In The News

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

Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner and Hampton Roads' congressional delegation sent letters Thursday to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus voicing concern about layoffs in local private shipyards and the need to stabilize their workload. "Hampton Roads is once again facing a period of change to its workload, only this time, we are in jeopardy of losing our highly skilled workforce because the Navy's demand is dipping temporarily until 2018," Kaine and Warner wrote. The senators' letter and another from U.S. ...Continue Reading

On August 3rd, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the Clean Power Plan, to reduce the pollution responsible for climate change. For all its complexity, its goal is simple—power plants should generate 32% less carbon pollution by the year 2030 than they do today. In 1962, President Kennedy challenged our nation to go the moon by 1969. If America can get to the moon in 7 years, emitting one-third less air pollution in 15 years is surely within our grasp. From the overwhelmin...Continue Reading

The city of Bristol, Virginia, will receive $228,418 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. On Wednesday, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced that seven Virginia localities and organizations will receive nearly $7 million in grants. The funding will help local governments fight housing discrimination, improve economic conditions and increase access to affordable housing. “These funds will strengthen Virginia communities and improve the ...Continue Reading

Fourteen months into the American-led coalition’s airstrikes on the Islamic State in Syria, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) still wants Congress to weigh in. Not even halfway through his first term, the junior senator from Virginia is making a name for himself in Washington as the leading advocate for Congressional authorization of military operations. The former Richmond mayor, Virginia governor and Democratic National Committee chairman was once on Barack Obama’s vice presidential shortlist...Continue Reading

Career and technical education got a welcome boost this week when U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, R-Va., announced his effort to make federal funds available for students loans for adults seeking post-high school certificates. Adult wanting to earn certificates at Valley Career and Technical Center in Fishersville and other schools often find the short-term classes cost-prohibitive, Kaine noted in press release about the well-named Career & Technical Education Opportunity Act. We applaud this use of...Continue Reading

Speaker John Boehner wasn’t the only one fighting back tears Thursday morning when Pope Francis walked into the U.S. House chamber — the first pontiff ever to address a joint meeting of Congress. “It was a very emotional experience for me,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., adding he couldn’t help but cry when the pope arrived. “Man, I’m a complete sap,” he added later, tearing up again as he described the event. For Kaine — a Catholic ...Continue Reading

Federal transit officials said Thursday they have approved a plan by Metro to correct numerous safety­management problems in its subway and bus operations, including poor training of employees, outdated information technology and inadequate staffing and procedures at the rail system’s central control facility. Metro “must demonstrate a renewed commitment to set a higher standard of safety for its riders and employees,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a stateme...Continue Reading