UVA President Jim Ryan, whose contract was extended in 2022, before the MAGAs started gaining power on the BOV, was a goner; the only question was, how? There was plenty to work with – the issues with leadership at UVA Health, which led to the resignation of its CEO, Craig Kent, in February; the failures on several fronts that factored into the entirely preventable shooting deaths of three UVA Football players in 2022. Turns out, the leverage point would be DEI, with a pair of UVA alums in the T...
Jun 27, 2025•12 min•Ep. 1239
NASCAR legend Richard Petty seems to think Shane Van Gisbergen did something wrong when Van Gisbergen won his way into the 2025 Cup Series playoffs this past weekend. We talk about that, plus break down Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s one-off this coming weekend as a crew chief at Pocono.
Jun 20, 2025•30 min•Ep. 1238
Butch Wells , a member of the Augusta County Board of Supervisors, called me on Wednesday to address the controversial cancellation of a planned Pride Month event at the Augusta County Library that had been scheduled for this past Monday. The explanation for how things went down last week on this doesn’t put anybody involved in the decision to pull the plug on the Pride Month event in a positive light....
Jun 20, 2025•13 min•Ep. 1237
Still no news on the status of Gary Taylor , the head coach of Cavalier Aquatics , the Piedmont Family YMCA competitive swim team, and an assistant coach with UVA Swimming , who is currently serving a two-year probation handed down by the U.S. Center for SafeSport . AFP was the first to report on the investigation that concluded with Taylor admitting to emotional misconduct while coaching swimmers from 2015 to 2022 at North Carolina State, Auburn and Cavalier Aquatics. On the podcast, I report o...
Jun 11, 2025•24 min•Ep. 1236
Eight immigrants went to work in Harrisonburg on Tuesday morning and didn’t return home that night. Crystal Graham tracked down the story of what happened to them, talking with a witness at the scene where the FBI and Homeland Security detained the eight, and threatened locals who tried to intervene to inform the immigrants of their rights.
Jun 06, 2025•17 min•Ep. 1235
The Alejandro Queen will bring all her showmanship to the stage – big hair and makeup and elaborate clothing – Saturday night at The Foundry in Waynesboro . On the pod: I speak with AFP editor Crystal Graham, who interviewed Alejandro Circelli, the Staunton man behind The Alejandro Queen, to talk about how he became a drag performer, his life as a gay man in the conservative Shenandoah Valley, and the importance of LGBTQ+ allies....
Jun 06, 2025•14 min•Ep. 1234
The world learned Thursday night that Brian O’Connor, who had signed an extension with UVA just last June that paid him $1.4 million a year, making him the eight-highest-paid coach in college baseball, is now the second-highest-paid coach in college baseball, at $2.9 million a year. Mississippi State Athletics went out of its way to make this public – which is to say, they didn’t make reporters file a FOIA request and wait five days to get a copy of the term sheet. The former Mississippi Agricul...
Jun 06, 2025•14 min•Ep. 1233
I’d much rather be writing about UVA Baseball getting ready for another Super Regional weekend, but things didn’t work out as expected. Instead, the news is, Brian O’Connor left town in the middle of the night for Mississippi State, supposedly because Mississippi State is a better situation baseball-wise. I’ve been covering this from all possible angles – examining the money, the impact of the move on O’Connor’s legacy, and where UVA goes to for its next baseball coach.
Jun 03, 2025•40 min•Ep. 1232
Rod Mullins started off our podcast talking about this past weekend’s Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600, and NASCAR star Kyle Larson’s second failed attempt at “The Double.” A sidebar story about a fan who tried to steal Ross Chastain’s hat in Victory Lane at the 600 led to a lengthy discussion of ‘70s and ‘80s superfan Morganna the Kissing Bandit, and whether her on-field incursions were real or kayfabe. As you can tell, this week’s show is a can’t-miss.
May 29, 2025•31 min•Ep. 1231
#TeamAFP editors Chris Graham and Crystal Graham get together for our weekly “Street Knowledge” podcast, which starts with a high school football coach arrested for DUI, and ends with the president pardoning a corrupt Virginia sheriff. Topics in the podcast include: Waynesboro High School football coach arrested on misdemeanor DWI charge Augusta County: VCSB purchases property for crisis center, should break ground this year Regional animal shelter completion pushed back to end of June; addition...
May 27, 2025•52 min•Ep. 1230
How about a half-hour of baseball talk to start your week off? All apologies to the other ball sports, but baseball is my jam. On today’s show: The Baltimore Orioles fired manager Brandon Hyde over the weekend, and the firing season may not be over just yet. The Washington Nationals, for their part, are in Year 5 of a perpetual rebuild. Are the pieces in place enough to build a winner around? UVA Baseball alum Chris Taylor was released by the Los Angeles Dodgers after 10 years in Chavez Ravine. ...
May 19, 2025•30 min•Ep. 1229
AFP editors Crystal Graham and Chris Graham have been hard at work this week tracking down the details of three ongoing controversies involving the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office. In our Friday podcast, #TeamAFP breaks down: Augusta County: Family of man who died in police custody wants answers The family of a Staunton man who died in the back of an Augusta County Sheriff’s Office patrol car on May 5 is trying to get answers. “There is real injustice here, and I truly feel like Stefan was assau...
May 16, 2025•58 min•Ep. 1228
It’s weekly NASCAR podcast time, and we have to go into depth about Kyle Larson, who now has three Cup Series wins on the season, and is about to test the waters with another try at the Indy 500/Coca Cola 600 double on Memorial Day weekend. But since our intrepid NASCAR journalist, Rod Mullins, is a lifelong Cincinnati Reds fan, we had to spend a good 15 minutes at the top talking about how Pete Rose deserves to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
May 14, 2025•40 min•Ep. 1227
The rain is here, and it’s going to get interesting in the Shenandoah Valley and Central Virginia this week, weather-wise. #TeamAFP’s Chris Graham and Crystal Graham talk about the weather to open the Monday podcast. Crystal Graham is our resident weather reporter. She has the scoop on what we can expect from the slow-moving storm making its way from the Southeast. Also on the show: Crystal updates us on local issues in Waynesboro involving a proposed increase in the meals tax and another projec...
May 12, 2025•33 min•Ep. 1226
Just last week, Joey Logano and Baseball Hall of Famer Chipper Jones engaged in an odd back-and-forth over a late-race mistake by Logano at Talladega. So of course, it was Logano who would go on to take the checkered flag a week later in Texas. The NASCAR gods are having fun with us.
May 07, 2025•18 min•Ep. 1225
Chipper Jones raised issue, seemingly innocently, with a decision by Joey Logano in last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega. Logano, he of obviously thin skin, fired back at the Baseball Hall of Famer. This is a real thing, as our NASCAR writer, Rod Mullins, explains on our weekly podcast. Also on today’s show: Austin Cedric takes the checkered flag at ‘Dega Logano, Ryan Preece penalized after the race Steve Phelps for PGA Tour commish? Prime Video sets May 22 date for series premiere...
Apr 30, 2025•41 min•Ep. 1224
The uncomfortable couple of weeks with no activity in the talent-acquisition part of the silly season ended Monday with the news that UVA Basketball coach Ryan Odom has landed a top Euro prospect, 6’11”, 235-pound German center Johann Grünloh . Story link: https://augustafreepress.com/news/the-drought-is-over-uva-basketball-is-a-step-closer-to-filling-out-a-roster/...
Apr 28, 2025•5 min•Ep. 1223
I’ve been telling everybody who writes me worrying about the financial state of UVA Basketball , don’t worry, we have the money to play big-boy basketball. Then I see today what Maryland is paying Buzz Williams, and, gotta say, sorry, I take it all back, y’all were right, I was wrong. Story link: https://augustafreepress.com/news/maryland-is-paying-buzz-williams-how-much-yeah-uva-basketball-is-falling-behind/...
Apr 28, 2025•3 min•Ep. 1222
The NASCAR Cup Series had last weekend off, but the Truck Series and Xfinity Series were busy down in Rockingham, N.C. Rod Mullins joined me on our weekly NASCAR podcast to hit the highlights from the weekend, focusing on the DQ of apparent Xfinity winner Jesse Love that gave the victory to Sammy Smith, and the threats from fans that have derailed the week of Katherine Legge following a late-race crash.
Apr 23, 2025•25 min•Ep. 1221
The Armentrout Towing/Old Dixie Towing guy facing a criminal reckless driving charge for driving menacingly through a Staunton political protest rally on April 5 got himself on the radar of the Staunton Police Department last fall for something else. Story online: https://augustafreepress.com/news/staunton-pd-had-past-issues-with-tow-truck-driver-charged-in-april-5-rally-incident/...
Apr 23, 2025•6 min•Ep. 1220
You might remember, I was on top of the UVA Basketball coach search from the get-go, being the first to tell you, among other things, way back in December, that Ryan Odom was one of the top candidates getting a look from the powers-that-be. I only know that kind of stuff because people in the know tell me that kind of stuff. I wish I was just that smart intuitively. Nope. Have you noticed that I haven’t had a lot to offer lately on the transfer portal? It’s because the people in the know don’t k...
Apr 22, 2025•5 min•Ep. 1219
There is talk in the industry about former UVA Basketball coach Tony Bennett being a possible target for the San Antonio Spurs, who don’t exactly have an official opening right now, but the writing seems to be on the wall, with respect to Gregg Popovich. I can argue a million reasons why I don’t see Bennett-to-San Antonio happening, but still, this story has traction behind the scenes.
Apr 22, 2025•3 min•Ep. 1218
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, in the first week of the Senate’s two-week recess, risked his life to try to bring home Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Virginia’s senior senator, Mark Warner has been puttering around the state doing grip-and-grins with locals around the occasional roundtable discussion with important people in business suits. Tim Kaine, the junior senator, spent the week in Europe. He did make a stop in Ukraine, which is something. Advantage: yeah, obviously, Chris Van Hollen....
Apr 22, 2025•5 min•Ep. 1217
MAGA Gov. Glenn Youngkin is claiming that an outfit called the Virginia Homeland Security Task Force has made more than 500 arrests as of Monday, though the governor’s office isn’t able to give us much detail on the nature of the arrests.
Apr 22, 2025•2 min•Ep. 1216
Are White MAGA voters in Virginia ready to cast their lots with a Black immigrant woman for governor, a gay White man for lieutenant governor, and a Latino for attorney general? Have to wonder how Democrats are going to play this in the fall. I mean, it’s the MAGAs who are the anti-“woke,” anti-DEI crowd. This one seems to be playing into Democrats’ hands, big time.
Apr 22, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1215
Whiny White liberals are complaining to me about how they felt penned in at a local protest in Staunton on Saturday. My message: one, stop being a whiny White liberal. Seriously, not a good look. Your problems with being protected from people who would rather run you over with a truck as they would spit on you are what we call First World problems. Two, and this one should be obvious: if you want to take your protest to other people and to elected leaders, you don’t need anybody’s permission....
Apr 21, 2025•9 min•Ep. 1214
A magistrate has issued an arrest warrant for the driver in the “rolling coal” incident that disrupted an April 5 protest rally in front of the Augusta County Courthouse in Staunton. It literally took me swearing out a complaint and presenting evidence to the magistrate on Tuesday to get this to happen, because Staunton Police had no interest in the case. Jeffrey Wayne Armentrout, the owner of the Staunton-based Armentrout Towing/Old Dixie Towing , was identified as the driver of the 2000 Ford B...
Apr 16, 2025•5 min•Ep. 1213
#TeamAFP staff writer Rod Mullins spent the weekend down at Bristol Motor Speedway, where he was witness to a historic weekend of dominance from Kyle Larson, who won two of the three races, and was second in the third. As much fun as that was, Rod, a lifelong Cincinnati Reds fan, was able to talk for a few minutes with Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench, who was one of the marshals for Sunday’s Cup Series race, and was also on hand to help promote the Aug. 2 game between the Reds and Atlanta Br...
Apr 14, 2025•47 min•Ep. 1212
NASCAR will settle in at Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend for racing action that will begin Friday night with the Craftsman Truck Series. #TeamAFP’s Rod Mullins will carry the Augusta Free Press flag for us at Bristol this weekend. Rod joins the “Street Knowledge” podcast to get us ready for the short-track mayhem.
Apr 10, 2025•21 min•Ep. 1211
Ryan Odom is getting heat for the mass exodus from the UVA Basketball program, but the reality is, the Tony Bennett/Ron Sanchez guys that are leaving aren’t fits in the new Odom system. Let me break it down for you, with analysis of the six commits that Odom has been able to pick up from the transfer portal and the April prep signing window.
Apr 10, 2025•19 min•Ep. 1210
