3 Up, 3 Down

BUDDY: This guy’s beak may not cut the mustard or much of anything else anymore, but Buddy, a young bald eagle, is a big bird, in the metaphoric sense. The eagle whose birth and diseased beak made him an Internet celebrity is setting up a permanent nest at the Wildlife Center of Virginia’s digs in Waynesboro. This means all those people who followed Buddy on the Web can check him out in the flesh and feathers right here in the old River City. So come on over, all you bird watchers. The eagle ambassador has landed.

THE AUGUSTA COUNTY LIBRARY: Supervisors split 4-3 on the approval of a $1.6-million renovation of the county library. We hear Pastures District Supervisor Tracy Pyles when he frets over county spending. Pulling $1 million from an otherwise dormant county land rights fund relieves some of the burden. So count us as on board with the move.

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS: One is being threatened in Rhode Island where Democrats have spent the state into a $590-million budget gap. Now Gov. Donald Carcieri is putting more than three-fourths of state workers on a 12-day furlough. Unions are hopping mad. Taxpayers, meanwhile? Shrug.

SMELLY LOCKER ROOMS: OK, we get it. Locker rooms are supposed to stink. But how bad is it when urinal cakes are used to ward off the stench? That’s the case in the Waynesboro High School football team’s dressing room. We know times are tight, and we’re never fans of big spending, but something needs to change across the street from us. We’re not ready to blame the Little Giants’ want of success in recent years on their facilities. But we are ready to say something needs to be done for the local boys. Let’s hear what it would cost to fix up the digs, and then let’s see how to dig up the money.

WARNER BROTHERS: Sen. Mark Warner and his Virginia compadre, Sen. Jim Webb, obviously have gotten wind of how things have gone for their peers who’ve held town hall meetings on health care reform. So they’re avoiding town halls like the H1N1 virus. We don’t blame the W’s for skipping a local town hall set up by a Valley Republican. But how about Warner and Webb setting up town halls of their own? C’mon, fellas. Don’t be shy.

SAY IT AIN’T SO, JOE: OK, really, Mr. Veep? You believe this? “With Teddy, it was never about him,” VP Biden said referring to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. It was never about Teddy, unless one happened to be a young woman and the future senator felt like a drive by the water.