ICYMI the gubernatorial candidates appeared on Battleground Virginia last night, taking questions from the moderators as well as those submitted by Virginia voters. The video is here.
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The candidates for AG square off in a debate tonight at the Verizon Auditorium of Mason’s Prince William campus. Doors open at 7pm, with the debate starting at 7:30pm. As far as I know, the debate will not be available online anywhere.
UPDATE: Brian says the debate will be streamed live at Inside Scoop.
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The Virginian-Pilot profiled the candidates in the 83rd House district today – incumbent Democrat Joe Bouchard and his Republican challenger, Chris Stolle. The article pointed out that Stolle has received $230,000 in the last month from the RSLC. The total received from the RSLC is almost $250,000.
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Busch Gardens has been sold.
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Been a heck of a day around here with the tax filing deadline approaching. And this morning, I awoke to find one of my cats had passed away. She’s not been well the last couple of weeks, but I didn’t expect her to be the first to go. I’ve got another old cat – Sweetness – that has kidney failure but still yells at me every morning to give her some milk. Samantha, who died overnight, used up a lot of her lives early on. My mother-in-law went shopping one day and found her inside of her car. No idea how she got there. We ultimately ended up with her, as she was a real handful. Solid white, she was a beautiful cat who looked so sweet. And, occasionally, she’d have a sweet moment. But that wasn’t her normal disposition. She’d bite, scratch, and kick. The other cats – in addition to Samantha and Sweetness, I have two others, Tommy and Fluffy – did their best to stay away.
Despite all of that, I’m already missing her. Funny – she has spent the last couple of weeks hanging out near Sweetness. I’ve seen that happen before – I had a dog, Kelly, get sick and one of my cats – Ernie – stayed by Kelly”s side right up til the end. And a few days after Kelly died, so did Ernie. I’m guessing Sweetness won’t be with us much longer. After all, she’s about 21 years old.
Fluffy, my youngest cat, has diabetes and requires daily insulin shots and frequent trips to the vet to have her glucose levels checked. The only really healthy cat I’ve got is Tommy.
Cats have interesting personalities and it’s pretty easy to get attached to them. Letting go is hard.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Oh dear. My thoughts are with you. I have a 20 year old who has suddenly gotten very clingy. Afraid her time is approaching, and that is a very big upset in my family. You just have to love them as much as possible in the good times you have with them.
Prediction: Busch Gardens will go downhill quickly.
And you’re in my thoughts and sympathies regarding your loss. I’m the same way about my big orange monster.
I’m sorry for your loss also. I have lost many pets over the years, and it never gets any easier.
My thoughts and prayers are with you. We lost a favorite cat, Maxwell, last year and we will always miss him. It is hard to understand the relationship between cats and their “owners” unless you have had one.
I’m so sorry. I never really understood how difficult letting a pet go can be until I got my first pet, kitty Dixie Rose, about 8 years ago. Every time I hear of the death of someone like Samantha I look at Dixie and think, “How will I be able to stand it?”
But we do stand it, of course, and the important thing is loving them while they’re with us. I know Samantha was well loved.
My kids asked me whether dogs and cats go to heaven. I asked how it could be heaven without them.
Reading this article and the comments made me go over and give Mouthy a big ol’ hug and tell him how much he meant to me.
He gave me a small bite and jumped right back to his food. Heh.
Condolences, Vivian. Losing a pet is very difficult.