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Interesting week for me in my often overlapping roles as a business writer and politics writer. On Wednesday, I met with U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat, after a roundtable in Staunton with local business owners and business leaders who gave Warner quite the earful about the state of business and the state of the…
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Mark Warner spent his first year in the United States Senate alternatively getting his feet wet and biting his lip. “It was a little bit of earning your bona fides. I tried to do that particularly on the financial-reform bill, really dig in an on issue. And there were probably some times where I bit…
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Former Gov. Tim Kaine signed a much-trumpeted reform of payday lending in 2008, but loopholes in the industry-written law were quickly exploited by lenders, who have since moved on to other high-interest loan products that have proven to be highly marketable in the midst of the ongoing economic slowdown. Staunton City Councilman Bruce Elder led…
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Gov. Bob McDonnell addressed the joint Senate Finance, House Appropriations and House Finance Committees in Richmond on Thursday. Below are the governor’s remarks as prepared for delivery. Thank you. Chairman Colgan, Chairman Putney, Chairman Purkey, members of the General Assembly money committees, ladies and gentlemen: good morning. As is the custom each summer, I come…
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Column by Ken Plum www.kenplum.com Gov. Bob McDonnell ran for office as the only candidate with a “transportation plan,” a multi-page, single-spaced document that was good for waving to political crowds but which critics who read its content said had little substance. A report from the governor’s office last month on the progress of…
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Watching another recitation of the doofus that Michael Steele has allowed himself to become as head of the Republican National Committee, something occurred to me. Tim Kaine is still the chair of the Democratic National Committee. Not that you’d know that by the headlines, or lack thereof. The good news is that Kaine isn’t out…
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Column by Chris Graham [email protected] I had a good conversation with a colleague today who happens to be a Tea Partier. I told him how I was planning to write a column today on the shocking vote in Utah over the weekend that ousted Sen. Bob Bennett from the upcoming Senate Republican primary, and…
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Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Gov. Bob McDonnell has declared April to be Confederate History Month, but if you’ve read a newspaper or turned on the TV news anytime in the past few days, you knew that already. You also know that plenty of people are plenty mad that he did this, that plenty…
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Column by David Reynolds Submit guest columns: [email protected] “Where you stand depends upon where you sit,” has eight simple words which explain politics. But it need not. Stands have and will be taken during the discussions over where to cut our local school budgets in these tough fiscal times. Mostly they spring from where…
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Report by Chris Graham [email protected] Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a moral evil. Got that. Interesting approach from gay, lesbian and transgender activists in Virginia – playing not the moral but the economic-competitiveness card. “We want you to be sure you tell your employees that you’re bringing the facts of life…
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