Although this is not the first time the partnership has produced a television ad, it’s the first time the partnership has received financial support from businesses to produce one, according to Christie Miller of the VEDP. Dominion Resources Inc., Norfolk Southern Corp. and MeadWestvaco Corp. together paid for $450,000 of the ad, which cost $850,000 to create.

The advertisement, which can be seen on the partnership’s homepage, includes comments by CEOs of all three companies and a statement from Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a key driver of the creation of the advertisement.

Richmond-based Barber Martin Advertising produced the advertisement, which ran nationwide on CNBC, The Golf Channel, Forbes.com and during NBC’s Meet the Press. The advertisement has been running since March and will continue through the end of May.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s original budget proposed spending $7.7 million to help the working poor. The program would have helped small businesses offer health insurance to their low-income workers. Under the plan, the state would have paid for one-third of the employee’s health insurance premium, while the employee and employer would each contribute a third of the cost.

When it appeared the program would fall victim to a tight budget year, the Riverside Foundation offered $1 million for a pilot program. Riverside Foundation, the charitable arm of Riverside Health System in Hampton Roads, offered its grant if the state would spend $500,000 for the plan.

But the program was not included in the General Assembly’s final budget, leaving Riverside’s donation up in the air. Riverside announced this week it would continue the program without state money.

The Daily Press reports the program will be aimed at businesses with two to 50 employees that don’t already offer health insurance. It would likely only cover employees whose income levels are at 200 percent of the poverty line or below (a household income of $40,000 for a family of four). It would follow Kaine’s model, covering one-third of the health insurance premium up to $75.

Riverside hopes the program will encourage state legislators to fund a larger program.

Prince William County has seen a decrease of 759 students in its ESOL programs, with about 623 heading to Fairfax. Others have headed to Loudoun County, Alexandria and Arlington.

Under a resolution passed by the county Board of Supervisors, Prince William began denying some services illegal immigrants and requiring police to check the immigration status of crime suspects they think might be in the U.S. illegally.

Just a year after the General Assembly passed the largest financial boost for state transportation funding in more than two decades, VDOT and the Commonwealth Transportation Board officials have had to cut 44 percent of highway construction funding.

On Wednesday, leaders from around Virginia told transportation officials of their regional transportation woes at VDOT headquarters in Richmond, one of six public hearings around the state held on the revised budget.

VDOT announced last week that a $1 billion shortfall over the next six years meant funding would be reduced by 44 percent for Virginia’s primary, secondary and urban roadways. Many projects across the state have been dropped or delayed in the six-year plan because of a weak economy and the General Assembly’s repeal of abusive driver fees.

“Unfortunately this year starts with a very grim revenue situation,” Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer said at the start of the Richmond meeting, the third of the six hearings.

Officials listened to regional leaders ask for additional funding for critical transportation needs in their area. Replacing bridges, widening roads and accommodating the anticipated explosive growth at Fort Belvoir and Fort Lee due to the Base Closure and Realignment Commission’s recommendations were among the requests.

Speakers remained cordial, understanding that VDOT did not have control over how much money the state raised for transportation.

“We are going to have to tighten our belt unless something happens on the supply side,” George McCarthy, CTB representative for the Richmond district said at the end of the meeting.

Ironically, those who control the supply side — state legislators — were just a few blocks away, caught up in a fight over judgeships.

It may be awhile before the there will be any new transportation money. Kaine is expected to call the General Assembly back to the Capitol in late June for a special session on transportation. But so far, opposing parties show no sign of compromise on boosting the money supply.

Billed as a celebration of stone and style, Elements 2008 didn’t disappoint. Guests could admire stone samples such as the Pietra Piasentina tile from Spain or the Saks Fifth Avenue models who strolled through the party wearing the season’s latest fashions. Music, lights, video, food, a bar made of ice and demonstrations by Italian mosaic artist Francesca Cestarollo all contributed to a hip, international vibe.

Charles Luck executives were on hand to chat with their guests. David Hisey, director of global sourcing, told of travels around the world in search of exotic stones for the company’s commercial and residential customers. While a housing slump has depressed sales of many building products, last night seemed like an anecdote to the gloom and doom.

CEO Charles S. Luck IV spoke proudly of his family’s legacy. He is the third generation to lead the family business, one of the country’s largest producers of crushed-stone products. “Tonight is all about stone, theatre, artistry and a New York style,” said Luck.  “My grandfather [Charles S. Luck Jr.] was a man of distinctive style and taste.”

He would have enjoyed this party. It continues for the next three days with a series of workshops on topics ranging from countertops to terraces and pathways. For more information, go to http://www.charlesluck.com/workshops2008.

Yet, it wasn’t a night for weighty speeches. The evening’s best line came from Jack A. Musick, winner of Virginia’s Life Achievement in Science. He told the audience: “My wife says she can’t believe that I get paid to go fishing.” Musick, a professor of marine science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, has won international acclaim as an expert in the ecology and conservation of sharks and sea turtles.

Virginia’s Outstanding Scientist Awards went to James M. Russell III of Hampton University and Sarah Spiegel, chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Medicine.  Russell’s research is being used to understand changes in global ozone while Spiegel stood out for work on a signaling molecule that influences whether a cell lives or dies. 

In business, Virginia’s Life Achievement in Industry went to Charles H. Foster Jr. of Richmond, chairman emeritus of LandAmerica Financial Group Inc.  He is credited for leading a dramatic turnaround for Lawyers Title in the early 1990s and building it into the Fortune 500 that LandAmerica is today. Following a spin off from Universal Corp., a successful public offering on the New York Stock Exchange and corporate acquisitions, Foster transformed Lawyers Title into one of the largest title insurers in the U.S., with LandAmerica earning annual revenue of more than $3.5 billion. 

Virginia’s Outstanding Industrialist is Randal J. Kirk of Pulaski County. Kirk is senior managing director and CEO of Third Security LLC, an investment management firm he founded in 1999. One of his start ups, New River Pharmaceuticals — a company that was on the path to coming out with a new drug for attention deficit disorder — sold for $2 billion last year. The deal made Kirk a billionaire.  He serves as rector of the Board of Visitors for Radford University, where he earned his undergraduate degree.

The authority has started a site on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/group/NVTAPOMC, which encourages Northern Virginians to share how daily congestion affects their lives. The site asks commuters to tape struggles endured during their daily commutes, including traffic jams, crowded buses and packed parking lots at Metro stations.

It also suggests including interviews of friends and family describing how traffic affects their families and quality of life.

The group also is asking commuters to remain safe — telling commuters to avoid videotaping while driving and to not use a tripod in a Metro station. (It’s illegal).

The site asks commuters to share their stories by May 15, hoping to use it to boost their case for more transportation funding before the General Assembly meets this spring. 

Under the 2007 transportation plan, the authority would have been able to raise about $300 million a year for regional projects. The Virginia Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional for an unelected authority to impose taxes.

Talk about yin and yang.  I sat down with Case and Leonsis yesterday at the Washington, D. C. office of Revolution LLC, the private investment firm Case started in 2005. Ted is gregarious, impeccably groomed in a dark suit and all smiles because his dark horse NHL hockey team, the Washington Capitals, won the Southeast Division and will play in the Stanley Cup playoffs. He quips that Case once sent his annual review via instant message.  “He said, ‘You’re doing a good job. You can stay another year.’”

In title, Leonsis remains vice chairman, emeritus, of AOL.
Yet, his time there is winding down, seven years after AOL merged with Time Warner, an old-line media company, in a move that was ill-timed and later deemed a business bust. 

Five years have elapsed since Case served as chairman of Time Warner, and he has moved on.  At 49, he looks relaxed in a blue shirt, dark slacks, no tie. He is the more low key and introspective of the two. But there’s nothing low key about his goals: to create new platforms for consumer empowerment in such oligopolistic industries as health care and credit cards. “I thought it would be fun to start over again, back in the garage, if you will,” says Case. To learn more about their new business ventures and why these Northern Virginia residents think NOVA is a good place for startups, check out the June issue. 

“We will not experience anything remotely like that,” Bernanke told a sold-out audience at a World Affairs Council of Greater Richmond luncheon at the University of Richmond.

During the 1930s the Fed “took a passive approach,” Bernanke said. “We now know the lessons of that, which is to not allow the financial system to collapse.”

The Federal Reserve certainly has taken a different approach in the current turmoil, cutting the federal funds rate faster than at any time in the last two decades. The Federal Reserve dropped the federal loan rate between banks to 2.25 percent, down from 5.25 percent in September.

And the Fed could receive unprecedented power under a plan the Bush administration proposed last week.

The Fed would oversee the entire makeup of the U.S. financial system, including supervising commercial banks, investment banks, insurance companies and hedge funds.

On Thursday, Bernanke addressed more immediate solutions than the ones proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Bernanke said policymakers and regulators must begin working now to prevent another financial crisis. “We do not have the luxury of waiting for markets to stabilize,” he said.

Bernanke suggested that federal and state regulators should create stricter regulations on mortgage lenders and that states should adhere to a uniform licensing program.

He also suggested that increasing transparency, improving risk management, and better coordination of regulators is necessary to stabilize markets.

But arguments likely will reflect the same divisions as the 246-day special session held in 2006. Taxes versus no taxes. Regional versus statewide solutions.

Reports show neither side is budging. Republicans believe redesigning regional plans for Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads is the way to go. (The Virginia Supreme Court found the 2007 version unconstitutional.) Democrats think that shifts the state’s job to local governments.

Some Democrats still are pushing for a statewide increase in the gasoline tax — a move vehemently opposed by Republicans.

So, unless someone budges, Virginians in the state’s most congested regions will have little relief.

But if legislators aren’t willing to compromise, maybe they should just stay home. Taxpayers spent $250,000 on a special session that went nowhere in 2006. They can probably think of better ways to spend their money.