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Thumbtack.com, in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, has released the second-annual Thumbtack.com Small Business Friendliness Survey showing that Virginia continues to be a top state for small businesses, earning an ‘A’ grade for the ease of starting a business in the state and an ‘A’ overall.
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Why is it that some of Virginia’s urban politicians show so little respect for the citizens of our rural counties? I refer to State Sens. Dick Saslaw (D) of Springfield and John Watkins (R) of Midlothian, who have co-sponsored a bill (SB 1341) before the General Assembly that would override local authority over the siting of commercial wind energy projects. They follow in the footsteps of State Senator Frank Wagner (R) of Virginia Beach, who for years has worked on behalf of corporate wind and against the interests of rural communities.
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Virginia State Parks continues the trend of recent years with a new attendance record in 2012 of 8,366,179 visitors, an increase of 7 percent over 2011. The new record is a 4 percent increase over the previous attendance record of 8,065,558 set in 2010.
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Gov. Bob McDonnell applauded the award of an offshore wind technology demonstration grant to a Virginia utility and announced today the beginning of a geological survey of the Virginia Wind Energy Area (WEA), encompassing 112,799 acres 23.5 nautical miles offshore Virginia Beach and the Port of Hampton Roads. Both of these projects support a Commonwealth goal to accelerate commercial leasing and development of the Virginia WEA and offshore energy industry supply chain.
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Conservation groups praised the Obama Administration’s announcement on Friday of a lease sale for the offshore wind energy area 23.5 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. The Department of the Interior announced it would be conducting a competitive lease sale for the 112,800-acre area identified last February. DOI will auction the entire area as a single lease. The lease sale is an important step and is the result of cooperation among regulators, environmentalists, utilities and state lawmakers-all of whom support offshore wind energy for Virginia.
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Gov. Bob McDonnell announced Monday that WWE will bring its 10th annual holiday salute to the United States Armed Forces, WWE Tribute to the Troops presented by Slim Jim, to Virginia this December. The 10th anniversary holiday extravaganza will air as a two-hour television special on Wednesday, December 19 at 9/8C on USA Network and as a one-hour television special on Saturday, December 22 at 9/8C on NBC.
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Virginia has one of the largest deposits of uranium of anyplace in the country in Pittsylvania County in the southern part of the state. The location of Coles Hill Farm where the deposit is centered is in the Roanoke River watershed. There are smaller deposits of uranium in other parts of the state including the Piedmont region
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Portions of the highly anticipated feature film Captain Phillips will be shot in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The film stars Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks as Captain Richard Phillips
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Beginning Wednesday, May 23, motorists will be able to take the quickest route to the beach by following new signs that will display real-time traffic times
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Nate Irving (Fr., Yonkers, N.Y.) hit a walk-off infield single with two outs in the ninth inning to cap a rally from three runs down as the Virginia baseball team topped Virginia Tech, 6-5, Sunday at Davenport Field. UVa trailed 5-2 in the eighth inning before scoring two runs in each of the final two…
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