In late 2007, Governor Kaine eliminated state funding for abstinence-based education programs, forfeiting matching grants from the federal government. His decision was based on a study funded by the Department of HHS released in April of 2007 about abstinence education programs. Kaine claimed “the research shows programs that are abstinence-only are not successful.“

Fights over the Good Book in public schools have a long and ignoble history in the United States—from 19th century Bible Wars (when riots broke out over whose version of the Bible would be read in the morning) to current conflicts over Bible electives.

Hearing that Prince William County schools have to consider cutting 700 jobs, I am convinced our federal government has spent the last year bailing out the wrong institutions

“Most people like to believe that the universe is like all the stars and planets in space.“

There’s a reason John McCain flip-flopped on gays in the military.

I don’t boogie much.

A few weeks ago, a Supreme Court decision in Washington struck fear into the hearts of political campaign finance reform supporters. In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations enjoy the same First Amendment free speech rights as individuals.

Things that are not worth it.

Virginia is now in a legal battle due to its growing desire to license and control every aspect of our lives.

One of my former jobs was group creative director at an ad agency. My largest client was Blue Cross & Blue Shield, the health insurance company. Inside BCBS you could find decision-makers, decision-avoiders, heartless bureaucrats, soft-hearted bureaucrats, dedicated employees and paper shufflers.

When it comes to such diverse topics as advertising or the stock market, "perception" often seems to be a higher priority than "reality"—except when reality has been known to grab perception around the collar and throttle it back to Earth.

The word hero often gets misused.

Imagine the scene: The chief justice of Iraq is visiting Washington and stops by the Supreme Court for tea with Justice Stephen Breyer and others. As they sip, Breyer and his guests chat about efforts to clean up money in state and local judicial elections in the United States. 

This is the final column in a three-part series.

The passing of Marvin Gillum.

In education, this is a stressful time of the year. The semester ended on Friday and teachers now have a workday in order to prepare grades.

As both the new governor of Virginia and the president of the United States perhaps know better now than before taking office—now comes the hard part.

On message and Obama’s failure to deliver the right one.

Last year President Obama promised that by the end of the year, he would deliver a “fix” to our health care system that would lower costs, reduce premiums, cover every American, improve services, and reduce the federal deficit.

Turns out Governor Bob McDonnell will be making the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union Address next month.

After the political earthquake in Massachusetts, President Barack Obama conceded he’d lost something larger than Ted Kennedy’s seat in the Senate.

This is the second in a three-part series about Joshua Curtis' struggle with the law after being labeled a sex offender.

I was thinking about acronyms the other day, which is fairly easy to do in this area since the federal government is such a strong presence and is, as we all know, fond of acronyms

New diplomas arrive.

In his State of the Commonwealth address this week, newly crowned Gov. Bob McDonnell noted that Virginia has to do a better job of promoting itself beyond our borders.

Below is the 2010 State of the County Address, given by Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart at the Jan. 12 Board of County Supervisor’s meeting.

The start of a new decade brings a change for our state with the swearing-in of Bob McDonnell last Saturday.

At 26 years old, Joshua Curtis faces a precarious future. Where most people his age would be trying to build a family, develop a career or both, Curtis is waiting in Piedmont Regional Jail to find out if he will face indefinite civil commitment by the state of Virginia.

As we head into the mid-term elections, nobody expects 2010 to be uplifting. Sad to say, we face another cycle of the negative ads, attack e-mails and character assassination we call campaigning.

How testing ties in with merit pay . . .