Robert Marshall

Virginia GOPer Who Opposed Gay Judge: 'Sodomy Is Not A Civil Right' (VIDEO)

Eric Lach | May 17, 2012, 10:41AM

Virginia Delegate and Republican Senate candidate Bob Marshall, who led the battle against the judicial nomination of an openly gay Richmond prosecutor, appeared on CNN Thursday and defended his position, saying, among other arguments, that "sodomy is not a civil right" and that he was worried how a gay judge would rule in the case of a "bar room fight between a homosexual and heterosexual."

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Virginia

Amid Voter ID Debate, Virginia Reports No In-Person Voter Fraud In 2008

Ryan J. Reilly | April 23, 2012, 2:21PM

As Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) prepares to decide the fate of a proposed voter ID bill in the Old Dominion state, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported on voter fraud prosecutions stemming out of the 2008 election that "may signal a more significant voter fraud issue than some state lawmakers realized."

One problem: the type of voter fraud that allegedly took place -- namely, felons voting when they shouldn't have been -- wouldn't have been prevented by the proposed voter ID law.

The Times-Dispatch reports that officials have prosecuted 39 cases of voter fraud out of the approximately 3.7 million votes cast in the 2008 election. The newspaper said that a majority of the 39 cases resulted in convictions and an additional 26 cases were still being investigated.

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Abortion

Vaginal Ultrasound Bills A Smokescreen, Say Pro-Choice Groups

Jillian Rayfield | February 29, 2012, 6:15AM

5 November 2003 - Washington, D.C. - Pro-choice advocates protest near the Ronald Reagan Building where President George W. Bush signed the Partial Birth Abortion Act banning the practice. Photo Credit: Robert Trippett/Sipa Press/TrippettProChoicez.03/0410201812

Don't be fooled by talk of transvaginal ultrasound bills, pro-choice groups say. Regular ultrasound bills are just as bad.

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Virginia

Virginia Senate Advances Less Invasive Ultrasound, Personhood Bills

Jillian Rayfield | February 23, 2012, 1:10PM

A less invasive but still controversial version of Virginia's pre-abortion ultrasound bill -- that does not mandate transvaginal ultrasounds -- has passed out of a Senate committee.

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Virginia

UPDATED: VA Governor Backs Off Transvaginal Ultrasound Bill

Jillian Rayfield | February 22, 2012, 3:26PM

Bob McDonnell

Updated: February 22, 4:03 PM: The Virginia House of Delegates has passed the bill requiring women to undergo an ultrasound before getting an abortion, but has included an amendment stripping the bill of a controversial requirement for a transvaginal ultrasound, Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post reports.

Our earlier report follows below:

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) is backing off of the controversial legislation that would require women to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound before getting an abortion, recommending that the legislature put in amendments to soften the bill and only require a transabdominal ultrasound instead. "Mandating an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent is not a proper role for the state," McDonnell said in a statement.

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Virginia

Virginia's Ultrasound Bill Makes No Exceptions For Rape Or Incest

Pema Levy | February 22, 2012, 11:26AM

Image from Alexander Raths/ Shutterstock

The Virginia House is due to vote Wednesday on a bill which would require women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound. This is the final step before the bill arrives on the governor's desk.

The bill requires that the ultrasound operation helps show the physical aspects of the fetus and also detects a heartbeat. Since most abortions are sought during the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy, when the fetus is little larger than a grain of rice, this means many women would not undergo a procedure like the one depicted in the picture above. Instead, they would be obliged to endure an invasive "transvaginal" procedure. This has led opponents of the bill - many of them Democrats - to decry it as "state-sponsored rape."

This only adds to another controversial aspect of the bill: that unlike many laws which regulate abortion, Virginia's does not contain exemptions for victims of rape or incest.

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Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart: VA Ultrasound Bill Like A Vaginal TSA Pat-Down

David Taintor | February 22, 2012, 9:29AM

Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart on Tuesday returned to discussing the "punanny state," this time looking at a Virginia bill that would force women to have a transvaginal ultrasound before getting an abortion.

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Personhood

Democrats Say Virginia Ultrasound Measure 'Akin To Rape'

Jillian Rayfield | February 22, 2012, 6:16AM

Update: February 22, 9:15 AM.

Virginia legislators are considering two bills that would create harsh restrictions on abortions. One of the measures, Democrats say, is "akin to rape." But there are signs that some Republicans may be having second thoughts.

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Voting

Virginia's Voter ID Bill A Solution In Search Of A Problem

Ryan J. Reilly | February 15, 2012, 6:09AM

There are no reports of anyone ever signing an affidavit claiming they were another person in order to vote in Virginia. But that isn't stopping Republican Virginia Del. Mark Cole from pushing legislation that would prevent such a scheme from taking place.

His bill -- which would make voters who lack an accepted form of identification cast provisional ballots -- has passed the House. It's raised the ire of Virginia Democrats who say it's just one in a line of legislative measures proposed by Republicans in states across the country who are trying to suppress Democratic turnout.

But Cole told TPM this week that his legislation isn't part of some grand conspiracy by, say, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). He said it's a solution to a potential problem brought to his attention by members of a county election board.

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ALEC

Report Says ALEC Wields 'Disturbing Level of Influence' In Virginia

Nick R. Martin | January 4, 2012, 2:18PM

Updated: January 4, 2012, 3:39PM

An investigation released this week says that Virginia lawmakers take a "disturbing" number of cues from a conservative group that pushes model bills on state legislatures nationwide.

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Air Force

Report: Air Force Dumped Ashes Of At Least 274 Troops In VA Landfill

Jillian Rayfield | December 8, 2011, 11:54AM

The Air Force reportedly dumped the ashes of at least 274 U.S. troops in a landfill in Virginia before it ended the practice three years ago, according to records obtained by the Washington Post.

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Republicans

VA GOP Condemns Picture of Obama As Zombie Shot In The Head

Jillian Rayfield | November 1, 2011, 10:33AM

The Virginia Republican Party has condemned an e-mail sent out by the Loudon County Republican Committee picturing a zombie version of President Obama with a gunshot in his head.

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Sovereign Citizens

Sovereign Citizen Resists Traffic Stop Arrest As A 'Free Citizen On A Free Highway'

Jillian Rayfield | May 18, 2011, 11:05AM

Michael Creath Jones

A sovereign citizen in Virginia was arrested and charged with five misdemeanors after a bizarre encounter with a state police officer where he called himself a "free citizen on a free highway" and gave multiple fake names.

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Civil War

Virginia Teacher Holds Mock Auction Of Black Students To Teach Civil War Lesson

Jillian Rayfield | April 13, 2011, 1:20PM

A fourth grade teacher in Norfolk, Virginia is in trouble for getting a bit too real in a lesson on the Civil War, in which she held a mock auction of black students while letting the white students bid on them.

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ATF

ATF Agent Charged With Stealing Guns, Cigarettes, For Resale

Melissa Jeltsen | April 7, 2011, 1:50PM

A special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) allegedly stole guns and stockpiles of cigarettes from the agency with the intention of selling them for his own financial benefit, according to a federal indictment unsealed on Wednesday.

In a 20-count indictment, 43 year old Virginia resident Clifford Dean Posey has been charged with wire fraud, embezzlement, possessing stolen firearms, making false statements and money laundering.

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Pentagon

Military Personnel Say Pentagon Ignores Sexual Assaults, Harassment (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | February 16, 2011, 11:57AM

Sec. of Defense Robert Gates

Veterans and active-duty service members filed a federal lawsuit this week alleging that the Pentagon has turned a blind eye to a hostile military culture that has resulted in sexual harassment and rapes.

The lawsuit, filed by civil litigator Susan Burke in Virginia, notes that there's been an increase in reports of sexual abuse in the military and that Pentagon leadership hasn't done enough about it.

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Domestic Violence

Brothers Of Alleged Metro Threatener Busted For Possession Of Pot, Gun

Ryan J. Reilly | February 16, 2011, 8:40AM

Two brothers of the Virginia man who allegedly threatened to blow up the Metro system could end up heading to jail, too, because of a gun and marijuana were found when FBI agents searched their home.

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Military Contractors

Accused Rapist Found Working As Contractor In Iraq

Rachel Slajda | January 13, 2011, 10:33AM

Daniel Phillips

A Virginia man facing charges of raping an underage girl has been found, after five years, working as a contractor in Iraq.

Norfolk police tracked down Daniel Phillips, 46, this week, with the help of the U.S. Marshals, the State Department and NCIS, and brought him back to Virginia to face the charges stemming from an incident in 2004 or 2005.

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Five Ponds Press

Publisher Of Inaccurate VA Textbooks Will Replace Them For Free

David Taintor | January 12, 2011, 2:02PM

The publisher of textbooks in which historians found major errors has said it will correct and replace the books at no cost to the Virginia schools they were used in, the Washington Post reports.

Five Ponds Press, a small publisher in Connecticut, is responsible for the books in question, which -- among other errors -- claimed that African Americans fought in large numbers for the south during the Civil War.

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Phillip A.Hamilton

Feds Say VA GOPer Used Position To Endow Job He Was Seeking

Ryan J. Reilly | January 6, 2011, 9:33AM

A former Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates set up a plum position for himself at Old Dominion University -- a job he funded through legislation he introduced at the same time he was soliciting the gig, a federal grand jury charged in an indictment on Wednesday.

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Virginia

Historians Find Myriad Errors In VA History Textbooks

David Taintor | December 30, 2010, 8:30AM

Surprise, surprise, historians have found glaring errors in a textbook claiming that African Americans fought in large numbers for the South during the Civil War.

A number of additional errors have been found in other textbooks being used in some Virginia classrooms, since the state ordered a review of the books, the Washington Post reports.

Among the textbooks' errors are claims that the Confederacy included 12 states and the U.S. entered World War I in 1916. Five professional scholars reviewed the books, with three of them finding "disturbing" results. State officials are scheduled to meet January 10 to review the results.

"I absolutely could not believe the number of mistakes -- wrong dates and wrong facts everywhere. How in the world did these books get approved?" said Ronald Heinemann, a former history professor at Hampden-Sydney College who reviewed "Our Virginia: Past and Present." The other book mentioned in the report was "Our America: To 1865."

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Don't Ask Don't Tell

Gov. McDonnell Says No Way To New DADT For Va. National Guard

Rachel Slajda | December 21, 2010, 4:19PM

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell (R)

A state lawmaker from Virginia is so upset about the Congress repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell that he wants to institute a mini-DADT banning gay men and lesbians from the Virginia National Guard.

"It's a distraction when I'm on the battlefield and have to concentrate on the enemy 600 yards away and I'm worried about this guy whose got eyes on me," the lawmaker, Delegate Bob Marshall (R), told WUSA9. "If I needed a blood transfusion and the guy next to me had committed sodomy 14 times in the last month I'd be worried."

Marshall says he's working on legislation to institute a DADT-style state law. His authority to do so, he claims, comes from the clause of the U.S. Constitution which reads, "reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia."

But Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R), who as the authority to deploy the state National Guard in a state emergency, says no way.

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Hans von Spakovsky

Dem Remains Ahead In Virginia Race Where Bush-Era Lawyer Counting Ballots

Ryan J. Reilly | November 5, 2010, 8:00AM

Hans von Spakovsky

As we told you Wednesday, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) is just ahead of his Republican opponent Keith Fimian in a close race, and now the Fairfax County Board of Elections is canvassing the voting machines and examining provisional ballots.

With 100 percent of the precincts in, Connolly has 111,630 votes to Fimian's 110,700, according to state election data last updated at 1:56 p.m. on Thursday.

In Fairfax County, Connolly has 76,086 votes to Fimian's 71,571. With a split of 4,515 votes in Fairfax County, provisional ballots -- of which a county spokeswoman said there "a little over 100" -- aren't going to swing the result in the county. Still, some are concerned due to the involvement of Hans von Spakovsky, a Bush-era Justice Department official who was accused of politicizing the Civil Rights Division and putting an undue emphasis on combating voter fraud.

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Hans von Spakovsky

Hans von Spakovsky Will Help Certify A Tight Race In Virginia

Ryan J. Reilly | November 3, 2010, 2:24PM

Hans von Spakovsky

Both sides are claiming victory in the House race in Virginia's 11th district, which may be the closest contest in the country. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Democrat Gerry Connolly is leading Republican Keith Fimian by just 487 votes.

The three-member electoral board of Faixfax County is currently in the midst of canvassing the election results, a spokeswoman for the country government confirmed to TPMMuckraker. One of the individuals sitting on that board is Hans von Spakovsky, a Bush-era Justice Department official who came under fire from Democrats after allegations that he helped politicize the Civil Rights Division and placed an undue emphasis on voter fraud and identification that critics say often suppresses minority voter turnout.

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Confederate History Month

McDonnell Cancels Confederate History Month

Rachel Slajda | September 27, 2010, 9:01AM

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell

Bob McDonnell, the Republican governor of Virginia, announced Friday morning that he will not declare next April "Confederate History Month."

McDonnell caused a stir this April when he proclaimed Confederate History Month, something that had been a tradition in the past but that his predecessors had skipped. Most critics made hay of the fact that he made no mention of slavery in the proclamation. He eventually apologized and added a clause about the "evil and inhumane practice."

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Ken Cuccinelli

Judge Rejects Cuccinelli's Subpoena Of UVA 'Climate-Gate' Docs

Jillian Rayfield | August 30, 2010, 2:58PM

VA Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli

A judge in Virginia has set aside Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's subpoena of University of Virgina documents relating to research by Michael Mann, a former professor who was involved in the "Climate-Gate" controversy last year.

Cuccinelli, a climate change skeptic, said he was investigating whether Mann had committed fraud when obtaining government funds for research into human-caused climate change, but Albemarle County Circuit Court Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. ruled that "it is not clear what [Mann] did was misleading, false or fraudulent in obtaining funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia."

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Immigration

Virginia's Cuccinelli Rules It's OK For Police To Check Immigration Status

Christina Bellantoni | August 2, 2010, 1:22PM

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) issued an official opinion that Virginia police officers can follow in Arizona's footsteps and ask for immigration status on routine stops.

The opinion comes in the form of a letter sent on Friday to state Delegate Bob Marshall, a Northern Virginia Republican who is among the legislature's most conservative members. Marshall has long sought stricter measures to ensure illegal immigrants receive no taxpayer-funded services.

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Ken Cuccinelli

Cuccinelli Still Won't Give Fake Vets Group Donations To Real Veterans

Megan Carpentier | June 18, 2010, 2:10PM

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R)

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) took $55,000 in campaign contributions from the U.S. Navy Veterans Association (USNVA) founder Bobby Thompson before it was revealed that the USNVA was quite possibly a scam that existed solely for the personal enrichment of one Bobby Thompson. After his fellow state Republicans discovered it, they hastily turned around and gave the tainted donations to actual non-profits that help individual veterans. Not Cuccinelli, though: he insisted on keeping them even as he told reporters that he also would not be initiating any investigation into Thompson or USNVA.

Responding to pressure today, Cuccinelli announced a slight change of plans. Taking a page from BP, he deposited $55,000 of his campaign war chest into an escrow account pending the outcome of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' investigation into the charity.

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Ken Cuccinelli

Cuccinelli: Health Care Is 'Secondary' Issue In My Health Care Lawsuit

Zachary Roth | May 28, 2010, 1:38PM

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli

Presenting his lawsuit against health-care reform in apocalyptic and grandiose terms, Ken Cuccinelli has said that health-care itself is a "secondary" issue in the legal challenge. The real goal, the Virginia Attorney General acknowledges, is to limit federal power. "If we lose, it's very much the end of federalism as we've known it for over 220 years," he said.

Cuccinelli's comments came in response to the Justice Department's motion, filed earlier this week, to dismiss his lawsuit.

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Fred Malek

VA Gov Taps Nixon's 'Jew Counter' To Help Shrink State Gov't

Ben Frumin | May 10, 2010, 12:40PM

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Frederic Malek (inset)

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) needed someone to reform his state's government and shrink its budget. So who's he turning to? Fred Malek: right-wing insider and former President Richard Nixon's "Jew counter."

On Friday, McDonnell released a list of 31 names -- the members of his "Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring," which, according to the Washington Post, "will consider closing some of the state's 130 agencies" and will "consider selling the state's 350 liquor stores."

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