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In their annual rankings released this week, the U.S. Green Building Council announced that Virginia has improved to the top state for LEED-certified buildings. Virginia ranked behind Colorado and Illinois last year, but improved to the top spot for 2012, with 170 projects certified, and 29,709,574 square feet of LEED space certified.
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U.S. Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have reintroduced their legislation to make substantial improvements in the states’ administration of their elections and to make voting faster and more accessible to all voters.
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The ACLU of Virginia on Monday sent a letter to Gov. Bob McDonnell urging him to issue an executive order restoring the voting rights of Virginians with felony convictions. The civil liberties group has recently praised the Governor for showing support for legislation that would automatically restore civil rights for nonviolent offenders, and becoming an advocate for rights restoration reform.
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Since the Virginia Food System Council issued a challenge last spring for Virginians to spend $10 a week on locally grown foods, nearly 700 households and 30 businesses have pledged almost half a million dollars per year.
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One of my mentors in my earliest years in the General Assembly was Delegate Dorothy McDiarmid who served off and on from 1960 to 1989. First elected on a platform of keeping the public schools open during racial desegregation, the Gentlelady from Fairfax Mrs. McDiarmid went on to successfully add kindergarten to the public school system of the state and to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Her supporters gave her the campaign slogan, “The Lady Has Clout.” Delegate McDiarmid taught me to look carefully at political proposals, many of which lacked substance and were simply “smoke and mirrors.”
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The definition of “energy independence” is evolving. Up to recently, it has meant the U.S. producing enough of our own oil so that we were not dependent on other nations for our energy needs. But now we’re in a world of oil interdependence. Oil markets know no national allegiance. Globalization and profit motive are altering a once patriotic concept into this: Producing enough oil and gas so that we export more to our trading partners than we import. While this new energy independence framework may help some companies’ profits, it stands to hurt many Americans’ pocketbooks, water supply, and overall health.
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President Barack Obama stepped out into the political crossfire on Wednesday, issuing a sweeping series of proposals aimed at limiting gun violence that includes criminal background checks on all gun sales and a ban on military-style assault weapons.
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Noura Erakat, an international human rights attorney and Palestinian activist, will speak at Bridgewater College on Monday, Jan. 28, at 7:30 p.m. in Cole Hall.
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Last January, when our documentary film, We’re Not Broke, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, we were elated. The film’s message about how multinational corporations are cheating the American people out of desperately needed tax revenue to the tune of $100 billion a year was sure to reach the masses.
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Yes, anyone can do it—and the benefits can be significant, especially for those in warmer climates who expend a lot of energy keeping cool. But most of the world’s roofs, including on some 90 percent of buildings in the U.S., are dark-colored.
