Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, July 31. Also, check out the new ad featuring Ken Osborne, a Southwest Virginia landowner, who is fighting against Ken Cuccinelli and out-of-state energy companies over royalties owed for gas extracted from his property.
*Yellen/Summers and the Twilight of the VSPs
*Manning is acquitted on key charge of aiding the enemy
*Obama Calls Out Republicans For Wasting Time On Keystone: ‘That’s Not A Jobs Plan’ (“While Republicans have advocated for Keystone by insisting that it will create jobs, Obama slammed that assertion Tuesday, pointing to the Cornell University estimate that Keystone would only create 50 permanent jobs.” That’s right, only 50 jobs in a country of 300 million people. This is a bad, bad joke.)
*The GOP’s shutdown showdown (“Republicans try to put the brakes on Obamacare, again.” And the motive for this repetitive lunacy is…???)
*Democrat-turned-indy plans to endorse McAuliffe (“[Watkins] Abbitt, who represented a large swath of Southside Virginia farm country in the House for 28 years before retiring in 2011, says McAuliffe will be the first Democrat he’s backed since he left the Democratic Party in 2001.”)
*State Charged $54,000 For Gov. McDonnell’s Legal Fees (Great, huh?)
*Creep of the Week: Ken Cuccinelli (“If this guy gets his way, Virginia is going to have to change its motto to ‘Virginia is for lovers, but not the icky kind that makes God puke.'”)
*Planned Parenthood leader slams Va. Republican ticket (“This race is our top priority this year, and the stakes couldn’t be higher, not only for the women in the commonwealth but women across the country.”)
*McDonnell says he will return family gifts from political donor (The bottom line is that ONLY after he’s caught does he start to do something about the situation, while still calling Jonnie Williams a “friend” and trying to claim that every governor has done the same thing. Pathetic.)
*Cuccinelli dismisses McAuliffe call to return gifts (Right, because Ken Cuccinelli is better than everyone else and gets to do whatever the heck he wants to do. Or he’s just abusing his power, like he did in his climate science witch hunt, his corrupt dealings with Consol Energy, etc, etc.)
*Stuck on the side of the road (“A spat over U.S. 58 puts the governor’s race deeper in the ditch.” I’m not sure I understand this “both sides” disgust. It was Ken Cuccinelli’s campaign, and ONLY Ken Cuccinelli’s campaign, which put out the brain-dead video. What’s Terry McAuliffe supposed to do, not point out the false attack?)
*Harry F. Byrd, Virginia Senator, Dies at 98 (“…a conservative senator from Virginia who was appointed to his father’s seat and retained his father’s segregationist views but not his affiliation with the Democratic Party, died on Tuesday at his home in Winchester, Va. He was 98.”
*Jackson says Trayvon Martin slaying wasn’t motivated by race (So, tell us Bishop Jackson, what exactly WAS this motivated by exactly if it wasn’t race or “Stand Your Ground?”)
*Calls ring louder for tighter gifts laws (Gee, ya think we need to tighten up a bit?)
*Time to Get Serious About Ethics Reform (Peter Galuszka nails it as usual.)
*Portsmouth takes next step in upgrading its aging water system
*Summer swelter still missing in action
*13-year-old boy who inspired Nats’ Harper loses battle with brain cancer
*Nationals fall further behind
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