Share
The jobs situation seems to continue to be getting better, with Friday’s announcement that unemployment fell two-tenths of a percent in January, to 8.3 percent. But it’s not getting better fast enough, says Fifth District Republican Congressman Robert Hurt. “A drop in the national unemployment average is always good news. However, the jobless rate remains…
Share
Ron Paul finished second in the New Hampshire primary. To be more precise, he finished second in both of that state’s primaries – Republican and Democrat, the latter as a write-in vote. Though President Obama is running virtually unopposed in the primaries, 2,289 New Hampshire voters felt that Ron Paul would be a more suitable…
Share
The 2012 session of the General Assembly is moving by rapidly. Deadlines for the submission of bills and budget amendments have long passed, and both houses of the Assembly are in full swing. There were both good and bad signs of things to come this past week. On the hopeful side, Democrats and Republicans worked…
Share
The black-white debate on energy production between Republicans and Democrats generally speaking comes down to the merits of oil production vs. clean energy. It doesn’t have to be an either-or proposition, though. “We need to use every domestic source that we have. But I think we ought to be preparing for a long-term shift toward…
Share
Good people across the country and in the Sixth Congressional District recently handed Bob Goodlatte a major defeat. Goodlatte had drafted, introduced, and co-sponsored the now infamous SOPA “Internet blacklist” bill. This lousy legislation contained assaults on the First, Fourth and 14th amendments – and Bob, who read the Constitution as recently as last January…
Share
With my campaign to unseat the 20-year incumbent and rubber-stamp Republican Bob Goodlatte, we have an opportunity to achieve something of real importance, something that reverberates far beyond our Sixth District in Virginia. Sure, it’s true, as the newspapers like to point out, it’s an uphill fight. Sure, my opponent will far outspend me. Sure,…
Share
The 2012 Session of the General Assembly got off to an inauspicious start. Precedent was ignored and the 60 day session began under the shadow of a lawsuit. A brief explanation: Twice before, houses of the Virginia General Assembly have been evenly divided. In 1996 the Senate was divided, 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans. In…
Share
Virginians remain strongly supportive of funding for public schools and oppose test-based teacher pay, according to a new statewide survey conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University. The VCU Commonwealth Education Poll finds six?in-10 Virginians (60 percent) say that Virginia schools do not have enough funds to meet their needs, while 29 percent say schools have enough…
Share
Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine was “surprised” when U.S. Sen. Jim Webb announced in Feburary 2011 that he would not seek re-election. Kaine had hinted after finishing out his term as governor in 2010 that he might be done with electoral politics, even as he stepped at the time into the job of chairman of…
Share
Today, House Democrats announced their support for legislation to set up a health insurance marketplace in Virginia. Delegates Patrick Hope (D-Arlington) and Jennifer McClellan (D-Richmond) are introducing legislation modeled after the recommendations of Governor Bob McDonnell’s Virginia Health Reform Initiative (VHRI). The VHRI was formed to implement the federal health care reform law in Virginia….
Local news is in “serious jeopardy,” according to experts. Pitch in and help AFP continue to deliver news to the Valley, Virginia and beyond.