Author: Andrew Jenner
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Andrew Jenner, Publisher
Andrew spent most of his career as a journalist in the Shenandoah Valley, working as a freelancer for a decade. He covered many things for many media outlets, including The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Roads & Kingdoms, Discover and WMRA. He returned home to Harrisonburg in 2018, after three years living and writing in Brazil.
Election 2019: talking points and things to know
It’s Tuesday and voting is on in the 2019 state legislative elections. For Harrisonburg voters, names on the ballot in the two General Assembly races should look familiar, as both the House of Delegates and State Senate races are rematches from last time around.
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Two superweeds arrive in Rockingham County
Press releases from Virginia Cooperative Extension aren’t typically a place to find dramatic language, but then again, the two new plants that showed up in several fields this summer aren’t your typical weeds.
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As preparations for expansion continue, Middle River Regional Jail begins facility planning study
At its meeting earlier this month, the Middle River Regional Jail (MRRJ) Authority Board voted to proceed with a facility planning study that will evaluate options for expanding the jail in Verona.
First round of fines for rogue short-term rentals have gone out, although not all hit the mark
A new chapter in the city’s quest to regulate short-term housing rentals is off to an uneven start, after notices of violation – and accompanying $100 fines – were sent last week to a first round of property owners believed to be operating such rentals without a permit.
While debate over local criminal justice continues, voters won’t have much say on top law enforcement jobs this fall
Last Tuesday’s primary election day was also deadline day: the last opportunity for candidates to file paperwork to run for local constitutional offices — such as sheriff and commonwealths’ attorney — that will appear on this November’s ballot. Aside from the incumbents, however, no one else did, meaning Commonwealth’s Attorney Marsha Garst and Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson, both Republicans, will be unopposed in their reelection campaigns once again and are all but assured of serving again until 2023.
Organizers of effort to memorialize the victim of a local lynching set their sights on Court Square
Charlotte Harris was in the custody of local law enforcement in Rockingham County on March 6, 1878, when a mob seized her and hung her from a tree – the only documented lynching of an African-American woman in Virginia’s history. The next month, a grand jury in Harrisonburg ended its investigation of the murder without returning any indictments. Judge Charles T. O’Ferrall, who oversaw that investigation, went on to become governor in the 1890s.
In crossing the road, ICE causes a stir
Local Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel wanted to reconfigure the office in a way that wasn’t possible in their current building. By moving across the street, ICE is getting that new layout – and lots of new scrutiny from community members who say the agency should “have no place in the Friendly City.”
City spending on incarceration continues to climb
Harrisonburg’s total cost to prosecute, try and incarcerate people has risen by $1.8 million – roughly 29 percent – over the past five years, according to city finance documents.
