Ralph Northam, Mark Herring win Democratic nominations

Contributors

State Sens. Ralph Northam and Mark Herring will complete the Democratic Party ticket for the 2013 state elections. Northam, D-Norfolk, defeated Aneesh Chopra for the lieutenant governor nomination, with 54.3 percent of the more than 140,000 votes cast. Herring, D-Leesburg, won a tighter battle with former federal prosecutor Justin Fairfax for the attorney general nomination, with 51.6 percent of the votes going to Herring.

mark warner

Sen. Mark Warner urges commission to look at voting wait times

Chris Graham

U.S. Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chris Coons (D-DE) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) today sent a letter to the chairmen of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration, Robert F. Bauer and Benjamin L. Ginsberg, urging them to take strong steps to address the hours-long election lines that too many voters endured during the 2012 election.

newspaper

Sean Moulton and Sofia Plagakis: Are dangerous chemicals stored near you?

Contributors

Federal investigators from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board and other agencies are still sifting through the debris in West, Texas to determine why a fire in a fertilizer plant ignited an explosion of ammonium nitrate that killed at least 14 people, injured more than 200, and destroyed two schools, a nursing home, and dozens of homes.