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House Democrats offered measured reactions to Gov. Bob McDonnell’s budget proposal as outlined during the Joint Finance Committee meeting Monday morning. “This is the first opportunity we’ve had to see the complete budget and not just the pieces that have been released by the governor over the past few weeks. This budget deserves a thorough…
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Gov. Bob McDonnell unveiled his two-year budget for fiscal years 2013 and 2014, as well as his amendments to the concluding fiscal-year 2012 budget, in a speech to the Joint Money Committees of the General Assembly this morning in Richmond. The governor’s budget includes the greatest employer funding of the Virginia Retirement System in state…
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The Harrisonburg Department of Public Transportation has entered into an agreement with Howard Shockey & Sons, Inc. of Winchester to design and build a new home base for the city’s growing infrastructure needs. HDPT’s Administration & Maintenance facility will be located on a 13-acre site at the intersection of East Washington Street and Vine Street….
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James Madison University is the top master’s-level institution in the country in the number of students who participate in short-term study-abroad programs, according to a report released by the Institute of International Education. The “Open Doors 2011” report, which covers the 2009-10 academic year, also reveals that JMU ranked second in the nation in total…
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Not a lot makes sense with the politicians these days. And no, I’m not ranting about how Congress is talking about raising taxes on working-class and middle-class families at the risk of pushing the economy back into another recession. Looking here at my hometown of Waynesboro, where the City Council suddenly wants accountability from its…
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Jim Moran was a critic of the Iraq war when being a critic of the Iraq war was not only not cool, but was considered by more than a few to be treasonous. The Virginia Democratic congressman spoke Thursday on the day that the U.S. officially declared the end to the military action that began…
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After several years of focusing on his family, small-business owner and CFO of Kissito Healthcare, Sam Rasoul, has decided to run for mayor of Roanoke. Raised in the Roanoke Valley, Rasoul would like to contribute more to an area that has blessed him with so much. “We are putting the campaign together now, and we…
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Many of Virginia’s rural communities still lack access to high-speed wireless Internet service, including right here in the Shenandoah Valley and parts of western and southwestern Virginia. While our political leaders continue to discuss, debate, and attempt to reach a workable solution on how to create more quality jobs and jumpstart our economy, it is…
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Eastern Mennonite University professor of mission Linford Stutzman will lead a cross-cultural program via boat around the eastern Mediterranean in May 2012. The group will explore Athens, Ephesus, Corinth and many other sites of New Testament churches, usually traveling as the apostle Paul did in the Book of Acts. The trip, called Christian Movement in…
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Recently I performed a magic show for children at Barnes and Noble in Reston as part of a fundraiser for a local preschool. Part of the success of performing magic is dependent upon the ability of the magician to divert the attention of the audience from what is going on to the illusion of what…
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