It’s a drop in the bucket on a $3 billion project, but $77.3 million is headed to Virginia from the federal government for improved rail service to Washington-Dulles International Airport. U.S. Sens. Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner, both Democrats, yesterday announced the funding for Metrorail, under President Barack Obama’s effort to revive the economy with massive government spending.

A former executive of Virginia’s biggest utility temporarily will be Sen. Mark R. Warner’s eyes and ears on the state. The freshman Democrat and former governor yesterday announced the appointment of Eva Teig Hardy as his interim state director. Hardy, who begins in June, is a Warner insider who recently retired as head of the lobbying, public affairs and philanthropic department of Dominion Resources Inc.

While Mark Warner hides out on card-check, Jim Webb plunges into prison reform. These issues, conventional wisdom has it, are career killers. One Democrat shudders. The other says big deal. This tale of two senators spotlights their different temperaments and very different approaches to politics. On card-check—the new bloody shirt of business and labor—Warner is learning the hard way that being a “radical centrist” means you’re a target for people on both sides of a tough issue.

It was the political equivalent of a pig pile, with U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., stuck at the bottom. Warner, still silent on the latest effort to make unionizations easier, came under pressure from friends on both sides to take a stand.

Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner have submitted the names of several individuals to the White House for possible appointment as U.S. attorneys in Virginia. One has attracted special attention. The Webb-Warner recommendations include Dwight Holton for the Alexandria-based Eastern District of Virginia. Holton is the brother-in-law of Gov. Tim Kaine.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine yesterday pardoned two men whose rape convictions were brought into question by DNA testing in recent years. Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey confirmed that the governor granted absolute pardons to Victor Anthony Burnette in a 1979 rape in Richmond and Arthur Lee Whitfield in two 1981 rapes in Norfolk. “I was so excited I started crying. . . . I got teared up,“ said Burnette, 56, of Richmond. “I still have a hard time thinking about it,“ he added. Burnette got the news from his lawyer, Murray J. Janus, yesterday morning.

Virginia’s U.S. senators are recommending to the White House seven prospects for high-profile prosecutor jobs, including Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s brother-in-law and his homeland security adviser. In letters Monday to President Barack Obama, who will select the state’s two federal prosecutors, Democrats Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner said, “Each of these candidates possesses the qualifications needed to serve as United States attorney.“

Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, the No. 2 Republican in the House of Representatives, is receiving campaign contributions from political action committees controlled by companies receiving federal bailout money. NBC News and Newsweek have reported that in January and February, Cantor campaign committees accepted $2,500 from Citigroup, $5,000 from Bank of America, $1,500 from Chrysler and $2,500 from American Express.

Virginia will receive $60 million for energy-efficiency improvements and $51 million to aid public housing under the latest releases of federal stimulus funds. The energy-efficiency money is in addition to $164 million in weatherization and energy funding for Virginia that President Barack Obama’s administration announced earlier this month.

MoveOn.org is trying to take advantage of the populist outrage over the AIG bonuses to pressure Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., and other uncommitted members of Congress to support President Barack Obama’s proposed $3.7 trillion budget. MoveOn is running radio and Web ads targeting Warner and nine other Democrats—two senators and seven members of the House of Representatives.

At the end of the day, how will Sen. Mark Warner vote on the card check bill?

While driving along the Beltway recently, a friend’s car slammed into a massive pothole. The collision exploded a tire and inflicted other damage. His repair bill ran to many hundreds.

February 10, 2009

Good Sign  02/10/09 12:01 AM

Sen. Mark Warner recently cast a vote that bucked his party but reflected a deep understanding of economics in the real world. The issue was simultaneously simple and complex, and came to a head during discussion of the stimulus package. Many American companies earn welcome profits overseas. Existing tax law discourages them from bringing the money back home. Last week the Senate took up a proposal to reduce taxes on so-called repatriated profits. The lower rates would encourage companies to pump their foreign profits into domestic projects.

January 07, 2009

Four new Va. faces now in Congress  01/07/09 12:01 AM

Mark R. Warner took the oath of office as Virginia’s new U.S. senator yesterday, saying he hopes to help steer the country through even tougher economic challenges than Virginia faced when he became governor in 2002. Warner succeeds Republican John W. Warner, who retired after 30 years in the Senate. John Warner and Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., walked Mark Warner down the aisle of the Senate chamber to be sworn in by Vice President Dick Cheney.

December 10, 2008

Panel: Change Va. DNA notice  12/10/08 12:01 AM

The Virginia State Crime Commission yesterday unanimously endorsed emergency legislation allowing volunteer lawyers to notify felons that potential DNA evidence has been found in their old forensic case files. Under the legislation, the state police will be permitted to provide the lawyers with what would otherwise be confidential criminal history information—provided the lawyers agree not to further disseminate it—to help find people convicted of crimes decades ago.

November 24, 2008

Transition comes with awe  11/24/08 12:01 AM

WASHINGTON Mark R. Warner, Virginia’s Democratic U.S. senator-elect, sat alone with an aide in an ornate room inside the Capitol on the third day of a whirlwind orientation for new senators. After going from businessman to governor and then senator, Warner, 53, is amid another transition here: teacher to student.

Page 3 of 4 pages  <  1 2 3 4 >