Once in a while you come across a truly good thing. Something that not only makes people smile, but produces a useful result, both for the individuals involved as well as the community at large. Such a thing is Leadership Jefferson.
Now in its fourth year, Leadership Jefferson is a ten-month training program that brings together local professionals, and through a series of one-day workshops and overnight stays, builds awareness of self and society.
The man behind Leadership Jefferson is long-time resident and local attorney Andrew Skinner. He says that he learned …

 
  By Leigh Koonce
The breeze of reform is in the air. President Obama has signed healthcare reform. The Congress is preparing to consider a new campaign finance reform measure to combat the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in that realm. Though it took a devastating disaster at the Upper Big Branch mine, it now appears a strong gaze will be directed toward comprehensive mining reform as well. As all of these important movements progress, I am struck by a more modest need for reform: that of the rules which govern West …

By Lyn Widmyer
I consider myself an environmentalist with one major exception: brown marmorated stink bugs. I don’t care about the circle of life and ecological balance when it comes to these marauders. I say kill them all.
I am like the Terminator when it comes to brown stink bugs. The difference is I am armed with a vacuum cleaner instead of a machine gun. I am merciless in finding those stink bugs and believe me they are everywhere. Globs of them hide in folds of draperies and under bedding. Wielding my …

By Debora Harding
This year’s CATF play “Farragut North” by Beau Willimon inspired a nostalgic glance backwards. The play’s protagonist, 25-year-old Stephen Bellamy, serves as national press secretary to a governor running for president. He becomes snagged in a quagmire that shatters his political idealism and puts his professional survival at risk.
Beginning when I was 18, I cut my teeth on the 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns of Gary Hart and Tom Daschle’s first Senate race, so I knew a lot of Stephen Bellamys.
So I went to the theater to see …

Renowned folklorists/muscians/storytellers Michael & Carrie Kline visit Jefferson County August 21–22 for an outdoor concert in the country followed the next day by a workshop called Chronicling Family Stories. Both events take place at CraftWorks at Cool Spring, the craft school and center for creative learning near Charles Town.
Spurred in part by a wildly popular radio series, there is growing interest in the art of capturing and recording family and community stories in audio. Whether it’s getting all of an elderly grandparent’s childhood stories, capturing tall tales from “old timers” …

Compiled by David Lillard
A story in the July edition of The Observer contained email exchanges between Jefferson County deputy clerks and organizers of the petition drive to force a referendum vote on the new Zoning Ordinance. Over the past few weeks there has been a lively online dialogue on this Observer story and the release of the petition names. Here are excerpts from two of these forums: “Shannondale.org” and “OJ.”
 
From Shannondale.org
 
Posted by Willis
. . . I don’t see any context in which the collegian atmosphere between the clerk’s office and …

Petition Organizer Paid By Anti-Zoning Firm
Recently released documents reveal financial dealings between Lee Snyder, the owner of Jefferson Utilities, and Ronda Lehman, who spearheaded a petition drive on the county’s new zoning ordinance. The documents include a detailed itemization of expenses made by Jefferson Utilities since October 2008, including four payments to “Ronda Lehman Consultant” in March 2009.
The revelation has re-fueled speculation that the petition drive was funded by development interests, and that Snyder in particular was affiliated with the petition campaign. At the least, say people involved with Citizens …

As rehearsals began in mid-June for the 2009 Contemporary American Theater Festival, each writer shared thoughts with Nelson Pressley about the work coming to Shepherdstown and the working lives that brought them here.

What’s the best way to categorize this year’s crop of playwrights at the Contemporary American Theater Festival? The five faces are largely new: one returning writer from 1996 and four rookies (including an esteemed 65 year old). Their themes are topical: one brutal dissection of marriage and four dramas that feel torn from the headlines. The demographics are, well, retro: one black woman and four white men.

A simple way to sort this year’s slate, which runs from July 8 through August 2, would be between the bluntly political works in the Frank Center—Beau Willimon’s campaign drama “Farragut North” and Steven Dietz’s 9/11 conspiracy thriller “Yankee Tavern”—and the romantically oriented duo in the Studio, Michael Weller’s marital slugfest “Fifty Words” and Eisa Davis’s era-hopping “The History of Light.” [...]

 
New documents released by the Jefferson County Clerk’s office reveal for the first time how close the deputy clerks worked with zoning referendum petition organizers Ed Burns and Ronda Lehman. The documents were released following a Freedom of Information Act request by The Observer, and are part of a wider drive to shed light on the petition drive.
Included in the released documents are over 40 emails between Wendy Evangalisti and Nikki Painter (deputy clerk) and Ed Burns and Ronda Lehman, heads of the petition drive. The earliest released emails date …