Today's Sponsor: Susan Clarke Schaar, Clerk of the Senate

VaNews Feb. 14, 2020
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Today's Sponsor:


** Susan Clarke Schaar, Clerk of the Senate
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Happy Valentine's Day to all and especially to those in public service to the Commonwealth.

Read Online ([link removed]) 10 Most Clicked ([link removed])


** FROM VPAP
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** VISUALIZATION: NEWCOMERS TO RICHMOND LOBBYING SCENE ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

The Virginia legislature continues to see growth in interests that have hired lobbyists in Richmond. VPAP lists the 169 companies and groups that registered lobbyists for this legislative session that did not have representation last year.


** GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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** AS VIRGINIA REMOVES ABORTION RESTRICTIONS, ANNUAL MARCH FOR LIFE DRAWS CROWD IN RICHMOND ([link removed])
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By MARIE ALBIGES, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Pro-life advocates gathered in Richmond on Thursday to protest forthcoming new laws that will make it easier for women to get an abortion in Virginia.


** ANTI-ABORTION RALLY CONDEMNS CHANGES ([link removed])
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By AMY FRIEDENBERGER, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)

With Virginia poised to roll back abortion restrictions, thousands of anti-abortion advocates descended on the Capitol Thursday to voice their opposition to legislation moving through the General Assembly.


** ABORTION OPPONENTS RALLY AT STATE CAPITOL TO PROTEST LEGISLATION ([link removed])
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By MEL LEONOR, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

Bearing signs wrapped in plastic and strapped to umbrellas, a crowd of about 2,500 demonstrators arrived at the steps of a rainy Virginia Capitol on Thursday to protest abortion access legislation moving through the state legislature.


** MORE THAN 1,000 GATHER IN RICHMOND TO OPPOSE ABORTION BILLS ([link removed])
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By SARAH RANKIN, Associated Press

More than 1,000 people rallied at the Virginia Capitol on Thursday, protesting legislation advancing in the Democratic-controlled General Assembly that would ease restrictions on abortion access.


** SOME DISAPPOINTED BY VIRGINIA’S CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM PUSH ([link removed])
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By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press

After Democrats took control of Virginia’s state legislature, criminal justice reform advocates saw their best chance in decades for widespread change in a system they say routinely doles out disparate treatment to minorities.


** BILLS TO PROTECT DEFENDANTS AND INMATES WITH AUTISM PENDING ([link removed])
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By FRANK GREEN, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

Drew Harrison, who has a form of autism, smiles as he embraces his mother, Judy Harrison, after he was released several years ago from the Chesterfield County Jail while his case was pending. One bill that would allow judges to hold off convicting or sentencing persons with autism or other developmental disabilities and another bill that would assist those already behind bars are making their way through the General Assembly.


** ‘IT DIDN’T WORK:’ STATES THAT ENDED PAROLE FOR VIOLENT CRIMES ARE THINKING AGAIN ([link removed])
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By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS, New York Times (Metered Paywall - 1 to 2 articles a month)

The State Legislature, newly dominated by Democrats, is poised to broaden parole for the first time in a generation. Watching closely are lawmakers across the nation, including in California, New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania. Like Virginia those states decades ago virtually eliminated discretionary parole, granted by appointed boards on a conditional basis, during an era of surging violent crime and the imposition of progressively harsher punishments.


** WITH DEMOCRATS IN CHARGE, POWER DRIPS DOWN TO VA. COUNTIES, CITIES AND TOWNS ([link removed])
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By PATRICIA SULLIVAN, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Virginia Del. Vivian E. Watts (D-Fairfax) freely admits she's addicted to 7-Eleven's Big Gulp. “Thirty ounces for 99 cents? It’s a great deal,” she said during a recent break on the House floor. Because Virginia cities and towns can levy taxes without getting the consent of the General Assembly, and the state’s counties cannot, Watts pays a few pennies more or less for the sugary drink depending on where she buys it.


** LAWMAKERS’ SPLIT STANCE ON ENERGY COMPETITION REVEALS SHIFTS IN UTILITY POWER ([link removed])
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By SARAH VOGELSONG, Virginia Mercury

Two measures to strengthen and expand Virginia’s renewable energy market passed by the House Tuesday signaled the emergence of cracks in the control long exerted by Dominion Energy over the state legislature, although the failure of both bills to reach the Senate floor indicates the monopoly utility remains influential.


** RURAL COALITION MAKES ANOTHER PUSH IN RICHMOND FOR MONEY TO REPAIR SCHOOLS, RAISE TEACHER SALARIES ([link removed])
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By AMY FRIEDENBERGER, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)

As the General Assembly’s money committees put finishing touches on the state’s next two-year budget, a coalition of small and rural schools is advocating remedies for unmet and inadequately funded public education needs.


** VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS AT ODDS OVER TERMS OF CONFEDERATE STATUE REMOVALS ([link removed])
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By NED OLIVER, Virginia Mercury

A handful of Democrats in the Virginia Senate are pushing for some ground rules as the party moves to grant local governments around the state the authority to remove Confederate statues on public property.


** LIGHTS, CAMERA, SUBSIDIES: LEGISLATURE DEBATES INCREASING FILM INCENTIVES ([link removed])
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By BEN PAVIOUR, WCVE

Republicans have accused Democrats of trying to turn Virginia into the next California. But there’s bipartisan support for bringing a little bit of Hollywood to the Commonwealth in the form of film subsidies. Lawmakers in the Senate have already voted to increase those incentives, while a similar bill died in the House.


** AHEAD OF 2021 REDISTRICTING, VA. DEMOCRATS MOVE TO END ‘PRISON GERRYMANDERING’ ([link removed])
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By GRAHAM MOOMAW, Virginia Mercury

Even though they can’t vote if they’ve been convicted of a felony, Virginia prisoners are still counted as residents of the place where they’re locked up for the purposes of the U.S. Census. Under legislation advancing in the Democratic-led General Assembly, a new, post-census adjustment for the incarcerated population would be created to end so-called prison gerrymandering.


** SENATE REPEATS HISTORY, PASSES DRUNKEN DRIVING BILL ([link removed])
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By JESSICA WETZLER, Daily News Record (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

In its second try, the Senate quietly passed a bill allowing Virginians to lawfully drive while intoxicated on their own property and adjoining property after a similar bill was killed by the House in 2018. Sen. Richard Stuart, R-King George, originally introduced the legislation in 2018


** CASINO BILL RESOLUTION LIKELY NEAR END OF SESSION ([link removed])
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By DAVID MCGEE, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 15 articles a month)

Differences in House and Senate bills to legalize casinos by referendum may not be resolved until the final days of the current legislative session, local Virginia lawmakers said Thursday.


** SENATOR BLAMES PARTY LEADERS FOR POOR BILL SHOWING ([link removed])
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By BILL ATKINSON, Progress Index (Metered paywall - 10 articles a month)

State Sen. Amanda F. Chase said her refusal to take part in what she called “pay-to-play” Republican caucusing is responsible for all 26 bills and resolutions being defeated in the Senate.


** FEDERAL ELECTIONS
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** PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS INCREASE VIRGINIA PRESENCE AS SUPER TUESDAY NEARS ([link removed])
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By JUSTIN MATTINGLY, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

With less than three weeks until Super Tuesday, Democratic presidential candidates are ramping up their operations in Virginia. Up for grabs are the state’s 124 delegates,


** WARREN LOOKS TO SUPER TUESDAY WITH STOP IN ARLINGTON ([link removed])
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By JARED FORETEK, Inside NOVA (Metered Paywall)

Coming off poor showings in the first two contests of the Democratic primary, Sen. Elizabeth Warren came to Arlington Thursday night promising to fight on, carrying an anti-corruption message to a key Super Tuesday state.


** AIRD, GUY AMONG 30 VIRGINIA LEADERS TO ENDORSE BLOOMBERG ([link removed])
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By JUSTIN MATTINGLY, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg picked up more than 30 Virginia endorsements on Friday ahead of his speech at the Democratic Party of Virginia's annual gala.


** STATE GOVERNMENT
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** STATE HIRES FIRM TO CONDUCT DISPARITY STUDY IN PROCUREMENT ([link removed])
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By SYDNEY LAKE, Va Business Magazine

The state will commission a Denver-based firm to conduct the first disparity study on procurement opportunities for women- and minority-owned businesses since 2011, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday. The report is expected to be completed in December.


** RIVERSIDE REGIONAL JAIL'S BELEAGUERED SUPERINTENDENT RESIGNS ([link removed])
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By MARK BOWES, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

The governing body of Riverside Regional Jail has unanimously accepted the resignation of the facility’s beleaguered superintendent, who was hired just nine months ago to lead the jail in a new direction after it endured judicial criticism


** CONGRESS
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** THREE VIRGINIA CONGRESSWOMEN HAIL HOUSE VOTE TO REMOVE ERA DEADLINE ([link removed])
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By MEL LEONOR, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

The three women in Virginia’s congressional delegation celebrated Thursday the passage of a resolution in the U.S. House that would do away with the long-past deadline to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.


** ECONOMY/BUSINESS
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** HUNTINGTON INGALLS HAS ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ BACKLOG OF SHIPBUILDING WORK ([link removed])
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By KIMBERLY PIERCEALL, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding has $46.5 billion worth of work to complete within 10 years or so, an amount Mike Petters, the company’s president and CEO, called an “unprecedented backlog of shipbuilding work” that would serve as a strong foundation for the future.


** DOMINION BUYS OUT SOUTHERN CO. SHARE OF PIPELINE ([link removed])
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By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is now down to two owners and up to $8 billion in cost. Dominion Energy is buying the ownership share of Southern Company Gas in the stalled 600-mile natural gas pipeline, as well as the Atlanta-based company’s interest in liquefied natural gas storage and distribution facilities in Florida.


** RURAL COMMUNITIES STRUGGLE WITH SHRINKING ACCESS TO BANKING ([link removed])
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By JENNY BOONE, Va Business Magazine

When one of Caroline County’s two banks, Virginia National Bank, shut its doors six years ago, Gary Wilson, the county’s director of economic development, wanted to do something about it. He launched a widespread effort to find a second banking institution to open a branch in Caroline, which is sandwiched between Fredericksburg and Richmond. “I got no takers,” he says,


** HIGHER EDUCATION
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** UVA RESPONDS AFTER VIDEO SHOWS BLACK WOMAN SAYING 'TOO MANY WHITE PEOPLE' IN BUILDING ([link removed])
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By JESSICA CHASMAR, Washington Times

The University of Virginia has specified that its new diversity-focused centers are open to everyone after a now-viral video showed a black woman complaining about “too many white people” being in the Multicultural Student Center.


** VIRGINIA OTHER
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** TRUMP WANTS TO SLASH CHESAPEAKE BAY FUNDING ([link removed])
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By MARISSA J. LANG, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

For the fourth year in a row, the Trump administration wants to slash funding for programs that clean up and preserve the Chesapeake Bay at a time when experts say the estuary’s recovery is at a crossroads. President Trump’s 2021 budget proposal, sent to Congress this week, recommends a 91 percent funding cut to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program...


** GUN RIGHTS ADVOCATES URGE LOCAL GOVERNMENTS TO BACK MILITIAS ([link removed])
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By RICHARD CHUMNEY, SARAH HONOSKY AND NICK CROPPER, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)

As new gun legislation makes its way through the Virginia General Assembly, gun rights activists in the Lynchburg region are calling on elected officials to help organize local militias to push back against laws they believe infringe on their Second Amendment rights.


** RESIDENTS ASK AUGUSTA COUNTY TO HOLD VOLUNTARY MUSTER ([link removed])
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By CLAIRE MITZEL, News Leader (Metered Paywall - 3 to 4 articles a month)

Having secured a Second Amendment sanctuary resolution in December from the Augusta County Board of Supervisors, a group of Augusta County residents have a new goal: a militia muster.


** LOCAL
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** COUNTY BOARD CONSIDERING ‘NEXT APPROPRIATE STEPS’ FOR CHRISTIAN DORSEY ([link removed])
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ArlNow

Christian Dorsey’s four colleagues on the Arlington County Board are “disappointed” in him and “considering what, if any, are the next appropriate steps to take,” according to an email from Board Chair Libby Garvey. Dorsey, who’s currently in personal bankruptcy proceedings, resigned from the Metro board last week after it was revealed that he had not returned a $10,000 political donation from Metro’s largest labor union, as he had been directed to do after being found to have violated Metro’s ethics rules.


** WATCHDOG SAYS FORMER SCHOOL BOARD CHAIR MISREPRESENTED HER FOIA REQUESTS ([link removed])
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By RICH GRISET, Chesterfield Observer

Following a public rebuke at December’s School Board meeting from then-chairman Rob Thompson, a citizen watchdog is challenging his claim that she sent the school system nearly 800 Freedom of Information Act requests in the last four years. The actual number, according to the school system’s own records, is far lower.


** CHESAPEAKE HAS NOW PASSED NORFOLK AS VIRGINIA’S SECOND MOST POPULOUS CITY, NEW DATA SHOW ([link removed])
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By KATHERINE HAFNER, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Chesapeake has surpassed Norfolk to become the commonwealth’s second-most populous city, according to recently released estimates from the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. The city reached an estimated 245,745 residents


** FREDERICKSBURG COUNCIL CLOSER TO APPROVING ITS MOST EXPENSIVE PROJECT EVER ([link removed])
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By CATHY JETT, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Fredericksburg’s City Council has taken another step toward greenlighting the most expensive capital project in the city’s history—and an effort to get some state funding for it. The city and Spotsylvania County are facing the prospect of pouring millions into replacing their old wastewater treatment plants


** CAROLINE SUPERVISOR APOLOGIZES FOR 'INSENSITIVE AND OFFENSIVE' FACEBOOK POST ([link removed])
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By DAWN HAUN, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Caroline County Supervisor Clay Forehand publicly apologized at the Board of Supervisors meeting this week for a comment he made on Facebook about disruptive students. Forehand had been discussing how hard teaching has become and wrote last week that the job was “even harder when the federal and state says you can’t expel or move someone out of a classroom or school for doing horrible things in school because he may have some sort of disability or additional Melatonin in his skin.”


** PROSECUTORS TO SEEK INDICTMENTS AGAINST FORMER DAYTON TOWN MANAGER ([link removed])
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By PETE DELEA, Daily News Record (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Prosecutors plan to seek indictments Tuesday against former Dayton town manager and one-time town mayoral candidate John Crim following a Virginia State Police investigation. ...Prosecutors claim Crim logged into town email accounts in June 2018, years after he left his position as town manager and while he was a candidate for mayor. They say it appears Crim was looking for emails that would reveal that the police department was told to lay off on issuing traffic tickets during tourist season.

Today's Sponsor:


** Susan Clarke Schaar, Clerk of the Senate
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Happy Valentine's Day to all and especially to those in public service to the Commonwealth.


** EDITORIALS
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** VIRGINIA ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY WITH LGBT PROTECTIONS ([link removed])
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Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

When it comes to matters of the heart, Virginia’s history is not exactly the stuff of poetry. Begin with the Jamestown settlement, when the first Europeans to carve out a foothold on these shores — all male — relied on the Virginia Company to convince women that building a life in the dangerous unknown of the New World would be an attractive life option.


** THE BIGGER PICTURE WITH RECKLESS DRIVING ([link removed])
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Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

In September 2016, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) took a step to increase safety on our roads. On some portions of Interstates 81 and 95, new signs were to warn drivers: Above 80 miles per hour (MPH) is reckless driving. Penalties higher.


** OP-ED
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** FREEMAN: HISTORIC INVESTMENT IN VIRGINIA'S NATURAL RESOURCES IS WITHIN REACH ([link removed])
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By GEORGE C. FREEMAN III, Published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

Virginians take great pride in our state’s natural heritage, and rightfully so. From Blue Ridge mountain streams and forests to beaches and the Chesapeake Bay, we are never far from world-class outdoor recreation opportunities. Not only do these lands and waters enhance our quality of life, they also fuel the state’s economy.

George C. Freeman III is the chairman, president & CEO of Universal Corporation. He is currently the chairman of the Board of Trustees for The Nature Conservancy in Virginia


** FUGATE: THE VIRGINIA SHORELINE RESILIENCY FUND WILL IMPROVE OUR ABILITY TO WITHSTAND BIG STORMS ([link removed])
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By CRAIG FUGATE, Published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

This past summer, heavy rains and flooding in Richmond left drivers stranded and in some cases prompted emergency rescues from cars submerged in floodwaters. Dedicated and targeted funding of community-scale mitigation projects could have helped avoid these incidents.

Craig Fugate was administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency from 2009 to 2016 and now serves as a senior adviser at BlueDot Strategies


** DECINQUE: G3 PROGRAM WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN VIRGINIA ([link removed])
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By GREGORY DECINQUE, Published in Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

For more than 50 years, Thomas Nelson Community College has worked to make a college education possible for all on the Peninsula, especially underserved populations who currently make up more than 60% of our student body.

Gregory DeCinque is the interim president of Thomas Nelson Community College.


** THE FRIDAY READ
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** HOW ULTRA-PROCESSED FOOD TOOK OVER YOUR SHOPPING BASKET ([link removed])
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By BEE WILSON, The Guardian

It’s cheap, attractive and convenient, and we eat it every day – it’s difficult not to. But is ultra-processed food making us ill and driving the global obesity crisis?
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