Is there a plan post-Commonwealth Center? Of course there isn’t

Chris Graham

The state is closing the Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents as part of a strategy to shift mental-health care for children to the private sector and local community services boards. OK. Except that the closing is the result of the state budget shortfall. Got it. I think we have our real motivation right there.

Finally, early voting in Virginia?

AFP

Gov. Tim Kaine is backing legislation that would allow for no-excuse, in-person absentee voting in Virginia. Patroned by State Sen. Janet Howell, D-Reston, and State Del. Rosalyn Dance, D-Petersburg, the legislation, styled SB 810, would allow Virginia voters to cast absentee ballots in person at their local registrar’s office during the 45-day absentee voting period…

The saga of the Downtown Wall

Chris Graham

If you’ve been to Downtown Waynesboro at any time in the past eight months, you’ve probably wondered to yourself. What the … why don’t they … who’s responsible for … Funny thing, that. Everybody that I’ve talked to about the unfortunate landmark that is the Downtown Wall, as people have taken to calling it, is…

Edward R. Long | Global warming – man, or nature?

AFP

Both the new president and both sides of the aisle in the new Congress have been politically convinced, or see an opportunity for a government power play, that man’s carbon-dioxide emissions are the cause of global warming. But is man really responsible? More than 30,000 American scientists and engineers do not think man is the…

She’s Mom

AFP

From eight to four, she’s their mom, and they’re her little ones. “This is a family. I have a family at home, and I have a family here,” said Bev Roach, a third-grade teacher at Churchville Elementary School in Augusta County and the 2008 Augusta County Teacher of the Year.

Partisan Kaine

Chris Graham

Solve problems. Unify people. Results. This is the message that Republicans are in their own inimitable partisan way are saying will mark the death of the Virginia Democrat as Tim Kaine prepares to take over the Democratic National Committee. The last time I saw Kaine, two months ago in Staunton, in the afterglow of the…

Jim Bishop | Columnist (Almost) Gets Lump of Coal in Christmas Stocking

Jim Bishop

The Grinch came within an inch of ruining Christmas for my wife and me. I blame no one but myself. I’m embarrassed to give a public disclosure of this nightmare before Christmas, but if my grievous error spares at least one other person from a similar experience, it’s worth it. In retrospect, the timing was…

Jim Bishop | The pause that refreshes: Keeping pace with the human race

Jim Bishop

2008 is now another chapter in life’s annals. Seems like just yesterday, I opened my 2008 Dave Barry desk calendar and put it in the space reserved for such important data/date managers on the kitchen counter. Now, I’m about to discard (actually, recycle) the plastic housing that held the sacred writ – and helped jumpstart…