3 Up 3 Down

3 Up

BEVERLEY SHOEMAKER: Where others have ventured never to return – attempting development projects in or near Waynesboro’s downtown core – Shoemaker, the owner of the South River Complex, has stepped forward with a proposal that could make over Waynesboro. She plans to turn the former fabric plant on the South River into a complex housing research and education centers, restaurants, commercial space and more. Check back here Sunday to get our take on how the city should respond.

WAYNESBORO GENERALS: The Valley League ball club had hoped to open the season last night, but then came the rain. Still, there’s a particularly strong buzz this season over the Generals and the league. Anyone who’s seen Valley League baseball knows it’s the kind of high-value sports entertainment that can’t be had anywhere else. Welcome back, boys. And go get ’em.

CREIGH DEEDS: Tell the gang down at elections to hold off before adding Terry McAuliffe’s name to November’s ballot. State Sen. Creigh Deeds, of Bath County, has risen from the primary dust heap to take a lead over McAuliffe in at least one Democratic gubernatorial poll. McAuliffe, the fundraiser extraordinaire and ex-Clintonista, still is favored Tuesday, but the fall is another story. See below.

3 Down

DEMOCRATS: Sniff, sniff. Did somebody take off their shoes, or is that the stench of defeat in the air? Some say the latter for Democrats in the gubernatorial election. Yeah, so? So some people includes Douglas Wilder, the former governor and, by the by, a Democrat. “There’s something in the air,” he says. And it ain’t Democratic excitement, Wilder adds. Dems haven’t grabbed voters, he says. Hello, Gov. McDonnell.

REP. JOHN MURTHA: Is this guy still around? Who does he think he is, Strom Thurmond? Firms tied to the aging Democratic lion are being investigated over claims that owners pocketed taxpayer money for themselves to cover family expenses and improve their own properties, according to The Washington Post. So where’d they get that $50 million in taxpayer dough? From Murtha, the ex-Marine who once dissed U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Gee, that’s a lot of jack, Jack.

SAY IT AIN’T SO, JOE: Eight days a week, we love you, Mr. Biden. The Obama administration’s transportation push, VP Joe explained Wednesday, is akin to Eisenhower’s. “This is how the interstate highway system started, folks. It wasn’t like the Lord on the eighth day said, boom, there’s the interstate highway system.” But we do know that on the ninth day He made Joe, and we have seen that it is good.