VaNews July 2, 2019
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** FROM VPAP
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** VISUALIZATION: EBB AND FLOW OF LEGISLATIVE CANDIDATES ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

Democrats have qualified for the ballot in 35 of 40 State Senate districts and in 91 of 100 House districts. Meanwhile, the number of Republican candidates running for the State Senate has hit a record low of 25. This interactive chart examines how the number of major party candidates has ebbed and flowed over the last two decades.


** EXECUTIVE BRANCH
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** NORTHAM, AS DOC AND GOVERNOR, ON TACKLING OPIOID ABUSE ([link removed])
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By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The thing about being a doctor is that even when you’ve been elected governor, it’s hard to stop being a physician. So Gov. Ralph Northam, who thinks the opioid epidemic is one of the biggest public health challenges Virginia faces, and hears from many of those struggling with addiction that it all started with a prescription pain-killer, isn’t content with leaving the issue to state health regulators.


** MEDICAID AGENCY OUTLINES STRATEGIES TO CURB MATERNAL MORTALITY ON 50TH ANNIVERSARY ([link removed])
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By BRIDGET BALCH, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Gov. Ralph Northam marked the 50th anniversary of Virginia’s Medicaid program Monday by touting the program’s successful expansion and outlining plans for improving maternal and infant health. The strategies announced Monday are aimed at realizing a goal Northam set in early June to eliminate racial disparities in maternal mortality by 2025.


** VA. LT. GOV. JUSTIN FAIRFAX DEPARTS LAW FIRM; WAS ON LEAVE AMID SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS ([link removed])
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By FENIT NIRAPPIL, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) said Monday he is resigning as a partner at the law firm Morrison & Foerster, where he was placed on leave earlier this year amid years-ago allegations of sexual assault.


** JUSTIN FAIRFAX LEAVES LAW FIRM MORRISON & FOERSTER ([link removed])
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By PATRICK WILSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax issued a statement Monday saying he was leaving his job at Morrison & Foerster, the law firm that put him on paid leave in February after two sexual assault allegations against him were made public.


** GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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** ‘WE FOUGHT FOR THESE RIGHTS,’ SAYS GUN OWNER AT NRA TOWN HALL IN VIRGINIA BEACH ([link removed])
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By NANA-SÉNTUO BONSU, WTKR

Behind a set of closed double doors was a packed room filled with National Rifle Association members. The NRA didn’t allow our cameras inside, but News 3 talked to the spokesperson with the organization before Monday's town hall started.


** NRA TOWN HALL WITH LAWMAKERS IN ASHLAND IS CLOSED TO DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE AND THE MEDIA ([link removed])
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By PATRICK WILSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The National Rifle Association held a town hall in Ashland on Monday evening to discuss gun issues before the July 9 special session of the General Assembly, but closed the meeting to the media and a Democratic candidate for the House of Delegates.


** RON VILLANUEVA WISHED PEOPLE KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING. THE TRUTH COULD NOW SEND HIM TO PRISON. ([link removed])
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By SCOTT DAUGHERTY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

For years, Ron Villanueva secretly helped a Virginia Beach company secure millions of dollars in special government contracts it wasn't entitled to receive. The anonymity, according to court documents, was starting to wear on him. ...Villanueva, a former state delegate, will be sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Norfolk. Prosecutors, who believe the scheme improperly netted Villanueva and his immediate family more than $524,000, plan to ask for at least 2½ years behind bars, according to court documents. The defense wants house arrest.


** STATE ELECTIONS
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** PEACE DROPS EFFORT TO KEEP SEAT IN 97TH, SAYS WYATT WILL HELP PROTECT GOP MAJORITY ([link removed])
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By ANDREW CAIN, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Del. Chris Peace, R-Hanover, announced Monday night that he is abandoning his bid to hold the 97th District seat in the House of Delegates after losing a contentious nomination battle to Hanover County Supervisor Scott Wyatt.


** STATE GOVERNMENT
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** STATE MENTAL HEALTH AGENCY HAS MADE ‘SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS’ ON SYSTEM REFORM, COMMISSIONER SAYS ([link removed])
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By BRIDGET BALCH, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services has made “significant progress” with STEP-VA, the nine-part plan to improve mental health services throughout the state, and is hitting milestones in the program’s implementation, the agency’s commissioner said Monday. The defense of the implementation came two weeks after the release of an oversight report that found that a lack of leadership and planning could delay the program’s rollout.


** STATE REGULATORS QUESTION ROANOKE GAS CO.'S NEED FOR NEW PIPELINE ([link removed])
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By LAURENCE HAMMACK, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Potential new business for Roanoke Gas Co. is not strong enough to support an investment by its sister company in the Mountain Valley Pipeline, an analysis by state regulators has found. In more than 500 pages of documents filed Friday, the State Corporation Commission questioned the company’s assertion that it needs more natural gas from the pipeline


** FTC SEEKS TO DETERMINE IF HOSPITAL MONOPOLIES HELP OR HARM PATIENTS ([link removed])
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By LUANNE RIFE, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

The Federal Trade Commission asked a Vanderbilt University law professor to set the stage for a discussion on state laws that shield merging hospital rivals from antitrust actions. In the audience were health care executives convinced that these laws save hospitals from closure and improve people’s health, state regulators charged with overseeing entities with which they had little experience, insurers who think monopolies harm their customers, and people in Virginia’s coalfields who believe they are losing vital services as a result of a recent merger.


** LYNCHBURG LAWYER SWORN IN AS NELSON CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE ([link removed])
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By ERIN CONWAY, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

The Nelson County Courthouse circuit courtroom in Lovingston was filled with those eager to celebrate the swearing in of a Lynchburg lawyer as a circuit court judge in the 24th Judicial District. J. Frederick Watson, a lawyer with Caskie and Frost law firm in Lynchburg for the last 21 years, will now be sitting on the bench in Nelson County Circuit Court


** ECONOMY/BUSINESS
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** DOMINION HAS STARTED BUILDING TWO 600-FOOT-TALL WIND TURBINES OFF THE COAST OF VIRGINIA ([link removed])
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By MARIE ALBIGES, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

You won’t be able to see them from shore, but travel far enough east off the coast of Virginia Beach and you’ll soon find two wind turbines — each about the height of a 40-story skyscraper — generating electricity that will power thousands of homes. On Monday, the people behind the wind turbines ceremonially broke ground on the project, heaving shovels of sand 27 miles west on the shore of Camp Pendleton in Virginia Beach.


** DOMINION ENERGY'S OFFSHORE WIND PROJECT GETS UNDERWAY ([link removed])
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By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The wind turbines aren’t built yet on the far side of the horizon, but Dominion Energy is preparing to build an electric transmission cable beneath the dunes and surf on the Atlantic Ocean shore here that it hopes will jump-start a new industry for offshore wind power production.


** UTILITY TAKING CAUTIOUS APPROACH AS VIRGINIA OFFSHORE WIND PROJECT GETS UNDERWAY ([link removed])
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By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Dominion Energy has begun construction on Virginia’s first foray into offshore wind energy and plans to have two turbines built off the coast by next spring.


** BIG TURNOUT AS COLONIAL DOWNS OPENS GAMBLING PARLOR IN SOUTH RICHMOND ([link removed])
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By GRAHAM MOOMAW, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Retiree Bina Williams and her group showed up at 8:30 a.m. Monday to be one of the first to get in when Rosie’s Gaming Emporium opened its doors. It was a wise move, because the line of people outside the former Kmart on Midlothian Turnpike had stretched to the end of the building by the time the ribbon was officially cut on the city’s new casino.


** VIRGINIA FIRM WADES INTO HAZY WORLD OF MARIJUANA RESEARCH ([link removed])
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By BEN PAVIOUR, WCVE

Rebecca Caffrey is the first to admit that her workspace at Eastern Virginia Medical School isn’t glamorous. She’s spent the last three years in a windowless room focused on clinical tests related to liver disease. ... Caffrey is the co-founder of Sanyal Biotechnologies, a Norfolk-based firm that is entering the complicated and evolving business of medical marijuana research.


** OREGON KOMBUCHA MAKER CANCELS PLANS FOR ROANOKE PLANT ([link removed])
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By MATT CHITTUM, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Humm Kombucha, the Oregon-based beverage maker that planned an East Coast factory in Roanoke, won’t be coming after all....The maker of fermented tea drinks had planned a $10 million, 100,000-square-foot plant on 12 acres in the Roanoke Centre for Industry and Technology that was to employ 46 people.


** TRANSPORTATION
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** MARYLAND WITHHOLDS $55.6 MILLION FROM METRO, CITING ‘STONEWALLING’ ON AUDITS ([link removed])
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By ROBERT MCCARTNEY, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Maryland is withholding $55.6 million from Metro because the transit system has been “stonewalling” on audits and refusing to account for money received earlier from Annapolis, state officials said Monday. The unexpected action signaled that the administration of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) plans to take a more aggressive posture toward Metro


** VDOT EXPANDS I-81 MOTORIST ASSISTANCE FORCE ([link removed])
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By JEFF STURGEON, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Virginia expanded its crew of roving troubleshooters on Interstate 81 on Monday. A safety service patrol unit is a contractor-operated truck whose driver can help stranded motorists with minor vehicle issues, remove debris and lend a hand with lane closures. The team has increased from 21 to 28 operators in the Roanoke-Blacksburg region as a result of a traffic-flow plan that’s new this year.


** HIGHER EDUCATION
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** BOLLING STEPS DOWN FROM JMU POSITION AS SEN. OBENSHAIN’S ETHICS BILL TAKES EFFECT ([link removed])
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By JEREMIAH KNUPP, Harrisonburg Citizen

In response to legislation passed by the General Assembly this spring, former Lt. Governor Bill Bolling has stepped away from his job as Senior Fellow at James Madison University. Bolling’s hiring for the position in August of last year, just after he completed a term on the school’s board of visitors, was met with criticism that it represented a conflict of interest. Though JMU maintained that the hire was ethical, the school announced on Monday that Bolling no longer worked there.


** VIRGINIA OTHER
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** MORE THAN 1,100 SERVED AT WISE RAM CLINIC ([link removed])
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By TIM DODSON, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

The Remote Area Medical clinic in Wise County over the weekend provided free services to more than 1,100 people, a decrease from the 1,350 patients who visited the clinic in 2018.


** A YEAR AFTER MEDICAID EXPANSION, HUNDREDS STILL FLOCK TO RURAL MEDICAL CLINIC IN SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA ([link removed])
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By MASON ADAMS, Virginia Mercury

Nina Black has been coming to Remote Area Medical’s clinic in Wise for at least 12 of the 20 years it’s been running. This year was different: Black was one of about 290,000 Virginians covered under the state’s new Medicaid expansion, making 2019 the first time she’s had insurance coverage in years....Attendance was down slightly too, with 1,128 people treated over the clinic’s three days, compared to 1,350 last year. RAM spokeswoman Angie John said the clinic delivered $643,166 worth of services this year.


** LOCAL
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** CITY HALL AGAIN HIT WITH OVERTIME LAWSUIT ([link removed])
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By JEREMY M. LAZARUS, Richmond Free Press

City Hall has spent more than $12 million since 2012 to settle lawsuits over its failure to pay required overtime to employees ranging from police officers to social workers, sheriff’s deputies and former mayoral bodyguards. But a new federal lawsuit claims that at least one city department, the Finance Department, has failed to learn from those expensive lessons.


** IN SYMBOLIC VOTE, RICHMOND COUNCIL APPROVES GUN BAN FOR CITY-OWNED BUILDINGS AND PARKS ([link removed])
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By MARK ROBINSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

In a symbolic vote, the Richmond City Council on Monday backed banning guns in city-owned buildings and public parks. The council approved an ordinance that Mayor Levar Stoney proposed a week earlier seeking to bar residents from bringing firearms into public spaces. The ordinance, which conflicts with current state law, won’t take effect unless the Virginia General Assembly allows localities to prohibit guns in municipal buildings at a special session set for July 9.


** EX-SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER'S ACTIONS "HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS" BUT NOT CRIMINAL, COMMONWEALTH'S ATTORNEY SAYS ([link removed])
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By MIKE CONNORS, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

The actions of a School Board member who recently lost his seat were "highly suspicious" but not a provable crime, the Commonwealth's Attorney has determined. Colin Stolle made that conclusion Friday after an investigation into the actions of Joel McDonald, who lost his seat in April. A judge ruled McDonald vacated the position when he moved out of the Rose Hall district. In a letter to State Sen. Bill DeSteph, who represents parts of Virginia Beach, Stolle said his office interviewed numerous people


** VIRGINIA BEACH EMPLOYEE ARRESTED AFTER SUPERVISORS ASKED HIM TO RETURN TO SITE OF MASS SHOOTING ([link removed])
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By ALISSA SKELTON, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

A month ago, Jonathan McIvor escaped a city building where an employee shot and killed 12 people. The computer operator felt lucky to be alive, but moving forward hasn’t been easy. He was arrested last week after he became hostile toward supervisors who wanted to know why he didn’t feel comfortable returning to the building where the shooting happened, according to court documents filed on Thursday.


** ‘HE WANTS THIS SO BAD’: A WIDOWER’S QUEST FOR ANSWERS IN VIRGINIA BEACH TAKES ITS TOLL ([link removed])
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By MICHAEL E. MILLER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Two days after his wife was killed, Jason Nixon heard the words that would launch him on a one-man mission for answers about the mass shooting in Virginia Beach. “To my knowledge, the perpetrator’s performance was satisfactory,” City Manager Dave Hansen said of the gunman, DeWayne Craddock, at a June 2 news conference. “He was in good standing within his department. . . . There were no issues of discipline ongoing.”


** AFTER 11-MONTH SAGA, INITIAL CRB APPROVES BYLAWS ([link removed])
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By KATHERINE KNOTT, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The initial Police Civilian Review Board unanimously signed off on its bylaws Monday morning, ending a nearly year-long process that sets the stage for the creation of a permanent review panel. ... City Council still needs to pass an ordinance, approve the bylaws and appoint members to the proposed seven-member board.


** EDITORIALS
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** GENERAL ASSEMBLY SHOULD MANDATE REVIEW OF 2007 VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTING REPORT ([link removed])
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Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

One week from today, the General Assembly convenes in Richmond for the special session that Gov. Ralph Northam has called in the wake of the mass shooting in Virginia Beach. Democrats will try to pass new laws about guns. Republicans will try to block them. This is as predictable as the sun rising


** TASK FORCE SENTRY ([link removed])
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Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

In the years before her election to Congress, U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., served as a Central Intelligence Agency operations officer from 2006 to 2014. During her time with the CIA, Spanberger lived abroad, managing assets and gathering information on nuclear proliferation and terrorism. Her background in national security and foreign interference is strong. So, we’re happy to learn that she is using that knowledge


** VIRGINIA'S NEW LAWS GO INTO EFFECT ([link removed])
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Daily Press Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Among all the new state laws, big and small, that went into effect Monday, a few stand out The ground rumbled and shook ever so slightly on Monday. The tremor wasn’t the result of an earthquake, although it did signal the various shifts in the ways Virginians live.


** NOT IN VAIN: STAFFORD TO SEEK ROADS BOND ([link removed])
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Free Lance-Star Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

When the Stafford County Board of Supervisors votes today to advance its proposed roads bond referendum, it will be a bittersweet moment indeed. The vote will take place less than seven weeks after Helen Wang lost her life as she attempted to turn onto Kellogg Mill Road from the Abel Lake boat ramp’s parking area.


** OP-ED
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** PAYNE: OPENING EDUCATION RESOURCES FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS ([link removed])
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By BRIAN K. PAYNE, Published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

This is the time of year that new laws go into effect in Virginia. It also is a time when we can reflect on those laws passed a year ago. One law in Virginia receiving little fanfare was HB 454, a law requiring higher education institutions’ governing boards “to develop guidelines for the adoption and use of low-cost and no-cost open educational resources ...

Brian K. Payne is vice provost for academic affairs and a professor of sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion University
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