even then, the issues, such as they are, come down to ones of personality. Which is why…