In The News

Boots on the ground in Syria, combat in Iraq, and an expanding campaign against the Islamic State have thrust the issue of passing a congressional authorization for such military ventures back into the spotlight. But renewed interest in light of those new developments may still not be enough to spur Congress to take action. In recent weeks, congressional frustration has been rising with how the Obama administration has been handling the fight against ISIS in Iraq an...Continue Reading

Virginia employers want to hire people. They want workers who have completed post-secondary programs or who have earned certificates, licenses or other industry-recognized credentials. Community colleges are ready with curricula designed to train workers and deliver required credentials. Meanwhile, qualified, low-income people seeking skills simply can't afford the training they need to advance. Passing the JOBS Act would connect all three - and grow Virginia's economy. Jobs that require more th...Continue Reading

It’s hard for me to understand how some things become laws. Now granted, some of those are just antique laws that never went off the books, like how it’s illegal to tickle women in Virginia or my personal favorite, how it’s illegal to hunt any animals except a raccoon on Sundays. Clearly whoever designed that one had some pent-up rage against a raccoon or two getting into his trash. Other laws, or specifically other loopholes, which were created over the last 50 years, just mak...Continue Reading

U.S. SenatorTim Kaine is taking a stand on gun control, pushing for completing background checks on people who purchase firearms before the purchase is concluded. He introduced the Background Check Completion Act on Wednesday, which would close a loophole that allows a gun-dealer to complete the sale of a weapon to someone if the background check of that person takes more than 72 hours. Kaine says it's the type of loophole that lets people like the Virginia Tech shooter purchase a gun befor...Continue Reading

The new federal budget compromise represents a step forward for Hampton Roads, which relies on a predictable flow of defense spending, but it doesn't solve larger debates over taxes and spending, Virginia's two senators said Tuesday. Negotiators late Monday released a 144-page bill that broadly describes federal spending over the next two fiscal years. Its passage is expected, according to multiple media reports, but that is not the final step. Lawmakers on budget-writing committees will then us...Continue Reading

En el estado de Virginia hay 270 mil latinos que pueden ejercer su voto durante las elecciones, pero son pocos los que participan y de esa manera desperdician ese potencial que tienen, reconoció el senador Tim Kaine, durante un evento del Consejo de Líderes Latinos celebrado este lunes en Arlington, Virginia. “Todavía hay muchos latinos que no entienden el poder que representan sus votos, los que pueden hacer la diferencia en cualquier elección”, enfatiz&o...Continue Reading

Well before the tragic attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that took the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, the U.S. Department of State identified the need for a dedicated facility to provide enhanced security training to U.S. Embassy personnel assigned to high-threat posts overseas. The State Department was not alone in identifying this potential deficiency in its training protocols. In a 2011 report, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO)...Continue Reading

It's long past time, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine said Friday, for the United States to develop a new doctrine for engaging with the rest of world. After a 14-year war on terror that has spread the nation's military too thin, Kaine said the U.S. needs a more specific diplomatic and military strategy for dealing in different ways with the world's democracies, authoritarian regimes and non-state terrorist groups. President Barack Obama has been following a "reaction doctrine" of confronting terrorism and o...Continue Reading

Community leaders from across Hampton Roads have given Senator Tim Kaine several ideas for policy reform when it comes to helping felons re-enter society upon their release from prison. The meeting Friday at Up Center Books in Ghent was the second of Kaine’s two round table discussions on the topic, after a meeting Thursday with several ex-offenders in Richmond. Kaine heard the need for more emphasis and better resources for programs for ex-offenders that involve crucial needs and skills, ...Continue Reading

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, supports the president's recently announced decision to keep 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan through most of next year though it's yet another delay in the draw down of troops fighting in America's longest war that began less than a month after 9-11. "What’s important to stress here is that our mission is not going to change," said Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco Thursday. "We’ve got a mission now,...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine's concern about about the security of U.S. embassies around the world is based on more than the much documented killing of four Americans at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya three years ago. The Virginia senator said U.S. embassies in both Yemen and Libya have also since been evacuated because of security threats. The need for a diplomatic security training facility is urgent, and Virginia's Fort Pickett in Blackstone has been identified as the best U.S. site for such a facil...Continue Reading

RICHMOND — Gov. Terry McAuliffesigned an executive order Thursday to ban guns in nearly all state office buildings and establish a joint task force to prosecute illegal gun sales in Virginia. The ban on guns in government buildings affects executive branch office buildings, which includes buildings throughout the state such as Department of Motor Vehicles locations and Virginia Employment Commission offices. The new restriction doesn’t apply to the Capitol building or General As...Continue Reading

The Nuclear Science Advisory Committee has recommended that the U.S. Department of Energy build an electron ion collider — a research tool of massive scale that could pave the way to new discoveries in physics. The project could bring a $1 billion construction project to Hampton Roads. The committee’s recommendation — announced Thursday in Washington as part of its long-range plan for nuclear science research in the U.S. — was considered a critical step toward the federal...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine has filed legislation to increase the number of people working as schoolteachers in career and technical education, a move he says is designed to reduce a nationwide shortage of teachers in those fields. The bill would allow recent college graduates, military veterans and career professionals in technical areas to apply for three-year grants to teach career and technical courses at high schools that are in need of such instructors. Though the federal government already h...Continue Reading

Vladimir Putin recently had a birthday. To celebrate, the Russian president played hockey. Unlike with other sports, this time Putin kept his shirt on. In a game televised live on Russian television, Putin took to the ice in the Olympic city of Sochi — and proceeded to score seven goals. If you don’t know hockey, well, that’s a lot. On Putin’s team were two Russian-born legends from the National Hockey League — Vyacheslav Fetisov won back-to-back Stanley Cups with ...Continue Reading

The management of the D.C. region’s transit authority has felt an avalanche of criticism in a year of commuting calamities and safety lapses, but until now, relatively little anger had reached Metro’s governing body — its 16-member board of directors. Demands for reform are now shifting to the board in the form of legislation making its way through the U.S. Senate, co-sponsored by the Washington, D.C., region’s Senate delegation. The legislation would remove the authority...Continue Reading

The aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford stands tall at Newport News Shipbuilding, its construction nearly complete and more sailors arriving every week. But in other ways, things are far from settled. The first-in-class ship faces significant challenges before it becomes combat ready and can deploy from its future home of Naval Station Norfolk, experts say. At a recent Senate hearing, the Defense Department's top weapons tester cited "significant risks" for the Ford when it comes...Continue Reading

This week, America welcomes Pope Francis to Washington, New York and Philadelphia. Amid all the excitement and anxiety over what he will say, one thing is clear already. He arrives to a church and American population that are being rejuvenated by our Hispanic population. The first Latin American pope’s first visit to the United States coincides with another important event: the 450th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine, Fla. Forty-two years before Jamestown and 55 years before Ply...Continue Reading

One of the hot, technological trends in law enforcement these days is provisioning officers with body cameras. Supporters and critics of police departments across the country are calling for the body cams as a way to obtain objective records of police interactions with the general public, in much the same way dashboard cameras record traffic stops, and as a way to protect both police officers and the public. Civil rights organizations and police associations are increasingly finding themselves o...Continue Reading

The Black Lung Benefits Improvement Act of 2015, an important measure aimed at ensuring coal miners receive the benefits they’ve earned and deserve, merits prompt approval and passage by lawmakers in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. The measure was introduced in the U.S. Senate last week by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. Companion legislation...Continue Reading