Street Knowledge With Chris Graham

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 Trump DOJ, Gregory Brown, the deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights, and Harmeet K. Dhillon, a civil-rights lawyer in the department, leading the charge on that front.  

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.

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.

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 on what we know about the case, and the silence from UVA Athletics and the local YMCA.

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.

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.

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 Agricultural & Mechanical College wanted everybody to know that it had poached its new baseball coach from a blue blood with a $14.2 billion endowment. The shocking annual salary, and four-year contract, puts a different perspective on the hue and cry from O’Connor from last fall and into the spring about Carla Williams not being willing to give him the resources he needed to be able to compete.

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.

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.

#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; additional delays possible Augusta Health, Valley Community Services Board brace for impact of Medicaid cuts Trump pardons former Culpeper County sheriff convicted in bribery scandal

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. UVA Baseball, to me, looks like an NCAA Tournament

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 assaulted to the point of his death,” Wade Gerencser, the brother of Stefan Gerencser, 39, wrote on social media, in a post brought to our attention by a family friend, Gary Bone, who served in the Marine Corps with the Gerencser brothers. Former deputy files $5.35M suit against Augusta County sheriff over forced resignation The $5.35 million federal civil rights lawsuit filed against Augusta County Sheriff Donald Smith that is making news today might need to be taken with a grain of salt. The reason I’m starting there: the

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.

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 project at the old Virginia Metalcrafters Crystal does her best to get Chris in further trouble with the UVA Basketball fan base, getting him to talk about the new hire by Ryan Odom to his staff. UVA Baseball continues its late-season run toward an NCAA Tournament berth. The “what else are we working on” segment includes the latest nonsense from DC involving DOGE not saving us money and Donald Trump taking a bribe, and details on a story that we’re working on about how Albemarle County Police are trying a new approach to de

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.

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 of "Earnhardt"

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/ 

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/ 

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.

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/