Adjournment

Chris Graham

General Assembly Report column by Del. Ben Cline The adjournment of the 2008 General Assembly session came five days later than planned, but like all good things, it was worth waiting for. As I wrote last week, the session was extended by a few days to give our negotiators a little more time to work out the differences…

Center worries about long-term impact of improvement schedule on 81

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] The short-term worry is about a planned seven-mile improvement project on Interstate 81 in Rockbridge County. The longer-term worry is about the rest of the 325 miles of I-81 in Western Virginia. “That’s the biggest concern that I have – because this seven-mile project, while it is overly broad, and…

Brain-injury recovery at a crossroads

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Fifty-four hundred people. In five counties. That’s a lot of people recovering from brain injuries in the Central Shenandoah Valley. “Our primary purpose is to help survivors of brain injury get back to their lives before they suffered their injury,” said Michelle Witt, the executive director of the Harrisonburg-based Crossroads…

Breaking down the 24th Senate race

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham He had to fend off perhaps the fight of his political life in June with a party-primary challenge from Rockbridge County businessman Scott Sayre. With the change of seasons from summer to fall, 24th District Republican Sen. Emmett Hanger would seem to have if not the second-biggest fight of…

Candidate forum in Vesuvius next week

Chris Graham

Item by Chris Graham The Vesuvius Community Association is hosting its 13th annual Candidate Forum at the Vesuvius Community Center next week. The forum will be held on Monday at 7 p.m. Among the candidates for public office invited to attending include candidates for office in Rockbridge County, candidates for the Riverheads District seat on…

Local GOP chairs endorse Hanger

Chris Graham

Item by Chris Graham It’s official – Emmett Hanger has received the formal endorsement of local Republican Party leaders in Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County in his bid for re-election in the 24th Senate District this November. “We would like to congratulate you on your victory in the primary this past June. As the Republican…

Defining Dems III

David Cox

Column by David Cox The nation is in one of its periodic political shifts. As FDR inaugurated the party of the New Deal, which evaporated under the pressures of the Vietnam War and social turmoil, and as Ronald Reagan brought “a new day in America” that now darkens amidst the Iraq war and administrative cynicism,…