Six Indian tribes in Virginia and the Lumbees of North Carolina yesterday took another step toward federal recognition, which would make them eligible for federal aid. The tribes would be eligible for up to $800 million in federal funds under two bills passed by the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee. The bills, which bar the tribes from building casinos, already have passed the House.

The Virginia Board of Education wants the state to set staffing levels for full-time teachers of special, gifted, and career and technical education. Each school division would be required to hire at least 58 licensed, full-time-equivalent instructors per 1,000 students, under proposed changes to Virginia’s Standards of Quality, state-mandated goals for public schools.

Lawmakers are warning the state’s computer chief and Northrop Grumman against ramming through potentially pricey changes in a disputed contract ahead of a looming shakeup in Virginia’s information-technology bureaucracy. Though by law it falls to Chief Information Officer George F. Coulter to accept or reject revisions, he and Northrop Grumman’s Virginia project boss, Samuel Abbate, were told modifications should be vetted by the next governor and General Assembly.

Last November, Bernard Peyton, a retired warehouse worker, was excited to cast his ballot in the presidential election. “Barack Obama being an African-American, that’s a natural thing,“ said Peyton, a black Henrico County resident. On Nov. 3, Peyton, 65, plans to vote for R. Creigh Deeds for governor. But he doesn’t detect the same kind of fervor for the state senator from Bath County.

As a young Army lieutenant stationed in Germany, Bob McDonnell made the Guinness Book of World Records. He organized his hospital unit to carry a 120-pound woman on a stretcher on a record-breaking trek—93.4 miles in 32 hours. Thirty-two years later, McDonnell is doing a different kind of heavy lifting, as he seeks to break Democrats’ eight-year hold on Virginia’s governorship.

Chesterfield County is projecting a $4 million pinch on its current fiscal year’s budget because of state cuts. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine last month announced a fiscal 2010 budget-reduction plan that will mean about $1.5 billion worth of cuts in state spending. As a result, Chesterfield officials expect to see at least $3.85 million less than expected from the state for the county’s $716 million general fund.

State and local governments are looking at big increases to pay for employee retirement plans in the next two years. But it could have been worse. The Virginia Retirement System’s board of trustees temporarily suspended an accounting requirement yesterday to inflate the value of the retirement plan’s assets and cushion government from rate shock to fully fund the pension plan, which lost more than $6 billion in value in the stock market meltdown last year.

President Barack Obama talked up his stimulus package yesterday in Northern Virginia, but he didn’t say a word about the fellow Democrat who could use a boost from the White House: gubernatorial hopeful R. Creigh Deeds. Obama visited the site of the Fairfax County Parkway extension, the biggest project in Virginia financed under the president’s plan to jump-start the economy through massive federal spending.

Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Pickett and the Defense Supply Center Richmond are the first winners of the new Virginia Department of Defense Eagle Awards. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced the winners yesterday. Among other things, Fort A.P. Hill was cited for establishing stream buffers, using innovative stormwater management techniques and protecting more than 2,900 acres through conservation easements, according to state officials.

Chesterfield: $3,878,207
  Henrico: $2,845,348
  Richmond: $1,164,140
  Hanover: $1,108,848
  Petersburg: $341,147
  Hopewell: $307,365
  Powhatan: $282,608
  Colonial Heights: $161,888
  Goochland: $51,512

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced today the winners of the first Virginia Eagle Awards for environmental stewardship among defense installations. The winners were Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Pickett and Defense Supply Center Richmond.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and legislators are warning the state’s computer contractor, Northrop Grumman, that they won’t allow Virginia’s privately run IT system to become a money pit. Following the release yesterday of a General Assembly report sharply critical of Northrop Grumman and the state’s information-technology bureaucracy, lawmakers told the company that righting the embattled, 10-year, $2.3 billion project should not come at additional cost, particularly when Virginia is slashing spending by billions to balance its budget.

Democrat R. Creigh Deeds last night blasted Republican gubernatorial rival Bob McDonnell as a “smooth talker” who runs from his conservative roots, while McDonnell tied Deeds to the disputed policies of President Barack Obama.

Several dozen Lawrenceville-area residents brought the pain of state budget cuts to the state Capitol grounds, where they hoped to share it with Gov. Timothy M. Kaine yesterday.

A group of 40 to 50 Brunswick County residents and employees of the Brunswick Correctional Center protested the facility’s closing this morning on the grounds of the state capitol. Speakers included members of the area’s General Assembly delegation, Barbara Jarrett Drummond, chair of the county board of supervisors, Brian K. Roberts, the county sheriff and Douglas R. Pond, the mayor of Lawrenceville. Speakers complained they had been singled out to bear a disproportionate share of recent state budget cuts and vowed to keep fighting the closing.