VaNews Aug. 8, 2019
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** FROM VPAP
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** CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURES ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

To qualify for the ballot, General Assembly candidates are required to disclose information about their personal financial holdings that could pose a potential conflict with the office they are seeking. VPAP has keypunched the paper documents and posted the results online. The forms list things such as income, stock holdings, debts, business interests and real estate holdings.


** EXECUTIVE BRANCH
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** IT CAN BE TOUGH TO GET ACTION ON WHITE SUPREMACISTS, HERRING SAYS ([link removed])
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By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Trying to convince politicians to do something about white nationalist violence is something Attorney General Mark Herring knows something about. But not because he’s had a lot of success — though he says he’s going to keep trying when the General Assembly convenes next year.


** VIRGINIA'S ATTORNEY GENERAL CALLS FOR ACTION BY GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON WHITE SUPREMACIST VIOLENCE ([link removed])
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By ERIN PATTERSON, WVEC

Attorney General Mark R. Herring reemphasized the need for the General Assembly to pass legislation to address hate crimes and white supremacist violence. Herring's call comes after FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday that “a majority of the domestic terrorism cases that we’ve investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call ‘white supremacist violence.’”


** ECONOMY/BUSINESS
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** AFTER 31 YEARS, LECLAIRRYAN LAW FIRM IS CLOSING ([link removed])
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By GREGORY J. GILLIGAN AND JOHN REID BLACKWELL, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The Richmond-based legal giant LeClairRyan is shutting down, a casualty of a dramatic collapse in revenue and an exodus of lawyers in recent years. The national law firm’s demise also is attributed in part to the uncertainty surrounding a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed by a former client.


** LECLAIRRYAN TO DISSOLVE ([link removed])
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By PETER VIETH, Virginia Lawyers Weekly (Paywall for some articles)

The partners of Richmond-based LeClairRyan PLLC have agreed to dissolution of the firm. An Aug. 7 news release said the firm members voted to commence an “orderly wind down” of the 31-year-old firm. A dissolution committee is said to be in cooperation with the firm’s lender to “ensure the continuity of client service”


** EASTMAN TO INVEST MORE THAN $7.7 MILLION TO EXPAND ITS MANUFACTURING BASE ([link removed])
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By PAUL COLLINS, Martinsville Bulletin

The more than $7.7 million Eastman Chemical plans to spend to expand its manufacturing presence in Henry County will create $67,775 in new annual taxes for the county, Mark Heath, president and CEO of the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp., said Wednesday. That’s the same amount of tax revenue, he said, that would be generated if 122 homes valued at $100,000 each were to be built.


** TRANSPORTATION
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** NEW I-81 COMMITTEE TO MEET FOR FIRST TIME NEXT WEEK IN LEXINGTON ([link removed])
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By AMY FRIEDENBERGER, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

The newly formed Interstate 81 Committee will meet next week in Lexington to discuss the status of highway upgrades. The Virginia General Assembly approved the formation of the I-81 Committee earlier this year as part of a funding package to fix the crash-plagued highway.


** HIGHER EDUCATION
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** HAMPTON UNIVERSITY LOOKS TO TRAIN NEXT GENERATION OF BLACK ESPORTS PLAYERS, ENTREPRENEURS ([link removed])
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By MATT JONES, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Kyle Giersdorf, a 16-year-old from Pennsylvania, found himself $3 million richer this summer. He won the money after beating 99 other players in the online fighting game Fortnite Battle Royale during the Fortnite World Cup finals on July 28. For comparison, golfer Gary Woodland took home $2.16 million when he won the U.S. Open Championship in June.


** VIRGINIA OTHER
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** FEDERAL GOVERNMENT EYES NORTHERN VIRGINIA FOR CHILD IMMIGRANT SHELTER ([link removed])
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By DERRICK WARD AND SOPHIA BARNES, NBC4

The federal government is eyeing Northern Virginia for a permanent facility to house hundreds of unaccompanied immigrant children. The General Services Administration posted a pre-solicitation notice looking to lease space in the Capital region of Northern Virginia that could accommodate a facility for 440 children in Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun or Prince William county for up to 15 years.


** LOCAL GOVERNMENTS TOLD LITTLE ABOUT PLANS FOR SHELTER TO HOUSE MIGRANT KIDS ([link removed])
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By JOHN DOMEN, WTOP

The General Services Administration is asking to hear from property owners in Northern Virginia who are interested in leasing land to the feds for a shelter that would house unaccompanied migrant children. But, at this point, there aren’t a lot of details for local governments to work with and comment on yet.


** MVP TRIES AGAIN TO REMOVE 2 TREE-SITTERS ([link removed])
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By LAURENCE HAMMACK, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Unable to convince a federal judge to remove two tree-sitters blocking work on the Mountain Valley Pipeline, attorneys for the company are turning to state court in an effort to end the long-standing dispute. Mountain Valley filed a request Tuesday in Montgomery County Circuit Court for a temporary injunction to have the protesters extracted from two trees they have occupied on a wooded slope near Elliston for nearly a year.


** LOCAL
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** PRIVATE GROUP HAS SPENT $20 MILLION ON COLISEUM REDEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL TO DATE ([link removed])
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By MARK ROBINSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Affiliates of the private group behind the $1.5 billion proposal to redevelop the area around the Richmond Coliseum have already spent millions planning for the project. NH District Corp. — the nonprofit development group led by Dominion CEO Thomas F. Farrell II that is vying for the deal — has enlisted a lengthy roster of architecture, engineering and design firms, contractors, consultants and others over the past two years to assemble sweeping plans unveiled earlier this week that center on a new arena.


** POLICE CHIEF SAYS FINDINGS OF MASS SHOOTING INVESTIGATION MAY NOT BE FULLY RELEASED INITIALLY ([link removed])
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By BRETT HALL, WAVY

Virginia Beach’s police chief said while the criminal investigation into the Municipal Center mass shooting is nearly complete, the full findings may not be made public initially. “Once we are complete, we will be able to release some of the findings but we are working closely with the independent investigators and do not want to be perceived as influencing anything they are doing,” said Chief James Cervera, of the Virginia Beach Police Department.


** STATE POLICE: SPOTSYLVANIA FRAUD A CASE OF 'PHISHING' SCAMS ([link removed])
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By SCOTT SHENK, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

A fraud case involving a $600,000-plus payment for synthetic turf for Courtland High School’s football field does not appear to be linked to two other thefts from Spotsylvania County government, the Virginia State Police said. “There is no evidence to suggest any of the three incidents is connected,” state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said in a prepared statement.


** REGIONAL EFFORT TO ESTABLISH YORK DRONE FACILITY HINGES ON POTENTIAL SOLAR FARM ([link removed])
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By JOSH REYES, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The idea to turn an out-of-use fuel farm in York County into a facility for unmanned systems developers to test their drones is on its last wings, but officials are optimistic that the concept will pan out. It hinges on New Jersey-based KDC Solar paying to help eight Peninsula-area localities take over the property before the state’s deadline of Dec. 31.


** LEGISLATIVE WISHLIST FOR COUNTY INCLUDES RESOURCES FOR FIRST RESPONDERS, LOCAL CONTROL ON MONUMENTS, GUNS ([link removed])
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By ALLISON WRABEL, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Albemarle County’s main priority for the 2020 state legislative session is to be able to provide in-kind resources to volunteer firefighting and emergency service providers. The county’s Board of Supervisors on Wednesday approved its proposed 2020 legislative priorities,


** ACKNOWLEDGING A HEALTH CRISIS, CULPEPER PURSUES DRUG COURT CREATION ([link removed])
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By ALLISON BROPHY CHAMPION, Culpeper Star Exponent (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Recognizing the public health crisis of substance abuse, the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously voted to move forward with the creation of a drug court, an estimated $380,000 annual expense that would launch two years from now, at the earliest.


** CULPEPER GROUP URGES MADISON TO REIN IN UTILITY-SCALE SOLAR PLANTS ([link removed])
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By STAFF REPORT, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

A Culpeper citizens group is urging Madison County officials to rein in utility-scale solar plants by limiting them to industrially zoned land. On Monday afternoon, Citizens for Responsible Solar wrote each member of Madison’s Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission to encourage them to amend the county’s zoning ordinance to that end.


** AMHERST TOWN COUNCIL APPOINTS INTERIM MEMBER FOLLOWING EXPULSION OF ELECTED OFFICIAL ([link removed])
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By JUSTIN FAULCONER, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Meeting for the first time Wednesday since its highly unusual vote to remove Janice Wheaton, who was elected to the Amherst Town Council last November, council appointed an interim member. On a unanimous vote during a special called meeting, council selected Sharon Turner, an Amherst native and a manager at Hill Hardware Corp. in Amherst, to serve in the interim role through the Nov. 5 special election.


** HEALTH WAGON WILL PROVIDE FREE HEALTH CARE IN SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA THIS MONTH ([link removed])
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By ROBERT SORRELL, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

No-cost health care for people and animals will return to the Wise County Fairgrounds later this month thanks to a joint operation by the Health Wagon and the U.S. Department of Defense. The Health Wagon, which provides medical care for underserved individuals in Appalachia, primarily in Southwest Virginia, has partnered with the Innovative Readiness Training program, a Department of Defense military training program.


** TWIN CITY MAYORS AGREE ON RAIL SERVICE, NOT BASEBALL STADIUM ([link removed])
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By DAVID MCGEE, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Passenger rail service, a baseball stadium and the proposed resort casino were among the wish list items mentioned Wednesday by the Twin City’s mayors during the seventh annual State of the Cities address. Bristol Tennessee Mayor Margaret Feierabend and Bristol Virginia Mayor Neal Osborne both voiced support for extending Amtrak passenger rail service from Roanoke to Bristol


** EDITORIALS
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** MAKE A COMMITMENT TO MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ([link removed])
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Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

It's predictable enough that you could set your watch to it: A mass shooting happens and, amid the helplessness and sorrow of its aftermath, those who have a hand in public policy suggest that improving access to mental health services is the most — or the only — appropriate response. Sometimes it’s proposed in concert with gun-control legislation.


** WORK WITH RURAL COMMUNITIES TOWARD CLEAN WATER GOALS ([link removed])
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Daily Press Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Flexibility must be built into the rules that calculate how much sediment can enter the Chesapeake Bay It ought to be obvious, but perhaps it seems clearer when you live in a Mathews, or King and Queen or Middlesex County — there’s a lot more green around the shores of the Chesapeake Bay and a lot fewer paved over parking lots and big commercial buildings than in, say, Newport News or Richmond or Northern Virginia.


** PRESERVE AG LAND FOR AGRICULTURE ([link removed])
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Free Lance-Star Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Another local grassroots group is challenging an out-of- state company’s plans to erect an industrial-size solar farm on agriculturally-zoned land in Virginia. Last time, the fight was in Spotsylvania County. This time it’s in Culpeper County.


** COLUMNISTS
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** SCHAPIRO: LONG BEFORE TRUMP DID IT, A VIRGINIA GOVERNOR INSPIRED EXTREMISTS ([link removed])
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By JEFF E. SCHAPIRO, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

In 1996, two decades before he won the presidency, Donald Trump was better known for his multiple marriages, multiple bankruptcies and multiple addresses than his racially charged rhetoric that — after the latest burst of mass shootings — the left wing says incites violence and the right wing says is misunderstood. That year, the inflammatory remarks of a Virginia governor whose tendency toward intemperate talk would torpedo his career in 2006 — one word: “macaca” — were embraced by a paramilitary group here that the Southern Poverty Law Center said was among 10 in the state and 809 nationwide suspected of anti-government extremism.


** OP-ED
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** MCLAUGHLIN: WHERE DID $600,000 OF SPOTSYLVANIA TAXPAYER MONEY GO? ([link removed])
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By TIM MCLAUGHLIN, Published in the Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Where did it go? A bond referendum authorized the Spotsylvania County School Board to borrow money for various school-related capital projects. One project was the installation of synthetic turf football fields at each of the county’s five high schools.

Tim McLaughlin represents the Chancellor District on the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors.
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