In The News

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

The senators’ amendment to an energy bill could wring a “yes” from a federal commission that has so far stuck to “no.” That’s the intent, anyway. Norman Bay, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, has dismissed repeatedly the need for FERC to conduct a comprehensive, overarching analysis of the cumulative environmental effects of large-scale interstate natural gas pipelines proposed to route through Virginia. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said W...Continue Reading

It was in the late spring of 1961 when 12-year-old Lance Newman participated in ninth-grade graduation ceremonies at Arlington’s Stratford Junior High School. And on Feb. 2 of this year, for the first time in nearly 55 years, he was back in the auditorium where that ceremony took place. Newman – along with Ronald Deskins, Michael Jones and Gloria Thompson – on Feb. 2, 1959, became the first black students to cross the color barrier and enroll in an all-white Northern Virginia p...Continue Reading

The senators’ amendment to an energy bill could wring a “yes” from a federal commission that has so far stuck to “no.” That’s the intent, anyway. Norman Bay, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, has dismissed repeatedly the need for FERC to conduct a comprehensive, overarching analysis of the cumulative environmental effects of large-scale interstate natural gas pipelines proposed to route through Virginia. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said W...Continue Reading

It was in the late spring of 1961 when 12-year-old Lance Newman participated in ninth-grade graduation ceremonies at Arlington’s Stratford Junior High School. And on Feb. 2 of this year, for the first time in nearly 55 years, he was back in the auditorium where that ceremony took place. Newman – along with Ronald Deskins, Michael Jones and Gloria Thompson – on Feb. 2, 1959, became the first black students to cross the color barrier and enroll in an all-white Northern Virginia p...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

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