VaNews
April 13, 2020

Today's Sponsor:


** Advanced Energy Economy
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13,000. That’s how many new clean energy jobs Virginia will create each year. Thanks to Virginia’s leaders for putting Virginia on the road to recovery.

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Top of the News


** Northam recommends delay to increasing minimum wage, gives final approval to other labor bills ([link removed])
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By AMY FRIEDENBERGER, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)

Gov. Ralph Northam is recommending that the increase to the minimum wage and a few other labor measures be delayed to May 2021. Northam is also suggesting a delayed enactment for legislation allowing localities to engage in collective bargaining with employees, establishing a prevailing wage for government contractors, and allowing local and state agencies to require bidders on public works developments to enter into project labor agreements .
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** Northam freezes new spending in the state budget amid coronavirus pandemic ([link removed])
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By LAURA VOZZELLA, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D), caught between an economy cratering from covid-19 and the ambitions of newly empowered Democrats, froze all new spending in the state budget and delayed an increase to the state's minimum wage, part of a flurry of amendments his senior staff announced Sunday.
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** Northam signs sweeping measures on environment, voting, criminal justice ([link removed])
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By ANDREW CAIN, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)

Gov. Ralph Northam announced Sunday that he has signed far-reaching legislation to spur renewable energy, ease access to voting and to enact criminal justice reforms. Northam's actions on the Virginia Clean Economy Act, the voting bills and criminal justice measures underscore the political transformation in Virginia since Democrats won control of the General Assembly in the 2019 legislative elections.
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** Northam wants casino revenue to go toward school construction, suggests extending life of skill games ([link removed])
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By AMY FRIEDENBERGER, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)

Gov. Ralph Northam wants to use revenue from casino gaming to help localities struggling to fix or replace deteriorating public schools. The legislature adjourned in March with little progress on how to address the problem of economically depressed communities lacking money for school construction. Through an amendment to legislation, Northam, who bemoaned “crumbling schools” in his inaugural address, is putting forward his first significant proposal to improve K-12 school buildings.
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** Minimum wage, gambling and weed: 6 big-ticket bills Northam wants to amend ([link removed])
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By NED OLIVER, Virginia Mercury

Gov. Ralph Northam’s deadline to act on legislation adopted by the General Assembly came and went over the weekend. The full list of bills he’s signed, amended and vetoed hadn’t yet been posted publicly, but his administration announced action on dozens of pieces of high-profile legislation over the weekend, including an overhaul of voting laws, repeal of abortion restrictions and the state’s first ban on discrimination against LGBTQ people.
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** Complaints about lack of virus protection in work sites filed with state, local agencies ([link removed])
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By LAURENCE HAMMACK, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)

Workplace safety regulators in Virginia have received more than 150 complaints of insufficient precautions against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The cases logged with the Department of Labor and Industry include concerns about workers not maintaining the social distancing encouraged by the state, according to Jennifer Rose, director of the agency’s Virginia Occupational Safety and Health program.
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** In Virginia, Elder Care Facility Relies On A Call Tree For Information About COVID-19 ([link removed])
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WAMU

The director of a Fairfax County retirement community disputed the state’s claim that it shares accurate, timely information about coronavirus infections among long-term care facilities. This comes as the outbreak claimed 40 lives in a single facility in Richmond, according to WRIC. “We have a network of other executive administrators in Fairfax County, where we’ve kind of set up an informal call tree where we let each other know if we’d had a confirmed case of COVID among an employee or resident,” said Andrew Carle, executive director of The Virginian of Fairfax. “But at this point in time, we are pretty much doing that anecdotally.”
The Full Report
32 articles, 15 publications

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** FROM VPAP
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** From VPAP Maps, Timeline of COVID-19 in Virginia ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

Data from the Virginia Department of Health shows a timeline of confirmed cases of COVID-19 and a statewide map showing the number of cases by locality. VPAP has added a map of deaths by health district and hospital utilization data from the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association. Updated each morning shortly after 9:00 a.m.
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** From VPAP Gifts, paid conferences received by legislators in 2019 ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

Each February, Virginia legislators are required to disclose any free meal or trip they accepted in the previous year. In 2019, about half the 140 lawmakers reported at least one free gift or conference valued at $50 or more. The Virginia Ethics Council recently released the data. VPAP has the full list, with links to the details.


** EXECUTIVE BRANCH
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** Northam wants to put a hold on $2 billion in new state spending and delay minimum wage hike ([link removed])
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By MARIE ALBIGES, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Gov. Ralph Northam wants lawmakers to put $2 billion in new spending on pause while the economic impact from the coronavirus pandemic plays out in Virginia, his top fiscal adviser said Sunday. Among the other changes the General Assembly will consider when it returns to Richmond next week: delaying an increase in the state’s minimum wage.
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** Virginia gov seeks to delay minimum wage hike due to virus ([link removed])
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By SARAH RANKIN, Associated Press

Citing economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam proposed an amendment to a bill increasing the state’s minimum wage that would delay its implementation several months, his office announced Sunday. The governor’s office also said he had signed bills that make sweeping changes to voting in Virginia by repealing the state’s voter ID law, making Election Day a state holiday and expanding access to early voting.
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** Northam signs laws expanding election access ([link removed])
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By RICHARD FOSTER, Va Business Magazine

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed laws this weekend repealing Virginia’s voter ID law, making Election Day a state holiday and expanding access to early voting. After July 1, voters will not be required to show a photo ID in order to vote. The new laws also repeal the controversial Lee-Jackson Day state holiday...
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** Northam seeks to delay skill games ban, tax profits for COVID-19 fund; put off minimum wage hike ([link removed])
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By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)

Gov. Ralph Northam will propose to delay a ban on electronic skill games for a year, tax their profits and use the money for a COVID-19 response fund to help small businesses, protect people's housing and support nursing homes and other health care providers.
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** Northam amends casino legislation ([link removed])
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By DAVID MCGEE, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 15 articles a month)

Gov. Ralph Northam on Saturday proposed a policy amendment to legislation that would allow casinos by referendum in Virginia, sending the matter back to the General Assembly. The governor had until midnight Saturday to act on Senate Bill 36 and House Bill 4, to allow five economically challenged cities — Bristol, Danville, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Richmond — to hold a public referendum for city residents to decide if they wanted one privately owned casino to operate there.
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** Governor signs clean energy legislation ([link removed])
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By RICHARD FOSTER, Va Business Magazine

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Sunday that he has signed the Virginia Clean Economy Act into law, requiring state electricity providers to become 100% carbon free by 2050. The legislation sets a 2045 carbon-free deadline for Virginia power operations for Dominion Energy Inc. and a 2050 deadline for Appalachian Power. It also requires virtually all coal-fired electrical plants to close in Virginia by 2024.
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** Northam signs bill to allow removal of Confederate monuments ([link removed])
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By STAFF AND TIMES-DISPATCH REPORTS, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

Gov. Ralph Northam signed bills Saturday afternoon that give localities in Virginia the ability to remove or alter Confederate monuments. The signature comes more than three years after the Charlottesville City Council vote to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee, and later Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. That vote spurred a deadly white supremacist rally that tried to unite various far-right factions on Aug. 12, 2017, as well as a lawsuit to protect the monuments, which the city lost.
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** Price gouging complaints flood in from across Virginia ([link removed])
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By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 1 article a month)

As Virginians scramble in search of items to get them through the new coronavirus crisis, complaints about price gouging of essential goods are flooding into Attorney General Mark Herring's office. The office has received more than 400 complaints from across the state already.


** ECONOMY/BUSINESS
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** Shipyard’s virus case review brings tighter procedures ([link removed])
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By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 1 article a month)

Shipyard officials’ review of the yard’s 21 confirmed COVID-19 cases has produced a rare, detailed look at how the coronavirus spreads, as well as new steps the yard wants shipbuilders to take to protect themselves and the community at large. The key point, Newport News Shipbuilding President Jennifer Boykin said in a message to employees: “More social distancing keeps us all safer.” She said nearly half of the 120 quarantines were the result of contact with only two cases.
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** Fresh Market customers urge to wear face masks while grocery shopping ([link removed])
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Williamsburg-Yorktown Daily (Metered paywall - 3 articles per month)

The Fresh Market will require customers to wear some kind of face covering when shopping in its stores starting Tuesday. The chain grocer said Sunday the decision was made “as a safety precaution and in accordance with guidance from health authorities.”
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** Paycheck Protection dollars reach Roanoke ([link removed])
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By JEFF STURGEON, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)

Some of the billions in aid offered to virus-challenged small businesses is sitting in the accounts of Tech Squared, a Roanoke IT firm. Co-owner Sean Peters needed about four hours to apply, and the loan for his nine-employee company arrived in four business days.
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** Chesapeake front yard sign business thriving during coronavirus ([link removed])
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By GORDON RAGO, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Under the cloak of darkness Sunday night, the signs were delivered to Chesapeake Regional Medical Center. Signs with emoji faces — some smiling, others covered in surgical masks — were skewered into the lawn facing the main drag. Other signs in the shape of red hearts were posted nearby along with clip art images of doctors and nurses. Behind the images, in big yellow letters, read the phrase: Heroes work here.


** TRANSPORTATION
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** Greenway Argues ‘Inappropriate’ to Delay Toll Increase Arguments During COVID-19 ([link removed])
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By RENSS GREENE, Loudoun Now

The Dulles Greenway’s attorneys have argued the State Corporation Commission should not pause its deliberations on an application to raise rates for the next five years amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Loudoun County government had asked the SCC to pause proceedings while the county’s senior staff respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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** Travel in Hampton Roads has dropped dramatically ([link removed])
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By PETER COUTU, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

After weeks of record unemployment and mounting death tolls in Virginia — 121 as of Friday — there are signs of good news in the state’s fight against the coronavirus. Traffic counts from the Virginia Department of Transportation and analysis of smartphone data show Virginians are taking their social distancing obligations seriously, emptying Hampton Roads interstates at rush hour and eradicating the region’s irritating stop-and-go traffic.
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** Congressional delegation asks feds to protect Newport News airport from the loss of commercial air service ([link removed])
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By PETER DUJARDIN, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

The Peninsula’s Congressional delegation is calling on the U.S. Transportation Department to protect Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport from what could be a devastating loss of commercial air service. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, as well as U.S. Reps. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, Elaine Luria and Rob Wittman, asked the agency Thursday to “reconsider” its interpretation of a recent stimulus bill that local officials fear could cause the Newport News airport’s to lose its last two airlines.


** CORONAVIRUS
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** Amid change in reporting procedures, statewide coronavirus cases increase by fewer than 200 ([link removed])
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By PETER COUTU, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Virginia’s confirmed coronavirus cases increased by about 200 overnight — the smallest jump in nearly two weeks, new data from the state health department shows. But the count could be underestimated due to a change in the health department’s reporting structure, officials wrote in a daily update.
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** 44 more covid deaths are reported in the D.C. area amid new data showing the effect on black communities ([link removed])
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By REBECCA TAN, OVETTA WIGGINS, MARISSA J. LANG AND RACHEL WEINER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

The Washington region reported 44 additional deaths Sunday caused by covid-19 as the number of known infections grew to 15,397. Maryland reported 30 more deaths, mostly in the Baltimore and D.C. metropolitan regions.
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** UVa Health System to further restrict visitors, start temperature checks ([link removed])
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By STAFF REPORT, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

Outpatient clinics, the emergency medical department and outpatient areas of the University of Virginia Medical Center and UVa Health System will close to visitors beginning Monday, officials announced Friday. The April 13 closings are designed to protect patients and healthcare workers during the pandemic, officials said. Exceptions are the rule to any order, however, and some visitors will be allowed for specific reasons.
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** Nurse practitioners say supervision requirements are a hindrance amid COVID-19 pandemic ([link removed])
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By KATE MASTERS, Virginia Mercury

As Virginia continues to grapple with a growing number of COVID-19 cases, nurse practitioners are calling for a waiver of regulations that still require many to practice under a doctor’s supervision. Virginia relaxed some restrictions on nurse practitioners in 2018 with a new law allowing them to apply for an autonomous practice license after five years of full-time clinical experience. Previously, all nurse practitioners were required to practice under a collaborative agreement with a physician, requiring periodic chart review and “appropriate input” in emergencies and complex clinical cases, according to the Medical Society of Virginia.
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** Ballad closing clinics; adds to phone, online access ([link removed])
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By DAVID MCGEE, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 15 articles a month)

Ballad Health will temporarily close six Tri-Cities urgent care clinics April 13, including two in Bristol, in response to low demand, but 11 clinics will remain open. The regional health care system also announced Friday it is adding resources to bolster its Nurse Connect program in response to call demand, significantly expanding telehealth services and has identified about 100 more beds to treat COVID-19 cases, bringing its total to more than 300.
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** Ballad freezes 1,300 jobs ([link removed])
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Coalfield Progress

Ballad Health announced Wednesday morning that it will place an estimated 1,300 employees on temporary furlough. Also planned are salary cuts for senior executive leaders. These and other changes aim to address three goals, the health system said in a press release:
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** VCU Develops Process to Re-Use Protective Equipment ([link removed])
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By SARA MCCLOSKEY, WCVE

VCU Health has developed a process and equipment to decontaminate and clean N95 masks, so healthcare workers can safely reuse them. The process starts by placing the masks on iron racks and sterilizing them with high-intensity ultraviolet light, which is also used for patient and operating rooms. Teams at VCU Health are working in two shifts and will be able to process up to 12,000 masks a day.
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** Bishop Gerald O. Glenn, an 'extraordinary spiritual and community leader,' dies from illness related to COVID-19 ([link removed])
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By SAMUEL NORTHROP, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)

Bishop Gerald O. Glenn, pastor of New Deliverance Evangelistic Church and a leader in the Richmond-area faith community, died Saturday from illness related to COVID-19. Bishop Glenn founded his Chesterfield County church in 1995 and served as the first black police chaplain in the Chesterfield Police Department after serving as a police officer in Portsmouth.


** LOCAL
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** Trash piles up at public dumps as stuck-at-home residents begin spring cleaning ([link removed])
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By C. SUAREZ ROJAS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)

A life-sized, white-armored Star Wars stormtrooper mounted on the grill of a yellow bulldozer stood guard as people chucked their old wicker furniture, flower pots and brush into roll-off dumpsters. Pick-up trucks, some towing trailers full of black trash bags and banged up trash bins, pulled in without having to pay the $3 entry fee.
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** Chesapeake sheriff’s plan for coronavirus isolation jail unit wins state approval ([link removed])
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By MARGARET MATRAY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

The Chesapeake sheriff will be allowed to convert a vacant building behind the city jail into an isolated housing unit for inmates — from his city and possibly from around Hampton Roads — who test positive for the coronavirus. There are no confirmed cases so far among Chesapeake inmates.
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** Hampton official: Converting the HR convention center into alternative care facility benefits patients and city ([link removed])
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By LISA VERNON SPARKS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 1 article a month)

As Hampton finalizes lease details ahead of converting the Hampton Roads Convention Center into an alternative care facility in response to the conoranavirus pandemic, the city manager said the facility will benefit both patients and the city. Speaking during a Hampton City Council meeting held electronically Wednesday, Mary Bunting shared an update on the project.

Today's Sponsor:


** Advanced Energy Economy
------------------------------------------------------------

13,000. That’s how many new clean energy jobs Virginia will create each year. Thanks to Virginia’s leaders for putting Virginia on the road to recovery.


** EDITORIALS
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** Time to consider year-round schools ([link removed])
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Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Now, with everything in the public schools topsy-turvy anyway, is a good time to think creatively about better ways to educate children. Teachers, schools, students and families have had to scramble to adjust to the abrupt closing of schools in mid-March for the rest of the 2019-2020 academic year. Without question, closing the schools was right. Any lingering doubts should be silenced as we watch the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 — and the death toll — climb.
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** Liberty University’s shameful crackdown on journalists ([link removed])
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Washington Post Editorial (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Authoritarians long ago discovered one way to help maintain control and power is to go after journalists who uncover uncomfortable truths and keep the public informed. It is why strongmen in countries such as China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have arrested and jailed a record number of reporters. But it is more than a little jarring to see this tactic of criminalizing journalism being employed in the United States — and by a university whose name celebrates American freedom.
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** Virginia must be cautious on budgeting ([link removed])
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Daily Progress Editorial (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

Virginians have been asked to “shelter in place” to protect themselves and others as long as the coronavirus is a threat. That’s exactly what the state budget needs to do as well. Gov. Ralph Northam last week announced a suspension on new spending as a way to deal with budgets that now lack reliable revenue projections.


** OP-ED
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** Kelly: COVID-19 does affect kids ([link removed])
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By JANET KELLY, published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)

“Can you help?” the social worker asked. “We have a kid with nowhere to go. I’m worried she might run away. She knows we don’t have any good foster family options for her.” Conversations like this between child welfare officials and their nonprofit partners are happening all across Virginia more often because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The health and economic implications of the COVID-19 crisis are rightfully at center stage right now, but just behind the curtain is another concern: vulnerable children and teens.
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