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Robert McDonnell

PETA Asks Virginia to Sponsor a 'Fishing Hurts' Road Stop on Interstate 81

By Tim Graham | April 03, 2011 | 23:12

The Roanoke Times has discovered that opening Virginia's highway rest stops to sponsors might not mean just more advertising for fast food. It could lead to  requests from opponents of the mainstream ideas of food and leisure activities:

Gov. Bob McDonnell announced an initiative last week that would allow for sponsorships at Virginia's highway rest areas to help offset the cost of operating the facilities.

And now the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants in on the action. PETA has sent a letter to the Virginia Department of Transportation expressing its interest in sponsoring the Interstate 81 rest stop at mile marker 158 near Troutville and renaming it the "Fishing Hurts" rest area. It also would like to get a reduced sponsorship rate as a nonprofit.

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WaPo Buries Story Concerning Disenfranchisement of Soldiers from Northern Virginia

By Ken Shepherd | October 28, 2008 | 12:31

A Fairfax County registrar's attempts to disenfranchise soldiers voting by absentee ballot is one step closer to being reversed thanks to a legal opinion issued yesterday by Virginia Attorney General Robert McDonnell (R). Although the Old Dominion is a hard-fought battleground state in the 2008 presidential election and John Kerry-backing Fairfax County should be a true-blue source of Obama votes, the story was given just five brief paragraphs on the page four "Virginia Briefing" feature of the October 28 paper's Metro section.

The fact that the registrar, Rokey W. Suleman II, is a partisan Democrat who has worked hard to register inmates at the county jail was unreported in both Christian Davenport's Oct. 28 brief and his full October 27 online article. In fact, Suleman's name itself was missing from the print edition squib.

Washington Examiner staffer William C. Flook reported on October 8 about Suleman's efforts to register jail inmates to vote. While not illegal, his push to register misdemeanor convicts stands in stark contrast to his hair-splitting read of Virginia state law to toss out military absentee ballots for lack of a witness's address (emphases mine):