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Reading the news is usually an ordeal of watching the world fall apart at an accelerating pace, so when four United Nations agencies offer a new count of mothers’ deaths worldwide in pregnancy and childbirth, one braces for another depressing and insoluble problem. The numbers over the past 20 years, after all, have been stubbornly…
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U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., voted on Wednesday to pass the Small Business Jobs Act, which now goes to the House of Representatives for final passage. “Small businesses are essential to the health of our economy — creating two-thirds of all new jobs over the last 15 years,” said Sen. Webb. “I have listened to…
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Confidence. That’s what America needs to get business moving again. “The challenge we have now is, what can we do to fix the confidence of the business community at large?” U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., told a group of business owners in Staunton on Wednesday. Warner did some talking and a lot of listening as…
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It was sometime around 2000 or 2001 when I realized that the way we’ve always done things in Augusta County relative to the provision of fire and rescue service, with the bulk of the work done by volunteers, was no longer sufficient to get the job done. I had invited myself out on a Saturday…
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If you blinked, you might have missed Sen. Blanche Lincoln change what your child likely eats for lunch at school. Recently, in the wake of Elena Kagan’s confirmation, the Senate quickly and unanimously passed Lincoln’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. After years of negotiations and a recent push from Michelle Obama, the proposal received 30 seconds…
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Gov. Bob McDonnell addressed the joint Senate Finance, House Appropriations and House Finance Committees in Richmond on Thursday. Below are the governor’s remarks as prepared for delivery. Thank you. Chairman Colgan, Chairman Putney, Chairman Purkey, members of the General Assembly money committees, ladies and gentlemen: good morning. As is the custom each summer, I come…
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There’s no question that technology changes faster than most of us yuppies and boomers can handle. I don’t know what the current number of years for technology “generations” is, but I do know that if you have children five or more years apartin age, they will each use technology differently. I’ve observed my own two…
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Seven postseason qualifiers and a possible trip to The Mecca of Basketball, Madison Square Garden, highlight the 13-game 2010-11 non-conference schedule for the Virginia Commonwealth University men’s basketball team. “Overall our schedule presents a wide variety of challenging opponents,” head coach Shaka Smart said. “We’ll have the chance to test ourselves in extremely hostile environments…
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I’ve learned repeatedly in my life that whenever I give to the world, whether by direct action or donations, I get back so much more than the effort or money involved. This is a life lesson that our kids should learn as so many of them, here in America, are living the “easy life” with…
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As we fight through this deep recession, we must start manufacturing, building, and growing things in America again. For too long, elites in both parties have pursued policies that ship our jobs overseas and undermine the middle and working class. Manufacturing, construction, and agriculture cannot be treated as yesterday’s news but rather must be part…
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