News

~Moran’s leadership doubles capacity to catch online child sex predators ~

BEDFORD – House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian Moran joined Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown, TV Star Erik Estrada, and Alicia Kozakiewicz to announce that “Alicia’s Law” will double the capacity of law enforcement in Southern Virginia to arrest online child predators. The Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) recently arrested a Stuarts Draft, Virginia, man with dozens of images of child pornography and a local victim in his home.

In as many as 30 percent of cases, there will be a local child victim identified and saved. Materials seized often include hard-core pictures and videos of children as young as 18 months old.

“Alicia’s law is about arresting these predators and making sure that children don’t have to go through the same horrible experience that Alicia did,” Delegate Moran said. “By this time next year, there will be dozens more local police departments combating Internet predators. As a former prosecutor, I know that we must give law enforcement the tools to keep the streets safe – including the virtual streets on the Internet. These task forces will protect children from unspeakable crimes.”

Delegate Moran authored “Alicia’s Law” to create a stronger statewide network of highly trained law enforcement officers who will track down and arrest online child sex predators. He successfully secured an additional $1.5 million of new funding for the two regional ICAC forces. The initiative is named after Alicia Kozakiewicz – a 13-year-old girl who was abducted by an Internet predator, held hostage, and tortured in a Virginia basement.

"Delegate Brian Moran has moved the fight against the Internet sexual predators into overdrive with the passage of Alicia's Law,” Bedford Sheriff Mike Brown said. “His tenacious pursuit of this funding project sets the standard for future efforts in protecting our children from the sexual predators that use the Internet."

Over the past two years, the Department of Justice has identified half a million child pornographers nationwide and 20,000 computers containing child pornography in Virginia. However, local law enforcement only has the resources to investigate 2 percent of these cases. These new funds will be used to hire new investigators, purchase 21st century equipment and expand training programs for affiliated law enforcement officers.

"The majority of child protection legislation is named for children who are deceased and address those deficits that were so woefully inadequate in the hopes that others will be spared their tragic fate,” said Alicia Kozakiewicz, for whom the law is named. “Alicia's Law, however, applauds the excellence of the law enforcement task forces here in Virginia that saved my life and seeks only to ensure, through better funding, that each and every child will have that same quality of specialized intervention."

“Alicia's Law is a victory for human rights,” said Grier Weeks with the National Association to Protect Children. “It is the boldest state effort yet to fight back against the evil of child exploitation.”

A similar announcement was held in Northern Virginia with the leadership of the Northern Virginia Internet Crimes against Children Task Force.

_{e-government solution to help start businesses, create jobs}

Alexandria, Va. – House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian Moran is proud to announce the launch of the Business One Stop Portal, a single electronic clearinghouse of resources for starting a new business. The portal provides one-stop access to all of the information, advice and regulations that entrepreneurs need to have before starting a new business. Delegate Moran authored the Business One Stop program during the 2007 General Assembly Session (HB3164). The Business One Stop was launched as part of Business Appreciation Week 2008 by Secretary of Commerce and Trade Patrick O. Gottschalk.

"It can take weeks to collect all of the information and paperwork to start a business in Virginia. We expect this system will cut that time in half," said Delegate Moran. "New businesses will form the foundation of our economic recovery, so I've worked hard to streamline government and make it easier for small businesses to get their start. Virginia is already the best state in the country for business – we need to keep it that way."

Small businesses are responsible for three quarters of all of this country's net new jobs. However, in April 2008 alone, the U.S. economy lost 20,000 jobs.

"This is one of the best resources the Commonwealth has ever produced for helping its new and existing small businesses," said Julia Ciarlo Hammond, Virginia Director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses. "This new site will save countless hours of leg work for potential business owners and existing companies. Delegate Moran, members of the General Assembly and Governor Kaine are to be commended for putting together such a valuable tool for the Virginia business community."

Today's launch is the first step in a multi-phase program that will allow the system to expand to additional online services. The portal will be available to entrepreneurs "free of charge" for the first 90 days. For more information, please visit: business.virginia.gov.

"We believe this will keep Virginia competitive as a preferred place to start a business and help entrepreneurs reduce their transaction costs with government so they can instead focus on hiring talented employees, bringing their products to market and growing their bottom lines," said Bobbie Kilberg, President & CEO, Northern Virginia Technology Council. The NVTC was a strong supporter of the Business One Stop legislation. "We applaud Delegate Brian Moran for sponsoring the legislation and Governor Kaine for ensuring its successful implementation."

The Virginia Department of Business Assistance sponsored the project working with the Secretariat of Commerce and Trade, the Virginia Enterprise Applications Program, Virginia Information Technology Agency, State Corporation Commission, Virginia Employment Commission, DPOR and the Arlington and Franklin County local governments.

Brian Moran is Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and a delegate representing Alexandria City and Fairfax County. He is a former Arlington County prosecutor. Moran has been named a "Friend of Business" by the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce and received the "Tech-10" award from the Northern Virginia Technology Council. He was recently named "Child Advocate of the Year" by the Virginia PTA.

This op-ed originally ran in the Virginian Pilot on May 11

A 1-cent sales tax increase can pay for investments in our roads, mass transit and rail.

Virginia needs bold action on transportation infrastructure investment to provide for a strong economic future. We need a long-term vision and a plan for a 21st century transportation system that helps grow our economy, gets traffic moving, and makes sure we can repair our roads and bridges.

The investment we need to jump-start our economy won’t come from raising the state’s gas tax. Hitting folks with higher prices at the pump at a time when gas prices are skyrocketing, putting the squeeze on middle-class families and those on a fixed income, is not the answer. Besides, soon Congress will increase fuel efficiency standards for our cars, and gas tax revenues will decline. The tax is not a sustainable revenue source on which to build our future transportation system.

More importantly, for too long this debate has been stalled in an ideological battle between proponents of the gas tax and those opposed to solutions. I’m offering another option that raises additional new funds for transportation without engaging in that old debate. First, we can get Virginia moving again by investing $1 billion in our statewide transportation system to ensure a bright economic future, strong job growth and a healthy economy. We can invest in our roads, mass transit and rail through a 1-cent sales tax increase. Estimates show that every $1 billion invested in transportation infrastructure could create 35,000 new jobs. To raise that much with a gas tax, the tax would need to increase 20 cents per gallon.

And, unlike a regressive gas tax that would raise the price of getting food to the market, this sales tax proposal would exempt food and prescription drugs.

Importantly, this new sales tax will apply to all the out-of-state visitors, from shoppers at Potomac Mills to tourists in Virginia Beach, to truck drivers traveling down route I-81.

More than one-third of the funds from this sales tax should be dedicated to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority for projects of regional significance, including new roadways, transit rail systems and our federal matching funds for Metro. This means the money will stay in Northern Virginia, and the decisions on how to use it will be made in Northern Virginia.

Nearly one-quarter of this investment should go directly to Hampton Roads for a series of major projects, many of which have already been identified through regional planning processes. This would relieve traffic congestion, ease cargo movement from the port and protect the ability for emergency evacuations.

The remaining funds -- nearly half -- should be invested in statewide road safety, repair and construction. We can fund vital new construction projects in every region of the commonwealth, including the Coalfields Expressway and I-73, as well as new rail and transit projects of statewide significance. A portion of the statewide funds should be earmarked for projects that will attract additional private dollars for transportation.

Second, it is clear that roads and rails alone won’t solve our transportation crisis. We have to break the gridlock where growth and development put more cars on the road and continue to require a larger road network. We need to plan high-density development along mass transit lines and link our land-use decisions to our transportation planning.

We can break this cycle by creating an Office of Responsible Growth that helps statewide transportation planning sync with local land-use decisions. A fixed percentage of the new funding should be dedicated to rail and transit improvements across the state to lessen dependence on our cars.

Third, for years Virginians have been worried that transportation funds are diverted to other areas of government. To address this problem, we need a constitutional amendment to lock our transportation trust fund and ensure that what we raise for transportation goes to improve that system.

If we do these three things, we will improve our quality of life by keeping folks in traffic less and at home with their families more. Additionally, companies will be more likely to locate here if we have the transportation infrastructure that meets their long-term needs.

More than 20 years ago, Gov. Baliles used the sales tax to invest in our transportation system. It’s time to do that again.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian Moran made the following statement after former Governor Mark Warner officially kicked off his campaign for the United States Senate. Delegate Moran will join Governor Warner at his announcement event on Monday evening at the Carlyle Club.

“Our nation faces as many challenges today as we have at any point in modern history. We have a war without an end in sight, a sluggish economy, and government run by the special interests. But, Virginia has faced these kinds of challenges before. And we changed direction and brought results for the people of Virginia. Now we need that in Washington.

Mark Warner’s leadership made Virginia the best managed state in the nation, the best state in which to do business and the best state for a child’s lifetime success.

Whether you’re a Democrat, an Independent, or even a Republican, you know we need a new direction in our nation’s capital. We have already seen that direction here in Virginia. We’ve seen an optimistic, hopeful vision of the future. We’ve worked with results-oriented leadership that gets things done.

We saw them in Mark Warner as our Governor. And now we need him to be our next US Senator. I will be doing all I can to help him make that happen.”

Warner was elected governor in 2001 and Delegate Moran was elected chairman of the House Democratic Caucus that December.