.....Advertisement.....
.....Advertisement.....

Today's News

  • Commentary--Big bucks and red ink

    I used to take the position that a player deserves to make whatever the market will bear. If a team owner wants to pay $5 million a year for a second baseman with a career batting average of .240, that's his call.

    I figure that the fans and the sponsors are picking up the tab. It's a market decision. If you can afford forty bucks for a marginal seat at the ballpark, that's your call. If the good folks at Minute Maid want to shell out naming rights for the stadium in Houston, that's swell.

    Click here to read more...
  • In the scrum--Local rugy player off to Nationals

    There's an old saying in England along the lines that soccer is a gentleman's game played by ruffians while rugby is a ruffian's game played by gentlemen.

    One of Bedford's gentlemen has taken to the game with a passion. Zac Bonheim is having a blast with the sport, which he jumped into upon his matriculation at the United States Coast Guard Academy.

    Click here to read more...
  • Fitness with a personal touch

    A new business has opened at in the Smith Mountain Lake area that offers a personal touch to fitness.

    "It's our passion," commented Dwight Ward who, with Rob Jordan, opened Smith Mountain Lake Wellness and Fitness this month.

    The business, located on U. S. 122, a short distance from Hales Ford Bridge on the Bedford County side of the lake, offers personal fitness training. The goal is to help people develop healthy lifestyles.

    Click here to read more...
  • Run over by The Bus

    Sebastiano Stia has been run over by "The Bus."

    Stia currently lives on Scruggs Road on the Franklin County side of Smith Mountain Lake. A few years ago, he was working on a freelance photo assignment which took him to a Pittsburgh Steelers-Philadelphia Eagles game. This work gets a man on the sidelines of pro football games. A sports photographer needs to be alert and quick as more than getting good shots is at stake. At one point during this game, Stia was just not quick enough.

    "Jerome Bettis is running with the ball," Stia recalled.

    Click here to read more...
  • U.S. deaths in Iraq pass 4,000

    Iraq war death number 4,000 happened as a result of a roadside bomb, which has been a typical way our troops have died in that war.

    As we reached this dubious milestone in a war that seemingly has no end, the USA Today newspaper made a commendable effort to put names and details on the numbers.

    It reported, for example, that more than half (52 percent) of the 4,000 U.S. deaths were from bombs. Only 16 percent died by enemy gunfire.

    Click here to read more...
  • China's good sportsmanship

    It appears that China may be trying to invent a new Olympic sport. What would we call it? The Tibetan head-bashing marathon?

    Actually, what has been going on has nothing to do with the games. It is, however, a source of embarrassment for the Chinese government, which is hoping that the Olympics will give them the chance for some positive PR. The news, at least what we are getting, about the situation is not the sort of publicity they want.

    Click here to read more...
  • The rhetoric is getting louder for Clinton to step aside

    The calls for Hillary Clinton to gracefully bow out of the race for the Democratic nomination for president grow louder each day. She should ignore the clamor.

    Yes, Clinton is trailing Barack Obama in pledged delegates by a considerable margin. Yes, she's also losing the popular vote. But, truth be told, she's only one Obama misstep away from the tide turning in her favor.

    Click here to read more...
  • Program's focus: Safe teen driving

    Ben Creasey, at a teen driving presentation at Staunton River High School recently, recounted the worst night of his life.

    It was exactly four years ago last month and a friend came to his house to tell him his daughter, Ginni, had been in a crash. Creasey initially thought the damage was limited to the car. His wife, Crystal thought the same.

    "I kept saying, 'Now Ben, don't fuss at her. This is her first wreck,'" she recalled saying.

    Click here to read more...
  • Bush pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter

    A Bedford County woman will spend the next six years in prison for attempting to elude Campbell County Sheriff's deputies last year.

    Heather Lynn Bush, 27, pleaded guilty to a felony level attempt to elude police and involuntary manslaughter when she appeared before Judge James Updike in Bedford County Circuit Court Friday.

    Click here to read more...
  • Bedford Police Officer returns from duty in Iraq

    Tim Brooke normally wears the uniform of the Bedford City Police Department. Last year, however, he temporarily traded it for the pixilated camouflage of the United States Army.

    A captain in the Virginia National Guard, Brooke returned recently from duty in Iraq. Brooke served as a civil affairs officer with Headquarters Company, 116th Infantry Combat Brigade. His post was actually a Major's job, but he was assigned to it as he had been selected for promotion to that rank prior to the company's deployment.

    Click here to read more...