Live Blog | Today is the day!

AFP

Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States at noon today. Chris Graham will report live from the Inauguration Day watch party that the AFP is cosponsoring in Waynesboro. Feel free to join in during the event and throughout the day with your thoughts and observations about the historic…

Today’s Agenda

AFP

Today is the day – the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States is today at noon. The Augusta Free Press is here in the Valley to bring you the reactions of locals to the historic swearing-in of Barack Obama. We’ll be reporting throughout the day from Waynesboro, Staunton, Harrisonburg and places in…

Sanford D. Horn | Kaine’s prison plan should be handcuffed

AFP

So Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine is interested in letting a few “good” prisoners out of the gray bar hotel 90 days early as a cost-cutting measure claiming they are “nonviolent offenders who have been model inmates” and were due for a 30-day early dismissal, according to an article written by Anthony Barkow of New York.

Lisa Schirch | The right to self-defense is not a strategy for peace

AFP

From an Israeli perspective, the cost in international outrage and Palestinian civilian lives of the current attacks on Gaza is worth the price of crushing Hamas’s firepower. The goal is seductive, and Israel will likely succeed in slowing the development of rockets by Hamas in the short term. But just like Israel’s siege of Lebanon…

Trying to make sense of the ’09 Dem governor’s race

Chris Graham

The race for the Democratic Party nomination to run for governor has come to look an awful lot like the race for the Dem nomination to run for the White House that resulted in Barack Obama’s historic victory in November. It started early – when Valley native son Creigh Deeds declared his candidacy for the…

Perriello on the job

AFP

It’s official – Tom Perriello is a member of Congress. Perriello took the oath of office during an opening ceremony in the House chamber of the United States Capitol Tuesday afternoon. Perriello also picked up a plum committee assignment – to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which has jurisdiction over waterways, bridges, roads and…

Steven Sisson | Don’t just stand there. Give ‘im a pencil

Chris Graham

In 2003, the Blue Dog first met Congressman Virgil Goode at the Greene County Strawberry Festival. While shaking hands and passing-out Sisson for Senate campaign literature, I heard a high-pitched shrilled voice calling-out … “Steeeveee Sissssson … anti-tax Democrat fer State Senate!” Even though I had never met him, I knew the distinct voice of…