Del. Cline reports on the first week of ’08 GA session

Chris Graham

General Assembly Report column by Del. Ben Cline With the bang of the speaker’s gavel at noon last Wednesday, the 2008 session of the Virginia General Assembly began. It’s fitting that the bang of a gavel sounds a lot like the firing of a starter’s pistol in a track race. In Virginia, the legislative session…

Warner addresses students at JMU

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] You don’t often hear the term radical associated with people in the political center. Mark Warner wants to get you thinking of moderates as radicals anyway. “This is driven by people who are saying, We’re tired of partisanship. We want to get things fixed. They know in their gut that…

‘Radical centrist coalition’

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] I don’t know how radical someone proclaiming himself to be a centrist can possibly be. Mark Warner is definitely trailblazin’ on a new path here. “Come January of ’09, we’re going to have a new president, obviously. I hope that it’s a Democrat, but regardless, that new president is going…

Robertson taking no prisoners in obscenity prosecution

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] “Inga.” It was the big to-do back in 1968 when it was released in America. “Filmed entirely in Sweden,” a snapshot on movietime.com relates, “‘Inga’ brims with a European sensuality and eroticism that shocked American audiences upon its release in 1968.” That about sums it up right there, doesn’t it?…

Downtown vs. The West End: Is economic development a zero-sum game?

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] It wasn’t that there was much left downtown, but Phil Lemons knew that whatever traffic there had been before the West End took off with the opening of Wal-Mart in Waynesboro in 2003 was pretty much going, going, gone. “Having experienced it in other towns, whenever a shopping center comes…

Reaching out to victims of crisis

Jim Bishop

Story by Jim Bishop Brenda C. Fairweather wanted to respond in some way to a hostage crisis in Russia in which more than 300 civilians eventually lost their lives. On Sept. 1, 2004, terrorists linked to the Chechen independence struggle took more than 1,200 people hostage in a school in the town of Beslan. Shootings…

The need for a comprehensive energy policy

Chris Graham

Column by Bob Goodlatte Energy is vital to every sector of the U.S. economy, including homes, small businesses and industries. Energy powers computers, appliances, technology and the Internet and fuels transportation and farming processes. When energy supplies are tight, families and businesses are severely impacted by the resulting increase in energy costs.

Much-needed immigration reforms

Chris Graham

Column by Bob Goodlatte The United States of America is a nation of immigrants. Legal immigration has blessed our nation with talent, diversity, and a commitment to freedom. However, we are also a nation of laws. Illegal immigration mocks our system of justice and costs our taxpayers billions of dollars every year, while taking jobs from law-abiding…