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The Virginia Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would remove the restrictions prohibiting gun owners with concealed carry licenses from carrying in restaurants and would allow police officers to drink while carrying.

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The annual “Taste of Downtown” event starts tomorrow, March 7, 2010, and goes on for a whole week this year (instead of just 3 days as it did in previous years), and includes sixteen participating downtown restaurants according to Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance.
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Gov. Bob McDonnell recently signed a bill allowing VDOT to raise the speed limit on I-81 from 65 to 70 miles per hour. But according to a story in today’s Roanoke Times, the 60 mph limit through Harrisonburg may not change soon, if ever.

. . . it’s the Virginia Department of Transportation that decides whether to implement an actual increase and, if so, where . . . For now, I-81 will remain posted at 65 mph, except for 14.7 miles near Roanoke and segments in Harrisonburg and Winchester where the limit is 60 mph . . . Read more »

I came across this photo uploaded by Melissa, in the hburgnews Flickr pool. It’s a shot of the buildings and businesses that used to be where the Rockingham County Jail is now.

For those of us too young to remember it, there are only faint traces of Mystic Den on the web; a hardcore band called Flowers of Discipline, a rumor of a gang called Property. Read more »

Harrisonburg Mayor Kai Degner and an entourage of three local activists, a city Planning Commissioner, a city employee and a documentary film maker left for Davis, CA today to learn about the city’s famous bike-friendly infrastructure. Read more »

Guest blogger Rebecca reports on the group from Harrisonburg going to Davis, California.

The Harrisonburg-based Voluntary Gas Tax club, which funds projects aimed at decreasing American’s dependence on fossil fuels, will send Mayor Kai Degner, three local activists, a city Planning Commissioner, a city employee and a documentary film maker to California on Wednesday to learn about bicycle infrastructure. Read more »

A Richmond Times-Dispatch economic columnist writes that Virginia “fared pretty well during the recession” in terms of unemployment rates in the second quarter of 2009. Or, depending on your current employment status, we were the fifth least worst state in the nation for job loss. According to Christine Chmura, Harrisonburg is doing better than most other localities.

Lynchburg and Harrisonburg were the only two metropolitan areas in the state that grew on a year-over-year basis . . . The largest job loss, however, was 17,683 in Fairfax County. (read the full column)

There’s a story in today’s Daily News-Record on local farmers concerned about the impact environmentalists and “well organized” animal rights groups could have on the dairy and beef industry in Virginia. The EPA’s primary concern is animal waste pollutants that make their way into the Chesapeake Bay. According to the DNR, some farmers are also afraid that animal rights activists might impact their bottom line. Read more »

Mayor Kai Degner is putting together a local news organization in reaction to what he and others deem deficiencies and biases in the local news media. The first post on Harrisonburg Times cites the Daily News-Record’s editorial bias, website paywall, and a lack of in-depth reporting on WHSV as reasons to start something new. Read more »