VISUALIZATION: CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS OF GOP LEGISLATIVE CANDIDATES

Using the metrics of age, gender and race, we compare 36 non-incumbent Republican candidates running for the General Assembly this November with the 72 sitting GOP legislators.

FATAL SHOOTING OF 9-YEAR-OLD GIRL IN RICHMOND PARK INSPIRES GOV. NORTHAM'S CALL FOR ACTION ON GUNS

The vision of a 9-year-old girl, killed by gunfire in a South Richmond park, lit a spark in Gov. Ralph Northam on Sunday as he called for the General Assembly to act this week to toughen Virginia laws on the purchase and use of firearms. Speaking to a predominantly black audience at 31st Street Baptist Church in Church Hill, Northam paced behind the pulpit as he remembered treating wounded soldiers as a U.S. Army doctor in the Persian Gulf and holding children who died from gunshots after picking up a loaded weapon from a bedside table.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY IS RETURNING FOR A SPECIAL SESSION ON GUNS

Both sides of the gun debate are planning to rally their supporters at the state Capitol on Tuesday as Virginia lawmakers return for a special session prompted by the May 31 mass shooting in Virginia Beach. But for all the speeches and town hall meetings leading up to it, there are few signs the session will yield an election-year breakthrough on one of the General Assembly’s most divisive topics. Most of the gun-control measures sought by Gov. Ralph Northam and his Democratic allies were already voted down by Republican-controlled committees earlier this year.

SPECIAL SESSION ON GUNS EXPECTED TO BE CONTENTIOUS

Virginia lawmakers are set to assemble Tuesday for what will likely be a contentious legislative session on gun laws. Gov. Ralph Northam called the special session last month shortly after a Virginia Beach city employee opened fire on his coworkers at a municipal building on May 31.

LAWMAKERS TO RETURN TO RICHMOND FOR SPECIAL SESSION ON GUNS

Lawmakers are returning to Richmond on Tuesday for a special session called by Gov. Ralph Northam to take up gun-related measures in the wake of a shooting in Virginia Beach a month ago. Republicans, who command a slim majority in the House of Delegates and Senate, are aiming to fend off several gun control proposals backed by Northam, a Democrat, who is asking for action after a gunman opened fire at a municipal building, killing 12 people, on May 31.

REGION'S STATE LEGISLATORS QUESTION NORTHAM'S MOTIVE IN SPECIAL SESSION: GUN VIOLENCE OR POLITICS?

As Del. Charles Poindexter sees it, Gov. Ralph Northam’s calling a special session of the General Assembly to address gun violence “is nothing but a political move to get him out of the doghouse.” Similarly, Del. Danny Marshall said, “Are we going there to get something done, or are we going there for the governor to rebuild his brand?”

GOT A NEW IDEA ON GUNS, GET A TON OF ANGRY CALLS, YANCEY FINDS

Guns, to be sure, are one of those issues that stir the passions — strong enough that Del. David Yancey’s proposal to give police and prosecutors another tool to investigate gun thefts has prompted angry phone calls accusing the life-long Republican of being a Democrat. His idea was, evidently, a way of becoming famous, since some of the calls came from as far away as Florida and Iowa, says legislative aid Gretchen Heal, who gets to field them.

NRA SAYS ITS GOAL IS TO "PROTECT THE 2ND AMENDMENT" IN SPECIAL SESSION

The National Rifle Association shooting range is tucked away in a leafy suburban corner of Fairfax County just outside the Beltway. It’s an area represented by Senate Minority Leader Dick Saslaw and Democratic Delegate Mark Keam, not exactly friendly lawmakers to the NRA’s cause. One of the potential reforms they’ll consider in the upcoming special session is a ban on silencers. The NRA calls them suppressors.

A LOOK BACK AT VIRGINIA’S ONE-GUN-A-MONTH LAW AS DEMOCRATS WORK TO REVIVE IT

Virginia used to have a law limiting the number of handguns an individual could buy, to one a month. The law was repealed in 2012, and now the governor is trying to bring it back during this week's General Assembly special session to take up gun control measures. The one-gun-a-month law was passed in 1993 to curb the Commonwealth’s reputation as a place where criminals could stock up on guns and sell them out of state.

SALEM GUN STORE OWNER CONCERNED ABOUT PROPOSED STATE GUN LAW CHANGES

At least one local gun store owner is not too worried about next week's special legislative session in Richmond to discuss potential changes to Virginia’s gun laws. Greg Puckett owns West Salem Guns and Tactical in Salem. He doesn’t believe Democrats have enough votes to pass any of the changes Gov. Ralph Northam has suggested.

LOCAL BUSLOAD HEADING TO RICHMOND FOR SPECIAL SESSION ON GUNS

Local folks are heading by bus to Richmond on Tuesday to lobby state lawmakers on the first day of a special session on gun violence. The Charlottesville Coalition for Gun Violence Prevention is organizing the bus trip, along with other local organizations, to demand that legislators “enact sensible gun laws.”

VA. SENATOR CALLS RAPE VICTIMS ‘NAIVE’ AND CRITICS ‘TROLLS’

State Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Midlothian, posted a Fourth of July video on her Facebook page to respond to critics, who have called her out over comments made earlier this week about rape. During an online back-and-forth with a constituent on Facebook, Chase had written that people who are “naive and unprepared end up raped.”

NOVEMBER ELECTIONS SEES SURGE IN DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES

Virginia’s legislative elections this fall are drawing a record number of competitive races, according to a new analysis from the Virginia Public Access Project. In the 2015 elections, 62 out of 100 House of Delegates races were uncontested, with voters stuck with a single candidate in all of those races. This year, over two-thirds of House districts have at least two candidates, and 63 seats are in play among both major parties -- the most since VPAP began tracking the data in 1997.

‘BORING’ NO MORE? VIRGINIA HAS ALREADY BEGUN EMBRACING CASINO-STYLE GAMING

Music blared as more than a thousand people formed a long, giddy line along the front of a once-abandoned Kmart. Two racehorses paced the parking lot. A man in fox-hunting garb blew a bugle call. Cheers went up, dignitaries urged the crowd to “have some fun!” and the new Rosie’s Gaming Emporium threw open its doors. “Virginia is boring,” Annie Randolph, 64, a retired health-care worker shouted as she jockeyed to get inside. She had arrived more than two hours early — thrilled, she said, to finally have fun gambling without traveling to Maryland or Las Vegas. “Keeps me from doing housework!” she said with a laugh.

SLOTS-STYLE GAMING GAINING GROUND IN VIRGINIA

While the proposed Bristol Resort and Casino remains on hold pending action next year by the Virginia General Assembly, a series of Rosie’s Gaming Emporiums are opening across the state, offering a casino-like experience with blinking electronic games and off-track wagering on simulcast horse races.

THREE YEARS AFTER FATAL BOATING ACCIDENT, STATE GAME DEPARTMENT FACES QUESTIONS ABOUT CONDUCT

On the eve of Independence Day three years ago, a 17-year-old North Carolina woman died in a boating accident at Smith Mountain Lake, a tragedy that now has raised doubts about the conduct of Virginia conservation police in an investigation and criminal trial that resolved nothing but left a Martinsville family publicly scarred. A four-day trial of Drew Hall, who drove the boat that collided with a jet ski on the lake on July 3, 2016, ended with his conviction on a reduced misdemeanor charge that a Pittsylvania County judge threw out this year when it became clear that the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries had withheld evidence that was critical to his defense.

NEW LAW WON'T ALLOW COURT DEBTS TO STRIP DRIVING PRIVILEGES

When Mi’Asia Crosby got out of prison in 2012, she owed about $10,000 in court costs — mostly for fines and lawyer fees stemming from her criminal case. But because she has made no payments on that debt over the past seven years, she said, interest and collections fees have now pushed that balance to more than $15,000. “It just gets further and further out of your reach,” said Crosby, who works at a McDonald’s in Hampton. “I’m like, ‘Forget it, I’m not paying nothing.’”

SCHOOLS LOSE MONEY FOR SOCIAL WORKERS, CUSTODIANS

School systems across Virginia have lost billions of dollars in state money for social workers, custodians and psychologists after the state imposed a funding cap on school support staff amid the Great Recession. The cap hasn’t been lifted, even as the state rebounded in the years after the downturn, according to a report from the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, a Richmond think tank. As a result, the number of support staff across the state dropped by 2,800 workers in the past decade, while enrollment grew by 55,000 students.

COURT: ONLINE LENDER CAN CHARGE 600% INTEREST IN VIRGINIA BECAUSE OF TIES TO INDIAN TRIBE

The online lender Big Picture Loans can legally charge Virginians interest rates approaching 650%, a federal appeals court has ruled. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit held that the firm set up by a long-time operator in the payday loan business, Matt Martorello, was exempt from Virginia regulation of interest rates and fees because it operated under the laws of the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians.

MINERS ARE DISCOVERING CHECKS ARE NO GOOD, BANKS SAY

Local miners for a coal company seeking bankruptcy protection are discovering that their most recent paychecks have vanished from bank accounts. Revelation Energy and its subsidiary Blackjewel LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday in a West Virginia court. The company stated that it could not make payroll for July. One local banker said his bank had more than 30 payroll checks returned on July 3.

COULD AMAZON BE EYEING SUFFOLK FOR FULLFILLMENT CENTER?

For a company that’s persuaded people to pay for speakers that bug their own homes and allow delivery drivers to open their front doors or car trunks to drop off packages, Amazon really doesn't like information to flow the other way. For example, it is secretive about plans to build expansive fulfillment centers and, once they’re built, where they are.

CUCCINELLI TAKES REINS OF IMMIGRATION AGENCY WITH FOCUS ON MIGRANT VETTING

The new head of the U.S. legal immigration system is a devout defender of the Trump administration’s bid to remake U.S. immigration policy through the regulatory process, with a blunt message about the role of the agency he now leads. While the U.S. is a nation of immigrants, said Ken Cuccinelli, installed last month as acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, he sees it as his job to treat access as a privilege and not a right. “We are not a benefit agency, we are a vetting agency,” he said in an interview.

JAMES MONROE ENSLAVED HUNDREDS. THEIR DESCENDANTS STILL LIVE NEXT DOOR.

So many Monroes in rural Albemarle County remember the moment they asked a parent or grandparent if they were somehow connected to the nation’s fifth president, James Monroe. The telltale entrance sign to Monroe’s plantation estate, now a museum, had been a fixture of their childhoods, part of the landscape on the route back and forth between Charlottesville and the small, predominantly African-American community they called Monroetown.

ARE AMERICANS FALLING OUT OF LOVE WITH THEIR LANDMARKS?

Baby boom-era Americans piled into their station wagons and visited historic sites in such record numbers in 1962 that the National Geographic Society sought to capture the trend in a huge, colorful volume it called America’s Historylands. ...[M]any of the landmarks where that history was really rooted seem to have lost their allure. Colonial Williamsburg, for one, reportedly draws about half the number of visitors it attracted in the 1980s, the last decade of the Cold War.

ANNE PETERA PLANS TO RUN FOR MAYOR IN KILL DEVIL HILLS

Anne Petera, a former secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia who lost a tight race for Dare County Commissioner in 2018, will be a candidate for Kill Devil Hills mayor this fall. A Kill Devil Hills property owner since 1987 and a town resident since 2015, Petera released a statement indicating that she will officially file the formal paperwork for her mayoral candidacy on Monday, July 8.

WITH COREY STEWART LEAVING POLITICS, PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY’S POLITICAL FUTURE IS UP FOR GRABS

The Republican vying to chair the Prince William Board of County Supervisors has issued dire warnings that Democrats want to turn Virginia’s second-largest jurisdiction into a sanctuary for undocumented immigrant criminals. How voters respond in November will show how much the fast-growing county has changed in the 13 years since outgoing board chair Corey A. Stewart used resentment over illegal immigration to launch his political career.

WITH NEW CEO, RRHA READIES AGGRESSIVE PUSH FOR DEMOLITION AND REDEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC HOUSING

Richmond’s public housing agency has spent years grappling for solutions as conditions have deteriorated for residents of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. Now, a new CEO is promising swift action to achieve a goal city leaders have long discussed as federal support for public housing has dwindled and needs have mounted.

TIGHT STATE MONEY FORCES AN END TO ONE LOCAL PROGRAM FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Patty Ozella likes to think about the way one Hampton woman’s face would light up when Ozella helped her get one of those ordinary chores of daily life right for the first time — but that's help the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board can't offer any more. A financial squeeze at the board, caused by new state policies, means the kind of help for people with developmental disabilities that has been Ozella’s life’s work for decades now has to come from other agencies— who don’t know those people the way Ozella does.

NEW KENT COUNTY HIRES NEW SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT FROM NEWPORT NEWS

New Kent County has a new schools chief. Brian Nichols, an education veteran who rose from the ranks of elementary school teacher in Newport News to chief academic officer in the city, started his job as the school district’s superintendent last July 1. Nichols replaces David Myers, who had led the district since 2014.

CHARLOTTESVILLE’S COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP WITH THOMAS JEFFERSON

With one vote, Charlottesville’s relationship with Thomas Jefferson just turned more complicated. The Virginia city, enveloped in the legacy of the Founding Father, will no longer mark his birthday on April 13 as an official holiday. It will instead celebrate Freedom and Liberation Day on March 3, commemorating when thousands of slaves were emancipated in 1865 after Union forces arrived in the city near the end of the Civil War.

SPECULATION STILL SWIRLS AROUND FAIRFAX

THE 2016 CONVICTION of Norfolk Treasurer Anthony Burfoot on four counts of public corruption and two counts of perjury exposed a glaring flaw in Virginia law, a loophole that Burfoot was, for a time, content to occupy. Though a jury found him guilty of accepting tens of thousands in bribes while a member of the Norfolk City Council, his position as a duly elected constitutional officer meant there was no avenue to remove him for office — or even stop paying him — until he exhausted all appeals of his conviction.

5 QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SPECIAL SESSION

On Tuesday, the General Assembly returns to Richmond for the special session that Gov. Ralph Northam has called in the wake of the recent mass shooting in Virginia Beach. Northam’s goal is to use that slaughter to persuade the legislature to pass a series of laws dealing with guns. Will a Republican-controlled General Assembly actually do so? That’s the big question, but by no means the only one hanging over this summertime session. Here are some others.

VIRGINIA MUST NOT CONTINUE ITS INACTION ON GUNS

PROPELLED TO ACT in the aftermath of tragedy, Virginia’s governor, backed by lawmakers and the general public, resolved to limit access to guns, ban high-capacity magazines, close the loophole that allowed unchecked purchases at gun shows, bolster access to mental health care and stiffen penalties for those who break the rules. The year was 2007, the governor was Tim Kaine and the tragedy was the murders of 32 students and instructors on the Virginia Tech campus.

SPECIAL SESSION ON GUN CONTROL

In the wake of the horrific mass shooting at the Virginia Beach Municipal Building on May 31 by a longtime city employee, Gov. Ralph Northam has called a special session of the General Assembly on Tuesday to revisit the controversial issue of gun control.

U.S. TAKES STEP BACK WITH RULE ON COAL

UNDER PRESIDENT DONALD Trump’s version of leadership, the United States is trying to move backward on energy, into the polluted past when coal was king and nobody worried about carbon emissions. But when it comes to climate change, there is no turning back the clock. Tremendous damage has already been done, and if the nations of the world don’t work together to change our collective ways, disaster is imminent.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION IS A SHOT AT CREATING REAL GUN REFORM

The General Assembly can no longer sit idle as gun violence terrorizes Virginia The alarms should have been clear long ago. Their peal punctuated the air long before the May 31 mass shooting in Virginia Beach. The warnings were even audible before the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech.

IT'S TIME TO TALK ABOUT GUNS

When legislators assemble in Richmond on Tuesday for Gov. Ralph Northam’s special session to address gun violence, we wish we could place in front of each one of them a series of portraits of those 12 employees at the Virginia Beach municipal building who died May 31 in our most recent (as of this writing) example of mass murder.

OUR LEGISLATIVE ALL-STARS

On Tuesday, Major League Baseball pauses for its mid-season All-Star Game. In that same spirit, let’s recognize the political all-stars in Virginia who have had notable performances so far this year. Just as both the Yankees and Red Sox have players in Tuesday’s game, we also include politicians who have been on opposite sides on the same issue, but still played starring roles. Today’s line-up consists of state legislators. It’s a list dominated by Republicans, because our legislative delegation is mostly Republican. On Tuesday, we’ll field a squad of all-star non-legislators.

VARGAS: A HAPPY-HOUR VICTORY FOR VIRGINIA BRINGS A ‘BITTERSWEET’ ENDING FOR THE CHEF WHO STARTED THE FIGHT

“What alcoholic drink starts with an F?” That question nagged at me on a recent drive home. It was on the day Virginia finally made it legal for restaurants to use creative terms to describe happy hours, and the moment I learned that, my brain sent me a wordplay invitation. In my mind, suddenly I was a restaurateur, writing my happy-hour signs.

MORAN AND CAREY: T'S TIME TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT GUN VIOLENCE

Virginia is no stranger to gun violence. Although mass shootings like the one at Virginia Tech and the most recent tragedy in Virginia Beach make headlines, we lose more than 1,000 Virginians to gun violence each year. Children are shot in parks, community members are shot in their places of worship, and people often use firearms to take their own lives. On average, nearly three Virginians are killed by gun violence per day. We have studied this issue, and we know which gun violence prevention policies must be implemented to save lives. The solutions are in front of us, and now we must garner the political willpower to adopt them.

Moran is Virginia Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security and Carey is Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources.

MCCLELLAN AND TUCK: REGION MAKING PROGRESS TO BOLSTER RESLIENCE

A June 23 op-ed (“Cost poses biggest challenge to regional resilience” by Skip Stiles) cited the need for regional collaboration on sea level rise and resiliency in Hampton Roads. We agree. As the chair and vice chair of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission Coastal Resiliency Subcommittee, we are pleased to report that the region is working collaboratively to produce results to address this critical issue for our region.

Andria McClellan, a member of the Norfolk City Council, is chair of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission Subcommittee on Coastal Resilience. Donnie Tuck, the mayor of Hampton, is vice chair of that subcommittee.

BLACK AND LOTT: WHAT THE MEDIA MISS WHEN TALKING ABOUT GUNS

Kate Nixon worked as a compliance manager on the second floor of Operations Building 2 in the Virginia Beach Municipal Center. She was known for “always helping others.” She was a devoted churchgoer and president of the Pembroke Meadows Civic League. She was also one of the 12 people killed by another municipal employee, DeWayne Craddock. Her murder was a horrible tragedy, and that was the national media’s focus.

Richard H. Black represents Loudoun County in the Virginia Senate. John R. Lott Jr. is the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and the former chief economist at U.S. Sentencing Commission.

MARSDEN: DOING NOTHING ON GUNS IS NO LONGER AN OPTION

I support the right of law-abiding citizens to possess firearms for protection and for responsible recreational use. I also support well-regulated concealed weapons. That said, the underlying principle of Virginia law with regard to firearms is to keep them out of the hands of felons, those adjudicated as mentally ill, as well as children unsupervised by adults.

David W. Marsden, a Democrat, represents Fairfax in the Virginia Senate.

PLEASE, VIRGINIA REPUBLICANS, VOTE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY. WE’LL ALL BE WATCHING.

“He had the heart of a servant.You knew from the start he would lay down his life for anybody, and that’s exactly what he did.” That’s how Christi Dewar described employee Ryan Keith Cox, who lost his life in a recent mass shooting at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center. The last words courageous Cox spoke to colleague Dewar were “I’ve got to see if anybody needs help. Barricade the door.” Cox boldly acted to protect co-workers and was shot dead 10 feet away, outside the barricaded door.

Karen E. Peters has been working as a volunteer since the Sandy Hook school shooting to get common-sense gun legislation enacted.

NORTHAM: LAWMAKERS MUST PASS SPECIFIC GUN-CONTROL MEASURES

We have a gun violence emergency in this commonwealth and in this country. Our hearts break and we grow numb as these headlines become all too familiar. Twelve people shot and killed at their workplace in Virginia Beach. A nine-year-old girl shot and killed at a cookout in Richmond. A 16-year-old shot and killed outside his home in Roanoke. Thirty-two lost at Virginia Tech. It is a gruesome list, and we add more than a thousand Virginians to it each year — a thousand people lost senselessly to gun violence.

Ralph Northam is the 73rd governor of Virginia.

HAYMORE: USMCA IS ESSENTIAL FOR VIRGINIA'S FARMS AND ECONOMY

While growing up on a tobacco, corn, small grains and soybean farm outside of Danville in Pittsylvania County, my grandfather told me that agriculture had no political boundaries because everyone had to eat to survive. That upbringing and mindset served me well as I matriculated into private and public sector positions that put me at the center of global agricultural trade and the policies impacting it.

Todd Haymore is managing director of the Global Economic Development, Commerce and Government Relations practice at Hunton Andrews Kurth and served as secretary of commerce and trade under Gov. Terry McAuliffe.