Old Richmond City Hall
Virginia State Capitol with skyline.
Richmond's old City Hall ... what a beautiful building.
Virginia State Capitol
Looking over Capitol Square.
Richmond skyline
State Capitol from side angle.
Mike Reynold listens as the AG speaks during AFP luncheon.
Delegate Ben Cline (with Trixie Averill and Mike Reynold).
Attorney General Bob McDonnell.
AFP luncheon guests watched the AFP's "Defending the American Dream" recap video.
There it is ... the "Saxman" name plate on Delegate Chris Saxman's desk in the House of Delegates.
View of Delegate Saxman (center) at the desk. That was a nice, cushy chair.... Delegate Ben Cline is to his left and Delegate Terry Kilgore is behind them.A state appeals court has decided California parents without teaching credentials do not have a right to home-school their children.Please support parents' rights to educate their children at home.
The 2nd District Court of Appeals ruling could affect up to 200,000 home-schooled students in the state.
“The court is guilty of an imperious assault on the rights of parents,” said Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family. “How dare these judges have the audacity to label tens of thousands of parents criminals — the equivalent to drug dealers or pickpockets — because they want to raise and educate their children according to their deeply held values?
"The case before them involved one couple — the ruling should have been confined to that one couple, not used to punish an entire class of people, the vast majority of them religious conservatives.”
According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, California is set to become the only state to deny the vast majority of home schooling parents their fundamental right to teach their children at home. The group will file an amicus brief in the case.
Dr. Dobson said Focus on the Family will do whatever it can to get the ruling overturned and to restore the basic rights of parents in California to determine how their children are educated.
“This is an all-out assault on the family, and it must be met with a concerted effort to defend parents and their children,” he said. “We will team with key allies and use every means at our disposal to make sure that not just every Californian, but every American, is aware of this miscarriage of justice. We will encourage them, by the hundreds of thousands, to make their voices heard on this matter.
"And we’re hopeful that, in the end, common sense and legal sanity will prevail.”
Dr. Dobson will discuss the ruling on his Friday radio broadcast.
Candi Cushman, education analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said the court's timing is horrible.
"This takes away recourse from thousands of parents in California who want to escape the government-enforced indoctrination in public schools," she said. "The Legislature recently passed a law that basically ensures that students get a one-sided, positive portrayal of homosexuality and same-sex 'marriage.' "
TAKE ACTION
We are asking concerned citizens across America to sign a petition asking the state Supreme Court to "depublish" the case, which means to apply the case to the family involved — not to all California families.
The stately Virginia State Capitol with business skyline in the background.
Shenandoah Valley AFP supporters on bus ride to Richmond. Goodie bags provided by Congressman Bob Goodlatte were particularly welcomed ... bottled water and snacks kept the hunger away.
New entrance tunnel to Capitol.
Attorney General Bob McDonnell addresses AFP as Virginia's AFP Director Ben Marchi (right) looks on.
Delegate Jeff Frederick and Delegate Ben Cline. Both addressed AFP attendees.
Lt. Governor Bill Bolling.
House of Delegates ... Delegate Chris Saxman and Delegate Ben Cline.
AFP luncheon at the Omni.“I think it’s no accident that they’ve sent in their A-team,” Commonwealth Attorney Ray Robertson said, referring to the high-profile defense lawyers involved in the case. “The fact that they would deign to come to little old Staunton, Va., means they must be worried about something.”Trial is set for June 17, 2008.
First Amendment lawyers Paul Cambria Jr., representing Krial, and Louis Sirkin, representing Embrey, are heading up the defense team. Both have defended Larry Flynt and other celebrities in past obscenity trials.
“Every time a government official tries to interfere with an adult’s choice of entertainment, that is a national issue,” Cambria said after the hearing.
An arson fire in 2004 caused damage to old motor inn structures
The mountainside has burned-out units still standing.
Old Howard Johnson's Restaurant on left with Afton Inn
Afton Inn is still in use but has seen better days.
Looking over Afton area from Afton Inn with I-64 in background.
This structued was once a gift shop.
Former gift shop now stands neglected.
Rockfish Gap Tourism Visitor Center is in middle of run-down buildings....
6. Organize a welcoming parade and dinner for your local troops when they return from Iraq or Afghanistan. Here’s a parade that one woman organized in Staunton, Virginia for a returning National Guard brigade.Those guys gave so much for us ... welcoming them home was the least we could do for them.
“The Weather Channel had great promise, and that’s all gone now because they’ve made every mistake in the book on what they’ve done and how they’ve done it and it’s very sad,” Coleman said. “It’s now for sale and there’s a new owner of The Weather Channel will be announced – several billion dollars having changed hands in the near future. Let’s hope the new owners can recapture the vision and stop reporting the traffic, telling us what to think and start giving us useful weather information.”Mr. Coleman advocated suing Al Gore to expose "the fraud of global warming."
“[I] have a feeling this is the opening,” Coleman said. “If the lawyers will take the case – sue the people who sell carbon credits. That includes Al Gore. That lawsuit would get so much publicity, so much media attention. And as the experts went to the media stand to testify, I feel like that could become the vehicle to finally put some light on the fraud of global warming.”Read the entire article here.
Three seven-figure dream homes went up in flames early Monday in a Seattle suburb, apparently set by eco-terrorists who left a sign mocking the builders' claims that the 4,000-plus-square-foot houses were environmentally friendly.ELF has a long history of environmental terrorism and destruction of private property throughout the U.S. The most famous was the $12 million fire that completely destroyed a Vail, CO, ski lodge in 1998 but they have committed hundreds of criminal acts along with the Animal Liberation Front ... ALF.
The sign - a sheet marked with spray paint - bore the initials ELF, for Earth Liberation Front, a loose collection of radical environmentalists that has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks since the 1990s. ... The sign left behind said in red scraggly letters, "Built Green? Nope black!" and "McMansions in RCDs r not green," a reference to rural cluster developments.
ELF is known for trying to cause economic damage to companies or organizations it considers to be harming the environment. The group has no organized structure or leadership; typically, autonomous cells of activists take "direct actions" such as arsons and claim responsibility on behalf of ELF.The FBI is investigating the latest incident that caused $7 million in damages.
