Ken Plum: Forging a future path

Ken Plum

Over the next couple of decades Virginia will have many more job openings for educated professionals and skilled technicians than there are persons in the pipeline to fill them, according to Northern Virginia Community College President Robert Templin speaking at “Blueprint Virginia,” an annual economic summit in Northern Virginia last week.

mark warner

Mark Warner joins bipartisan group introducing Student Right to Know Before You Go Act

Chris Graham

U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) today introduced The Student Right to Know Before You Go Act to ensure that a wide range of comparative data about higher education programs is more readily available for prospective students and their families. They discussed their bipartisan legislation during a roundtable on Capitol Hill this morning with students, parents and school counselors.

Gov. Bob McDonnell announces agriculture and forestry industries grant recipients

Chris Graham

Gov. Bob McDonnell announced today the recipients of fiscal year 2013 planning grants from the Governor’s Agriculture & Forestry Industries Development Fund (AFID). Eleven projects covering more than thirty localities have been awarded a total of $249,000 to support the growth of agricultural and forestry projects in the Commonwealth.

Rooney Nelson: Reducing crime is easy

For less than the cost of one murder the crime rate can be easily and significantly reduced. In 2010, researchers at Iowa State concluded that the cost for a single murder in America was $17.25 million. For less than that $17.25 million, American’s can easily and effectively reduce not only murders, but also rapes, robberies and other violent crimes quickly, significantly, and effectively, while saving ourselves a few billion dollars in the process. Perhaps most importantly, effectively deploying these tools might even have stopped a terrorist act like the Boston Marathon bombing.

university of virginia uva

‘Roadmap’ of human metabolism offers new understanding of cancer, obesity, more

An international consortium of researchers has created the largest computer model of human metabolism to date, an astonishingly detailed roadmap that points the way to better understanding of cancer, obesity, diabetes, heart disease and a host of other conditions. It’s a powerful new tool that will speed the development of new drugs and treatments and, eventually, may allow doctors to tailor medicine to each patient’s personal biology.

Waynesboro Cultural Commission announces romance writers’ workshops

Contributors

As part of its mission to serve area writers, filmmakers, artists and performers, the Waynesboro Cultural Commission announces the second in its series of informal workshops. The romance writers’ workshops, scheduled for the first two Tuesdays in May, will introduce the genre and give aspiring authors the skills to understand the expectations of this popular fictional form.