Tickets on sale for Hairspray

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ShenanArts will be hosting the Virginia premiere of the recent Broadway hit musical Hairspray beginning Aug. 12. The local production, based on the film written and directed by John Waters, is being directed by one-time “American Idol” contestant Colon Berry, who also co-stars as Link Larkin, the resident hunk of “The Corny Collins Show.” The…

Dr. Jeffrey Patterson: Lessons from the Gulf for nuclear reactors

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Column by Dr. Jeffrey Patterson Submit guest columns: [email protected] One crucial lesson from the BP oil spill is that measures to speed licensing, cut corners on safety and undermine regulation can lead to tragic consequences. Yet Congress appears on the verge of repeating mistakes that led to the environmental catastrophe in the Gulf. Federal lawmakers…

David Reynolds: So long for awhile, that’s all the songs for a while

David Reynolds

Column by David Reynolds Submit guest columns: [email protected]   So long for a while. That’s all the songs for a while. So closed the old “Your Hit Parade” radio show every Saturday night. This might also be a good way to say that until its proprietor and the weather cools off, this marketplace of ideas…

Drilling in the Valley

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Millions of gallons of water are used to literally fracture the earth to get at the natural gas below. And below is the operative word – hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, as it’s commonly called, aims at natural-gas reserves anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000 feet beneath the earth’s surface. The good news is that natural gas…

Conservation efforts in Valley get big boost

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Edited by Chris Graham [email protected]   The Verona-based Shenandoah Resource Conservation and Development Council has received a three-year partnership agreement worth $720,000 annually to help farmers with conservation practices. The funds were provided through the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative. Shenandoah RC&D Chairman John Eckman said funds “present a real opportunity…

Jim Bishop: Sometimes, the passenger train arrives ahead of schedule

Jim Bishop

Column by Jim Bishop Submit guest columns: [email protected]   “People get ready, there’s a train a’comin’ . . .” – The Impressions (1964) It probably goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyhow – God’s timing and humankind’s timetables are rarely synchronized, or so it seems from an earthly point of view. Recent case in…

Still losing farmland, but not as quickly

Chris Graham

Edited by Chris Graham [email protected]   Good news for farming, sorta, kinda: The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services reported today that loss of farmland to development appears to be slowing in the Commonwealth. According to the recent numbers from the Farmland Information Center, between 1997 and 2002, Virginia lost 81,500 acres of agricultural…