EMU dedicates new solar facility

Jim Bishop

Eastern Mennonite University dedicated and celebrated the largest solar photovoltaic project built so far in the state of Virginia in a public ceremony held Monday afternoonon EMU’s campus. During the celebration in EMU’s Campus Center, about 150 members of the campus community, public officials and local neighbors saw the university’s president Loren Swartzendruber unveil the…

Google investment will boost Virginia wind industry, JMU expert says

Contributors

Virginia’s wind energy industry received a “shot in the arm” this week when Google announced it will invest $200 million in a project to harvest electricity from wind farms off the Mid-Atlantic coast. Dr. Jonathan Miles, director of the Virginia Center for Wind Energy at James Madison University, said Google’s 37.5 percent stake in the…

Kathleen Rogers and Antonio Gonzalez: Seeking one principled person from each side of the aisle

Contributors

On Sept. 17, 1787, a group of visionaries and leaders signed our Constitution. They were intent on creating a functioning government based on universal truths and extraordinary principles in an environment complicated by disparate regional economies and wildly divergent parochial interests. Back then, differing proposals for the shape of our government divided our country into…

Webb announces nuclear initiative

Chris Graham

Edited by Chris Graham [email protected]   U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., joined Virginia-based Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Energy Inc. and Bechtel Power Corporation on Wednesday to announce a formal alliance to design, license and deploy the world’s first commercially viable Generation III++ small modular nuclear power plant. Design work for the small modular reactors will…

Tom Perriello: Job growth

Contributors

Column by Tom Perriello www.perriello.house.gov   Last week, we received some encouraging news as the Department of Labor announced that the economy added 290,000 jobs in the month of April – 231,000 of them in the private sector. This is the largest number of new jobs in four years and the fourth consecutive month of…

J.R. Tolbert: Keeping the faith on Earth Day

Contributors

Column by J.R. Tolbert Submit guest columns: [email protected]   Forty years ago, nearly 20 million Americans participated in what was the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Inspired by Sen. Gaylord Nelson after witnessing an oil spill off California’s coast, Earth Day was started to spotlight issues related to environmental degradation and the need to…

Building a new industrial sector in Waynesboro

Chris Graham

Special Report by Chris Graham [email protected]   Waynesboro was once the envy of Western Virginia for its manufacturing economy. As recently as 1990, almost half of the city’s workforce was employed in manufacturing, whose rate of pay has traditionally been at least 40 percent and some years approaching 50 percent higher than the median income…

Valley gets $5M for green job training

Chris Graham

   Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Blue Ridge Community College and James Madison University are among a group of Shenandoah Valley partners that will take part in a new program to train workers for jobs in the emerging green sector. U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb on Friday announced a $5 million investment from…

State of the Union: A Virginia perspective

Chris Graham

  Edited by Chris Graham [email protected] Everything you wanted to know about the State of the Union, but were afraid to ask. We have the full texts and videos of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s Republican response. We also have reactions from Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner, congressmen…