Creigh Deeds: Session report

Creigh Deeds

The 2012 session of the General Assembly is moving by rapidly.  Deadlines for the submission of bills and budget amendments have long passed, and both houses of the Assembly are in full swing.  There were both good and bad signs of things to come this past week. On the hopeful side, Democrats and Republicans worked…

Healthy Families of the Blue Ridge, RMH Childcare Connection join to form RMH Family Connection

Contributors

Two RMH Community Health programs, RMH Childcare Connection and Healthy Families of the Blue Ridge, have joined to form RMH Family Connection. RMH Family Connection will serve a 10-county area in the Shenandoah Valley, from Rockbridge County north to Winchester. “We joined these programs to prevent duplication and to better coordinate the parenting services RMH…

VDOT releases revised sinkhole repair schedule

Chris Graham

Weather permitting, the Virginia Department of Transportation will resume work at the northbound Interstate 81 sinkhole site near the Augusta and Rockbridge County line. The left northbound travel lane will close at 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 19 on Interstate 81 for sinkhole repairs at mile marker 212.3 near the Augusta and Rockbridge County line….

McDonnell launches teacher performance-pay initiative

Chris Graham

Gov. Bob McDonnell has invited 57 school divisions that may have difficulty attracting, retaining and rewarding experienced, fully licensed teachers to participate in his Virginia Performance-Pay Incentives initiative for hard-to-staff schools. The initiative — which was approved by the 2011 General Assembly — is a centerpiece of McDonnell’s “Opportunity to Learn” education-reform agenda. It provides…

Morris, WHS athletics director, passes

Chris Graham

What I’ll remember about longtime Waynesboro High School athletics director Mel Morris, who passed away Friday night from an apparent heart attack, was seeing him in the stands at WHS football games every Friday night in the 2009 season. AugustaFreePress.com did live Internet broadcasts of WHS football in ’09, and Jerry Carter and I traveled…

The Valley’s maverick Republican: Hanger gears up for State Senate re-election run

Chris Graham

It hasn’t been that long since the word “maverick” triggered the next drink in the drinking game. John McCain, the original GOP maverick, has since made a hard turn to the far right, judging his political survival to be of more import than his political legacy. The maverick is a dying breed in the Republican…

David Reynolds: Consolidation

David Reynolds

That’s a big word. And depending upon where you sit, you will take a different stand. When consolidation takes place in the private sector, from airlines to movies, we cheer. However, when we attempt to consolidate operations and services in the public sector that is an entirely different story, we object. Why? Don’t we know,…

Moving forward in Riverheads

Chris Graham

Ground was broken on the new Riverheads fire and rescue station in August a couple of weeks before all hell started to break loose on the future of the whole volunteer fire-rescue concept that has served Augusta County for decades. Construction crews were busy at the site Wednesday morning with quite visible signs of progress…