SPORTS: Football debuts, stunning horse victories, Appalachian hiker. Pages 9, 10 and 11
August 29, 2018
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Warrenton couple displaced by house fire Donations sought for rebuilding By James Ivancic Times Staff Writer
Frederick and Frances Penn of Warrenton want to rebuild their home that stood for 50 years before catastrophe struck. A fire on Aug. 6 consumed their two-bedroom, single-story home at 8930 Meetze Road. Capt. Russell Baker, of the Fauquier County Fire Marshal’s Office, said the fire was likely caused by electrical wiring worn by age and damaged by water leaks. The Penns weren’t home at the time of the late-morning blaze, the couple said. The Penns didn’t have insurance on their home. A GoFundMe page has been set up for them. There’s a goal of $50,000. As of Aug. 28, a total of $3,351 had been raised. The couple figures they need about $150,000 to rebuild. Frederick Penn, 88, served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. American Legion Post 360 in Warrenton stepped up to help with a donation of $500. “We’d like for the community and veterans to help with donations,” said Robert Chichester, service officer with Post 360. Penn said he worked on the maintenance staff of the City of Falls Church. Now retired, he and his wife receive Social Security benefits. The American Red Cross put them
TIMES STAFF PHOTO/KAREN CHAFFRAIX Frederick and Frances Penn’s home on Meetze Road was destroyed by fire Aug. 6. Inset, a submitted photo the Penns. up at the Howard Johnson Inn in Warrenton for three nights. They’re now staying with a son, one of seven surviving Penn children from an original nine. Reach James Ivancic at jivancic@ fauquier.com
A GoFundMe page has been set up with a goal of raising $50,000. As of Aug. 28, a total of $3,351 had been raised. The couple figures they need about $150,000 to rebuild. gofundme.com/pcgpzh-elderly-couple-in-need
New advisory group takes another crack at troubled intersections Two meetings are planned to discuss U.S. 29, Vint Hill Road, others By James Ivancic Times Staff Writer
Ike Broaddus, the co-owner of Old Bust Head Brewing Company in Vint Hill, believes he and others know how to make U.S. 29 in Fauquier County safer while improving traffic flow. But he said he’ll attend Thursday’s initial meeting of a “Route 29/New Baltimore Advisory Group” with an open mind. He wants to hear what Virginia Department of Transportation officials bring to the table. Broaddus is one of nine stakeholders advising VDOT as it takes a fresh look at making the INSIDE Business.............................................13 Classified............................................27 Communities......................................22 Faith...................................................26
stretch of U.S. 29 from the Warrenton town border to Vint Hill Road, near the Prince William County line, safer and less congested. This “do over” comes after VDOT plans for four intersections were roundly criticized by business owners, residents and the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors. The board this year approved a resolution that asked VDOT to cease currently planning and start the process anew. Of particular concern was a VDOT proposal to replace the existing traffic light at U.S. 29 and Vint Hill Road with a restricted crossing and U-turn configuration that would have relied on what some call “Michigan lefts,” a reference to
Family Time........................................15 Libraries.............................................25 Lifestyle..............................................17 Opinion.................................................4
the prominence of such intersections in that state. Business owners, including Broaddus, were concerned that such a design would make getting to Vint Hill difficult and dangerous for customers and truck shipments. Also, the Fauquier County school division didn’t like the idea of forcing school buses to make what they considered dicey U-turns on U.S. 29. Lou Hatter, communications manager for VDOT’s Culpeper District, said this isn’t the first time VDOT has re-started project planning. He pointed to the Route 29 Solutions program on U.S.29 in the Charlottesville-Albemarle County area.
See GROUP, page 3
Obituaries.............................................6 Puzzles.................................................8 Real Estate..........................................21 Sports...................................................9
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NEWS
Fauquier Times | www.fauquier.com | August 29, 2018
Cockburn critical of Trump but wary about impeachment By Jill Palermo
wrong and it’s dangerous,” Cockburn said, adding the rhetoric could spark violence. Editor’s note: The Fauquier Times/ “This can unleash people. When Prince William Times has extended an does somebody start throwing Moinvitation to the Riggleman campaign lotov cocktails through a journalist’s for a similar editorial board interview. window? When does that start?” Still, Cockburn said she’s wary of As an investigative journalist, Leslie Cockburn spent decades covering talk about impeaching the president if politicians. But she says she wasn’t Democrats take control of one or both congressional chambers in particularly drawn to politics 2019. and never imagined running Cockburn noted that Refor elected office, saying: “It publican House members was never part of the plan.” poured a lot of time and monThen came the election ey into impeaching President of President Donald Trump. Bill Clinton (D) only to see It was partly Trump’s vocal him acquitted by the Senate. disdain for the news media, Cockburn said, that propelled “Let’s make sure, before her run for Congress. there’s any talk of impeachCockburn (pronounced ment, that we let [Special CO-burn), the Democrat- Leslie Cockburn Counsel Robert Mueller’s] ic nominee for Virginia’s investigation play out,” 5th District congressional race, vis- Cockburn said. “I don’t think it’s good ited the Warrenton newsroom of the to jump the gun on impeachment.” Fauquier Times and Prince William But can she work with President Times Thursday, Aug. 16 — the day Trump? more than 300 newspapers across the Cockburn paused, looking for the country published editorials defending right words. themselves and the free press against “That would be difficult,” she said. the president’s claim the media is “the “I don’t see a lot work going on right enemy of the people.” now. He’s not working very well with As a former “60 Minutes” and the Democrats.” “Frontline” contributor who has written several books, Cockburn said she ‘Lean Republican’ or ‘toss-up’? Finding the right way to talk about stands in solidarity with her fellow Trump is a challenge in the traditionaljournalists. “For an American president to say ly red 5th District, where voters chose that we’re the enemy of the people is the president over Democrat Hillary Times Staff Writer
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Clinton by 55 to 41 percent in 2016. Although recently downgraded from “solid Republican” to “lean Republican” by the Cook Political Report and declared a “toss-up” by data journalist Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight blog, a Democratic win in the 5th District would be considered an upset. Rep. Tom Garrett, a Republican, won the seat in 2016 with 58 percent of the vote. Garrett has declined to seek re-election, citing a battle with alcoholism. It’s been a decade since a Democrat held the seat. Tom Perriello won it in 2008, when President Barack Obama was first elected, but lost two years later in the 2010 midterms. The district stretches from Fauquier County to the North Carolina line, comprising 21 counties and two cities, Charlottesville and Danville. Still, Cockburn says she sees the swell of a blue wave on the horizon. Her campaign boasts 1,400 volunteers, she said, whose efforts are being coordinated by a 16-member staff with local leaders in every county in the district. “We’re closing in,” Cockburn said. “We have an internal poll that showing that it’s neck and neck.” In the Aug. 16 interview, Cockburn touched on a range of topics, including health care — the issue she says is most critical to Central Virginians — as well as the opioid crisis, immigration reform, her past criticism of Israeli foreign policy and why she decided, late last month, to spotlight her GOP opponent’s unusual fascination with Bigfoot. The race made national headlines in late July after Cockburn tweeted a post Republican nominee Denver Riggleman made on his now-private Instagram page. The post featured a drawing of Bigfoot with Riggleman’s face superimposed over the creature’s head and a black bar censoring its private parts. Cockburn’s tweet included this comment: “My opponent Denver Riggleman, running mate of [GOP Senate nominee] Corey Stewart, was caught on camera campaigning with a white supremacist. Now he has been ex-
posed as a devotee of Bigfoot erotica. This is not what we need on Capitol Hill.” The tweet marked something of a scoop. Riggleman’s interest in Bigfoot was not widely known before Cockburn shared the post. Riggleman responded by insisting he’s not into “Bigfoot erotica” — never heard of it, he said. Riggleman has already written one book on Bigfoot and is planning a second, to be titled: “The Mating Habits of Bigfoot and Why Women Want Him.” “For me, the book really is an anthropological study on all the people who believe in Bigfoot and the different Bigfoot belief systems out there. That’s it,” Riggleman said at the time, according to the Daily Beast. “This is a real subculture in the United States, and it’s hundreds of thousands of people that believe.” Asked why she chose to spotlight Riggleman’s interest in Bigfoot, Cockburn said she believed voters should know about it. “I did it because he had presented himself this way on social media and I thought it was just important to show it without a lot of comment,” she said. Cockburn also addressed what has become the Republicans’ chief talking point about her candidacy: that a 27-year-old book she authored with her husband, fellow journalist Andrew Cockburn, suggests she is an anti-Semite. The book, “Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the U.S.-Israeli Covert Relationship,” was critical of some aspects of Israeli foreign policy. Cockburn noted she’s been endorsed by JStreet, a pro-Israel advocacy group, and dismissed the charge. “What people who support Israel — and I’m one of them — understand is that there’s a big difference between being critical of policy, as a journalist, and being an anti-Semite,” she said.
Top issue: ‘dysfunctional’ health care
Since announcing her candidacy in 2017, Cockburn, a resident of Rappa-
See COCKBURN, page 3
Town of Warrenton refuse schedule for Labor Day Monday, Sept. 3 Tuesday, Sept. 4 Wednesday, Sept. 5 Thursday, Sept. 6 Friday, Sept. 7
Holiday — no pickup Mondays and Tuesdays refuse collection Recycling collection (cardboard, newspaper and blue bags) Regular refuse collection Regular refuse collection
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FROM PAGE 1/NEWS
Fauquier Times | www.fauquier.com | August 29, 2018
COCKBURN from page 2 hannock County, said she has put 67,000 miles on her car to meet with voters in all stretches of the 5th District. Despite the size of the 5th District, its residents are largely dealing the same challenges, which include, in no particular order: Health care: Cockburn said the country has the “most dysfunctional” health care system in the world and blames unaffordable insurance premiums in parts of Central Virginia on the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. The administration has eliminated subsidies to insurance companies on the healthcare exchange as well as the individual mandate — tax penalties for those who don’t have insurance — which has pushed up premiums as companies fear higher costs due to a potentially older and less healthy client pool. Cockburn said she supports the idea of allowing Medicare to sell insurance plans on the exchange to Americans of any age — not just those who are 65 or older. Sen. Tim Kaine calls the proposal “Medicare X” and has introduced legislation to make it happen. Cockburn said she supports Medicare X as a transition to a mostly publicly supported health care system that would eliminate the profit motive and higher overhead costs associated with private health care insurance. The opioid epidemic: Cockburn said she is learning about the different treatment models for opioid addiction and believes the standard, 28-day residential model is not working. Addicts, she said, do better in programs that provide support for longer periods of time. She said she’s particular-
ly impressed by programs that involve the “recovery community,” those who have battled their own drug addictions. “The recovery community has the answer, there’s no doubt it,” she said. Cockburn said she would seek to funnel more federal resources into treatment programs that are proven most effective. Foundering farms: Cockburn said the district seems filled with farmers trying to make it in agriculture but forced to supplement their income in other ways, resulting in farmer-firefighters, farmer-lawyers, etc. The tariffs enacted by the Trump administration are hurting farmers, Cockburn said, as is the stalled federal immigration legislation. “Immigrant labor is the backbone of the 5th District,” she said. “Who’s milking these cows three times a day? It’s the immigrants.” Farmers, she says, are telling her “don’t demonize these people. These people are keeping my farm going.” Cockburn says Congress must enact a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Regarding reinforcing the border wall, Cockburn said President Trump isn’t listening to the people who live in border communities. “A lot of them don’t want a wall. I’ll tell you, if you have a wall and you can’t go over the wall, you’ll go under it,” she added, referring to the possibility for border-crosses to tunnel beneath such a barrier. Cockburn said she’s “completely appalled” by Trump’s zero tolerance policy for border-crossers that led to family separation, calling it “a level of cruelty never seen before” in the U.S. Reach Jill Palermo at jpalermo@fauquier.com
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Advisory group to study intersections GROUP from page 1 “That section of the corridor was studied multiple times over several decades before projects to address safety and congestion in that area were identified, designed and constructed,” Hatter said. Broaddus noted that discussions about improving the intersection at Vint Hill Road and U.S. 29 that have been going on between VDOT and community groups since about 2007. “It’s been a very frustrating decade,” Broaddus said. “VDOT would come through with solutions the community did not want. Of three, four, five or six possible solutions, VDOT would give one or two that were just not acceptable but [they] would conclude were the best solutions.” He said a “simple solution” exists for the traffic trouble spot: leveling the hills to improve the sightlines and reducing the speed limit from 55 to 45 miles per hour. Broaddus said he believes the lower speed limit would get travelers through the area without the speeding up, stacking up and accidents that occur now. Broaddus said that solution has local support from all stakeholders — businesses, residents, school division, supervisors and planning commission. But Broaddus said he wants to
any new data and studies VDOT may have for the study group. “I’d like to listen to objective data and new ways of thinking. Maybe VDOT will come back with a better idea,” Broaddus said. Besides Broaddus, the advisory group includes Marc Geffroy of Seneca Properties LLC; Pete Eltringham of the county’s transportation committee; Tim Hoffman, of the Vint Hill Homeowners Association; Natalie Erdossy of the Brookside HOA; Haven Melton, air traffic manager at the Federal Aviation Administration facility at Vint Hill; Steve Combs, deputy commissioner of the Virginia Department of Veterans Services; Christy Thorpe, principal of C. Hunter Ritchie Elementary School; and Craig Oakley, director of the New Baltimore Fire Department. The group will hold its initial meeting Thursday, Aug. 30, from 1 to 3 p.m. in the first-floor conference of the Warren Green building, 10 Hotel St., Warrenton. The meeting is open to the public. Overflow seating will be available in the second-floor large conference room. A follow-up meeting is planned for Thursday, Sept. 27 at a location to be determined. Reach James Ivancic at jivancic@fauquier.com
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