Intent on making Virginia a national energy power, Gov. Bob McDonnell is lobbying for an expansion of the 2.9 million offshore acres the government has designated for possible oil and gas exploration. McDonnell contends the offshore leasing map 50 miles off Virginia’s coast should be redrawn to better reflect the state’s coast and, by extension, encompass more energy reserves that ultimately could mean a bonanza for the state in royalty payments.

Intent on making Virginia a national energy power, Gov. Bob McDonnell is lobbying for an expansion of the 2.9 million offshore acres the government has designated for possible oil and gas exploration. McDonnell contends the offshore leasing map 50 miles off Virginia’s coast should be redrawn to better reflect the state’s coast and, by extension, encompass more energy reserves that ultimately could mean a bonanza for the state in royalty payments.

Gov. Bob McDonnell plans to donate more than $100,000 from his inaugural committee to charity after raising more than the $1.5 million goal. The committee raised $1.9 million from 1,554 donors and spent $1.6 million on inaugural events for the state’s first Republican governor in eight years, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonpartisan watchdog of money in politics.

The House of Delegates yesterday passed Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposal to create a framework for approving virtual classes for public school students and gave preliminary approval to a plan to create college partnership lab schools. The measures triggered a sharp floor speech from Del. Lionell Spruill Sr., D-Chesapeake, who said the Virginia Education Association and McDonnell were “selling out” by supporting reforms that would suck money from traditional public schools.

State educators expect to hear this week if Virginia is a finalist in its bid for Race to the Top funding. In a massive application, the state is seeking $350 million from the Obama administration’s competitive education grant program. One component of that application drove a substantial portion of the conversation yesterday in the House Education Committee, which approved Gov. Bob McDonnell’s charter school legislation.

Gov. Bob McDonnell says comments by Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, were “wrong and offensive.“ Marshall describes controversy as “bull,“ but apologizes to a delegate.

Gov. Bob McDonnell says he plans to serve out his term as governor, but he did not rule out leaving if nominated to run for vice president. “I don’t have any plans for higher office at this point. So, my plan is to serve four years in Virginia and be governor,“ McDonnell said in his first radio show on WTOP in Washington. When WTOP’s Mark Plotkin asked McDonnell whether he would leave office to run for vice president, the governor did not shut the door completely.

The guy who ran for governor is turning to the guy who won for help on a jobs project for economically ravaged Southside Virginia. Terry McAuliffe, defeated for the 2009 Democratic nomination, met privately yesterday with Gov. Bob McDonnell to discuss McAuliffe’s proposal to purchase a soon-to-close paper mill in Isle of Wight County, refitting it as a wood-fired power plant.

Chanting and waving handmade signs, Richmond-area parents, teachers and children greeted state lawmakers walking into the General Assembly Building yesterday, just before the money committees unveiled their proposed changes to the state’s budget. At one point in the day, about 150 people walked on Ninth Street along the state Capitol grounds urging lawmakers to spare education from deep cuts and to “save our schools, keep the freeze.“ They packed the sidewalk and, later, the hallway outside the House of Delegates committee meeting area.

Virginia State Police helicopters are getting a lift from money meant for local emergency crews. How big a lift remains to be seen, as the General Assembly’s money committees put their two-year spending plans on the table today with budget proposals by Gov. Bob McDonnell and former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. Until last week, local fire and rescue crews thought they had a $5.2 million problem, but afterMcDonnell presented his recommendations Wednesday, it looked like a hole of up to $25 million over two years.

A children’s hospital the state wants to close takes seriously mentally ill young people that no one else will—or so a panel of experts said in language that top state officials suppressed late last year. Then-Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat, proposed closing the state-owned Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents in Staunton after the state-appointed panel’s findings were deleted from an official report.

New governor’s job measures have fared well in the General Assembly, but government-reform efforts have seen mixed results as legislature marks midway point.

The Republican-dominated House of Delegates advanced a slew of Second Amendment-related bills yesterday. They ranged from a bill that would repeal the one-gun-a-month limit on handgun purchases, to shielding applicants for concealed-weapon permits, to protecting some Virginia-made guns and ammunition from potential federal regulation.

Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., who took office in January 2009 as a self-described “radical centrist,“ says he is trying to define a middle ground in partisan Washington.

A regional war is erupting over education funding, with local leaders in Richmond and legislators from Hampton Roads decrying a state proposal that would help Northern Virginia at their expense. The Richmond Regional Planning District Commission and Hampton Roads legislative caucus agreed separately yesterday to oppose the proposal by Gov. Bob McDonnell to allow an immediate change in the formula for distributing state aid to local school divisions.