Briefs

LOCAL & VCU

Webb: No tech help to China

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., on Tuesday introduced legislation designed to halt the sharing of technologies developed with the support of U.S. taxpayers with China and other countries.

Many U.S. companies in China are forced to transfer intellectual property and proprietary technology to the country as a requirement for doing business there. In many cases, those technologies were developed through grants, loans and other domestic incentives designed to bolster the U.S. economy and provide a competitive edge for America.

“If taxpayers supported the development of the technology, they own a piece of it and it can’t just be given away,” Webb said Tuesday.

“Federal dollars that go toward (research and development) funding, loan guarantees, and public-private partnerships in order to help develop the next generation of technologies here are supposed to be making American businesses competitive and generate American jobs — not to help develop other industries, such as those in China.”

Webb’s legislation would prohibit companies from transferring the technology to countries that require proprietary technology transfers.

Brief by The Richmond Times-Dispatch

Maymont earns top-10 ranking from national planning association

Maymont today was named one of the nation’s “10 Great Public Spaces for 2011” by the American Planning Association. The association’s Great Places in America program recognizes streets, neighborhoods and public spaces that have been shaped by “forward-thinking planning” and showcase architectural diversity.

The program also looks for places that invite community  involvement and foster economic opportunity.
 
The nine other APA spaces are Fairmount Park, Riverside, Calif.; Garden of the Gods Park, Colorado Springs, Colo.;  Monument Circle, Indianapolis; Gray’s Lake Park, Des Moines, Iowa; Rice Park, St. Paul, Minn.;  Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, Nashville, Tenn.; Fair Park, Dallas; Point Defiance Park, Tacoma, Wash.; and Milwaukee RiverWalk, Milwaukee.

Maymont, with its mansion, gardens, wildlife center, aquarium and other attractions, is a cooperative operation between the city of Richmond and non-profit Maymont Foundation.

Brief by The Associated Press

McDonnell suggests austere budget ahead

Signaling a stern budget process, Gov. Bob McDonnell’s chief of staff is asking state agency heads to conduct sweeping reviews of their programs to find potential savings, including considering programs or services required by law.

In preparing his first two-year budget, which he will present to lawmakers in December, McDonnell is looking to identify possible savings in two ways. He is using work groups to propose targeted savings in the state’s costliest programs — including public education and Medicaid — and is asking agency leaders to suggest cuts for fiscal 2013 and 2014 equal to 2, 4 and 6 percent of their 2012-14 general fund appropriation.

The state’s recession-battered budget faced about $6 billion in shortfalls from 2008 to 2010.

Virginia has posted surpluses two fiscal years in a row, but this spending plan will be fashioned against an uncertain economic backdrop.

Also factored in is more than $300 million to update K-12 public education standards and other programs in the next biennium and $18 billion in unfunded liabilities in the Virginia Retirement System.

Brief by The Richmond Times-Dispatch

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

House sends short-term spending bill to Obama

The House passed a spending bill Tuesday to fund the government for six weeks, delaying a series of battles over spending and policy that include everything from labor law and environmental regulations to abortion and the Pentagon budget.

The 352-66 vote sent the measure to President Barack Obama in time to avert a government shutdown at midnight. That ended a skirmish over disaster aid that seemed to signal far more trouble ahead as Obama and a bitterly divided Congress begin working on ironing out hundreds of differences, big and small, on a $1 trillion-plus pile of 12 unfinished spending bills.

The short-term measure set a Nov. 18 deadline to wrap up the 12 unfinished spending bills.

Brief by The Richmond Times-Dispatch

Puerto Rico plans to decide its political future

The governor of Puerto Rico announced Tuesday that he will present local legislators with a plan for a two-part referendum next year to decide the political future of the U.S. territory once and for all.

In a surprise televised address, Gov. Luis Fortuno said “the moment has come” to decide Puerto Rico’s final status.

The announcement comes just days after President Barack Obama was criticized for saying the island would remain a commonwealth if there was not a clear, overwhelming majority leaning toward a different option.

Puerto Ricans have previously voted on the status issue in referendums issued in 1967, 1993 and 1998, but no clear majority emerged and the status quo has remained.

Commonwealth status grants Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship but bars them from voting for president, and their congressional representative cannot vote either.

In March, a federal task force charged with analyzing the island’s status supported creation of a different referendum that would first ask voters whether they wanted to be part of the United States or become independent. If they chose ties with the United States, they would be given statehood or the current commonwealth as options. If they opted for independence, they would choose between free association and independence.

Brief by The Associated Press

Water shortage hits South Pacific islands

Crops are wilting, schools have shut their bathrooms and government officials are bathing in lagoons because of a severe shortage of fresh water in a swath of the South Pacific.

The island groups of Tuvalu and Tokelau have declared emergencies, relying on bottled water and seeking more desalination machines. Parts of Samoa are starting to ration water.

While nobody has gone thirsty yet, officials worry about the logistics of supplying everyone with enough water to survive and the potential health problems that might arise. Exactly how the islands will cope in the long term remains unclear.

Six months of low rainfall have dried out the islands. Climate scientists say it’s part of a cyclical Pacific weather pattern known as La Niña — and they predict the coming months will bring no relief, with the pattern expected to continue.

Rising sea levels are exacerbating the problem, as saltwater seeps into underground supplies of fresh water that are drawn to the surface through wells.
On the three main atolls that make up isolated Tokelau, the 1,400 residents ran out of fresh water last week and are relying on a seven-day supply of bottled water that was sent Saturday from Samoa.

Brief by The Associated Press