In The News

Fort Pickett in Southside Virginia will be the new home of a $416 million embassy security training facility, the Richmond Times-Dispatch has learned. The formal announcement of groundbreaking at the military base in Nottoway County is expected to come today. Virginia was chosen for the Foreign Affairs Security Training Center facility over competing sites in Georgia and West Virginia. Once completed in 2019, officials said the facility will train between 8,000 and 10,000 people a year, includ...Continue Reading

Common sense would certainly dictate that those individuals who have survived an opioid-related overdose should not be prescribed additional opioid medicines. So much for common sense. A recent study published in the Annuals of Internal Medicine found that more than 90 percent of the 3,000 chronic pain patients included in the study who had survived an opioid related overdose between 2000 and 2012 kept receiving opioid medicines from their doctors. Seriously? The results of the study, conducted ...Continue Reading

Continuing a push to make college affordability a congressional priority, Senate Democrats held a forum Wednesday on the social and economic impact of student debt. The Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee event drew education advocates and nearly two dozen lawmakers, some of whom invited college students from their states to share their experiences paying for school. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) hosted George Mason University senior Kalia Harris, who told lawmakers ab...Continue Reading

Fort Pickett in Southside Virginia will be the new home of a $416 million embassy security training facility, the Richmond Times-Dispatch has learned. The formal announcement of groundbreaking at the military base in Nottoway County is expected to come today. Virginia was chosen for the Foreign Affairs Security Training Center facility over competing sites in Georgia and West Virginia. Once completed in 2019, officials said the facility will train between 8,000 and 10,000 people a year, includ...Continue Reading

Continuing a push to make college affordability a congressional priority, Senate Democrats held a forum Wednesday on the social and economic impact of student debt. The Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee event drew education advocates and nearly two dozen lawmakers, some of whom invited college students from their states to share their experiences paying for school. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) hosted George Mason University senior Kalia Harris, who told lawmakers ab...Continue Reading

The Pamunkey Indian Tribe cleared its final hurdle to obtaining federal recognition late last week when a federal appeals board dismissed a challenge to the group’s status. The Pamunkey Indian Tribe has fought for more than a decade to receive federal recognition, and it appeared to do so in early 2015 before a California-based gaming watchdog filed a last-minute challenge with the Interior Board of Indian Appeals. In its challenge’s Stand Up for California! joined with MGM National ...Continue Reading

More than 100 Americans are dying every day from opioid addiction.This stat was just one of a dozen eye-openers noted at a U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing in Loudoun County Monday. The hearing, which focused on opioid abuse among older adults, was spearheaded by U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). Attorney General Mark Herring (D) attended as an expert witness, providing testimony about the crippling impact opioid abuse -- and by extension, heroin -- has had on families across Virgi...Continue Reading

Constance Garner works two jobs while attending college, but her long hours aren’t to line her pockets with extra beer money. Garner, a Longwood University senior, expects to graduate owing more than $35,000 in student debt; she works two jobs on campus to cover room and board. “I am from a very small town in southern Virginia where students are lucky to receive any type of higher education, much less a bachelor’s degree from a four-year institution,” Garner said. Stories...Continue Reading

The eighth-graders waited for the call with their laptops open and index cards ready. Their teacher looked at the clock. The school’s technology specialist tried dialing the special guest he had lined up for the students. No answer. Then, at 12:45 p.m., a few minutes after he was scheduled to appear, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine appeared on the big screen in the Lynnhaven Middle School classroom. The senator had an excuse for being tardy. “I was racing from...Continue Reading

The bipartisan duo leading the charge to have Congress define the military fight against the Islamic State is now starting to smell a rat. Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) are crying foul over a recent move by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to potentially fast-track consideration of the most expansive, Republican-backed proposal to authorize the use of military force (AUMF) against ISIS. They charge the Republican leader is either trying to end-run serio...Continue Reading

The Navy is accelerating and outsourcing ship maintenance jobs in a move that could help Hampton Roads shipyards hit by layoffs, a top official said Thursday. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley said the work involves three warships and two submarines. He outlined the Navy's plan in letters to Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine. Last year, the two senators suggested several ways to stabilize work on Navy ships after layoffs at Newport News Shipbuilding and BAE Systems in Norf...Continue Reading

Taking aim at gun-makers and dealers, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, and several other lawmakers, are pushing to repeal a more than decade-old law they say shields the gun industry from liability. Proponents call it the "Equal Access to Justice for Victims of Gun Violence Act." The measure is designed, they say, to ensure that the gun manufacturers, sellers and interest groups are not shielded from liability when they act with negligence and disregard for public safety. Kaine and Senators ...Continue Reading

Senator Tim Kaine introduced a bill on Jan. 28 that would open up gun manufacturers to lawsuits. Currently gun makers are protected by law against civil liability. The proposed bill would lift that shield. Sen. Kaine says the government doesn’t protect other manufacturers of other products and should not protect gun makers either. That said, he admits passing such a bill is an uphill battle. “I would say right now, the chance of this passing is slim because Congre...Continue Reading

Democrats who supported President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran say it has already defanged that country's nuclear program, and they want their constituents to know about it. A half-dozen pro-deal lawmakers ranging from liberals to pro-Israel hawks took turns Jan. 27 on the Senate floor touting the deal's early successes and urging critics to help make it stronger. This group effort comes as Republicans highlight recent Iranian actions deemed aggressions, such a...Continue Reading

No, Congress isn't any closer to actually voting on the war against the Islamic State. Despite growing bipartisan frustration, Senate Republicans made clear on Thursday they have no plans to vote on authorizing the ongoing war against the Islamic State with the presidential race now fully underway. Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s procedural move last week that could allow the Senate to vote on the war was p...Continue Reading

Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine took steps to protect almost 300 Danville jobs earlier this month, urging the International Trade Commission to extend an anti-dumping order on tape from Italy. “It is with the continued economic growth of Southside Virginia that we ask you to strongly consider maintaining this anti-dumping order,” the senators said in the letter. “As strong supporters of international trade, we understand the ITC’s important role in ensuring that our domes...Continue Reading

Sen­ate Ma­jor­ity Lead­er Mitch Mc­Con­nell offered mem­bers a snow-week­end sur­prise late Wed­nes­day night: Quietly tee­ing up a po­ten­tial de­bate on the leg­al un­der­pin­ning for the fight against IS­IS. After months of wor­ry­ing that such a res­ol­u­tion—known as an au­thor­iz­a­tion for the use of mil­it­ary force—would tie the next pres­id­en...Continue Reading

More than four years after Hurricane Irene walloped Hampton Roads, the region is getting a huge pool of money to try to prevent even worse disasters caused by rising seas. Virginia was awarded more than $120 million Thursday afternoon as part of a federal contest, the National Disaster Resilience Competition. The money was announced by Julian Castro, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. During the announcement at the Grandy Village Learning Center, steps from the El...Continue Reading

After spending six days in the Middle East and Europe as a member of a  congressional delegation trip, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said he believes that Israel’s emerging cooperation with some of its neighbors is cause for optimism and that he still believes his vote for the Iran nuclear weapons deal was right. Kaine spoke with officials in Israel, Palestinian areas of the West Bank, Turkey and Austria during the trip that ended Jan. 9. He also spoke with nongovernmental organizations whil...Continue Reading

Kevin Flattery had everything before him. A 2010 graduate of the University of Virginia, he had moved to Los Angeles after college and was starting a career in the film industry. “He was doing everything he wanted,” said Kevin’s father Don Flattery. As Kevin Flattery moved through a series of high-stress, low-paying jobs trying to make his way, he started to struggle with anxiety and depression. His parents helped get him therapy, but Kevin Flattery also began to self-medicate ...Continue Reading