Two arrested in Staunton murder

AFP

Two arrests have been made in the murder of a 20-year-old Staunton man whose body was found in Rockingham County last month. Brian P. Bingham, 21, and Justin M. Bindel, 20, were arrested in Jacksonville, Fla., on Friday, May 15, during a traffic stop, according to a news release issued Monday morning by the Rockingham…

And then there were two – Bowerbank suspends LG campaign

Chris Graham

I’m not sure what to make of the news that Jon Bowerbank has decided to drop out of the race for the Democratic Party lieutenant-governor nomination. My first instinct is to say I’m surprised given that the most recent public polls had in the area of 70 percent of the expected June 9 primary electorate…

More questions on taxes

Chris Graham

It might help us as we try to make sense of the whole Tax Increase in Waynesboro That Wasn’t, At Least for Frank Lucente, to look at how it could be that aggregate assessed property values could be up 5 percent over the past two years even as people like Lucente are seeing their property…

Not paying more taxes, and still complaining about it

AFP

“This is definitely no time,” said Stewart Hall of 891 Kent Road at Monday’s public hearing on the city tax rate, “to tighten the financial noose with further increases in taxes and fees.” Hall must have been speaking metaphorically, because his taxes and fees will be heading in opposite direction of an increase. According to…

‘I never really gave up’

Chris Graham

I could imagine L.D. Cox as the gregarious 19-year-old who helped deliver the first atomic bomb across the Pacific. “Don’t shoot!” he said in mock surrender as he made his way across the drill field at Fishburne Military School on a sunny late-March afternoon, passing a cannon that was going to be fired a little…

‘Liberal media’ sides with GOP … again

Chris Graham

The local “liberal media” at the News Leader is at it again, this time giving column space to local Republican legislators Chris Saxman, Ben Cline and Steve Landes to defend themselves from the controversy over their nonsensical party-line vote blocking the receipt of federal stimulus money to expand unemployment benefits for the tens of thousands…

A line in the sand

Chris Graham

The brouhaha that fired up over the weekend concerning reaction in the local blogosphere to my endorsement of Terry McAuliffe for governor might pay some dividends for local Democrats long term. In fact I know it will, based on reactions to a comment that I posted in a thread on the AFP yesterday in response…