David Reynolds: Strong Mayors=Strong Cities

David Reynolds

Column by David Reynolds Last night, if you were able break away from the distant static of the presidential campaign, there was an opportunity to participate in another campaign, this one up close and civil. There was a forum held in Lexington to have the candidates for mayor and city council (all elected at large)…

Queen of the Queen City: Rita Wilson retiring after 16-plus years on Staunton City Council

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] She wasn’t trying to be Rosa Parks. “We were just tired of the separate-but-equal thing. Because it certainly wasn’t separate-but-equal,” said Rita Wilson, who is retiring from Staunton City Council on June 30 after 16-plus years on the job, and who a generation ago made her first foray into public…

Third-year conversion

AFP

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] It’s one thing to learn from a book or a lecturing professor. It’s another entirely to get your hands dirty learning something the hard way. Washington and Lee University wants to give its law students the experience of what it’s really like to do hands-on lawyering. “The idea is that…

House releases conservative budget

Chris Graham

General Assembly Report by Rob Bell With the worsening budget numbers, the House of Delegates released its biennial budget. Unlike the governor’s budget, the House budget does not cut $220 million in school construction and lottery money that was going to local schools. These cuts would have cost my four local school divisions over $3…

Our sixth week

Chris Graham

Column by Steve Landes We have now passed the midway point of the 2008 General Assembly session, commonly referred to as “crossover.” The House passed 616 of the 1,576 bills filed by delegates and the Senate approved 433 of the 795 bills filed by senators. Now, the House will spend the bulk of its time…

Budget numbers worsen

Chris Graham

General Assembly Report by Rob Bell One of the General Assembly’s biggest jobs in 2008 is to craft the two-year budget that will begin on July 1. This year, the economic slowdown – especially in the housing industry – has meant that revenue is $1.4 billion below projections. Although the overall budget is increasing slightly,…

EMU magazine wins prestigious award

Jim Bishop

Story by Jim Bishop Crossroads magazine at Eastern Mennonite University won a major award this year from the southeast district of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. Competing against dozens of magazines produced by larger institutions, Crossroads received a “special merit award” in the category of “magazine publishing improvement.” The other winners…

I-81 plans: A cautionary tale for all Virginians

Chris Graham

Op-Ed by Kim Sandum Just before Christmas, some of the people I work with sued the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration over plans to expand I-81. It needed to be done. The story of I-81 is a cautionary tale for the rest of Virginia about a state agency that too often…

Schultz earns endorsements

Chris Graham

Item by Chris Graham Last week it was The Washington Post endorsing Republican Jill Holtzman Vogel. This week it is The Loudoun Times-Mirror, The Clark Times-Courier and The Fauquier Times-Democrat endorsing Democrat Karen Schultz. The papers in an endorsement editorial published this week publicly backed Schultz in the race for the 27th Senate District seat…