On August 23, 2011, a 5.8 earthquake centered in Virginia was felt throughout the mid-Atlantic. Minor by the standards of the West Coast, the earthquake, even on the less-prepared East Coast, resulted in no deaths or serious injuries and only minor structural damage. Yet President Obama still declared the earthquake a “Major Disaster” and, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Administration has distributed over $25.2 million in recovery aid as of January 16. This incident is one of the countless examples of the overuse of FEMA aid …
BREAKING NEWS—Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Jon Huntsman will not be on the Virginia GOP ballot. Federal district court Judge John Gibney has just issued a ruling in Richmond finding that the Virginia requirement that ballot petition circulators must be state residents is a violation of the First Amendment. However, he also held that the four GOP candidates who failed to make it onto the Virginia ballot because they did not meet the 10,000-signature requirement had waited too late to raise their constitutional claims. (Perry did not file …
Speaking at Heritage this morning, former Speaker Newt Gingrich called on House Republicans to put politics aside and pass a new proposal from two Democratic senators that would expand offshore drilling off Virginia’s coast. Gingrich suggested it should be one of the top priorities for the House GOP when lawmakers return in September. The plan would create jobs and add revenue to federal coffers — two points Gingrich made repeatedly throughout his speech on deficit reduction. “One of the proposals I have,” Gingrich said, “is a proposal that the House …
A recent WORLD magazine article highlights the success of a Virginia organization committed to providing struggling single mothers an opportunity for self-sufficiency. Borromeo Housing, located just outside the nation’s capital in Arlington, Virginia, offers low-income, undereducated single mothers a safe, structured environment to begin building a stable life for themselves and their children. The value and necessity of work in achieving self-sufficiency is instilled in women served by Borromeo. In addition to seeking educational opportunities—whether through GED preparation, college classes, or job skills instruction—women living in the organization’s two housing …
One year ago today President Obama imposed a moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. It banned shallow-water and deepwater operations, setting the stage for a year of delays in permitting. Now a U.S. senator wants to put a moratorium on federal agencies. Sen. David Vitter (D-La.), an outspoken critic of the administration’s anti-drilling policies, introduced the Agency Overreach Moratorium Act, which would require congressional approval for federal regulations that restrict energy exploration on federal lands and offshore. Vitter said the legislation would expand domestic energy resources and …
Randall Stilley has witnessed firsthand the Obama administration’s job-killing agenda. As the president and chief executive of Seahawk Drilling, he had to lay off 632 employees before filing for bankruptcy — a direct result of President Barack Obama’s anti-energy policies. Stilley’s company owned and operated 20 shallow-water rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. The lack of energy production — a consequence of Obama’s drilling moratorium and subsequent “permitorium” — led to Seahawk’s demise. Now he’s speaking out, sharing Seahawk’s story in a new video from Heritage and the Institute for …
Yesterday, the Supreme Court denied Virginia’s motion to bypass the appellate court and go directly to the Supreme Court in its challenge to the Obamacare litigation. The Court’s decision not to hear the case, delivered in an order without comment, was not surprising. While the procedure exists for the Court to hear cases after a decision of the district court but before a decision of the court of appeals, it almost never does. And when I say “almost never does,” let me be clear: Playing the lottery probably has better …
Virginia residents witnessed a significant victory for religious liberty this week. On Wednesday, Virginia’s State Board of Social Services voted 7–2 to reject a controversial policy that could have forced faith-based institutions to abandon their beliefs and cost Virginia many effective adoption agencies. Governor Bob McDonnell (R) is expected to approve the regulations. The proposed changes to the regulations would have added sexual orientation, family status, age, religion, and other characteristics to the state’s family services nondiscrimination policy, prohibiting any adoption agency in Virginia from considering those attributes in prospective …
One by one, all but seven states have succumbed to pressure to adopt national academic standards. But in a recent bid to retain local control, members of a regional school board in Massachusetts asked state officials to reconsider that decision, according to Education Week. The Massachusetts school board expressed concerns that the Common Core State Standards, endorsed by the Obama administration, would result in the loss of local control. Its opposition is the latest knock on national standards, following criticism from leaders in South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. (Click here …
Long before the House of Representatives considered the repeal of Obamacare, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli was leading the way to undo the law in the courtroom. Virginia’s lawsuit against Obamacare has been a rallying cry for opponents of the health care takeover from the beginning, and Cuccinelli has vowed to proudly carry that banner to the end. He spoke to Heritage last year about Virginia’s case. “I don’t think in my lifetime we’ve seen one statute that so erodes liberty than this health care bill,” Cuccinelli told us. “Certainly, …
