For generations, manufacturing has been a job-creating engine of the economy of Southwest Virginia and that of our nation. The manufacturing sector is truly a source of pride throughout our region.

My highest priority in representing the Ninth Congressional District in Congress is creating new jobs for Southwest Virginia residents, and one way we can help achieve this goal is to create a national climate that supports manufacturing jobs and strengthens our manufacturing sector for years to come. (more…)

After having been a speaker at this year’s annual Franklin County Chamber of Commerce dinner, I was somewhat surprised to read the recent article, “Franklin County Chamber of Commerce sends distress signal—The Franklin County entity will go broke in two weeks without an infusion of cash.”

As I read through the article, I was quickly reminded of what our very own Radford Chamber of Commerce went through a year and a half ago and the steps it has taken to assure that it will remain open and viable for the City of Radford. (more…)

Broadband is to communities today what electricity and basic telephone service were 100 years ago. It is the new essential infrastructure for the commercial success of all communities, urban and rural. It is also rapidly becoming the platform by which many Americans receive all of their communications services—voice, video, and data. Broadband is the bridge for remote rural communities to the American economic mainstream. (more…)

“I love liquid from red cups.” These were words spoken by the lead singer of Deer Tick, the first act I soaked in at this year’s Floydfest. Between songs, McCauley lit cigarettes for his bandmates and revealed himself the quintessence of New Jerseyan superhero Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD.

On my way to the Dreaming Creek Main Stage where Deer Tick performed Friday afternoon, a pair of teens mistook me for a mushroom peddler. I was flattered. Since before I’d arrived, I’d felt like a tourist. Cruising up Route 8 in my Ford Focus, wearing a tattered cowboy hat and singing along to an Everclear mix CD, I didn’t feel like much of a Floydfest-er. (more…)

Or perhaps, the title of this column should be Can You Get Here From There? In any case, any economic development organization such as the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance has to be vitally concerned with transportation. Most of the businesses and industry that we court have to move either people or product from here to there and/or there to here. (more…)

There was a closet under the stairs in my childhood home. It had a slatted door and was big enough to sit in comfortably. What the closet held was something I didn’t realize was special until much, much later. It all seemed so mundane: popsicle sticks, crayons, markers and construction paper. Coloring books and paints. Glitter. Glue. Stickers. Plaster of Paris.

While many children are raised in homes without so much as a generic watercolor print hanging over the couch, my childhood was abundant in art supplies and rich in creative experience. I knew Monet before I knew Led Zeppelin. I ran up the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, not to emulate Rocky, but to get to the gallery of Aztec ruins more quickly. I spent hours wondering what it was that was written in the print of Matisse’s “The Thousand and One Nights” that hung in our dining room. (more…)