The Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team of Virginia Tech at the EcoCar Finals. Courtesy Virginia Tech College of Engineering on Facebook.

A big congratulations is due to a team from Virginia Tech for landing top prize of EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge. It involved designing and building an extended-range electric vehicle. Tech competed against 15 other universities to earn top honors in the three-year competition sponsored by the Department of Energy and General Motors.

With the need for high-value manufacturing jobs to keep Virginia and America competitive in the global marketplace, Senator Warner and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA-10) last week introduced America Recruits, a bipartisan legislative push to encourage the creation of new manufacturing jobs here in America.