Local community-college student earns First Team honors

Item by Chris Graham [email protected] A Batesville native has been named to the All-USA Community College First Team by USA Today, the American Association of Community Colleges and Phi Theta Kappa, the national honor society for two-year college students. Jacob Neal is one of 10 students being honored today as a member of Virginia’s First…

We Are All Hokies: Vigil to remember those who lost their lives on 4/16

Item by Chris Graham [email protected] It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year. Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech that claimed 33 lives. Augusta Free Press Publishing is sponsoring a community vigil Wednesday morning in Downtown Waynesboro to remember the victims. We Are All Hokies: A Community Vigil…

Hokies Remembered: Photos from last year’s local vigil

Chris Graham

Photos by Nathan Combs The Photograph Augusta Free Press Publishing and The New Dominion Magazine sponsored We Are All Hokies: A Community Vigil, an April 20, 2007 event at Waynesboro High School to remember the victims of the tragic April 16, 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech. The event drew more than 500 area residents and raised…

The Senior Boom: Are we ready to expand services to increasingly aging population?

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] It was hard enough getting Kitty Lough to go into an independent-living facility, harder still to get her to accept the change in her lifestyle. She never would have guessed back then that she’d miss it as much as she does now. “She’s finally gotten over the stage of saying,…

Queen of the Queen City: Rita Wilson retiring after 16-plus years on Staunton City Council

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] She wasn’t trying to be Rosa Parks. “We were just tired of the separate-but-equal thing. Because it certainly wasn’t separate-but-equal,” said Rita Wilson, who is retiring from Staunton City Council on June 30 after 16-plus years on the job, and who a generation ago made her first foray into public…

baseball

Field of Dreams: But will economic realities nip proposed $20M stadium in the bud?

Chris Graham

Yeah, I know, invoking “Field of Dreams” in a piece examining the economic aspects of a proposed $20 million baseball stadium is beyond cheesy. But I do it to try to make you consider something that you might not otherwise. Namely, that the whole idea rests on the notion that a Downtown Waynesboro baseball stadium…

Is minor-league baseball good economic development?

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] I wanted to learn more about what Waynesboro could be facing if it follows through the very, very preliminary plans that have been put forth regarding the possible location of a minor-league baseball team in the River City. That’s how I came across Gary Hodge and his 20-year effort to…

The Top Story: 25K to I-A?

Contributors

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] A 25,000-seat stadium in I-AA football – sorry, but I refuse to go with that stupid new nomenclature that divides college football’s Division I into a Bowl Subdivision and a Championship Subdivision, and really, you should, too … Ahem. Sorry. I allowed myself to get off track there. What I…

Breaking down the GOP Senate race

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham [email protected] The last time that you were paying any attention to the U.S. Senate race, former governor Jim Gilmore was the Republican candidate. Be careful now, though, because Gilmore has two opponents for that GOP nomination that you might have assumed was an automatic. Northern Virginia state delegate Bob…

Michael challenges GOP chair vote

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Two chairs, one chair, no chair. The Augusta County Republican Committee is split asunder after a mass meeting Thursday night that saw the defeat of long-time chairman Kurt Michael, then featured an interesting power play by Michael that resulted in a second vote that has Michael claiming to have been…