Tuesday, April 30, 2013
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine's (D-VA) Troop Talent Act of 2013 would help transition between military and civilian employment.
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) bill to help veterans find employment and other resources more easily once entering civilian life was introduced Monday to the U.S. House of Representatives. The Troop Talent Act of 2013 is designed to help veterans effectively translate their military skills and credentials into civilian employment, Kaine said. As of March 2013, the unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans was 9.2 percent. That’s down slightly from 9.4 percent in February 2013 but still higher than the national average of 7.1 percent. U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) called that number "unacceptable" as she introduced the Troop Talent Act to Congress on Monday. “The unemployment rate for veterans who have served in the military since 2001 …
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Virginia lawmakers, residents will be in attendance at President's 2013 State of the Union address at the Capitol.
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Tuesday, February 12
President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night will offer local citizens more chances than ever to participate and find out more about issues they're most interested in. The White House will offer an "enhanced" viewing experience complete with charts, graphs and data. The address will begin at 9 p.m. ET and will be followed by the traditional Republican response, this year delivered by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. CNN will begin its coverage at 7 p.m. with political anchors and analysts including former Speaker Newt Gingrich, of McLean, who ran an unsuccessful campaign in the Republican presidential primary. C-SPAN coverage will begin with a live preview, one hour early, at 8 p.m., and will include interviews with members…
Friday, February 8, 2013
Virginia Senators Warner and Kaine give warnings about sequestration's effects on the local economy and national security.
If sequestration goes into effect in March, it will be "worse than you can imagine," Virginia Sen. Mark Warner (D) told a group of mostly government contractors at a breakfast event Friday organized by the Northern Virginia Technology Council. Warner, along with junior Sen. Tim Kaine (D), spoke about the short-term and long-term impact of the potential $1 trillion federal budget cuts happen March 1 if Congress doesn't reach a compromise. Half of that would affect the defense industry, which some estimates say could cost Virginia more than 207,000 jobs. Sequestration could have a large impact on the local economy, where hundreds of firms depend on government contracting, and thousands of workers are employed by various agencies and …
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Sen. Tim Kaine spoke with defense contractors Monday about the early effects of sequestration on Northern Virginia jobs, spending, research and development.
About 30 representatives of defense contractors from Northern Virginia met with Sen. Tim Kaine Monday for a roundtable discussion and agreed on one fairly simple message to Congress: Make a decision. Nearly 200,000 Virginia jobs are on the line, and for some the very idea of sequestration hadn't come to epitomize the dysfunction on Capitol Hill. If lawmakers fail to reach a compromise, then $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts, half to the defense industry, will go into effect. The latest deadline is March 1. The contractors talked about the various ways the threat of sequestration was "paralyzing" the industry: Companies are delaying orders whenever they could. They aren't hiring to fill vacant positions. They aren't investing in research and …
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Vice President holds panel with Sen. Tim Kaine and other leaders on gun safety, gun laws, expanding mental health.
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Saturday, January 26
By Katherine Johnson and Mechelle Hankerson, Capital News Service Vice President Joe Biden held a round-table discussion about gun violence Friday at Virginia Commonwealth University, saying “we cannot remain silent” on the issue. The discussion was closed to the public, but in remarks outside the panel he said the group reached a “broad consensus” that certain parties should be denied access to guns. They include convicted felons, those guilty of domestic violence and those who are legally found to not be capable because of mental capacity. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Deputy U.S. Attorney General Jim Cole joined Biden for the discussion. Virginia officials …
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
As member of Armed Services Committee, Kaine says he hopes to get answers to important security issues.
Virginia's newly minted U.S. senator, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who was sworn in last week, will be in the thick of things as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, charged with holding hearings on former Sen. Chuck Hagel's nomination to become Secretary of Defense. President Obama made the announcement Monday. Kaine said he hopes to hear some specifics from the former GOP senator from Nebraska. "Hagel is a decorated war hero with a strong record of bipartisanship on foreign policy and defense issues," Kaine said in a press release. "I will do all I can to ensure the confirmation hearing addresses important questions regarding the future of our military, the current budgetary challenges facing the country and other important …
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Senator tells Associated Press he'll announce decision before Thanksgiving.
Sen. Mark Warner plans to announce before Thanksgiving whether he'll run for governor again, according to the Associated Press. The former governor, a Democrat, served as the Commonwealth's chief executive from 2002 to 2006. Virginia is the only state in the country where a governor cannot succeed himself. Former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe has already thrown his hat in the ring and will face Republicans Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. If Warner walks away from another run for governor, he'll be teaming up in the Senate with the state's soon to be junior senator, Senator-elect Tim Kaine, who served as Warner's lieutenant governor and is himself a former governor of Virginia. In a poll conducted Nov. 8-12 by …
Friday, November 16, 2012
Campaign advisors talk candidly at VPAP forum at George Mason's Arlington campus.
Remember all those horrible television ads in the Tim Kaine-George Allen race for the U.S. Senate? It turns out not everyone with those campaigns liked them, either. Mo Elleithee, a senior strategist for the Kaine campaign, and Boyd Marcus, a senior political advisor for Allen's Senate bid, agreed Thursday that many of those ads were "total crap." Elleithee said the negative ads paid for by outside groups actually helped Kaine. The two spoke candidly for more than an hour at a Virginia Public Access Project forum at George Mason University's Arlington campus. George Mason political scientist Mark Rozell moderated. The pair — Elleithee is a longtime Democrat, and served as senior spokesman for Hillary Clinton's presidential bid in 2008; …
Friday, November 9, 2012
New Virginia senator says first order of business is to work on good solutions to nation's debt.
Tim Kaine (D), Virginia's newly-elected U.S. Senator, says his first order of business will be to lobby for longterm solutions for the country's fiscal situation. Kaine held a press conference in Richmond on Wednesday, one day after he defeated former Virginia governor and senator George Allen (R) in the general election. Kaine, governor of the state from 2006-10, earned 52 percent of the vote to Allen's 48 on Tuesday. McLean and Great Falls voters also favored Kaine over Allen. Find out how your precinct voted. Check out the results for this race, and all the other ballot questions, compiled precinct-by-precinct. Kaine takes over the seat vacated by Sen. Jim Webb (D), who is retiring after one term. Webb defeated Allen in a similarly …
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Patch will bring you updates throughout Election Day as two former Virginia governors face off for an open Senate seat.
The U.S. Senate race in Virginia lived up to its reputation going into Tuesday's election, as being a tight race between two former governors. Final unofficial results around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday showed Tim Kaine with 51.89 percent of the state vote to Republican challenger George Allen's 47.92 percent of the vote across Virginia. Kaine won by comfortable margins in Northern Virginia jurisdictions, defeating Allen 71.40 percent to 28.42 percent in Falls Church; 60.53 percent to 39.01 percent in Fairfax County; and 65.83 to 33.86 percent in Arlington County, according to the State Board of Elections. As of 1:33 a.m. Wednesday, all precincts in the state had reported their results. Update 11:21 p.m.: Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell congratulated …
McLparent
10:04 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
All these defense executives should forfeit their bonuses and there should be salary ceilings. more ›