Del. Charles W. Carrico Sr., R-Grayson, said he is preparing a bill that would prohibit the superintendent of the Virginia State Police from ordering chaplains to deliver nondenominational prayers.

President-elect Barack Obama appeared today at Democratic Party headquarters with his hand-picked incoming chairman, Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is President-elect Barack Obama’s pick to run the Democratic National Committee, a high-profile post from which the Virginian can steer millions of dollars in cash and services to candidates across the country.

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine will become the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee, according to a state Democratic official and other party sources.

Gov. Tim Kaine is proud to have helped Barack Obama win Virginia and says their friendship could benefit the state in years to come.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is due in Washington today to discuss preparations for next month’s presidential inauguration. Kaine is to meet with Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. The three are to focus on security and transportation issues related to Maryland and Virginia, which border the District of Columbia.

Dinwiddie County School Superintendent Charles Maranzano Jr. has asked the state to spare six school systems affected by Fort Lee’s expansion from budget cuts.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine this morning unveiled his proposed budget, which calls for increasing Virginia’s cigarette tax and cutting jobs.

Legislation still can perish at the hands of few state lawmakers in the early morning, but it looks like it’ll soon be on the record. Speaker William J. Howell has directed the clerk of the House of Delegates to start recording votes taken in House subcommittees.

Anne Holton is a former Richmond Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court judge. A Kaine—not the one you think—has taken a job with President-elect Barack Obama. First lady Anne Holton, wife of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, is spending two to three days per week in Washington as an unpaid volunteer in the Obama transition office.

In the state Capitol that once harbored efforts to suppress the political rights and educational opportunities of black Americans, 13 electors yesterday confirmed Virginia’s support for the man who will be the nation’s first black president.

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine today reflected on Virginia’s racial history as he welcomed members of Virginia’s Electoral College who would formally cast the state’s 13 votes for Barack Obama. Kaine noted that the Confederate Congress once met in the state Capitol, where electors today are meeting to help ratify the election of the nation’s first African-American president.

Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-10th, is urging Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to name a blue-ribbon commission on transportation to be led by two former Virginia governors, Democrat Gerald L. Baliles and Republican George Allen. Kaine said yesterday that the idea is “intriguing” but that a solution to the commonwealth’s transportation troubles does not necessarily require another panel.

Shelli Snead, a first-year instructional aide at Reams Road Elementary School in Chesterfield County, is worried about her job. “It’s the best job I have ever had,“ she wrote in an e-mail. “But because I’m the ‘low man on the totem pole,‘ I worry if I’ll be back here next year. I already see the stress teachers are under, not having funds for basic things like supplies.“

Charles R. Samuels will take his seat on the Richmond City Council next month with a healthy respect for those who came before him. The 2nd District, which sweeps across the Fan District and includes Gilpin Court and part of Jackson Ward, has been represented since 2001 by the council’s president, William J. Pantele. He was preceded by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, whose political ascendancy to mayor, lieutenant governor and governor started in 1994 with his ouster of a district incumbent.