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Giant insurer Aetna said Wednesday it will not sell Obamacare plans in Virginia next year, citing expected financial losses on such plans in 2017. Aetna left open the question of whether it will sell such individual health plans anywhere in the United States. Aetna's decision to exit Virginia in 2018 comes several weeks after it said it would drop out of Iowa's individual market next year. The company was selling Obamacare plans in just two other states this year: Delaware and Nebraska. "Despite significantly reducing our exchange footprint, our individual commercial products could potentially lose more than $200 million in...

Aetna Inc will exit the Obamacare individual insurance market in Virginia and will not offer these plans on or off the online exchange created by the Affordable Care Act, the company said on Wednesday. The company said last month that it would leave Iowa. It is selling these plans in four states in 2017.

The War against the Confederacy is a War against America. The War against the Confederacy is a war on American history. The War against the Confederacy is a war against all of us and a war on America’s institutions. The War against the Confederacy is being waged by militant leftists, big government lackeys, aggrieved snowflakes and the hate America crowd. Since a psychotic young man, who owned a Confederate flag, killed nine parishioners at a black church in South Carolina in June of 2015, the radical left, big government crowd in this country is doing something they’ve wanted to do...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — JaPharii Jones lost the right to vote after a felony burglary conviction when he was 23 and got it back last year right before Election Day. Now the 31-year-old Hampton activist and founder of a local chapter of Black Lives Matter plans to do what most people usually don't: vote in an off-off-year primary for Virginia governor. Jones is supporting Tom Perriello, a former congressman and diplomat running as an insurgent candidate in the Democratic primary. Perriello was "very diligent" about reaching out to Jones and recently toured parts of Hampton with Jones looking for votes...

Syracuse, N.Y. --There's not a lot tunnel building going on in the United States. Four highway tunnels have been completed over the last 10 years in the U.S. Four more tunnel projects are under construction or in design. And one long discussed project that would have tunneled underneath a national forest in California was dropped. Could be a tunnel in Syracuse's future for Interstate 81? After a tunnel was initially rejected, a tunnel or depressed highway is back on the table as an option to replace Interstate 81's 1.4 mile section of raised highway in Syracuse. The DOT at first...

Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam is highlighting gay marriage, gun violence and opposition to President Donald Trump in the first TV commercial of Virginia’s gubernatorial primary season. The ad buy seven weeks ahead of the June 13 primary, described by the Northam campaign as a “substantial, six-figure buy across Virginia,” underscores Northam’s financial advantage over Democratic rival Tom Perriello and the changing tone of Democratic campaigns in a purple state trending blue. The Northam campaign said the ad is believed to be the first in a gubernatorial race to mention marriage equality. The ad features a testimonial from Tim...

FULL TITLE: 'We don't want to make a man uncomfortable in church': Mother says she was told to leave a CHURCH for breastfeeding A breastfeeding mother claims she was escorted out of a church service in Virginia and was told: 'We don't want to make a man uncomfortable in church.' Annie Peguero has posted a video on Facebook about her treatment on Sunday at the Summit Church in Springfield and said she would never go back there. Peguero, a personal trainer and military wife, said a church official told her: 'We don't want to make a man uncomfortable in church,...

Instead of trying to help reach consensus with traditional protest, they tried intimidating the opposition ... The mob that just muscled their way into the lobby of the Heritage Foundation must have missed Obama's lecture. When those partisans pushed past security onto private property, they signaled that the liberal resistance has given up on unity. Quite simply, division is the new goal. More than a tantrum, this is a significant shift in the direction of the reiterating protests that have continued non-stop since Trump took office ... Around 200 protestors flooded into Heritage's Capitol Hill headquarters an hour before noon...

The front-runner for the Republican nomination in Virginia’s closely watched governor’s race is expressing discomfort with series of vulgar and predatory comments about women President Donald Trump made in a recording 12 years ago. Ed Gillespie said at a Republican debate Saturday in Goochland that he was offended by comments from a 2005 Access Hollywood tape in which Trump boasted about groping women.

Another day passes as radical Islam continues its aggressive expansion across the globe. Now OUR country is in serious trouble.A video has appeared that shows Muslim enclaves ruled by Sharia law in nine different states: Alaska, California, New York, Texas, Michigan, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. Americans are forbidden to enter these communities. (via Twitter)Dear Obama: please admit you have failed the American people. It is because of your “open border” policies that we now are losing valuable real estate in our own country. This is unacceptable.After eight years of Obama, we have literally lost American soil to terrorists....

... The academy, which serves elementary and middle school grades, was established in 1999, "to cultivate and nurture a thriving American Muslim identity that balances religious, academic and cultural knowledge and imparts the importance of civic involvement and charitable work." The school combines traditional classes with Islamic instruction. All students take Arabic, recite from the Quran, and are taught how to pray. Shad Imam, who has a daughter and a son enrolled here, says he and his wife were drawn to this school because of the way Islamic ideas are woven into the curriculum.

State and local officials gathered in Wise this afternoon to formally announce the anticipated creation of 40 jobs at DP Facilities Inc.’s Mineral Gap data center in the Lonesome Pine Business and Technology Park. A press conference beginning at 2 p.m. at The Inn at Wise highlighted details about the more than 65,000-square-foot facility, which was completed in October 2016. In a press release issued today, DP Facilities President Mark Gerard announced that Mineral Gap, a mission critical Tier III data center, represents a $65 million construction investment on 22 acres in the tech park. “Mineral Gap will provide continuous...

President Trump brought Republican Sen. Rand Paul to Trump National Golf Club in Virginia on Sunday to play golf with him, a little more than a week after the party's healthcare bill failed. "They're discussing a variety of topics, including healthcare," White House deputy press secretary Stephanie Grisham said. Budget director Mick Mulvaney, a former leading House conservative, also joined the two.

Despite a pending court case that will ultimately determine the general’s fate, the Charlottesville City Council voted 3-2 Monday evening to sell the city’s statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

State Sen. Frank Wagner, a Republican candidate for governor, said Monday he'd like to turn much of U.S. 58 into an interstate as part of his plan to juice transportation construction in Virginia with an increase in the gas tax. The increase, part of a tiered plan that would charge more per gallon when prices are low, then roll back the rate when prices rise, wouldn't just affect rates in Hampton Roads or Northern Virginia, which have regional taxes. It would be statewide in implementation and effect, Wagner said. Wagner is charting an unusual course in this GOP primary: running...

Rolling Stone magazine settled a University of Virginia administrator's lawsuit over its discredited story about a rape on campus, but its legal fights over the botched article aren't over. Attorneys for Rolling Stone and Nicole Eramo announced this week that they reached a confidential settlement over the 2014 story "A Rape on Campus," putting an end to the lengthy case stemming from the now-debunked claims of a woman identified only as "Jackie." "We are delighted that this dispute is now behind us, as it allows Nicole to move on and focus on doing what she does best, which is supporting...

"Virginia illegal immigrant charged in sex abuse case involving 12-year-old girlPublished April 12, 2017 A 40-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico who had been deported from the U.S. was arrested Friday in Virginia on sex abuse charges involving a 12-year-old girl. Oscar Perez-Rangel faces charges including felony aggravated sexual battery. The abuse allegedly occurred between October and December 2016, Fox 5 reported.The girl was abused while at a daycare center operated by Perez-Rangel’s girlfriend, investigators said....Perez-Rangel was previously removed from the U.S., and has felony convictions for attempted robbery, use of a firearm during the commission of a felony and illegal...

The Virginia-based Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has decided to hear the government’s appeal of a lower court order blocking President Trump’s revised travel ban with its full panel of judges.

As I retire, I want to devote my last column to travelers who wrote in to discuss their tips and travails. Some wanted to get something fixed. Some just wanted to vent. All were welcome. Dear Dr. Gridlock: I’m not a commuter, but I have a real gridlock problem. When people in a left lane don’t pull up to the vehicle in front of them, they block the ability of people trying to turn left from accessing the left-turn lane. I can’t even count how many times I’ve missed the left green arrow because of this. It seems that if...

Federal funding for Maryland’s Purple Line is in jeopardy, as are Metro’s hopes for a significant increase in money from the government under President Trump’s proposed 2018 budget released Thursday. Trump’s proposed spending plan, which slashes the federal transportation budget by 13 percent, also curbs long-distance Amtrak service out of Washington and cuts millions in federal grants that the region’s governments have relied on for new rapid bus lines, road work, bus stop improvements and bike paths. The cuts came as a shock to many, considering Trump’s campaign pledge to pump $1 trillion into the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. “I find...