The AFP Blog – Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009

Chris Graham

– Stuarts Draft man charged with murder for hire, Thursday, 6 p.m. – Miss America 2008 to speak at JMU on eating disorders, Thursday, 5:50 p.m. – Family Foundation praises passage of marriage curriculum bill, Thursday, 5:50 p.m. – White House announces formation of faith-based partnerships office, Thursday, 5:50 p.m. – Wagner picks up several…

The AFP Blog – Weekend of Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2009

Chris Graham

– Singletary’s #44 to be retired, Saturday, 7:10 p.m. – President Obama’s weekly address, Saturday, 8:04 a.m. – Gannett, Media General slump deepens, Friday, 12:55 p.m. – Free-speech organizations offer support to Gloucester 40, Friday, 12:55 p.m. – Statement from Council of Economic Advisors chair Christina Romer on the fourth quarter 2008 advance GDP estimate,…

Wait continues on ED director

Chris Graham

Sometime this spring – that’s the time frame for having a new economic-development director on board in Waynesboro. “We’ve developed a recruitment profile, and we’re going ahead with advertising after the holidays,” assistant city manager Jim Shaw told me this week, laying out the plan for filling the position left vacant by the departure of…

Jim Bishop | The pause that refreshes: Keeping pace with the human race

Jim Bishop

2008 is now another chapter in life’s annals. Seems like just yesterday, I opened my 2008 Dave Barry desk calendar and put it in the space reserved for such important data/date managers on the kitchen counter. Now, I’m about to discard (actually, recycle) the plastic housing that held the sacred writ – and helped jumpstart…

Drew Richardson | The importance of good science in the Obama administration

Chris Graham

Which is President-elect Obama’s most important personnel appointment? Secretary of State? Attorney General? Secretary of the Treasury? The answer is none of them – not even close. I adamantly believe that distinction goes to his Presidential Science Advisor. You ask, “We are in the midst of two wars and our economy is crumbling, and you’re…

Steven Sisson | Don’t just stand there. Give ‘im a pencil

Chris Graham

In 2003, the Blue Dog first met Congressman Virgil Goode at the Greene County Strawberry Festival. While shaking hands and passing-out Sisson for Senate campaign literature, I heard a high-pitched shrilled voice calling-out … “Steeeveee Sissssson … anti-tax Democrat fer State Senate!” Even though I had never met him, I knew the distinct voice of…

Bruce Kesler: Redistribute this!

Contributors

Column by Bruce Kesler Barack Obama’s bluntly answered Joe the Plumber that we should have more redistribution from the well-off to “spread the wealth around.” Yet, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States has the most progressive income tax and employee Social Security taxes in the developed world….

Bruce Kesler: The Fannie-ization of Health Care

Contributors

Column by Bruce Kesler Health care could be the next Fannie Mae-type disaster. Similar forces are at work. Anxieties over the financial meltdown may increase Democrats’ power to further their statist agenda via appeals that exaggerate need and rights among the poor and feed greed by many of the rest of us. The forces worked…