The Smart Beginnings mission

Chris Graham

   Staff Report News tips: [email protected] The Staunton, Augusta County, and Waynesboro Locality Team for Smart Beginnings Coalition of the Shenandoah Valley will be introducing its mission and local plans at a breakfast meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 26, at the Augusta Health Community Care Building in Fishersville from 8:30-10 a.m. “We look forward to introducing…

Local officials back jobs program

AFP

   Staff Report News tips: [email protected] As U.S. mayors gathered in Washington this week to meet with the Obama administration about unemployment and the economy, Virginia local government officials and community leaders are calling for the creation of a Community Jobs program. The jobs program would provide funding to localities across the country to create…

Deeds: More cuts will come

Chris Graham

   Column by Sen. Creigh Deeds www.creighdeeds.com The 2010 session of the General Assembly is now almost two weeks old and answers to the issues that we face remain distant. This year’s session of the General Assembly features many new members and over 2000 bills and resolutions are being discussed. The debates are somewhat subdued…

Local authors forum in Harrisonburg

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Staff Report News tips: [email protected] The community is invited to a gathering of local authors and their books on Saturday, Jan. 23 at 1 p.m. at the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society, 382 High St., Dayton. Following a discussion of each book, there will be a book signing. Refreshments will be served. The event is free and…

Challenges ahead for state lawmakers

Chris Graham

  Column by State Sen. Creigh Deeds www.creighdeeds.com The General Assembly convened on Jan. 13. Twenty new members of the House of Delegates were sworn in, reflecting in large part the Republican sweep of the elections in November. Two new senators were sworn in, both vacancies created by the November election. Sen. Ken Stolle from…

Legislating in troubled times

Ken Plum

   Column by State Del. Ken Plum www.kenplum.com Thomas Jefferson referred to the orderly transfer of power in government as a “bloodless revolution.” Such a revolution occurred in Mr. Jefferson’s Virginia last week as Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine ended his constitutionally-limited one term, and former delegate and Attorney General Robert McDonnell took the oath…

A story of survival

AFP

BRCC group gets out of Haiti Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Mass chaos. People running through the streets ripping their clothes off. “People thought it was the apocalypse, that it was the end of the world,” remembers Rebecca Evans, an accounting professor at Blue Ridge Community College, who led a group of students and faculty…

EMU pays tribute to MLK

AFP

   Staff Report EMU news: www.emu.edu When asked a number of times in the past to speak about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Luke A. Hartman declined. But he accepted an invitation to speak in a chapel service Friday, Jan. 15, at Eastern Mennonite University to open several days of activities to recognize and pay…

Artisans Center to host craft leadership event

AFP

   Staff Report News tips: [email protected] The Artisans Center of Virginia has announced plans to form a Statewide Leadership Council for Craft, dedicated to coordinating artisan efforts from all areas of the state. The ACV plans to convene the first meeting of the leadership council at its biannual Virginia Craft Conference and Business Institute on…

Job creation important to Fifth

Chris Graham

   Column by Tom Perriello www.perriello.house.gov My top priority is supporting job creation in Southside and Central Virginia, and I believe one key part of this will be putting our area at the forefront of the clean energy economy. In the next few decades, we will see a huge boom of energy-related advanced manufacturing, agriculture,…