AP
SALEM, Va. (AP) _ Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is set to make a campaign stop in the Roanoke Valley. He is scheduled to speak at Carter Machinery Company in Salem on Tuesday afternoon. Continue reading
ROCKY MOUNT, Va. (AP) — A judge has upheld a jury’s negligence verdict against the state from the 2007 mass killings at Virginia Tech, but has sharply reduced damages awarded to two families.
Franklin County Circuit Judge William Alexander II today reduced the jury’s damages awarded to each family to $100,000, the statutory cap on damages against the state. Jurors had awarded each family $4 million.
The lawsuit was filed by the families of two students who were among the 32 left dead on the Blacksburg campus after a rampage by a student gunman. Attorneys successfully argued the university waited too long before alerting the campus of the first two shootings.
The April 16, 2007, shootings were the deadliest in modern U.S. history.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ In a reversal of an earlier decision, the ruling committee of the Virginia Republican Party is going with a closed convention instead of an open primary to choose a gubernatorial nominee in 2013. The decision came by a 47-31 vote Friday in Richmond by the party’s central committee. Continue reading
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Virginia’s unemployment rate remained at the lowest rate in three years in May and is still below the national average. The Virginia Employment Commission says Virginia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stayed at 5.6 percent in May. That’s 0.6 percentage points lower than a year ago. Virginia’s jobless rate has been trending down since January 2010, when joblessness peaked at 7.3 percent. Continue reading
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) _ Annual tuition and mandatory fees for in-state students at Virginia Tech are rising by 3.9 percent next academic year. Meeting in Arlington on Thursday, Tech’s Board of Visitors approved the increase, which translates to an annual cost of $10,923. That’s up from $10,509 from the just-completed academic year. Continue reading
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. (AP) _ The Greenbrier’s owner says Tiger Woods will play in this year’s Greenbrier Classic. Jim Justice tells The Register-Herald that Woods has committed to play in the tournament. The third annual Greenbrier Classic will be held July 2-8 in White Sulphur Springs. Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Barack Obama says he now supports same-sex marriage, ending months of equivocation on a subject with powerful election-year consequences. Obama says he has concluded that it is important for him to affirm that he thinks same-sex couples should be able to get married. He says he came to the conclusion over the course of several years of talking to family and friends.
Tareq Salahi
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ White House gate crasher Tareq Salahi says he plans to run for governor of Virginia next year. Salahi completed a declaration of candidacy, but it’s meaningless until Jan. 1 under state law.
VMI Photo
LEXINGTON, Va. (AP) _ Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was honored by Virginia Military Institute, and she returned the favor by paying homage to a VMI alumnus. Clinton accepted the Distinguished Diplomat Award on Tuesday on VMI’s Lexington campus. During an address to students and faculty, she praised George C. Marshall, class of 1901. Marshall was secretary of state from 1947 to 1949 and was among the architects of the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II.
(Continue reading for a link to her full address.)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Virginia’s Senate expects to vote Monday to approve a version of the state budget, something it did not do during a 60-day regular General Assembly.
The Senate Finance Committee unanimously approved its version of a new budget Thursday, incorporating some of the Democratic demands that had been made for advancing a new two-year state funding plan. One of the concessions was relief for tolls on a tunnel in Hampton Roads.
Another major concession may come Monday when a floor amendment requiring the state to pay for mandatory pre-abortion ultrasounds is offered.
The amendment would require insurers to pay the cost of the procedure mandated in a bill passed this year. The state would provide up to $3 million over the next two years to pay the costs for the uninsured.