Peering into the Crystal Ball …

Chris Graham

Winners and Losers column by Chris Graham [email protected] WINNER: Virginia baseball wins College World Series It has to happen eventually, doesn’t it? Brian O’Connor has a pitching staff capable of shutting down anybody. This year he gets the offense to pick things up when the pitching has issues. ASCENDING: JMU men’s basketball, UR football HOLDING…

The People v. Rick Krial: Staunton obscenity case has national attention

Chris Graham

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…

Robertson taking no prisoners in obscenity prosecution

Chris Graham

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?…

Obscenity v. The First Amendment: Why the prosecution of X-rated films affects books

Chris Graham

Story by Matthew Warner What’s so horrible about porn other than the poor quality of most of it? And why should you care? ‘LITERARY OBSCENITY’ Watch out, you writers and purveyors of erotic horror and explicit romance. The folks here in my Bible Belt city of Staunton, Virginia, care quite a bit. Last summer, when…

Big fish in a small media-market pond: These broadcast mainstays in Valley, Charlottesville aren’t going anywhere anytime soon

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] When you’re a TV weatherman, a trip to the local burger place can be a challenge not unlike the 10K races that Eric Pritchett runs when he’s not standing in front of a television screen telling us what Mother Nature has in store for us tomorrow. “What’s it going to…

Caged fury: Inside the rough and ready world of MMA

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Amid a backdrop of men of various sizes and numbers of tattoos alternatively kicking and punching the air and occasionally a trainer wielding oversized protective gloves, the almost preternatural calm of Tyler Moyer stood out to me. At least what I was reading was calm. I soon found out that…

The more downtowns change, the more they stay the same

Chris Graham

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…