McDonnell Inaugural lineup announced
Staff Report
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Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell today announced that 47 groups from across the Commonwealth will be participating in Virginia’s Inaugural parade on Saturday, Jan. 16th. The parade will take place immediately after the swearing-in ceremony, starting at approximately 1:15 p.m.
The parade lineup will include a number of organizations with personal connections to Virginia’s 71st governor. His American Legion Post from Virginia Beach will join the parade, as will his high school alma mater, Bishop Ireton in Alexandria. The Governor-elect’s youngest daughter’s college will be represented by the James Madison University Marching Royal Dukes. And Virginia’s next First Lady, Maureen McDonnell, will wave to the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders Alumni Association and Hoggettes, and the Washington Redskins Marching Band. Read more
Robinson tapped to serve as Secretary of Education
African-American is expert on charter schools
Staff Report
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Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell announced today his selection of Gerard Robinson as Virginia’s next Secretary of Education.
Robinson currently serves as the president of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, and began his career as an educator in Los Angeles. He is a nationally recognized expert on the modern charter school movement and serves on the Policy Advisory Council at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and on the board of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Charter School Resource Center.
“Few individuals in America are as committed to providing positive educational opportunities for all our young people, in all our communities, as Gerard Robinson,” McDonnell said. “He understands the issue both personally and professionally. Gerard’s life story, from growing up in a working-class family in Los Angeles to receiving his Master’s degree in Education from Harvard, is an inspiration to us all. He has dedicated his career to helping young people across the country receive the same educational opportunities that were crucial to his own success.” Read more
Sierra Club: McDonnell misses ‘big picture’ on drilling
Staff Report
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The Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club today issued its response to Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell’s recent letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar regarding Virginia offshore drilling and lease sale.
“In his rush to accelerate Virginia offshore drilling, Mr. McDonnell is not considering the big picture,” said Glen Besa, director of the Virginia Chapter Sierra Club.
McDonnell continues to base his economic argument for drilling on a 2005 analysis done by former Old Dominion University president Dr. James V. Koch. In several recent statements to the press, Dr. Koch has revealed the deep inadequacies of his analysis. Read more
McDonnell makes three Cabinet appointments
Staff Report
www.bobmcdonnell.com
Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell announced three additional appointments to his administration this morning in a press conference at the State Capitol.
McDonnell announced that Jim Duffey will serve as the Commonwealth’s next Secretary of Technology. Duffey worked for Electric Data Systems Corporation for 24 years, serving as Vice President and General Manager of U.S. Public Sector business, and is a former Vice-Chairman of the Northern Virginia Technology Council.
McDonnell also appointed Doug Domenech as Secretary of Natural Resources. Domenech served in a number of leadership roles in the United States Department of Interior, which manages nearly one-fifth of the land in the country, from 2001 to 2009. Domenech began his career in the forestry industry, later serving as a gubernatorial appointee to the Virginia Board of Forestry. Read more
McDonnell: Va. ‘eager to get started’ on offshore drilling
Gov.-elect writes letter to Secretary of Interior to push ’11 lease sale
Staff Report
McDonnell online: www.bobmcdonnell.com
Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell today released a letter that he sent last week to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar cautioning against any delay in a scheduled 2011 lease sale involving drilling interests off the Virginia coast.
The letter comes as published reports have Salazar considering a revision to federal policy regarding drilling dating back to the Bush administration. McDonnell made offshore drilling a key part of his 2009 gubernatorial campaign as a way of providing revenues for transportation-system improvements.
“More than fifteen months have passed since the United States Congress allowed the federal moratorium on exploration and development of oil and natural gas resources off the Atlantic Coast to expire, and President Bush repealed a similar executive order banning such action. This cleared the way for Virginia to be the first state on the Atlantic seaboard to explore and drill beginning in 2011. Virginia is eager to get started,” wrote McDonnell in the Dec. 23 letter. Read more
McDonnell: Current state-budget system ‘needs to be reformed’
Gov.-elect will propose moving development of budget to odd-numbered years
Statement by Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell
www.bobmcdonnell.com
On Friday, Dec. 18th, Gov. Tim Kaine proposed his biennial budget for Fiscal Years 2011 and 2012. The governor made his proposal with only 28 days left in his single four-year term, carrying out his obligation as determined by our current budgetary calendar.
Unfortunately, the current budget development process leads to a situation, repeated every four years, in which the consideration, debate and adoption of one governor’s proposed budget takes place during the administration of his successor. Thus, one out of every two budgets submitted requires no subsequent accountability or management from the governor who proposed it.
The current system also requires a new governor to potentially submit sweeping changes to a budget just days after taking office with limited preparation and input. A sitting governor usually takes many months to analyze and develop a comprehensive state budget. It is likewise burdensome on the General Assembly to have to review and consider the potentially divergent budget recommendations of two governors in such a short period of time. Read more
Letter | McDonnell’s claims on drilling ‘tenuous at best’
Posted by afp on December 31, 2009 · 1 Comment
Letter from J.R. Tolbert, Richmond, Va.
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On the subject of jobs Mr. McDonnell cites a 2005 “study” that claims more than 2,000 jobs would be created by drilling operations. The fact of the matter is that, as cited in the Dec. 30th Wall Street Journal, the author of this report did not consider any Virginia specific data and only looked at examples in Louisiana and Canada. Read more
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