Kaine testifies on Indians’ behalf Governor’s testimony for Congress supports federal recognition for six Va. tribes Citing 400 years of peaceful cooperation and 40 years of state-sanctioned injustice, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine journeyed to Washington yesterday to support legislation to federally recognize Virginia’s Indian tribes. Kaine told the House Committee on Natural Resources that the Jamestown settlers who arrived from England in 1607 would have perished were it not for “the forbearance and assistance” of Native Americans such as Pocahontas and Powhatan.

Waterman Ken Smith of Heathsville was blunt yesterday about the state of the Chesapeake Bay. “I’ve got a dirty workplace,“ said Smith, president of the Virginia State Waterman’s Association. He was at the General Assembly to support a bill by U.S. Rep. Robert J. Wittman, R-1st, that is designed to bring better accounting and more flexible management to efforts to restore the bay.

Nearly six years into the war in Iraq, the United States military still is having trouble getting spare parts for some armored vehicles it uses there, Rep. Robert J. Wittman, R-1st, said yesterday.

Virginia’s Indian tribes gave Gov. Timothy M. Kaine two freshly killed deer yesterday—and the tribes got reassurances that the state’s top elected officials will push for them to be recognized by the federal government in 2009.