VaNews Aug. 6, 2019
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** FROM VPAP
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** PRESIDENTIAL DONORS FROM YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

Enter your five-digit ZIP Code and see how much money the 2020 presidential candidates have raised in your neighborhood. Drill down to get the names of all donors who gave through June 30.


** EXECUTIVE BRANCH
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** NORTHAM CALLS ON LEADERS TO STAND UP TO GUN VIOLENCE, BIGOTRY ([link removed])
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By SARAH MCCLOSKEY, WRIC

Following the news of two more mass shootings over the weekend, Gov. Ralph Northam (D) says more leaders need to take a stand against gun violence and white nationalists. Speaking to reporters in Charlottesville, Gov. Northam addressed the shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, saying everyone needs to take action. “I just hope Americans across this country will stand up and say we can’t tolerate the gun violence,” Northam said, “we’re not going to take this anymore.”


** GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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** AFTER BACK-TO-BACK MASS SHOOTINGS, VIRGINIA GUN DEBATE REMAINS AT STANDSTILL ([link removed])
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By GRAHAM MOOMAW AND MEL LEONOR, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The pair of mass shootings that stunned the nation over the weekend didn’t cause any immediate shifts in the gun policy debate in Virginia, where lawmakers have worked themselves into an election-year stalemate after a similar attack in Virginia Beach.


** TRUMP RENEWS CALLS FOR RED FLAG LAWS VA. GOP VOTED DOWN EARLIER THIS YEAR ([link removed])
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By NED OLIVER, Virginia Mercury

After twin mass shootings left at least 30 dead in 24 hours, President Donald Trump disappointed gun safety activists by failing to call for any major new gun control legislation, instead focusing on “the perils of the internet and social media.” But over the course of his remarks, he did renew his administration’s calls for so-called red flag laws, or extreme risk protective orders, which have been implemented in 17 states, according to the Giffords Law Center.


** STATE GOVERNMENT
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** IN 'EXTRAORDINARY' RULING, SCC REJECTS SMALL PART OF DOMINION RECOVERY CLAIM ([link removed])
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By MEL LEONOR, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

In what the State Corporation Commission termed an “extraordinary” finding, the panel on Monday rejected a small part of a request by Dominion Energy to recover money spent in environmental upgrades at its Chesterfield County power plant. The commission approved most of the $247 million investment, which paid for improvements to the way the plant processes coal to comply with environmental regulations.


** CONGRESS
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** HOUSE IS WORKING ON REINING IN DRUG PRICES, SCOTT SAYS ([link removed])
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By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Sharing a tale of his own about an insurer’s red tape over eye-drops he needed, Rep Robert C. Scott, D-Newport News told staffers and patients at the Hampton Roads Community Health Center’s Portsmouth clinic that the House of Representatives is working on several fronts to tackle the high cost of medication. Scott said Congress is working on several fronts to address prescription drug costs, with measures looking at more transparency about pricing, new requirements that drug companies justify to big price increases to regulators and measures to encourage competition by generic drugs.


** ECONOMY/BUSINESS
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** ONCE A KING CROP IN DAN RIVER REGION, TOBACCO ON SHAKY GROUND ([link removed])
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By CALEB AYERS, Danville Register & Bee

Pittsylvania County is the tobacco capital of Virginia with no other county coming close in terms of production. Located in the thick of the tobacco belt, the county produces about one-fourth of Virginia’s flue-cured tobacco, according to U.S. Farm Service Agency data.


** TRANSPORTATION
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** FIRST POTENTIAL OPENING DATE SET FOR SILVER LINE INTO LOUDOUN COUNTY ([link removed])
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By MAX SMITH, WTOP

The Silver Line to Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County, Virginia, will open on or about July 16, 2020, at least if everything goes according to plan from here on out, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said.


** HIGHER EDUCATION
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** BY THE NUMBERS: THE COST OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA ([link removed])
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By RILYN EISCHENS, News Leader (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Virginia made national news this year when all the state's public colleges froze tuition, but many say there's still work to be done to make higher education more affordable. State legislators included nearly $58 million in this year's budget for public colleges that agreed to freeze tuition, The Associated Press reported. The resulting state-wide tuition freeze was the first in nearly 20 years.


** UVA EXPANDS FINANCIAL AID TO INCLUDE DACA STUDENTS ([link removed])
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By RUTH SERVEN SMITH, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Since 2014, the University of Virginia has admitted in-state students who were brought into the U.S. illegally as children. Those students previously have been required to pay the full cost of tuition out-of-pocket. Beginning this fall, according to a UVa website, in-state undergraduate students with DACA status will be eligible for financial aid. The money will come from private funding, according to university spokesman Wes Hester.


** VIRGINIA OTHER
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** 'WE HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO:' DESCENDANTS OF FIRST BLACK AMERICANS ON RACE RELATIONS ([link removed])
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By GABRIELLA BORTER, Reuters

Four hundred years after the first ship carrying enslaved Africans arrived on the coast of Virginia, the descendants of one of the first black American families say race relations in the United States still have "a long way to go." The Tucker family, who trace their ancestry to the 1624 census of the then English colony of Virginia, has experienced every chapter of African-American history.


** LOCAL
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** STONEY UNVEILS $1.5 BILLION COLISEUM REDEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL; CITY COUNCIL READIES FOR REVIEW ([link removed])
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By MARK ROBINSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney’s administration on Monday officially unveiled the $1.5 billion proposal to redevelop the area around the Richmond Coliseum, setting in motion a City Council review of the massive plans that could reshape downtown.


** REPORT HIGHLIGHTS GAPS IN RICHMOND’S RESPONSE TO EVICTION CRISIS ([link removed])
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By MEGAN PAULY, VPM

A pair of law students from Yale and Stanford spent the summer in Richmond researching the city’s response to its ongoing eviction crisis. They presented their findings to local housing leaders, advocates and Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney Monday. The majority of the report focuses on policy solutions that have been used to help prevent eviction in other parts of the state and country.


** STATE OFFICIALS DISCUSS WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, UNITED WAY IN ABINGDON ([link removed])
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By JOE TENNIS, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Tom Barkin visited Abingdon on Monday, engaging with educators, business leaders and politicians in a roundtable discussion on workforce development. “I came here because, as we have done our research, this seems like the kind of place that has worked successfully against the barriers that so many other small towns have,” Barkin said.


** EDITORIALS
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** WHEN WILL WE PUT AN END TO THE BLOODSHED? ([link removed])
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Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

When will it be enough, America? Over the weekend, two mass-casualty shootings — one in El Paso, Texas, and the other in Dayton, Ohio — killed 31 people. Dozens were injured. Families and friends of the victims will never be the same, and the communities where this happened will be irreparably changed.


** ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ([link removed])
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Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Before 2001, “terrorism” was uncommon in America’s violence lexicon. Today, it’s commonplace and, over the weekend, the word emerged in a frightening, homegrown context. Two mass shootings in 24 hours left at least 30 people dead and injured dozens more.


** THE WRONG KIND OF AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM ([link removed])
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Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Those shots you just heard? Pay no attention. That was just the background noise of modern-day America. We like to think of the United States as an exceptional nation. Here’s one way that we clearly are: No other country has anywhere close to the number of mass shootings that we do.


** COLUMNISTS
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** POLITIFACT: BYNUM-COLEMAN "MOSTLY TRUE" ON DRUG ARREST RATES FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS ([link removed])
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By WARREN FISKE, VPM

Democrat Sheila Bynum-Coleman faces a daunting task this fall running against Speaker Kirk Cox in the newly-drawn 66th House District containing a portion of Chesterfield County. Criminal justice reform ranks high among her priorities. “People of every race use illegal drugs at similar rates, yet African Americans are far more likely to be imprisoned than whites,” she says on her campaign website. “African Americans are three to four times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes and nine times more likely to be imprisoned.”


** OP-ED
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** SLEMP: CAN YOU SPOT THE RED FLAGS OF ELDER ABUSE? ([link removed])
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By C.H. “CHUCK” SLEMP, III, Published in the Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Would you be able to spot the signs that someone is a victim of elder abuse? Unfortunately, evidence of abuse is not always easily recognized. That’s because the most common form of elder abuse is financial exploitation. It is a growing epidemic in our country and senior citizens are especially vulnerable to these crimes. Your loved one, a friend, or a neighbor could be suffering the devastating effects of abuse in silence.

Slemp is the Commonwealth's Attorney for Wise County & the City of Norton.


** FEINMAN AND DOZIER: CONNECTING THE COMMONWEALTH ([link removed])
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By EVAN FEINMAN AND COURTNEY DOZIER, Published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Gov. Ralph Northam took office in 2018 with a clear vision: universal broadband access for all Virginians within a decade. Broadband, or high-speed internet, has become a necessity, much like electricity or running water and, as of earlier this year, approximately 660,000 Virginians were being left behind.

Evan Feinman is Gov. Northam’s chief broadband adviser and executive director of the Tobacco Commission. Courtney Dozier is Northam’s deputy broadband adviser and chief deputy at the Department of Housing and Community Development.
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