Free Republic

Three Democratic members of the Staunton, Virginia, city council were ousted by Republicans on Tuesday despite receiving more votes than they did four years ago. Republican candidates Mark Robertson, Amy Darby, and Steve Claffey all joined incumbent Andrea Oakes in a four-seat GOP sweep, WHSV reported. The three incoming council members replaced Democratic incumbents Erik Curren, Ophie Kier, and James Harrington all almost doubled their vote totals from 2016, yet still lost.

A Virginia man was sentenced yesterday to two years in prison for stealing more than 100 Civil War-era documents from the National Archives, including some he tried to sell on eBay. Howard Harner, 68, took letters authored by Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and other historical figures. Federal prosecutors sought a lengthy sentence to help discourage trafficking in stolen American history. Harner, of Staunton, pleaded guilty in March to hiding the documents in his clothing and smuggling them out of a National Archives research room from 1996 to 2002. Prosecutors said he made $47,314 by selling the documents to a...

A Virginia school district is defending a classroom assignment that required students to practice calligraphy by writing the Muslim statement of faith, “There is no god but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” Female students at Riverheads High School in Staunton, Virginia, were also invited to wear Muslim clothing -- a story first reported by The Schilling Show.

West African bushmen are denied U.S. visas They'd been recruited to build a mud-hut village at a Staunton museum Thursday, Jul 03, 2008 - 12:55 AM By CARLOS SANTOS TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER • PDF: Letter STAUNTON -- Three West African bushmen recruited to build an authentic mud-hut village at the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia were denied visas because they are too poor and inarticulate. In a letter to Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., Debra Heien, chief of the consular section for the U.S. in Nigeria, said one applicant "could not articulate anything about the project. . . . The...

A Staunton man hospitalized with a bullet in his back early Friday had been shot when his street gang attacked an armed victim, authorities have tentatively ruled. Police who found Joseph Antonio Coakley, 24, sprawled near downtown Staunton at the intersection of Lewis and Baldwin streets about 2 a.m. initially thought he was drunk in public. They soon realized he had been shot. As doctors listed Coakley in critical condition hours later, investigators had 26-year-old Jeremy Kyle Bryant, of Staunton, in custody as the shooter. They charged him with carrying a concealed weapon because he lacked a permit, and released...

STAUNTON, Va. (AP) - Public elementary schools will continue to allow Bible classes during class time while the local school board conducts a one-year review to determine if criticism of the practice by some parents is valid. Several hundred people attended the school board meeting Monday, with many standing and applauding the 5-1 decision to begin the review while continuing religious classes, a tradition in Staunton and some other rural Virginia school districts for more than 60 years. "My conscience tells me this community needs this program, and we need to keep it," board member Angie Whitesell said. In the...

STAUNTON, Va. — When Heather and Logan Ward's son entered public kindergarten this fall, they were shocked to discover that pupils were taken from class to a nearby church for weekly Bible lessons. The Wards moved to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley (search) from New York four years ago, and were unaware of the tradition that has remained in Staunton and other rural schools for more than 60 years. "My reaction is exactly like the reaction of those who come here from a different place — shock and disbelief that we have Bible (search) classes in public schools," Heather Ward said. Now...

STAUNTON, Va. — Heather and Logan Ward moved from New York to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley four years ago because they wanted a simpler life. Like many recent transplants, the Wards were pleased to discover Staunton's grand Victorian architecture, a vibrant downtown and "a lot of open-minded, progressive people." But when their son entered public kindergarten this past fall, they discovered that pupils leave classrooms for weekly Bible lessons, a tradition in Staunton and other communities in rural Virginia for more than 60 years.

Lee class president suspended By BERTRAND M. GUTIERREZ The News Virginian Thursday, February 3, 2005 Ask straight-A student Sam Dungan about cruel and unusual punishment and he can marshal a lightening-bolt answer: Bill of Rights, Eighth Amendment. The bushy-haired senior, after all, became captain of the state-champion quiz team at Staunton's R.E. Lee High School by attending after-school practice sessions at a teacher's house. "I guess I'm one of the preppy, sort of nerdy kids," says Dungan, 17. But when the honors student applies for a travel visa to enter Chile this summer or to college later on, he might...

STAUNTON, Va. -- Lunch is over and some classes already are at recess when a group of schoolchildren at McSwain Elementary stands up, puts on coats, walks 200 feet across the playground and files into Memorial Baptist Church. Over the next half-hour, the Bible shapes the lesson plan. Jack Hinton helps third-graders Brian Smith, left, and Noah Balsley with an assignment during their Bible class in Staunton, Va. (Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post) The children pray, sing and play games with a Christian theme...(snip)... Then they don their coats again, leave the church and trek back to rejoin the...

<p>The Statler Brothers perform at Happy Birthday USA in Staunton in 1973.</p> <p>Even before deciding to test the waters as a solo act, the Statler Brothers had become dissatisfied with their treatment at Columbia Records. They knew Mercury Records producer Jerry Kennedy, who was formerly a session guitarist (he is noted, for among many other works, for the famous guitar run in Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman"), from some session work he'd done with them.</p>