Young at Heart

Chris Graham

The Center will be closed on Tuesday, June 14 as the members go on a field trip. They will be traveling up to Camp Overlook, a United Methodist Church camp, in Keezletown. The camp is preparing for a summer season of church camp weeks for children. They are staffed by college students from all over…

Tim Donner: Think big

AFP

As we witness one battle after another over the runaway federal budget and national debt, the political class must begin to think big. Repeated fights over individual line items in the federal budget have produced the same results: threats of government shutdowns accompanied by minimal reductions. We will get nowhere in reducing the size, scope…

Wizards assistant joins Hewitt’s staff at Mason

AFP

George Mason head men’s basketball coach Paul Hewitt announced Thursday the hiring of Mike Wells as an assistant coach, rounding out Hewitt’s staff after joining the Patriots in May. Wells arrives in Fairfax following an extensive career in the professional ranks, most recently as assistant coach and advance scout with the NBA’s Washington Wizards. “I…

Sam Gbaydee Doe and Al Fuertes: Two SPI learners/teachers who keep coming back

AFP

For both Sam Gbaydee Doe and Al Fuertes, the vocation of peacebuilding was forged in the trauma of civil war. In Doe’s native Liberia, 10 percent of the population perished. For Fuertes, growing up on the Philippine island Mindanao, one of the world’s longest recent wars seemed “a given.” Now, over more than a decade,…

Tax policy study: Flip it to fix it

AFP

A new study has found that inverting state tax structures—whereby the highest income earners would be taxed at the current percentage of income for the lowest income earners, and vice versa—would collectively raise $6.9 billion more in revenue, a 21.4 percent increase over Virginia’s current tax structure. “Flipping” the tax structure would eliminate future budget…

Warner delivers thank-yous to Navy Seals

Chris Graham

U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner today delivered more than 1,200 messages of support and appreciation to U.S. Navy special operations personnel representing the successful military operation that eliminated Al Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. The ‘thank you’ notes were submitted through a message board set-up on Sen. Warner’s website, and through Facebook, Twitter and…

Robert Hurt: Honoring the intelligence community in the Fifth District

Robert Hurt

This past week the House approved H.R. 754, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 with near unanimous support. This bill provides and allocates critical resources for the intelligence community that help keep Fifth District Virginians and all Americans safe. Congress has not passed a complete Intelligence Authorization Bill in six years, and the…

Environmental leaders push alternative solution to high gas prices

Chris Graham

The leaders of the nation’s largest environmental groups today asked President Obama to create long-term relief for drivers at the pump by delivering the strongest fuel-efficiency and auto pollution standards for new vehicles currently under consideration. The administration will propose new fuel efficiency and auto pollution standards this September, with key decisions being made this…