Waynesboro-Charlottesville connector debuts

AFP

A fixed-route service connecting Waynesboro and Charlottesville began operations on Monday. The Shenandoah Express, a service of Virginia Regional Transit, will run three days a week – on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. Express users will be able to travel from Waynesboro to Charlottesville for 50 cents each way. The Express will connect with existing…

Gallup: Momentum shifting in generic ballot?

AFP

For the second time in three weeks the Gallup survey of voter preferences on a generic congressional ballot has Democrats and Republicans essentially in a dead heat. The most recent numbers, released on Monday, have Democrats with a narrow 46 percent-to-45 percent lead over Republicans. The report from Gallup notes a continued significant advantage for…

Tom Perriello: Focus on small business

AFP

Small businesses remain the backbone of our economy, and true economic recovery will come from rewarding the innovation and resilience of our local entrepreneurs. I have been fighting to shift the focus from bailing out big companies to investing in small business, and the tide is starting to turn towards a strategy of making, building,…

ACLU challenges limits in whistleblower law

Chris Graham

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union will present oral arguments in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals tomorrow in a lawsuit challenging the overreaching secrecy provisions of a federal whistleblower law that prevents the public from learning about serious allegations of fraud against the United States government. Complaints filed under the False Claims Act…

Ken Plum: Financial engineering

Ken Plum

After months of frantic work between the governor’s staff and the distilled spirits lobbyists, a plan to privatize Virginia’s alcoholic beverage sales has been announced. Read the plan at www.reform.virginia.gov. Who would have thought that the number one issue facing the Commonwealth was the sale of whiskey through state stores that has been the situation for…

Jim Bishop: On not despairing when life needs repairing

Jim Bishop

I saw it coming, but pretended it wasn’t happening. Eventually, the problem caught up with me. Technology – specifically, nearly-outdated technology – stopped me in my (recording) tracks, mid-sentence and mid-music selection. I went back and started over repeatedly over a two-day period and finally told myself, “Houston – or Harrisonburg – we’ve got a…

BC to honor three with induction into Hall of Fame

Chris Graham

Three stellar former Bridgewater College athletes have been selected for induction into the College’s Athletic Hall of Fame on Friday, Oct. 8, in the Kline Campus Center, as part of Homecoming activities. The inductees for 2010 are Mary Frances Heishman, ’66, of Dayton, Va.; Anthony Lawrence, ’90, of Chantilly, Va.; and Pattiann Dzikowicz Beach, ’91,…

State announces funding for prisoner re-entry

Chris Graham

Gov. Bob McDonnell on Friday announced initial funding for his strengthened prisoner re-entry program currently under development. Under the leadership of Banci Tewolde, appointed by the governor to serve as the state’s first prisoner re-entry coordinator, the Commonwealth has secured federal funding for three components of the governor’s comprehensive prisoner re-entry initiative. Virginia has been…

Voting changes in store in Waynesboro?

Chris Graham

On the horizon in Waynesboro – a fifth city voting ward and November city elections. Both could be among suggestions early next year from voter registrar Lisa Wooten. The talk about creating a fifth voting ward is being pushed by population growth in the city’s West End, especially in the area currently constituting Ward D….