Central Virginia’s WWBT-TV is reporting that a van belonging to President Obama’s advance staff was stolen outside the Virginia Center Commons Courtyard Marriott in Henrico, VA just days before the president’s scheduled visit to Chesterfield on Wednesday.

The van contained about $200,000 worth of audio equipment, podiums and presidential seals. On Monday, officials confirmed to WWBT that the van had been recovered outside a Holiday Inn Express near the Richmond Airport. Here’s the original story.

CNN has obtained this statement from the Defense Information Systems Agency on the reports of a stolen van and presidential equipment:

“A government vehicle was stolen and has been recovered. No classified or sensitive information was in the vehicle.  We take incidents such as this very seriously, and a formal investigation is continuing in coordination with relevant law enforcement agencies.”

The original story from WWBT can be found here.

President Barack Obama is headed out on another bus tour, according to new information from a White House official. The president’s second such tour since taking office will bring him through North Carolina and Virginia – two states he won in 2008 that promise to be crucial states on any path to victory in 2012.

Although the specific stops are still unknown, the official confirmed that the tour will take place from October 17 to 19, and will primarily focus on urging congress to pass the president’s jobs proposal, the American Jobs Act. If the itinerary of this trip is anything similar to the president’s August bus tour through the Midwest, it will likely be chock-full of “off the record” retail campaign stops, informal meetings with small groups of voters, as well as larger campaign-style rallies and town hall meetings.

The final stop on President Obama's three-state Midwest bus tour was at the Country Corner Farm Market in the small town of Alpha, Illinois. The president was roughly an hour behind schedule due mostly to a visit with the Galesburg High School football team, and although the crowd showed some signs of fatigue from waiting in the hot sun, most left the event saying it was worth the wait.

Although his opening remarks didn't change too much, the president did field one interesting question about the future of the estate tax that is worth looking at. I think it's the only question the president got on this topic the whole trip. Here's the exchange as per a transcript provided by the White House:

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President, for being here today in Henry County. My name is Karen Urich (ph). I’m a multigenerational farmer, member of the Henry County Board and Henry County Farm Bureau. My question that I have today is I have a concern over estate taxes.

In 2013, if the Senate and the Congress fails to act, we will have our estate taxes go back to the 2001 level. We have family farms that are experiencing having to sell their land in order to pay the property taxes. And I was wondering what you see for the future of the estate tax. Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, there’s no reason why we have to go all the way back to the 2001 level. There is a compromise that has been discussed where you’d essentially have a $7 million exemption per family. There are some folks who just want to eliminate the estate tax all together. There are others who want to hike it up back to 2001. FULL POST