Today's Sponsor: Virginia Health Catalyst

VaNews Aug. 21, 2019
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Today's Sponsor:


** Virginia Health Catalyst
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Celebrating Virginia Health Catalyst ([link removed]) , formerly the Virginia Oral Health Coalition, as they begin their 10th year working at the intersection of oral and overall health.

Read Online ([link removed]) 10 Most Clicked ([link removed])


** EXECUTIVE BRANCH
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** NORTHAM TOUTS VIRGINIA ECONOMY BUT SAYS DOWNTURN COULD BE LOOMING ([link removed])
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By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER AND LAURA VOZZELLA, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Gov. Ralph Northam painted a sunny picture of state finances to legislative committees Tuesday, but he warned of a coming economic slowdown because of the trade war with China and other uncertainties in Washington.


** RESERVE FUNDS TO TOP $1.6 BILLION AS VIRGINIA STARTS BUDGET WORK, RETURNS WINDFALL TO TAXPAYERS ([link removed])
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By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Gov. Ralph Northam and Virginia lawmakers soon will begin work on a new two-year state budget with $1.6 billion banked in reserve, a revenue surplus swollen by federal tax law changes, and more than $431 million earmarked for return to state taxpayers.


** VIRGINIA’S BUDGET LOOKS GOOD FOR NOW, BUT NORTHAM SAYS US TRADE WAR COULD CHANGE THAT ([link removed])
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By MARIE ALBIGES, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Gov. Ralph Northam and Virginia’s top financial adviser warned some two dozen state lawmakers Tuesday that while Virginia’s revenue was up, the federal government’s rocky relationship with China could lead to a slowdown of the economy next year. Northam urged lawmakers to take a “cautious and strategic” approach to next year’s budget,


** ‘FARMER’ NORTHAM SAYS TRUMP’S TRADE WAR HAS CUT PROFITS FOR GROWERS ([link removed])
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By MECHELLE HANKERSON, Virginia Mercury

President Donald Trump’s trade war with China threatens profits for Virginia’s soybean farmers, a group that includes Gov. Ralph Northam, he said during a financial update to lawmakers. Northam, speaking at a presentation to the Joint Money Committee, owns and leases about 50 acres of farm land on the Eastern Shore.


** GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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** CRIME COMMISSION WRAPS TWO DAYS OF GUN HEARINGS AS ADVOCATES MAKE THEIR CASE ([link removed])
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By MEL LEONOR, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

A second day of hearings on gun violence in Virginia saw advocates from familiar groups on either side of the gun control issue lay their arguments before lawmakers in Richmond and walk away with few signs of movement on proposals now before the legislature.


** GUN RIGHTS AND GUN CONTROL ADVOCATES DESCEND ON RICHMOND AGAIN AS LAWMAKERS PITCH BILLS ([link removed])
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By MARIE ALBIGES, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The Virginia State Crime Commission heard familiar refrains during its eight-hour meeting Tuesday, the second of two daylong gatherings to discuss gun policies. In the few minutes they had to address the 13-member commission, gun rights advocates urged lawmakers to stop infringing upon law-abiding gun owners’ rights just because criminals violate the laws.


** 12 YEARS AND MANY MASS SHOOTINGS LATER, VIRGINIA TECH FAMILIES ONCE AGAIN PLEA FOR GUN CONTROL ([link removed])
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By AMY FRIEDENBERGER, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Twelve years ago, Andrew Goddard, whose son Colin survived four bullet wounds at the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings, sat in a room at the Capitol in Richmond and watched state lawmakers reject a measure that would have expanded background checks for firearm sales.


** STATE ELECTIONS
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** FREITAS WRITE-IN CAMPAIGN FOCUSED ON WINNING, SUPPORTING OTHER GOP CANDIDATES ([link removed])
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By ALLISON BROPHY CHAMPION, Culpeper Star Exponent (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Del. Nick Freitas, R-Culpeper, intends to handily win a write-in campaign for reelection. Along the way, he expects to help other Republicans in the House of Delegates retain or win their seats. “The voters know exactly what’s at stake if we lose: Democrats take control of the government in Virginia,” said Freitas’ campaign manager Joe Desilets, a Republican consultant who worked on the Donald Trump presidential campaign, in a phone call Monday.


** STATE GOVERNMENT
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** VIRGINIA LOTTERY RAISES CONCERN OVER 'AGGRESSIVE' GROWTH OF UNREGULATED GAMING MACHINES ([link removed])
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By GRAHAM MOOMAW AND MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The Virginia Lottery has raised concerns that unregulated “skill” games that have appeared in bars and convenience stores across the state may be contributing to a slowdown in lottery ticket sales. In an Aug. 15 financial report sent to Gov. Ralph Northam, the lottery called attention to the potential revenue threat from what it called “untaxed, unlicensed and unregulated machines,” many of them in stores that also offer lottery tickets.


** ECONOMY/BUSINESS
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** CHINESE DRYWALL MAKER AGREES TO PROPOSED $248 MILLION SETTLEMENT, 10 YEARS LATER ([link removed])
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By KIMBERLY PIERCEALL, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Thousands of people who lived in homes in the mid-2000s made with toxic Chinese drywall, including many in Hampton Roads, may finally get some closure. Taishan Gypsum Co., the Chinese-maker of the drywall that sickened those living inside its walls, has agreed to settle the lengthy legal case for $248 million.


** FORMER CEO OF VIRGINIA BEACH DEFENSE CONTRACTOR TO PAY $20 MILLION TO SETTLE FRAUD ALLEGATIONS ([link removed])
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By SCOTT DAUGHERTY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

The former CEO of a Virginia Beach defense contractor will pay $20 million to settle allegations he worked with others to fraudulently obtain federal contracts that had been set-aside for small businesses, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. The settlement reached by Luke Hillier is on top of a $16 million deal ADS Inc. and its subsidiaries reached two years ago with the federal government. Neither settlement came with any admission of liability.


** TRANSPORTATION
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** SIX VIRGINIA METRO STATIONS WILL REOPEN NEXT MONTH — A RELIEF FOR NEARBY BUS RIDERS ([link removed])
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By KERY MURAKAMI, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

At a stop on the 11Y Metrobus route during last Thursday afternoon’s commute, riders were laying odds as if they were Vegas bookmakers. “Fifty-fifty,” said a woman at 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW in downtown D.C., weighing the chance the next 11Y bus would have room to take her home to Alexandria.


** HIGHER EDUCATION
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** UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND TO OPEN CRYSTAL CITY CENTE ([link removed])
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By DANIEL J. SERNOVITZ, Washington Business Journal (Subscription required for some articles)

The University of Maryland has reached a deal to plant its flag in Crystal City, opening the door to potential collaborations with Amazon.com Inc. as it establishes its second headquarters in the area.


** VIRGINIA OTHER
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** NATIONAL NAACP OUSTS PRESIDENT OF ITS VIRGINIA ORGANIZATION ([link removed])
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By MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The national NAACP has removed the president of the Virginia State Conference NAACP, which has lacked a permanent executive director for more than five years. Robert Barnette of Hanover County was named president, replacing the Rev. Kevin Chandler of South Boston, during a meeting Saturday


** LOCAL
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** COUNCIL, RESIDENTS DISCUSS MAYOR'S CONDUCT ([link removed])
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By JOSETTE KEELOR, Northern Virginia Daily

At a Town Council work session Monday evening, council members, community members and the mayor spoke about an incident during Mayfest in which the mayor is accused of driving a John Deere Gator utility vehicle into the town library while under the influence of alcohol. The nature of the accusations against Mayor Richard A “Rich” Orndorff Jr., the charges against him, and the fact that the crash happened during Mayfest “makes the mayor’s conduct pretty indefensible,” said Councilwoman Emily Reynolds.

Today's Sponsor:


** Virginia Health Catalyst
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Celebrating Virginia Health Catalyst ([link removed]) , formerly the Virginia Oral Health Coalition, as they begin their 10th year working at the intersection of oral and overall health.


** EDITORIALS
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** GOP SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN GUN REFORM ([link removed])
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Daily Progress Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

"We needed to make it go away.” Make gun violence “go away”? Make mass shootings “go away”? Make the pain and grief of mourning lost loved ones “go away”? No, Del. Chris Head wasn’t talking about any of those important issues. The Botetourt Republican, quoted in The Roanoke Times, was referring to his party’s plan for gun control. Republicans just wanted to make the issue “go away” until after the fall election.


** REGIONAL JAIL'S NEGILGENCE ([link removed])
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Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

In 1937, the Virginia Legislative Jail Commission described Virginia’s jail system as “the most peculiar one in the nation.” We agree. Virginia primarily operates two types of jails — local and regional. While local jails serve the area in which they are based and are managed by locally elected sheriffs, regional jails serve multiple localities. They’re governed by local boards and overseen by a superintendent. The state has little authority over their operations


** TIME TO CONSIDER MANDATORY RETENTION ([link removed])
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Free Lance-Star Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

As the new school year begins, and Virginia educators ponder how to raise disappointing Standards of Learning reading scores from the last academic year—which either declined or remained the same in every local school division in the commonwealth—they might want to at least consider an intervention that has gained ground in 19 other states: mandatory retention for certain elementary students who cannot read at a proficient level by third grade.


** BETTING ON THE FUTURE OF HORSE RACING ([link removed])
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Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

According to the Virginia Racing Commission’s 2018 annual report, “Horse racing offering pari-mutuel wagering is permitted in the Commonwealth with the intention of ‘promotion, sustenance, and growth of the native industry, in a manner consistent with the health, safety, and welfare of the people.’” We hope that the new owners of Colonial Downs keep that in mind as they conduct their first race meet and look to the future.


** SLAVERY WAS BORN IN VIRGINIA 400 YEARS AGO ([link removed])
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Daily Press Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

In August of 1619, the White Lion sailed past the Eastern Shore and into Hampton Harbor. Aboard the privateering vessel were nearly 20 Africans stolen from a slave ship originally bound for Mexico. Instead, that cargo of human life would land at Point Comfort and eventually make its way up the river to Jamestown.


** COLUMNISTS
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** POLITIFACT VIRGINIA: MIYARES GUN-SUICIDE CLAIM RATES "MOSTLY TRUE" ([link removed])
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By WARREN FISKE, WCVE

Del. Jason Miyares, R-Virginia Beach, has offered a compromise red-flag bill that would take firearms away from people deemed dangerous to themselves or others. While the gun-control debate has largely focused on stopping mass shootings, Miyares says the biggest value of his bill could be that it would stop some people from shooting themselves.


** OP-ED
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** CRAMER: LET'S FIX VIRGINIA'S BROADBAND MAP ([link removed])
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By ERIC CRAMER, Published in the Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

The legendary Captain John Smith and his crew mapped the colony of Virginia in 1612 using early mapmaking tools to catalogue the land and various waterways of the New World. What would he think of the mapping moment we are in 400 years later where GPS, satellite imagery and street level photography have made location data for most of the world available on your smartphone? There is an area where the mapping revolution has been a technological laggard

Cramer is President and CEO at Wilkes Communications / RiverStreet Networks based in Wilkes County, North Carolina.


** SHEPHERD: HEALTH PLANS AND NURSES DELIVER LIFE-SAVING, COST-SAVING PREVENTIVE CARE ([link removed])
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By JENNIFER SHEPHERD, Published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Virginia has benefited substantially from the widespread adoption of preventive care benefits into the standard practice of health plans and providers in our state. Proactive management of patient health not only benefits the patients themselves, but providers and the health care community at large

Jennifer Shepherd is a registered nurse and a board member of the Virginia Nurses Association


** NASH: TIME TO SPEAK: GUN OWNER, NOT GUN FREAK ([link removed])
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By STEPHEN NASH, Published in the Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Listen up, Roanoke area gun owners, especially if you’re a Republican. Each of us has powerful leverage to affect legislation in Virginia right now. It only takes a few keyboard clicks and quick voicemails. Oh, and it will also require your conviction that you’re a thinking voter, not a cartoon drawn by addled extremists in Washington and in our state legislature who ignore their own constituents.

Stephen Nash is a visiting senior research scholar at the University of Richmond, and the author of the book Virginia Climate Fever.
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