VPAP Whipple Report Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Compiled by Paul Brockwell, Jr.
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
By OLYMPIA MEOLA
Richmond Times-Dispatch Gov. Bob McDonnell will join President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their veterans-focused event on Wednesday at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton.
By BOB LEWIS
Associated Press President Barack Obama will be joined at one of his campaign-style two-state bus stops in Virginia by the state's Republican governor and one of the president's most frequent critics. Gov. Bob McDonnell will join Obama for his Wednesday event at a military base in Hampton where the president is scheduled to stress the importance of hiring veterans.
By ANITA KUMAR
Washington Post Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) will attend President Obama's veterans' event at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton Wednesday morning, his office announced late Monday. "The governor welcomes the president to Virginia,'' McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin said. "The commonwealth is always honored to host the commander-in-chief." Obama began a three-day bus tour Monday in North Carolina and will continue Tuesday and Wednesday in Virginia -- two critical swing states he carried in 2008 - as he tries to sell his jobs plan.
By JULIAN WALKER
Virginian-Pilot Gov. Bob McDonnell will join President Barack Obama at Joint Base Langley-Eustis on Wednesday for the final leg of the president's three-day tour of North Carolina and Virginia. Both men will be joined by their wives at the event, which will focus on the importance of hiring veterans. Obama is expected to stump for proposed tax credits for unemployed veterans and companies that hire unemployed vets who are disabled during their service.
By CORY NEALON
Daily Press Gov. Bob McDonnell took a break Monday from back-to-back energy conferences in Richmond to visit the Eastern Shore. His destination: NASA Wallops Flight Facility. Interesting timing considering Virginia officials are feuding with Florida's aerospace industry over the role Wallops will play in future human spaceflight missions.
ELECTIONS
By ANITA KUMAR
Washington Post Three years ago, Democrats in Virginia couldn't get enough of Barack Obama - a popular, transformational figure running for his first term as president. But as Obama arrives in Virginia Tuesday for a two-day swing to promote parts of his jobs plan, some Democrats are distancing themselves from him - even in supposedly blue Northern Virginia.
By ANDREW CAIN AND WESLEY P. HESTER
Richmond Times-Dispatch Republicans have a huge advantage in cash that can be funneled to targeted campaigns heading into the homestretch before the Nov. 8 General Assembly elections. That is enabling Gov. Bob McDonnell to open new fronts in the battle for control of the state Senate, where Democrats are clinging to a 22-18 majority, their last bastion of power at the state Capitol.
By BOB LEWIS
Associated Press New state campaign finance reports show Republicans finished September with a substantial cash advantage over Democrats just as races for all of Virginia's legislative seats throttled up for the final six-week sprint to election day. Reports filed Monday with the State Board of Elections and compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project showed sharp disparities in cash on hand for Republicans over Democrats among House of Delegates candidates and among party and leadership political action committees.
By DAVID SHERFINSKI
Washington Times The Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus collected $2.1 million in the third quarter of the year as the party tries to fend off hard-charging GOP candidates to hold onto its last bastion of power in Richmond, according to campaign finance figures released Monday. Ahead of Nov. 8 statewide elections, the caucus doled out $1.3 million, according to the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.
By MASON ADAMS AND MICHAEL SLUSS
Roanoke Times Every 10 years, members of the majority party in each chamber of the General Assembly seek to marginalize, frustrate and generally draw members of the minority into a disadvantaged position. This year, the politics of redistricting drove three Western Virginia incumbents to move into new districts to retain key constituencies and remain competitive.
By CHELYEN DAVIS
Free Lance-Star Former Republican senator John Chichester is backing Democrat Sen. Toddy Puller for reelection next month. Puller faces Republican Jeff Frederick in the 36th state Senate district, which includes parts of Prince William, Fairfax and Stafford counties. Puller recently posted Chichester's endorsement on her web page.
By CHELYEN DAVIS
Free Lance-Star Candidates for the General Assembly have filed campaign finance reports covering the month of September. In the 17th state Senate District, Democratic incumbent Sen. Edd Houck has the second-highest amount of cash on hand of any Senate candidate, closing out the period with $410,324 in the bank.
By ANITA KUMAR
Washington Post As President Obama travels to Virginia Tuesday, his opponents are airing TV ads in the state to counter his efforts to sell what they are calling a second stimulus plan. American Crossroads, a nonprofit 527 political organization, began airing the ad, "Don't," started Sunday.
By TODD ALLEN WILSON
Daily Press The Republican challenger in the state's 2nd Senate District again went after incumbent Sen. Mamie Locke for being an ineffective leader in a debate Tuesday at the Miracle Temple Baptist Church in Newport News. Like he did at a candidate's forum last week, Harmon said he would be a more effective leader than Locke, whom he claimed had not accomplished much for her community during her eight years in the Senate.
By JULIAN WALKER
Virginian-Pilot President Barack Obama's political foes have prepared an icy greeting for the commander in chief as he embarks on a three-day bus tour of North Carolina and Virginia this week. A non-profit 527 political group with Republican ties is running a new television ad critical of taxes in Obama's $447 billion jobs package. The proposal appears dead as a complete plan, though elements of it still could gain congressional support.
By RAY REED
News & Advance Money is playing a huge role in the 22nd District state Senate race, with Republican Tom Garrett raising $151,000 - most of it from Republican party sources - and Democrat Bert Dodson taking in $117,000 during September. Dodson has an advantage in the important category of cash on hand, where he leads Garrett with $142,000 to $51,000, according to campaign finance data gathered Monday by the Virginia Public Access Project. VPAP is a nonpartisan tracker of money in state politics.
By ANITA KUMAR
Washington Post Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will visit Virginia next week for his first public events in the swing state this election cycle.
By TODD ALLEN WILSON
Daily Press On the first day of his three-day bus tour President Barack Obama told an audience at the Asheville Regional Airport in North Carolina that if Congress passes his American Jobs Act there will be money to help with a sorely needed upgrade to the airport's single runway.
By OLYMPIA MEOLA
Richmond Times-Dispatch On the eve of President Barack Obama's visit to Virginia to pitch his job creation package, the conservative group American Crossroads is running a new TV ad as part of its campaign to push back on the effort.
STATE GOVERNMENT
By DANA HEDGPETH AND ANITA KUMAR
Washington Post Virginia is expected to release nearly $40 million to the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission by the end of this week after the money was withheld in a dispute about representation on local transit boards. The Department of Rail and Public Transportation wanted the NVTC to sign an agreement that would give state officials more influence.
By DAVID SHERFINSKI
Washington Times The number of inmates in Virginia age 50 or older has increased nearly sevenfold over the past 20 years, and the average cost of providing them with specialized health care was nearly seven times the average expenses for younger prisoners in fiscal 2010. As the state's prison population grows older and sicker - and with many inmates ineligible for release because of the abolition of parole in 1995 - Virginia will be hard-pressed to find a way to pay for it all, corrections officials told Virginia's House Appropriations Committee on Monday.
ECONOMY/BUSINESS
By PETER BACQUÉ
Richmond Times-Dispatch The U.S. will require every source of energy to meet its growing demand, speakers at the Governor's Conference on Energy said Monday. And that will mean confronting some inconvenient truths, Dominion Resources Inc. Chairman, President and CEO Thomas F. Farrell II said. "We like the lights on."
By LAURA VOZZELLA
Washington Post What if you threw an energy conference, and somebody else threw a funeral? Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell's three-day energy conference kicks off Monday at the Richmond Convention Center and environmentalists will be there - not inside the building, but outside, staging a mock funeral for more than 60 Virginia mountains lost to mountaintop coal mining.
By JULIAN WALKER
Virginian-Pilot Administration officials say having a uranium mining panel at Gov. Bob McDonnell's energy conference this week can inform the public and fits with the governor's push to make Virginia a leading energy production state. But environmentalists who oppose lifting a longstanding state uranium mining ban think there's another motive behind McDonnell's second annual energy summit.
By RUSTY DENNEN
Free Lance-Star About 272 gallons of nonradioactive industrial water from North Anna Power Station leaked into Lake Anna on Friday when a cooling basin overflowed, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In an event report released yesterday, the agency said that plant operators first noticed early Friday that the basin was overflowing. Water from the basin cools bearings on the plant's main feed pumps, condensate pumps and main generators.
By JOE CONROY
News Messenger Area homeowners looking for help with affording their mortgages came to Osbourn High School on Saturday. As part of the Manassas City Housing Event sponsored by the City of Manassas Housing Advocacy Program, struggling homeowners were able to meet with representatives from Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Fannie Mae in an effort to find assistance with avoiding foreclosures.
VIRGINIA OTHER
By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press In a project that is part competition and part research study, George Mason professors Charles Twardy and Kathryn Laskey are assembling a team on the Internet of more than 500 forecasters who make educated guesses about a series of world events, on everything from disease outbreaks to agricultural trends to political patterns.
By CORY NEALON
Daily Press Grady Koch is not a weatherman but he knows which way the wind blows. The NASA researcher has been using a high-powered laser to calculate gusts off the Atlantic coast that many hope will someday quench our nation's thirst for electricity. "We're measuring the scattering of aerosols, which is a fancy word for dust, in the atmosphere," he said.
By DUNCAN ADAMS
Roanoke Times The mother of the late Morgan Harrington of Roanoke County filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit last week in Roanoke County Circuit Court against the company that provided security at a rock concert in Charlottesville on Oct. 17, 2009 -- the night police say the 20-year-old was abducted sometime after being denied re-entry into the show. Morgan Harrington's skeletal remains were found by a farmer in January 2010 and her death has been ruled a homicide. The case remains under investigation.
LOCAL
By EMILY CYR
News Messenger Federal money is on the way to help maintain commuter buses. Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-11th) says $2.6 million in grants is going to Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission as part of the Federal Transit Administration's State of Good Repair program.
By GRAHAM MOOMAW
Daily Progress After nearly 50 years, the city of Charlottesville is poised to offer an official apology for its role in the destruction of the historically black Vinegar Hill neighborhood. In the early 1960's, the city chose to bulldoze Vinegar Hill in the name of "urban renewal," a decision which led to the destruction of approximately 40 businesses and churches and the displacement of close to 500 people, according to an apology resolution discussed Monday by the Charlottesville City Council.
By WILL JONES
Richmond Times-Dispatch The Richmond Metropolitan Authority will consider today a debt-refinancing plan as some members of the Richmond City Council continue to urge delay and two private groups are making overtures to operate the toll roads. With a procedural ruling, Council President Kathy C. Graziano on Monday blocked a vote on a resolution that would have asked the RMA to postpone the refinancing while alternatives, including private operation of the toll roads, are studied.
By DAVID MCGEE
Bristol Herald Courier A firm owned by billionaire financier and alternative energy advocate T. Boone Pickens was chosen Monday to harness and market methane produced by the city's landfill. A divided City Council voted 3-1-1 to accept the proposal by Clean Energy Renewable Fuels LLC, a Los Angeles-based company that plans to build a facility to clean the gas and sell into the natural gas pipeline system. The other finalist, INGENCO Power Generating Co. LLC of Richmond, Va., sought to harness the methane and convert it to electricity.
By DAVID SACHS
Alexandria Times Mayor Bill Euille and the city council appointed Rashad Young Alexandria's new city manager Saturday in a move that puts the former Greensboro, N.C., government chief at the helm of a city planning to spend more than $1.7 billion on daily operations and capital improvements this fiscal year. So who is he?
By MARILYN COX
Culpeper Star Exponent The Madison County Board of Supervisors is setting up interviews using firms that specialize in "head hunting" to fill the vacancy created when Administrator Lisa Robertson resigned last month. Supervisor Eddie Dean said at a joint meeting with the planning commission Oct. 5 at the County Administration Center that supervisors had a meeting set up for yesterday to discuss hiring a replacement.
EDITORIALS
News Leader Editorial
The biggest loser in any election season gone awry is the voter. And according to a recent poll, apathy has taken its toll on a majority of Virginians. The upcoming November elections will feature local and legislative races, and the results of the Christopher Newport University/Richmond Times-Dispatch poll don't portend a substantial turnout. The poll showed that only 13.5 percent of those asked care "quite a lot" about the upcoming legislative elections, and 14.1 percent responded that they only care "some."
Washington Post Editorial
THOUGH THE PROJECT is still far from final approval, the federal government's decision to move forward with preliminary engineering for the Purple Line is good news for anyone who cares about transit and its broad array of positive effects. But before planning proceeds, it is time to take a sober look at the line's projected and likely cost - and at the cautionary tale of an even bigger infrastructure project across the Potomac: Metro's Silver Line extension to Dulles airport.
Daily Press Editorial
There are a number of hotly contested local and state races on the Nov. 8 election ballot. We want to make certain you have all the facts about each candidate prior to determining your vote. The editorial board of the Daily Press will be making candidate endorsements for various races over the next several weeks.
Roanoke Times Editorial
Virginia may be the Mother of Presidents, but the state Capitol devotes precious little space to honor the accomplishments of the commonwealth's mothers, sisters, daughters and other women. That's about to change. The Commemorative Commission to Honor the Contributions of the Women of Virginia is holding nine forums across the state to gather ideas for a monument to be located in Capitol Square in Richmond. The closest forum will be held at 7p.m. Wednesday at Radford University's Heth Hall, located at 801 E. Main St.
Roanoke Times Editorial
People are so very tired of politicians. Who can blame them? They're fed up with the silly fights; they're weary of the games. They're worn out. Yet here's another election coming in just three weeks. The latest poll by Christopher Newport University and the Richmond Times-Dispatch indicates seven out of 10 people are paying little to no attention to the state legislative races.
Virginian-Pilot Editorial
President Barack Obama still has a chance to turn a political visit to Virginia into something substantive - by declaring Fort Monroe a national monument and by ensuring that earthquake-rattled Louisa County receives federal emergency aid.
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