Both of Virginia’s U.S. senators say they will vote to allow debate on the Senate version of health-care overhaul legislation, but neither has committed to voting for the actual bill. Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., got an earful on the subject from a group of small-business owners in Carytown yesterday while protesters rallied outside Warner and Sen. Jim Webb’s Richmond offices.

More than 100 people gathered outside the downtown Richmond offices of Sens. Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner today to protest the proposed health care plans pending before Congress. Neither Virginia Senator, both Democrats, has committed to vote in favor of the plan that was unveiled this week in the Senate. Richmond police officers stood by to make sure the protests were peaceful. Protesters held signs and shouted slogans.

Sen. Mark Warner said he wants to see more cost containment in the Senate’s health care bill before he can support it. The Senate version is better than the bill narrowly passed out of the House of Representatives on that grounds, he said. “I think it’s gotten better but it’s still got a ways to go before I get to yes,“ he told a group of small business owners gathered this morning at Can Can in Carytown.

Lowand middle-income families pay a disproportionate share of taxes in Virginia, a study by a tax policy institute concluded yesterday. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and the Virginia Organizing Project, which represents low-income Virginians, said Virginia families earning less than $19,000 a year pay 8.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes, while the richest taxpayers—those making more than $1.5 million a year—pay only 6.3 percent.

About 23,000 of Virginia’s uninsured are getting continuous medical care through a program run out of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Health System. It’s designed to fill a gap in which uninsured people who lack continuous care often rely on emergency rooms for treatment. The program is an example of the right kind of health-care reform as it relates to service delivery, cost and compensation, says Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., who recently took to the Senate floor to tout the program.

WASHINGTON In recent weeks, we’ve seen broad stock market gains push the Dow to near 10,000 for the first time in more than a year. And while there have been some promising signs that our troubled economy is starting to rebound, it is not creating enough new jobs. Each month, more people join the ranks of the unemployed. Thousands of small business owners across Virginia also are acutely aware that this has been a slow, dreary recovery.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., says he’ll try to convince International Paper to reconsider its decision to shut down its plant in Franklin, which would put 1,100 people out of work.

Nearly half of Virginia voters oppose President Barack Obama’s health-care initiative, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch poll, which also shows his popularity here fading. Forty-nine percent are against the Obama program, while 39 percent favor it and 12 percent are undecided. The poll, conducted for The Times-Dispatch last Tuesday to Thursday by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research, indicates eight in 10 voters fear that a defining feature of the Obama proposal—a public option for health insurance—will drive up their taxes.

Coulter In nearly seven weeks on the job, Virginia’s new computer boss has sacked top executives, worked to strengthen ties to state agencies and taken steps to prevent interruptions in IT services that have ranged from hiccups to complete shutdowns. But Chief Information Officer George F. Coulter said he’s just starting to leaf through the voluminous contract that binds the Virginia Information Technologies Agency to its giant, embattled contractor, Northrop Grumman.

State Sen. Robert Hurt, R-Pittsylvania, said yesterday that he will seek the Republican nomination to run for the 5th District congressional seat. Hurt has been urged to run by the National Republican Congressional Committee, which views freshman incumbent Rep. Tom Perriello as one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the House of Representatives.

In case you’re wondering why Democrat R. Creigh Deeds’ TV ads feature Sen. Mark R. Warner and not Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, here’s your answer. Warner, who served as Virginia’s chief executive from 2002 to 2006, is Virginia’s most popular governor of the last 20 years, according to a survey by Public Policy Polling. Warner was the choice of 40 percent of respondents, followed by another governor-turned senator, Republican George Allen, at 31 percent.

Iran’s missile tests demonstrate the importance of U.N. inspections and of muscular diplomacy by additional world powers, according to Virginia’s U.S. senators. “Iran’s latest missile test is part of a pattern of provocative behavior that underscores the need for Tehran to open up its newly discovered nuclear fuel sites to international inspectors,“ Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., said in a statement.

Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., in a speech on the Senate floor, yesterday warned of the consequences of inaction on a health-care overhaul. “Doing nothing means exploding our federal deficit,“ Warner said. “Doing nothing means doubling the health-care premium cost for American families. “Doing nothing means that American companies will be less competitive in a global market and [that] our small businesses will continue to be challenged to meet their basic needs.“

President Barack Obama yesterday nominated Justice Barbara Keenan of the Virginia Supreme Court to the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Virginia’s two U.S. senators, Democrats Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner, had recommended Keenan. “Her commitment to fairness and judicial integrity has been unwavering throughout her career . . . ,“ Obama said in a statement released by the White House.

The plan was to run Virginia’s government computer systems like a business, but the result was two huge outsourcing deals that have missed their targets. The Virginia Information Technologies Agency—where a new chief has done some major house-cleaning, firing three top executives last week—was a key initiative of then-Gov. Mark R. Warner, intended to centralize the state’s computer operations to save money.