JMU ranked 15th in preseason I-AA football poll

The James Madison University football squad is ranked 15th in The Sports Network/Fathead.com Top 25 Preseason Poll, announced on Monday by the news service. The poll is voted on by national media members and Football Championship Subdivision sports information directors. JMU ended its 2009 season with a four-game winning streak that pushed the Dukes’ final…

Ken Plum: Enforcing immigration laws

Ken Plum

With the wide publicity the Arizona law has received requiring police to question people if there is reason to suspect they are in the United States illegally, the Police Foundation distributed to state legislators the results of a study it had conducted on the issue. As the president of the Foundation explained in his transmittal…

VAE honors area’s teachers of the year

Contributors

The Valley Alliance for Education 2010 Annual Reception was held last night at Robert Plecker Workforce Center at Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave. The annual reception is held each year to honor grant winners as well as teacher of the year for Staunton, Augusta County and Waynesboro Public Schools. The audience that was…

Study: No health risks for private liquor sales

A new study from the Virginia Institute for Public Policy finds that privatizing Virginia’s ABC stores will have no effect on the number of alcohol-related health problems in the Commonwealth. The study, “Impaired Judgment: The Failure of Control States to Reduce Alcohol-Related Problems,” coauthored by George Mason economics professor Don Boudreaux and Julia Williams of…

David Cox: Dialogue, for a change

David Cox

Complex are the issues we face as nation and world, but rarely does anyone seem to engage in the intelligent, extended conversation that illuminates and brings minds together, rather than arousing and dividing. Such a rarity happened on Saturday in Hot Springs. I happened upon the Virginia Bar Association’s annual meeting. A friend suggested that…

John Castellaw: Listen to the military leadership on START

President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently signed the New Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START), a measure designed to mutually and verifiably reduce U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals. Specifically, it would reduce U.S. and Russian warheads by approximately one third and would continue and strengthen the verification regime that has allowed the inspections and…