State: Record international tourism spending in 2010

Contributors

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell announced today that tourism spending by overseas travelers in Virginia increased by more than 12 percent in 2010. New figures released by Capital Region USA show international tourism spending was a record $321 million in 2010, up $35 million from 2009. Additionally, Virginia’s efforts to market to visitors from Canada are…

Ken Plum: Government in the sunshine

Ken Plum

A dark cloud passed in front of Virginia’s sunshine law when it was discovered that the Governor’s Commission on Government Reform had been meeting in small groups in secret with the Democratic members of the Commission left out of all the meetings.  The flimsy excuse offered by the Governor’s staff that the small groups were…

W&M nips New Haven

Contributors

The No. 4/5 William and Mary football team extended its regular-season home winning streak to 11 games with a 13-10 victory against New Haven in its home opener on a rainy evening at Zable Stadium Saturday. Sophomore placekicker Drake Kuhn kicked a 28-yard go-ahead field goal with 5:28 remaining in the fourth quarter, and junior…

Chris Graham: Week One

Chris Graham

So Tiki Barber’s agent is “flabbergasted” that the former UVa. star didn’t get a sniff from the NFL after his five-year absence from the game. I don’t know about “flabbergasted,” but yeah, I was surprised, if only because I don’t think you look at Barber as a 36-year-old running back given the time he spent…

State cracking down on drunk driving

Chris Graham

Gov. Bob McDonnell today kicked-off Virginia’s 10th annual Checkpoint Strikeforce campaign – a statewide law enforcement and public awareness effort to detect and deter impaired drivers in the Commonwealth. As part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s regional campaign, the Governor announced that drunk drivers on Virginia roadways will face the likelihood of arrest…

McDonnell announces access to online accident-info system

Chris Graham

Gov. Bob McDonnell announced on Wednesday the first phase of a new online interactive database of state crash information that is free and open to the public. The state-of-the-art automated Traffic Records Electronic Data System centralizes Virginia’s crash data and related information from multiple agencies into one location. Now, for the first time, the public…

David Reynolds: Waiting game

David Reynolds

I spent a previous lifetime playing with budgets in Washington, so I should have known that the debt talks were a game, a waiting game, not unlike those played in Searchlight, Nevada, Senator Reid’s home town. Except in Searchlight they play with their own money. Yes, that’s what they do in DC, take credit and…