Reporter’s Notebook
Notes and thoughts from the travels of Virginia Business writers and editors

Virginia Business
February 2006

Two of Virginia’s past governors and presidential hopefuls in 2008 captured the national spotlight last month. Newsweek magazine ran a story on Democratic former Gov. Mark R. Warner and Republican Sen. George Allen, portraying them as rising political stars with the stuff to pull in Southern voters if they make a run for the White House. Warner stepped down last month following a four-year term that saw Virginia lauded as one of the nation’s best managed states. Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, however, remains the front runner for the presidential nomination. Allen is running for re-election to the Senate this year and hopes a victory will buttress plans to head the GOP presidential ticket.

Anyone doubting the increasing diverse makeup of Virginia’s population should spend some time at Washing-ton Dulles International Airport. On a recent Friday night, scores of families speaking at least 10 languages waited for relatives arriving on flights from London, Frankfurt, Paris and Guatemala City. Muslim teens dressed in jeans and head scarves held brightly colored balloons that said “Welcome home.” In another area, an Indian grandmother in a sari chatted with her Western-attired adult daughter in a mixture of Hindi and English. Hispanic parents explained to their children in Spanish the progress of the Guatemalan plane as it was posted on a message board. The daughter of an Asian couple tried out her French on her grandfather as they waited on the plane from Paris. But when these children talked among themselves, their language was unaccented English, sometimes with an occasional hint of a Southern drawl.