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Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Let’s say you’re a law-enforcement investigator raiding a cockfight in Virginia. “You could have 100 people there, and 50 of them have entered roosters in the derby,” said John Goodwin, the manager of animal-fighting issues for the Humane Society of the United States, setting the scene for us.
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General Assembly Report by Rob Bell On Wednesday, part-time legislators from across Virginia gathered for the new session of the General Assembly. After moving in to our motels and apartments, we all came back to Thomas Jefferson’s historic State Capitol to be sworn in and to hear Gov. Tim Kaine’s State of the Commonwealth address.
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General Assembly Report column by Del. Ben Cline With the bang of the speaker’s gavel at noon last Wednesday, the 2008 session of the Virginia General Assembly began. It’s fitting that the bang of a gavel sounds a lot like the firing of a starter’s pistol in a track race. In Virginia, the legislative session…
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Op-Ed by Kim Sandum Just before Christmas, some of the people I work with sued the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration over plans to expand I-81. It needed to be done. The story of I-81 is a cautionary tale for the rest of Virginia about a state agency that too often…
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Story by Chris Graham [email protected] The subject isn’t evolution, and the barristers aren’t William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow. But the upcoming trial of a Staunton adult-video store owner on obscenity charges has some of that Scopes Monkey Trial flavor to it. Doesn’t it? I mean, on the one side, you have the fundamentalists who…
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Story by Chris Graham [email protected] “Inga.” It was the big to-do back in 1968 when it was released in America. “Filmed entirely in Sweden,” a snapshot on movietime.com relates, “‘Inga’ brims with a European sensuality and eroticism that shocked American audiences upon its release in 1968.” That about sums it up right there, doesn’t it?…
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Story by Chris Graham [email protected] It wasn’t that there was much left downtown, but Phil Lemons knew that whatever traffic there had been before the West End took off with the opening of Wal-Mart in Waynesboro in 2003 was pretty much going, going, gone. “Having experienced it in other towns, whenever a shopping center comes…
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Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Somebody asked Don Morris to sign a petition protesting the pending arrival of Wal-Mart in Waynesboro six years ago. That the longtime Downtown Waynesboro business owner didn’t is an indication of where his thoughts are on economic-development issues. “That to me was a no-brainer. Staunton had a Wal-Mart, Staunton had…
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Winners and Losers column by Chris Graham [email protected] WINNER: Virginia Tech sports The men’s basketball team qualifies for the NCAA Tournament. Men’s soccer goes to the Final Four. The football team ends the part of the season that matters ranked #3 in the BCS. The first two are probably the most important. Tech is not…
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Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Kansas City strip steaks and sunflower seeds at Richmond International Raceway. Tell me what this has to do with Virginia Tech football again? “We’re already starting to light the grills up – so we’re confident on the staff here at Richmond International Raceway,” said Doug Fritz, the president of RIR…
We don’t take press releases or official statements as the final word. Digging in to get the whole story takes time and resources.