Education: How many children left behind?

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Twenty, twenty-five, close to thirty percent of students who start the ninth grade in the Shenandoah Valley aren’t graduating high school in four years, according to figures released by the State Department of Education on Wednesday. But are the numbers an accurate reflection of how many children are…

Harrisonburg: Annual relief sale a big success

Chris Graham

Story by Jim Bishop Economic woes apparently took a back seat to spectacular weather that helped draw an enthusiastic crowd of nearly 10,000 to the 42nd annual Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale held Oct. 3-4 at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds. This year’s sale raised approximately $307,638 in total receipts for Mennonite Central Committee. This does not…

Local Politics: Are we all losing our minds?

Chris Graham

Column by Chris Graham [email protected] Dinah Gottschalk is a volunteer in the Waynesboro Democratic Committee. She’s a committed Democrat, a lifelong Democrat, and she’s been working hard this campaign season at the local Waynesboro Dems election headquarters in Willow Oak Plaza with me and dozens of other Waynesboro and Augusta County Democrats. She was, to…

Harrisonburg: Republicans for Warner

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] The press release billed the event as being the launch of something to be called Virginians for Warner, and let us know that former Republican state senator John Chichester was going to be tagging along with his friend from across the aisle. It didn’t say anything about the gaggle of…

College Basketball: Alexander new in analyst chair on UVa. hoops broadcasts

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Waynesboro native and former UVa. star Cory Alexander will join new play-by-play man Dave Koehn as the color analyst on Virginia men’s basketball radio broadcasts this fall. Alexander replaces long-time analyst Jim Hobgood, who had filled the role alongside former play-by-play announcer Mac McDonald for the past 12 seasons. The…

Local Politics: A view of the ’08 election from BRCC

Chris Graham

Story by Riley Murray blueridgedata.blogspot.com In the swing state of Virginia, the deadline of Oct. 6 for voter registration is fast approaching. Across Virginia, voter registration efforts are breaking records. With the race for the White House entering its last full month, the focus is on the Shenandoah Valley region. This rural region, in the…

Business and Economy: Let ’em go under?

Contributors

Column by Chris Graham [email protected] To my surprise, that’s what I’m hearing friends on both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle say about the proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout. “If it was your business that was failing, they wouldn’t bail you out,” one friend who is a Downtown Waynesboro business owner told…

Virginia Politics: Undecided in Sixth?

Chris Graham

Column by Chris Graham [email protected] In the absence of hard numbers in the form of updated polling data to break down, it’s hard to get a handle on the Sixth District congressional race beyond the rendering now six weeks old that has Republican incumbent Bob Goodlatte comfortably ahead. Which makes our completely unscientific and unverifiable…

Local Theater: Unraveling the Drood mystery

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Many Charles Dickens fans just assume that it was supposed to be John Jasper who would turn out to be the murderer at the end of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Everything seems to point back to Jasper, most notably his affections for Rosa Bud, Drood’s fiancee, though a small…

Patricia Bell: Make sure you’re registered

Contributors

Letter from Patricia Bell, Waynesboro Regardless of your political inclinations, you marginalize yourself if you do not register to vote. Take responsibility for yourself and your community by registering to vote before the deadline. Only those who are registered can participate, and voter registration closes in Virginia 29 days before the November election. It is…