Poll: Virginians split on McDonnell

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A new VCU poll has Virginians split on the job performance of the new governor, Bob McDonnell. The Commonwealth Poll conducted July 15-19 has 48 percent of Virginians rating the Republican’s performance as excellent or good, and 52 percent saying that McDonnell is doing a fair or poor job. Inside the numbers, the views on…

Dr. Jeffrey Patterson: Lessons from the Gulf for nuclear reactors

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Column by Dr. Jeffrey Patterson Submit guest columns: [email protected] One crucial lesson from the BP oil spill is that measures to speed licensing, cut corners on safety and undermine regulation can lead to tragic consequences. Yet Congress appears on the verge of repeating mistakes that led to the environmental catastrophe in the Gulf. Federal lawmakers…

Drilling in the Valley

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Millions of gallons of water are used to literally fracture the earth to get at the natural gas below. And below is the operative word – hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, as it’s commonly called, aims at natural-gas reserves anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000 feet beneath the earth’s surface. The good news is that natural gas…

Madeline Ostrander: Protect America’s coasts and waterways

Column by Madeline Ostrander Submit guest columns: [email protected]   Dave Rauschkolb took on the oil industry when it got personal—it threatened his beach and his business. Rauschkolb is not an environmental lawyer or professional Sierra Club-type. He’s an avid surfer and owns a pizza bar on the northwest coast of Florida, within range of the…

Virginia Democrats question Cuccinelli’s motives in UVa. case

Party releases video on education issue Edited by Chris Graham [email protected]   Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has “done serious harm to the integrity of our system of higher education,” Democratic Party of Virginia Chairman Richard Cranwell said Friday, with his request for information relating to research conducted by former UVa. professor Michael Mann, a noted…

Virginia enters Wind Energy Consortium

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Edited by Chris Graham [email protected]   Gov. Bob McDonnell signed onto a Memorandum of Understanding with U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and nine East Coast governors, to establish the Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy Consortium. Through this consortium, Gov. McDonnell will encourage the environmentally-responsible development of wind energy, and other sources of renewable energy,…

Democrats criticize Cuccinelli on picketing case

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Story by Chris Graham [email protected]   Virginia Democrats are howling over Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s refusal to file a legal brief in support of the family of a fallen U.S. soldier suing a fundamentalist church that uses military funerals as a backdrop to protest gay rights. “I have a real problem with anyone who wants…