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While recently shoveling aged horse manure around berry vines on my small organic farm to fertilize them, which gives me great pleasure, I thought about what I have learned about the community of the land by farming over the last two decades. I noticed how spreading brown gold–to which I add the green manure of…
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The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors approved a new bachelor of science in meteorology during its quarterly meeting on June 6. The new degree program, which will reside in the College of Natural Resources and Environment’s geography department, will prepare students for careers in meteorology and weather forecasting with a significant focus on geospatial information…
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Together these three items have served to ignite an explosion of civil unrest in Spain. Since May 15, thousands of frustrated Spaniards, many of them young, have taken to the streets in protest. Many of the protesters that have started to set up camps in major town squares across Spain are young, disenfranchised, and very…
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The leaders of the nation’s largest environmental groups today asked President Obama to create long-term relief for drivers at the pump by delivering the strongest fuel-efficiency and auto pollution standards for new vehicles currently under consideration. The administration will propose new fuel efficiency and auto pollution standards this September, with key decisions being made this…
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A request for a special-use permit that would allow a Texas-based energy company to drill for natural gas in Rockingham County is perhaps permanently on the table. Locals still need to arm themselves with knowledge of the process known as hydrofracture that companies use to extract natural gas from the ground and its long list…
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In my round of community meetings several months ago I found that the most-mentioned statewide official in Virginia was Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. As the third position on the ballot of statewide elected officials the position and the person occupying it have in the past received little attention. Few were the number of Virginians over…
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Eastern Mennonite University has been honored as a winner of the National Wildlife Federation’s annual competition “Chill Out: Climate Action on Campus.” This award program recognizes U.S. schools that are designing and implementing creative approaches to advance sustainability on campuses. EMU is one of six winning schools that were chosen from a national pool of…
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Twelve organizations concerned with free speech and the integrity of scientific inquiry on college campuses today asked the University of Virginia to protect academic freedom when it answers a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the American Tradition Institute Environmental Law Center and Robert Marshall, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. The…
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President Obama on Wednesday released a down-the-middle plan for dealing with the federal government’s deepening budget crisis. I meant the term down the middle to mean one thing – that it features some elements that appeal to the left and some that appeal to the right. But I full recognize that it can mean something…
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Gov. Bob McDonnell on Thursday ceremonially signed the first part of his Opportunity at Work legislative package, along with other economic development legislation, at a morning event at the Virginia Biotechnology Research Park in Richmond. The 10 measures are designed to help attract new businesses to Virginia and help existing businesses grow and expand. “The…
