On Saturday, my daughter and her family were at our home and we played a guessing game — guess how much snow just got dumped on us.

January is never an easy time for Culpeper’s school officials, and this year was particularly harsh.

How many of you good folks in Culpeper and surrounding areas are sick of snow?

In the beginning, moving to Culpeper was a calculated escape from the Beltway, part of this man’s plan to improve my quality of life and enjoy the fruits of my newly discovered Camelot.

Men dressed in animal hides and feathers throwing boxes into the water in the middle of the night may have more economic prowess than our policymakers in D.C.

Many, many families in the U.S. are willing to host, foster or adopt these children — whatever it will take — if they are just given the chance to do so.

There’s an ominous presence on the west side of town these days.

Friday morning I opened my newspapers to see what the country and the world was about. I was particularly interested in reading about what the United States Congress did in its “debate” on the national debt limit.

Just 18 episodes remain, after which the series, and a certain brand of national obsession, will be over.

Movies are largely subjective, and said subjectivity was reinforced last week as my husband and I sat down to watch “The Outsiders” with our daughter.

Yesterday marked the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by Soviet troops.

I find it ironic and saddening — in light of recent struggles to preserve the Wilderness battlefield and honor heroes on both sides — that Walmart is progressing with plans to erect yet another superstore complex on the northern edge of this historically significant field 12 miles west of Fredericksburg.

Most of the images we see coming out of post-earthquake Haiti are of stick-wielding crowds fighting for supplies; corpses lying out in the open; injured people stuffed into unsanitary conditions;  and naked children with shell-shocked expressions wandering the rubbish-strewn streets.

Before last November’s statewide office winners were even seated, we’d already moved on to the mayor’s race here in Culpeper.

I continue to be amazed at the Star-Exponent’s enthusiasm for the creation of any type of water authority while it continues to hide the true cost of such an endeavor from the town’s voters.

The current proposals for a joint water and sewer agreement are cumbersome, confusing and ultimately unworkable.

As I drove our daughter to her first dance, I was overcome with a surreal feeling. I’d been here before, only I was in the passenger’s seat, and the “carriage” was my dad’s 1980 GMC pickup truck.

As I enter my 27th session in the state Senate, I am honored to serve as a member of the Senate Finance Committee and as one of five senators on the Budget Committee of Conference.

Today, with this treatise, I begin to write for this community, to write for the welfare of the community, to make a difference in this community.

The 1989 Mitsubishi Group purchase of Rockefeller Center characterized the notion that America and even its landmarks were owned by the fast-growing exporting giant of Japan.

Each year, the opening day of Virginia’s legislative session begins with the state’s elected officials and political leaders breaking bread together at the Commonwealth Prayer Breakfast.

Not so long ago, Virginia was the subject of national parody as comedians poked fun at the commonwealth’s insistence on combining the day set aside to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with those of Civil War generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.

I am sure some of you will recall a concern I expressed in this space last February. I asked the question, “Is there a fox in the hen house?” in my observation of the appointment of the secretary of the Treasury.

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

As mentioned in my last column, getting in our car and driving wherever we please is perhaps the quintessential example of American freedom.

What would you say if someone told you an employer or the government asking you to recycle something as simple as glass or paper was a violation of your First Amendment right regarding freedom of religion?

The combination of Virginia’s 2009 GOP victories and the recent retirement announcements by Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota are indicators — strong indicators — that the Republicans will pick up most if not all of those “toss-up” seats.

If there’s one thing that can be said for Virginia Governor-elect Bob McDonnell, it’s that he’s not cliché.

Since Congress authorized the expenditure of $787 billion as an economic stimulus package to inspire vigor in getting our economy back in high gear, I’ve been following its progress with some interest.

The first decade of the 21st century has been devastating for religious liberty in much of the world.