McAuliffe nominates Maurice Jones as Secretary of Commerce and Trade

Contributors

Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe announced at a press conference on Thursday the nomination of Secretary Maurice Jones as Secretary of Commerce and Trade. Jones, a Kenbridge native, is the former president of the Pilot Media Group, and currently serves as deputy secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

New Year’s Resolution: Get your business moving in 2014

Contributors

It may be just a flip of the calendar, but we don’t tend to treat the New Year that way. The New Year brings with it the chance for new beginnings. That’s why we make New Year’s Resolutions, right? Just like we make resolutions for ourselves to exercise more, eat better, finally start writing that novel that you’ve always said you wanted to write, and that kind of thing, we make resolutions related to our businesses.

Gov. McDonnell announces matching tourism grants

Contributors

Gov. Bob McDonnell announced today that more than $750,000 in matching grant funds will be awarded to 42 local tourism initiatives as part of Virginia Tourism Corporation’s (VTC) Marketing Leverage Grant program. The grants are designed to help local and regional tourism entities attract more visitors by leveraging local marketing dollars.

robert hurt

Robert Hurt: Healthcare website poses major cybersecurity risks

Robert Hurt

This weekend, the Obama administration announced that the federal health insurance exchange website is now “accessible for the vast majority of users” after two months of glitches, errors, and bugs. While the website may be more accessible, the administration has not addressed another major issue presented by the launch of this website.

Ken Plum: Invest in the young

Ken Plum

There is no program or service for which public dollars can be invested that will have a greater return than those invested in young children. People who work in early childhood and day care programs have known intuitively and anecdotally for a long time that children in their programs were much more likely to be successful by a number of different measures than were children who did not have access to their programs.

Susan Vento and Judy Van Ness: Veterans Day surprise from Congress

Contributors

Americans are observing Veterans Day. Some will observe it with a day off from work or checking out the special Veterans Day sales that will be held in department stores. But the real meaning of the day should be to think about the great sacrifices of the men and women who deserve to be honored.

Chris Graham: Whither Robert Sarvis and the Virginia Libertarian Party?

Contributors

OK, so he didn’t get 10 percent, and he surely didn’t win. But Robert Sarvis held on to most of the support that he was getting in polls taken before the 2013 Virginia governor election. What does this mean for Sarvis and for the Libertarian Party whose banner he carried? Not much, actually, despite what you’re hearing from the Libertarians.