Bill Cooper, Richmond Police Department, Dominion Virginia Power

Because Sen. Jim Webb said he'll campaign with fellow Democrat former Gov. Tim Kaine for his Senate bid but isn't sure if he'll campaign with President Obama, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

First up is Fairfax County Republican sheriff's candidate Bill Cooper, who is running against Democratic incumbent Sheriff Stan Berry.

Cooper ran Connection newspaper ads saying his candidacy is "Supported by Deputies, Police Officers and Firefighters," The Washington Post's "The State of Nova" blog reported Sunday. But there's one small problem: He has not been endorsed by any deputies, officers, or firefighters unions.

Although Cooper, a 23-year deputy and retired second lieutenant, said he isn't claiming any endorsements, public-safety groups are not happy. The International Association of Fire Fighters called the ad "extremely misleading and false," the the Fairfax local of the Coalition of Police called the ad "misleading and disingenuous," and the Fairfax deputies coalition said it was "very disturbed by Mr. Cooper's willful misrepresentation." Meanwhile, Barry has the support of six public-safety unions or associations.

But Cooper's defense may be groundbreaking in American politicking: "What we are saying is we have support from members of those agencies. That ad is true. I didn't even put Fairfax. It could be police officers from L.A. County for all he [Barry] knows." The Cooper Rule dictates that you can claim "support" of broadly defined groups if at least one member of that group supports you.

Following the Cooper Rule, candidates can claim they have the support of the healthcare industry if a doctor supports them, claim support of the business industry if a cashier supports them, or claim union support if a teacher supports them. Unfortunately for Cooper, however, Los Angeles County cops can't vote in Virginia.

Our runner-up is the Richmond Police Department for arresting a magazine photographer during an Occupy Richmond raid for the heinous crime of using a public crosswalk to photograph police.

Ian Graham, co-owner of RVA Magazine, was among nine people arrested at an Occupy site on Halloween for trespassing when police dispersed the protest and told everyone to leave. The ACLU of Virginia announced that it will represent Graham in court to defend his First Amendment rights, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Saturday. According to an ACLU statement, Graham was ordered to a designated area to photograph the activity, but he couldn't see the site very well so he questioned the police's authority to confine him there, and Graham was arrested on a crosswalk. He was detained for 30 minutes before being released with a summons to appear in court on Nov. 18.

"We as the press have the right and responsibility to cover the police doing whatever they are doing on public property," Graham said. The state ACLU's executive director said, "Not only was this a member of press operating under the protection of the First Amendment, but we still can't fathom how anyone could be arrested for trespassing in a public street."

Occupy Richmond Police Department has a nice ring to it.

But our winner is our good friends at Dominion Virginia Power, caught with their pants down over the North Anna Power Station nuclear reactor in Mineral that was damaged in August's earthquake.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Sunday that Dominion and federal regulators in 1973 covered up knowledge of geologic faulting at North Anna. A 1977 Justice Department memo stated that Dominion's predecessor Virginia Electric and Power Company told the Atomic Energy Commission in June 1973 that "faulting of rock at the site is neither known nor suspected," even though Vepco knew there was faulting at the site.

Justice attorney Bradford Whitman wrote in the memo that regulators were complicit with hiding the truth and didn't stop the plant's construction or opening. Vepco could not be prosecuted for lying to regulators, Whitman said, because regulars also tried to keep the issue quiet. Vepco was fined $32,500 for making false statements, however.

Construction contractors told Vepco in 1973 about the fault, and by then all geologists involved concluded that a fault was there. Justice investigators found that Vepco deleted all references to the fault from safety analyses before filing a report to the commission with a statement that no fault was known at the site.

Both Dominion and NRC officials say this is a non-issue that has been in the public record for some time. Yet, important events lead to important questions. This was the most powerful earthquake in Virginia in a century, and no U.S. nuclear-power station had been tripped offline by an earthquake before. Subsequently, Dominion still wants to build a third unit for North Anna but on a different site from the original one proposed in the 1970s.

As Whitman wrote in the memo, "I deeply regret that criminal sanctions may not be brought against VEPCO for misconduct in an area of such major public importance as the civil construction of nuclear reactors."

That's Dominion Virginia Power, because you can lie to the feds but can't lie to Mother Nature, today's Worst Virginian in the World!

Don't forget to vote today, Virginians! Worst Virginians will be taking an extended break until further notice.

Fairfax County School Board, Jeff Caruso, Eric Cantor

Because the state Senate voted to make "Oh Shenandoah" the official state song in 2006, even though the original tune refers to the Indian chief rather than the valley or river, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

First up is the Fairfax County School Board. Teacher and soccer coach Sean Lanigan was acquitted last year of molesting a sixth-grader at Centre Ridge Elementary in a gym storage room (the girl lied about the incident because she was mad at him), but he racked up tens of thousands of dollars in legal bills.

The school board offered Lanigan much less, just $60,000 and a condition he not sue any school officials, The Washington Post's The State of NoVa blog reported Tuesday. He is suing the school board for a no-strings-attached $107,838, the most he can be reimbursed for in his case under county policy after acquittal for an employment-related criminal charge. The police bungled the case, but the school district followed along by not getting Lanigan's side of the story before contacting the authorities or before police confronted and accused him.

Although a jury acquitted Lanigan after just 47 minutes of deliberation because of a lack of evidence and blatant deceit on the part of accusers and witnesses, he talked to the Post in May about his ordeal. He was transferred twice, suspended without pay, had his face plastered all over the media and Internet, spent time in a protective wing in jail, and was pushed by prosecutors to plead guilty to misdemeanor assault.

After his acquittal, the school district waited three months to reinstate him, burdened his family by transferring him, and gave him a part-time position. When he did return to teaching full time, the district reprimanded him with demeaning guidelines, such as: "Avoid placing yourself in close physical proximity to any student, particularly in a manner that could be interpreted as sexual. ... Do not be alone in your office or other rooms with a student unless the door is open and you and the student are visible from outside the room."

Well no wonder the school district isn't paying Lanigan back – they still think he's culpable.

The runner-up is Jeff Caruso, executive director of the Virginia Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state's dioceses.

After the General Assembly passed a law in February that reclassified abortion clinics as hospitals, the state Department of Health laid out new guidelines to regulate them as such, which would be one of the strictest, if not the strictest, in the country. The state Board of Health must approve the regulations this month, and Gov. Bob McDonnell must sign off on them before year's end.

Although supporters claim the new policies are about health, many have little or nothing to do with patient well-being (exam rooms must be 80 square feet, public corridors must be 5 feet wide, ceilings must be 7 feet, 10 inches tall), and the state's abortion providers are worried that they will have to close because they cannot afford to bring the clinics up to code.

The Virginia Catholic Conference has supported the changes, but a line was crossed in a press release on Wednesday authored by Caruso: 

"Abortion is not health care because it ends lives rather than healing them. The existence of the abortion industry under the guise of 'health care' is, however, a sad and tragic reality in our Commonwealth and our country. ... These items and so many others contained in the proposal deserve strong support from those who consider themselves pro-life and those who consider themselves pro-choice. Indeed, it is hard to imagine why groups that say they are concerned about women's health would oppose these standards."

Mr. Caruso should apologize to all women who had to have abortions because of serious health risks. The Catholic Church – which still opposes contraception – its entities, and its followers can believe and argue what they want on the morality of abortion. But this argument about health care, and that a health exception for legal abortions is meaningless because any woman or physician can claim a health risk, is personally offensive.

My friend's boyfriend impregnated her a few years ago, but because she already had kids, she was going to put this one up for adoption. Unfortunately, her blood pressure soared, creating a tangible health risk, and she got an abortion even though she normally would not have. If there was only a life-threatening exception for legal abortions, then she might've had to suffer or risk suffering a debilitating stroke or heart attack before being treated.

In general, health reasons for abortions have included gestational diabetes, cancer, and cystic fibrosis. Hospitals often refer women to outpatient or other inpatient treatment locations for abortions, or women have to find clinics elsewhere on their own. In a few sample cases, one Nebraska woman conceived after undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, risking complications of the disease and birth defects, but a hospital wouldn't treat her so she sought out an abortion clinic; a Louisiana hospital would not terminate a woman's pregnancy because of her cardiomyopathy despite doctors' warnings that the pregnancy might kill her, so she had to travel 100 miles by ambulance to Texas for an abortion; and another woman traveled 200 miles by ambulance for an abortion because of severe pregnancy-related renal failure.

Most religion-affiliated hospitals prohibit their doctors from performing abortions, and groups like the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops want a broad legal conscientious objection to not provide or cover patients' birth control. The existence of the religion industry under the guise of "health care" is, however, a sad and tragic reality in our commonwealth and our country.

But our winner is U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, again. (Eric, there is no prize or award for being named Worst Virginian the most number of times in a year!) Cantor, R-7th, has been in the news quite a bit this past week because of his comments that natural disaster relief should be offset with budget cuts elsewhere, even though his district and state were hit by an earthquake and hurricane in the same week.

For starters, Cantor has been rebuked by Republican Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey and McDonnell himself. Christie told a crowd, "Our people are suffering now, and they need support now. And they [Congress] can all go down there and get back to work and figure out budget cuts later. We need the support now here in New Jersey, and that’s not a Republican or a Democratic issue." McDonnell said on radio, "My concern is that we help people in need. For the FEMA money that’s going to flow, it's up to them on how they get it. I don't think it's the time to get into that [deficit] debate."

Cantor has softened his stance some. The Richmond Times-Dispatch quoted him Wednesday as saying that relief will not be withheld until funds are offset. "These are disasters that there is a precedent for a federal role. I believe there's an appropriate federal role. And the monies will be there," Cantor said. Yet, a former senior FEMA official told TPMDC about the risks involved with offsetting in general: 

"They've addressed offsets before, and unfortunately offsets were from [Housing and Urban Development] money – community development block grants – which are a good tool for recovering from disaster. ... Is anybody vehemently opposed to offsets? No. But they need to make sure that if they do them that, one, it happens quickly and, two, it doesn't come from programs that help recovery."

Additionally, The Huffington Post reported Wednesday that Cantor voted against offsetting disaster relief when an amendment came up for vote in 2004 after Tropical Storm Gaston, which also affected Virginia. Cantor's office told HuffPo, "We are living in different times," and cited the higher national debt as a reason for offsetting now.

If that's the case, Cantor should argue for the Bush-era tax cuts to lapse. After all, the percentage of publicly-held debt of the GDP will be 100% in 2021 with the tax cuts in place compared to 60% without them. Cantor himself said last year, "If you have less revenues coming in to the federal government, and more expenditures, what does that add up to? Certainly you are going to dig the hole deeper."

That's Eric – "I was against offsetting disaster relief before I was for it!" – Cantor, today's Worst Virginian in the World!

I will be on vacation this weekend, but Worst Virginians will return Sept. 9.