Augusta County Sheriff’s Office goes green

Contributors

The Augusta County Sheriff’s office announced this week the conversion of eight Ford Crown Victoria police cruisers currently in their fleet to propane autogas. Conversions are being made through funding from the Virginia Department of Mines Minerals and Energy as well as the United States Department of Energy. Grant funding is managed by Virginia Clean…

ACLU encourages non-disruptive protests at Va. high school

Contributors

The ACLU of Virginia has informed school officials at Colonial Forge High School in Stafford County that they must allow students to wear “Free Banana Man” t-shirts to protest the suspension of a fellow student who sprinted around the football field wearing a banana costume last Friday night. The student, Bryan Thompson, apparently did not…

McDonnell announces local-government task force

Contributors

Gov. Bob McDonnell announced this week the creation of the Governor’s Task Force for Local Government Mandate Review.  The five-member Task Force is a result of legislation introduced during the 2011 General Assembly session by Sen. Steve Newman (R-Bedford County) to review state mandates imposed on localities and to recommend temporary suspension or permanent repeal…

Solar array at EMU exceeds output expectations

Contributors

Judging by its performance over the past 10 months, the solar energy system at Eastern Mennonite University will exceed the annual guaranteed power production by 12 percent, according to officials at Secure Futures, the company that owns and operates the system at EMU. Secure Futures guaranteed an annual output of 126,783 kilowatt hours of electricity…

Local Food Hub announces 2011 Community Food Award winners

Contributors

Local Food Hub announced the winners of the 2011 Community Food Awards at an event co-sponsored by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the City of Charlottesville, and Albemarle and Nelson counties. “A Celebration of Growth, Expansion and Success” marked the completion of Local Food Hub’s second year of operation and featured remarks…

Vision 2020 announces board

Chris Graham

Creating a shared, unified vision for the future of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County has been an on-going process for the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce and hundreds of community leaders. Since 2009, three leadership workshops or forums have been held every six months, Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce members have been surveyed to collect the business community’s…

Radtke claims foul on debate snub

Contributors

Republican Senate-nomination candidate Jamie Radtke is raising issue with criteria established by the Virginia Associated Press Managing Editors and the Virginia Capital Correspondents Association for a Senate debate scheduled for December. Candidates must average 15 percent or better in published non-candidate polls and have raised at least 20 percent as much money as their party’s…

State: Record international tourism spending in 2010

Contributors

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell announced today that tourism spending by overseas travelers in Virginia increased by more than 12 percent in 2010. New figures released by Capital Region USA show international tourism spending was a record $321 million in 2010, up $35 million from 2009. Additionally, Virginia’s efforts to market to visitors from Canada are…