Rick Gray: All in the timing

AFP

Op-ed by Rick Gray Timing is everything. Four years ago, on Christmas night, I flew to Manchester, N.H., to spend a week of my precious winter holiday knocking on doors for Howard Dean. This year, I’ve slapped a McCain sticker on my bumper and agreed to write this piece. Let me explain. I’m a liberal,…

Sixth District: Rasoul proposed congressional debate schedule

Chris Graham

Item by Chris Graham [email protected] Sixth District Democratic Party congressional nominee Sam Rasoul wants to get on a stage with Republican incumbent Bob Goodlatte to debate the issues of the day in front of Western Virginia voters. Rasoul today proposed a schedule of six debates – two each in the Roanoke, Lynchburg and Shenandoah Valley…

White House ’08: Unemployment on the rise, and candidates respond

AFP

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Another key measure of economic performance appears to show the continued effects of slowdown. The national unemployment rate rose four-tenths of a percent in August, topping the 6 percent mark, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment fell in the manufacturing and employment-services sectors, with gains in the mining…

College Lacrosse: Starsia inks extension with UVa.

Chris Graham

Item by Chris Graham [email protected] UVa. men’s lacrosse coach Dom Starsia has agreed to a contract extension that will keep the three-time national title-winning coach in Charlottesville through 2012. “I am about to start my 17th year here at the University of Virginia. The time has come and gone in a heartbeat. My family and…

Valley News: Food Bank benefits from ‘Idol Gives Back’

Chris Graham

Item by Chris Graham [email protected] As much as many of us can’t stand the TV show “American Idol,” there’s a reason to thank Simon and Paula and Randy and Ryan and the crooners. The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank Network announced yesterday that it has received a $100,000 grant to fight child hunger in the…

Winners and Losers: McCain-Palin, NV-Jim Gilmore, reporters arrested at RNC

Chris Graham

Compiled by Chris Graham [email protected] THE PALIN CALL STILL BOTHERS ME: But what do I know? If they’d vetted her as well as they had the others, and then the ethics investigation and the Bridge to Nowhere line that doesn’t make sense given that she took the money and ran anyway and the, ahem, family…

White House ’08: Saxman gets final say at RNC

Chris Graham

Item by Chris Graham [email protected] Chris Saxman stuck his neck out there last year when he stepped up to the plate to become the Virginia chair of the John McCain campaign at a time when even Republicans were writing the Arizona senator off for dead politically. Now Saxman, a Republican member of the Virginia House…