Del. Phil Hamilton, of Virginia Beach, was one of the most powerful legislators in the General Assembly. He was chairman of the powerful Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee in the House of Delegates. He was the No. 2 Republican on the omniponent Appropriations Committee, chaired by Del. Lacey Putney, of Bedford. He also was a House budget conferee who, each year, played a key role in developing the state’s budget. Behind Speaker of the House Bill Howell, of Stafford County, and Putney, he was arguably the third-most powerful person in the Assembly.

Twenty years ago, Virginia high school students with good grades and extracurricular activities had little trouble gaining admission to their choice of the state’s top colleges and universities.

It makes no sense. Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and illness in the United States. It also causes cancer, heart disease and other fatal conditions.

Rep. Frank Wolf, a Northern Virginia Republican congressman who represents the 10th District in the House of Representatives, is not a politician who’s prone to hyperbole.

There is a far greater issue at hand, though, and that is a growing fear within the American Muslim and American Arab communities that the rest of America views them all as potential traitors and as laying-in-wait jihadists poised to take down the U.S., one non-Arab, one non-Muslim at a time.

The region took an important step toward a university-level research facility for engineering last week. The Center for Advanced Engineering and Research, a Region 2000 initiative, broke ground on a research campus at New London Business and Technology Center on U.S. 460.

Redeveloping an old part of Lynchburg — or any city — always raises these questions: Do you tear down the old, often damaged, buildings and start over? Or do you try to salvage the old buildings and give them a new life?

While the decision to lay off nearly half the staff at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford didn’t come as a big surprise, it could be a portent of the memorial’s future beyond the coming winter.

In the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression, to say that Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell faces a challenge or two as Virginia’s 71st chief executive would be to put it mildly.

What business wouldn’t like to have its business license tax reduced? Businesses, like individuals, would be only too happy to see a reduction in the local tax, a reduction that would put more money in their pockets.

If the latest study of the U.S. 29 corridor — including a bypass around Charlottesville — was intended to build consensus, someone dropped the ball.

The long journey on the road to federal recognition of Virginia’s Indian tribes may be nearing its end.

As the 2009 campaigns here in Virginia near the finish line, all of the power now shifts to the commonwealth’s voters.

Price-gouging is an intolerable practice that surfaces from time to time in the marketplace. It usually arises during or in the aftermath of a natural disaster when consumers have no choice but to pay the higher price demanded by some merchants for such critical commodities as food, water, ice or fuel.

Few people in Lynchburg know Larry Cluff. But in a couple of years he could become well known as the guy who saved the old Piedmont Mills building on Jefferson Street from the wrecking ball. In the process, he will have contributed another step toward saving an important part of downtown history.

In the gubernatorial election, there is one candidate who has the temperament, the leadership abilities, the discipline and the vision to serve as Virginia’s next chief executive.That candidate is Republican Bob McDonnell, and The News & Advance editorial board wholeheartedly endorses him for governor.

While officials in virtually every state agency are scrambling for every dollar they can find, the Virginia Board of Education is proposing that localities hire additional staff for their school divisions.

Del. Valentine’s extensive Richmond experience, seniority in the General Assembly and lack of a capital learning curve are invaluable assets to Central Virginia. The News & Advance editorial board believes Del. Valentine’s record over the past four years in office makes her more than worthy of re-election. We lend our endorsement to her for a third term in the General Assembly

Politics and life in the world of American politics have always been for the strong of heart and stomach, not for the weak and faint of spirit.

For the health of Blackwater Creek and its watershed, it’s a start. That’s the emphasis placed by organizers on this week’s project to clean up and improve water quality in the huge watershed that empties into the James River.

As far as the public is concerned, the city’s budget process has begun a couple of months early this year. That’s because city officials have decided to sponsor a series of workshops that will allow residents to participate in the budget-making process.

The race for the 23rd District seat in the House of Delegates definitely has been a spirited one, pitting incumbent Del. Shannon Valentine, a Democrat, against Republican challenger Scott Garrett.

Voters in the district, which includes the city of Lynchburg and the Madison Heights area of Amherst County, have received at least two misleading mailers from Garrett, pounding Valentine for her supposed tax-hike agenda.

Change is a key characteristic of an economy, whether it’s global, national, state or local.

A code of ethics? In Amherst County? You’ve got to be kidding. It would be way too intrusive and might even handcuff the members of the ruling body in the course of their handling the county’s affairs.

The surrender of a single shotgun to police won’t necessarily make the community a safer place. But the signal it sends to those who are working to get guns off the city streets is powerful.

When a need arises in the community, leaders get together to find a way to meet the need. And that’s why construction of the culinary arts at Central Virginia Community College is about to begin.

Friday morning, there were probably more than a few Americans who, upon turning on the news when waking up, wondered if they were still in dreamland.

Might 2009 be the year voters get their fill of negative campaign ads and negative campaigns in general and say “Enough is enough”?

Sometimes, the politics of politics is enough to make you sick to your stomach: the level of personal vitriol; the branding of one’s philosophical opponents as socialists, fascists or racists; the win-at-all-costs approach.

While the two candidates for governor battle it out on the campaign trail across Virginia, the needs of public education continue to spiral. The election’s winner will have his hands full meeting needs that have been neglected during the economic recession.