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U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) today urged the U.S. House to take up a bipartisan Senate transportation bill before the March 31st cut-off of federal funding impacts jobs and ongoing transportation projects across Virginia and the rest of the country. The Senate’s two-year proposal supports an estimated 39,800 highway construction and transit jobs in…
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A proposed constitutional amendment that would help protect private property rights cleared its next-to-last hurdle when it was passed by the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates. Now it awaits approval by Virginia voters in November. The Senate version of the bill, SJ 3, passed 23-17, and HJ 3, the House version, was approved 80-18…
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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….
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The Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir has been invited to sing at the White House Christmas Tours on Dec. 21, according to Yvette Peake, choir manager. The acclaimed children’s choir, now in its twentieth year, had applied for the honor in April 2011. “We were thrilled to get this invitation in mid-November and had almost given…
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We politicians like to take credit for accomplishments even when our connection to what has been achieved may sometimes seem less than clear. We also tend to ignore things that are not going as well as they might. For example, Governor McDonnell as most governors before him regularly announces new jobs that are created in…
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“The Declaration of Independence [is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and the rights of man.” – Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826); Founding Father; credited author of said document and third American president. A housekeeping note – I dislike the expression “happy fourth of July.” Happy Independence Day is the correct expression or happy birthday America is…
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When the United States Chamber of Commerce as the world’s largest business federation and I are on the same page as closely as we are on supporting early childhood education, I want to announce it in the headline. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2010 issued a report through its Institute for a Competitive Workforce…
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An effort of conservatives nationwide that would permit the repeal of any federal law or regulation by a vote of two-thirds of the state legislatures has passed the Virginia House of Delegates. The so-called Repeal Amendment passed the House today by a 59-34 vote. The measure is backed by House Speaker Bill Howell, a Republican…
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Access to justice for victims of civil and human rights violations has been severely curbed over the last decade in Virginia and across the nation, according to a report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union. The report shows how indigent capital defendants, victims of torture, immigrants, and abused domestic workers, among others, are…
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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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