Senator Phillip Puckett reports from the state legislature

Narrows Livestock Reports March 5

Hello from Capitol Hill in Richmond!

This week was crossover, which always comes at the half-way point of General Assembly Session.  Crossover, which this year fell on Tuesday, February 12, is the day in which all House bills must be communicated to the Senate and all Senate bills to the House.  This meant a lot of work on the House floor.  The Session convened on Monday at ten a.m., and we did not finish debate and floor votes until just before eight p.m.

This has been a busy week.  Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and there were a record number of Virginia citizens, including hundreds of school children, visiting our beautiful State Capitol.  One of our most important visitors was Marco Leung, accompanied by Coach Marrs, of Graham High School in Bluefield.  Marco is the Model General Assembly for 2008 and was here to meet with Governor Kaine and be introduced to both houses of the General Assembly.  Model General Assembly will take place in April here at the Capitol.

Seventy-five years ago, a group of hungry actors stepped into the lights washing the stage and performed “After Tomorrow.”
Those actors were the first Barter actors. The play, the first the now-three-quarters of a century old theater produced.
Author Sherwood Anderson, then editor of the newspaper in Smyth County reviewed that first effort.
“The play itself wasn’t much… the acting much better than the play,” he wrote. “‘After Tomorrow’ gave us, and this is really the main thing, an honest-to-goodness evening at the theater. And Barter Theatre will surely give us more.”

We have just finished week two in Richmond.  All budget bills had to be in by 5 p.m. Thursday, and regular bills by 5 p.m. Friday. 
This week we passed several resolutions; I will highlight a few. 
The House designated Feb. 6, beginning this year, as Ronald Reagan Day.  We also designated March as Brain Injury Awareness Month.  Brain injuries have become a major concern in Virginia due to the increasing number of high impact car accidents and soldiers returning from war zones.  April 27 through May 3 has been designated as Plumbing Industry Week, and October as Dyslexia Awareness Month. 

In one of my first columns about two and a half years ago, I wrote about my efforts to improve my drinking habits by drinking the Aquacal brand of strawberry flavored water as opposed to Coca-Cola.  Having become quite addicted to the soft drink over the course of my lifetime, I remember telling you that I was uncertain as to how long this change would last.  While I cannot recall exactly how long I was able to hold out, I regret telling you that I have completely fallen off the wagon. 

For my entire life, Genesis has been unquestionably my favorite rock band.  I can remember being 2 years old standing in front of the TV in a walker with a fake microphone singing along with Phil Collins on MTV.  This was of course during the days when MTV still used music videos for their predominant airplay.  In fact, it was Collins who inspired me at approximately age 5 to request a drum set for Christmas, which I doubt I ever even play.  I never possessed even an ounce of musical ability at any point in my life, no matter how much I wished for it.  Nevertheless, I have still spent my entire life following the careers of Phil Collins and Genesis.  Thus, it has been a lifelong dream of mine to see either act perform live.

Answer to Saturday’s Cogno’s Corner in The Mountain Adviser (0105)

Some of the names were shocking. Others were anything but. We all knew about, or suspected, Rafael Palmeiro, Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi. But how many of us had any idea about players like Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Jerry Hairston?