VaNews Aug. 20, 2019
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** GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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** VIRGINIA CRIME COMMISSION BEGINS HEARING ON GUN VIOLENCE ([link removed])
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By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press

As the Virginia State Crime Commission began a hearing Monday on proposals to stem gun violence, Gov. Ralph Northam urged lawmakers to pass “commonsense” measures as he took a swipe at Republican leaders who called for further study.


** CRIME COMMISSION HEARS HOURS OF EXPERT TESTIMONY ON GUN VIOLENCE ([link removed])
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By GRAHAM MOOMAW, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Virginia policymakers on Monday heard more than six hours of expert testimony on gun violence, but it remains to be seen which data points could translate to legislative action in the months ahead.


** VIRGINIA CRIME COMMISSION DELVES INTO DATA, WHAT WORKS TO REDUCE GUN VIOLENCE ([link removed])
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By AMY FRIEDENBERGER, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

For more than a decade Lori Haas, whose daughter survived after being shot during the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech, has been advocating for universal background checks. “I’m committed to doing this work, because I’ve met too many survivors to turn my back,” Haas said Monday. “There are policies that we know can reduce violence.”


** VIRGINIA CRIME COMMISSION DIGS INTO DATA ON MASS SHOOTINGS ([link removed])
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By LAURA VOZZELLA, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

The State Crime Commission, thrust into the center of Virginia’s roiling gun-control debate, spent Monday poring over pie charts, bar graphs and a few eyebrow-raising cartoons. Law-enforcement officials, epidemiologists and academics spent seven hours presenting information on the growing threat of mass shootings, delving into sometimes obscure data points on a trend no one could miss.


** SEN. HOWELL IS ON THE MEND AFTER HEART SCARE ([link removed])
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By BRIAN TROMPETER, Inside NOVA

State Sen. Janet Howell (D-32nd) can thank an injured ankle for altering her to the fact she needed life-saving heart surgery. Howell shattered her ankle in late July while hiking on some rocks on an island in Upstate New York’s Adirondack Mountains. Howell credited her husband, Hunt, and son, Brian, with performing an “amazing rescue.”


** STATE ELECTIONS
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** SEARCHING FOR HINTS ABOUT 2020, ALL EYES TURN TO A RESHAPED VIRGINIA ([link removed])
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By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS, New York Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

On a sweltering afternoon, Kirk Cox, the powerful Republican speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, was chatting to voters and handing out free hot dogs at a campaign event when he was approached by a woman. The two made small talk before the woman, Vanessa Wilkerson, 62, cautioned the conservative lawmaker that she hardly fit the profile of his typical supporter. “I’m a Democrat,” she said.


** DEMOCRATS HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE ON ROUTE 28 TRAFFIC STUDY ([link removed])
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By EMILY SIDES, Inside NOVA

As cars drove by on Va. Route 28, the Virginia Department of Transportation and Del. Danica Roem, D-13th, announced Monday that the state agency has begun a study of five intersections on Route 28 in the Manassas Park and Yorkshire areas.


** STATE GOVERNMENT
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** REPORT: IN EFFORT TO ‘MODERNIZE’ AGENCY, DEQ IS HAMPERED BY LACK OF FUNDING, OUTDATED LAWS ([link removed])
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By SARAH VOGELSONG, Virginia Mercury

Even as the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s scope of work has broadened to include such critical concerns as climate change and environmental justice, the agency has seen its funding cut and its programs hamstrung by outdated state regulations, a report by the Office of the Secretary of Natural Resources says


** CHRISTIAN REAL ESTATE AGENT SUES VIRGINIA REGULATORY BOARD AFTER COMPLAINT OVER RELIGIOUS CONTENT ([link removed])
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By GRAHAM MOOMAW, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

A Richmond-area real estate agent is suing the Virginia Real Estate Board after being told she could not include Christian messages on her professional website and emails because of fair housing laws. In a lawsuit filed this week in Richmond Circuit Court, Hadassah Carter claims the anti-discrimination policy violated her rights to religious expression.


** BALLAD UNVEILS PLANNED CHANGES AT WISE HOSPITALS ([link removed])
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By DAVID MCGEE, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Ballad Health is seeking approval from the Virginia Department of Health to make major operational changes to its three hospitals in Wise County. The Johnson City-based health care provider intends to continue operating all the facilities, with some consolidation of services and repurposing, according to the plan.


** CONGRESS
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** WHAT REP. ABIGAIL SPANBERGER LEARNED AFTER CLASHING WITH PROGRESSIVES ([link removed])
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By JENNA PORTNOY, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

At the end of another long week in Congress, Rep. Abigail Spanberger poured herself a cup of coffee and waited in her D.C. apartment for her family to arrive from their home outside Richmond. She felt satisfied with a job well done. Then she looked at Twitter.


** ECONOMY/BUSINESS
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** DESPITE GROWING FLOOD RISKS, VIRGINIA COASTAL DEVELOPMENT CONTINUES ([link removed])
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By PATRICK LARSEN, WCVE

According to a new report from Climate Central and Zillow, over 800 new homes -- valued at about $420 million -- were built in flood risk areas on Virginia’s coast between 2010 and 2017. Specifically, they are at risk of decadal floods -- damaging and costly events that occur about once every ten years.


** AMAZON TURNS NORTHERN VIRGINIA INTO COUNTRY’S MOST COMPETITIVE HOME MARKET ([link removed])
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By PRASHANT GOPAL, Bloomberg News

Even before Amazon.com Inc. completes its northern Virginia office hub, the e-commerce giant has helped make the area the most competitive housing market in the U.S. It’s hardest for buyers to win a home in Alexandria and Arlington, cities near Washington’s Reagan National Airport and close to where Amazon is building its East Coast headquarters, according to a study by Redfin Corp. The brokerage’s analysis factored in bidding wars, waived contingencies, above-list-price offers and how fast properties went under contract.


** BLACKJEWEL AGREES TO HALT VIRGINIA COAL ([link removed])
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By TIM DODSON, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Bankrupt coal producer Blackjewel LLC, an affiliated marketing company and the U.S. Department of Labor have agreed to a number of stipulations that will halt the transport of coal at three sites in Virginia until the issue of idled employees receiving overdue pay is resolved, according to a filing in a federal bankruptcy court.


** HIGHER EDUCATION
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** IN-STATE STUDENT ENROLLMENT DROPPED AT SOME VA. COLLEGES, USA TODAY ANALYSIS SHOWS ([link removed])
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By RILYN EISCHENS, News Leader (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

In line with national trends, some Virginia colleges and universities enrolled fewer in-state students in 2017 than in 2012, according to a USA Today data analysis.


** VIRGINIA OTHER
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** PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN VA., CONSERVANCY TO PERMANENTLY PROTECT LAND IN RUSSELL COUNTY ([link removed])
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By JOE TENNIS, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced a partnership Monday between The Nature Conservancy, the Virginia Department of Forestry and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to permanently protect 22,856 acres of forest land in Russell County with an open space easement.


** LOCAL
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** EIGHT CANDIDATES FILE TO RUN IN SPECIAL ELECTION FOR 5TH DISTRICT RICHMOND CITY COUNCIL SEAT ([link removed])
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By MARK ROBINSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

A former Richmond councilman. An ex-Richmond School Board member. A one-time adviser to Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney. Each is among a crowded field of candidates vying for the 5th District seat on the Richmond City Council in a special election set for Nov. 5.


** HOW AFFORDABLE IS THE “AFFORDABLE HOUSING” IN THE COLISEUM DEVELOPMENT? ([link removed])
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By ROBERTO ROLDAN, WCVE

When Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced this month that he had reached a deal to redevelop the Coliseum and a large part of downtown, he said “an unprecedented level of commitment to affordable housing” would be a cornerstone of the project. “We want those who work in this neighborhood to be able to live in it as well,” Stoney said.


** NORFOLK SUES IN FEDERAL COURT, SEEKING RIGHT TO MOVE CONFEDERATE MONUMENT ([link removed])
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By RYAN MURPHY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

The city filed a federal lawsuit Monday, arguing a Virginia law that bars moving Confederate monuments is unconstitutional and should be struck down. In the filing, the city argues the state law protecting war memorials like the one in downtown Norfolk forces the city to perpetuate a message it no longer stands behind, infringing upon the First and 14th Amendment rights of the city and the City Council, which are both listed as plaintiffs.


** VIRGINIA BEACH PLANS TO GUT AND RENOVATE THE BUILDING WHERE MASS SHOOTING OCCURRED ([link removed])
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By ALISSA SKELTON, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Despite calls to tear down the government building where a mass shooting took place in May, the city is laying the groundwork to begin remodeling it. Between February and April, the city plans to gut the interior walls on the first, second and third floors of Building 2, the site where a city engineer shot and killed 12 people and injured four others at the city's Municipal Center on May 31.


** COURTHOUSE SEARCHES INCREASING; ATTORNEYS NOW SCREENED ([link removed])
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By EVAN GOODENOW, Winchester Star (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

In an effort to increase security, searches of civil and defense attorneys began Monday at the Joint Judicial Center in Winchester. Winchester City Sheriff Les Taylor said up to 2,000 people use the courthouse at 5 N. Kent St. each day and some bring in weapons such as pocket knives or items that could be used as weapons


** WHEATON ONLY CANDIDATE FILED TO RUN FOR AMHERST COUNCIL SEAT; RACE OPEN TO WRITE-INS ([link removed])
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By JUSTIN FAULCONER, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Janice Wheaton, an Amherst woman who in July was removed from her elected position on the Amherst Town Council without an explanation, is the only name that will appear on the ballot for the at-large seat up for grabs in the Nov. 5 special election.


** EDITORIALS
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** DON’T OVERLOOK THE OBVIOUS ([link removed])
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Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The gravity of the broadband access issue in Virginia can be captured in one tweet. On Saturday, U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, hosted a forum at Louisa County High School in Mineral. “Our #VA07 Rural Broadband Summit is beginning shortly!” she tweeted. “Our panelists @akmeacham, @Ali_Christopher, and Richard Jenkins from @USDA are up first. Follow today’s conversation in the thread below.” Therein lies the problem. For nearly half of the residents in Louisa County, a high-speed connection to follow the conversation online is out of reach.


** HOW UNUSUAL IS ROANOKE COUNTY'S ALL-MALE SCHOOL BOARD? ([link removed])
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Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

When Roanoke County students went back to school recently, the school system tweeted out a picture of all five school board members holding a “welcome back” sign. That prompted one Roanoke County parent to post on her Facebook page: “I was thinking this morning about how few men I’ve seen since we’ve been introduced to the public school system. It’s an all female administration at Cave Spring. So I had to laugh when I saw this picture.” She added the hashtag: “#whitedudesincharge.”


** PORTSMOUTH WELCOMES COMMENT ONCE AGAIN ([link removed])
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Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Portsmouth should be pleased that the City Council recently voted unanimously to resume the broadcast of speakers during the public comment period of most meetings, reversing a change in policy that a divided council adopted in April. But the decision to do the right thing now does not erase the council's ill-advised action five months prior,


** OP-ED
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** PHIPPS: A QUIET SUCCESS STORY ([link removed])
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By DERON PHIPPS, Published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Kids make mistakes. They always have and probably always will. But when given the chance, kids also can learn from those mistakes, gain maturity and become responsible members of our society. What happens, though, if they don’t get that chance? If they are instead treated like lost causes?

Deron Phipps is a former Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice official.
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