The People v. Rick Krial: Staunton obscenity case has national attention

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] The subject isn’t evolution, and the barristers aren’t William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow. But the upcoming trial of a Staunton adult-video store owner on obscenity charges has some of that Scopes Monkey Trial flavor to it. Doesn’t it? I mean, on the one side, you have the fundamentalists who…

Obscenity v. The First Amendment: Why the prosecution of X-rated films affects books

Chris Graham

Story by Matthew Warner What’s so horrible about porn other than the poor quality of most of it? And why should you care? ‘LITERARY OBSCENITY’ Watch out, you writers and purveyors of erotic horror and explicit romance. The folks here in my Bible Belt city of Staunton, Virginia, care quite a bit. Last summer, when…

Caged fury: Inside the rough and ready world of MMA

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Amid a backdrop of men of various sizes and numbers of tattoos alternatively kicking and punching the air and occasionally a trainer wielding oversized protective gloves, the almost preternatural calm of Tyler Moyer stood out to me. At least what I was reading was calm. I soon found out that…

Questions about Vick case still linger for me

Chris Graham

Best Seat in the House by Chris Graham [email protected] Two questions have my attention right now regarding Michael Vick. One, was 23 months enough for leading a dogfighting ring and personally participating in the executions of several dogs that had been deemed not up to standards to complete in the bloodsport? Two, is 23 months going to…

Mad About U Hall

Chris Graham

Mad About U: Four Decades of Basketball at University Hall By Chris Graham and Patrick Hite The following is an excerpt from Mad About U: Four Decades of Basketball at University Hall, a book on the history of University of Virginia basketball at University Hall, which closed in 2006. The book was published in 2006…

Eleven, down to two

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Eleven – yes, eleven – people want to be the new clerk of court in Rockingham County. But the race for the $123,000-a-year job seems to be coming down to the two major-party nominees. “I really think it’s going to be a two-person race,” Bridgewater College history and political-science professor…