VaNews Aug. 22, 2019
------------------------------------------------------------

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


** STATE ELECTIONS
------------------------------------------------------------


** NATIONAL GUN-CONTROL GROUP LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN AGAINST SUBURBAN REPUBLICANS IN VIRGINIA ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

The national gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety is beginning a digital advertising blitz in suburban swing districts in Virginia’s pivotal fall election, targeting Republican lawmakers in Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads.


** FEDERAL ELECTIONS
------------------------------------------------------------


** JOE BIDEN COMING TO RICHMOND NEXT WEEK FOR FUNDRAISER ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By GRAHAM MOOMAW, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic front-runner for the 2020 presidential nomination, will travel to Richmond next week for a fundraiser, according to the Biden campaign. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, but no other details were available on the time and location. A Biden campaign spokeswoman said a decision had not been made on whether the event will be open to the press.


** WOMEN'S EQUITY GROUP CALLS VIRGINIA A "PRIORITY STATE" IN 2020 ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By KATHERINE HAFNER, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Over the past two decades in Virginia, rising child care costs have outpaced the average woman’s wage growth by more than seven times. Meanwhile, the gap between what men and women earn in the commonwealth has narrowed by only 4 cents. Those are some of the key findings in a new report from the National Women’s Law Center, which deemed Virginia a “priority state” leading up to the 2020 election, said Julie Kohler, lead author of the report.


** STATE GOVERNMENT
------------------------------------------------------------


** VIRGINIA PENALIZED $3.8 MILLION FOR HIGH ERROR RATE IN SNAP FOOD ASSISTANCE PROGRAM ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By BRIDGET BALCH, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The Virginia Department of Social Services will be penalized more than $3.8 million by the federal government because of its high rate of payment errors in the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program over the past two fiscal years. Virginia DSS had a 9.6% payment error rate in 2018, compared with the national average rate of 6.5%


** RENEWABLE ENERGY PROVIDERS WIN SKIRMISH AGAINST DOMINION, BUT LARGER WAR DRAGS ON ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By SARAH VOGELSONG, Virginia Mercury

Two renewable energy providers whose attempts to sign up Dominion Energy customers were halted by the utility in July won a victory Wednesday when the State Corporation Commission ordered the company to begin processing the enrollments immediately.


** VA. LAUNCHES LARGEST CHECKPOINT STRIKEFORCE IN YEARS TO TARGET INCREASE IN DRUNKEN-DRIVING DEATHS ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By GABBY BIRENBAUM, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Law enforcement agencies across Virginia will monitor 120 checkpoints with 640 saturation patrols as part of the state’s 18th annual Checkpoint Strikeforce DUI enforcement and outreach campaign in the weeks before Labor Day, the largest effort in years. The campaign hopes to combat a 12% rise from 2017 to 2018 in alcohol-related traffic deaths.


** CONGRESS
------------------------------------------------------------


** RIGGLEMAN VISITS ALBEMARLE GAMING MACHINE MANUFACTURER ON BUSINESS TOUR ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By TYLER HAMMEL, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

U.S. Rep. Denver Riggleman visited Castle Hill Gaming in Albemarle County Wednesday as part of a tour of businesses in the 5th District.


** ECONOMY/BUSINESS
------------------------------------------------------------


** HEALTH INSURERS SET TO EXPAND OFFERINGS UNDER THE ACA ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By ANNA WILDE MATHEWS, Wall Street Journal (Subscription Required)

Insurers are expanding their Affordable Care Act plan offerings for next year, with the once-troubled business now generating profits, even as the overall individual-insurance market has shrunk....Anthem Inc. is expanding in at least two of its states, California and Virginia.


** KENTUCKY COMPANY PLANS TO BUY 11 BLACKJEWEL ASSETS ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By TIM DODSON, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

A Lexington, Kentucky-based company plans to purchase 11 assets from bankrupt coal producer Blackjewel LLC in Virginia, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.


** FROM AN EXTRACTION ECONOMY TO AN ATTRACTION ECONOMY ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By ROBBIE HARRIS, WVTF

A coalition of environmental and economic development groups is blazing new trails to the outdoors for visitors and locals in southwestern Virginia. With 90- million acres of national forest, a new 300-foot rock climbing wall in the town of Appalachia, camping and kayaking the Clinch river, they say more people are taking advantage of those attractions than ever before. ” It’s booming, safe to say that the industry is really booming here locally.”


** TRANSPORTATION
------------------------------------------------------------


** RURAL COUNTIES PUSH BACK AGAINST REGIONAL GAS TAX INCREASE TO FUND I-81 IMPROVEMENTS ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By CASEY FABRIS AND AMY FRIEDENBERGER, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Local government officials in counties that Interstate 81 does not pass through are balking at raising gas taxes, as required by a new state law to fund improvements of the highway. A number of boards of supervisors have adopted or are considering resolutions expressing opposition to increasing their fuel tax rate by approximately 7 cents per gallon and urging the General Assembly to reevaluate the legislation, which went into effect in July.


** VIRGINIA OTHER
------------------------------------------------------------


** VIRGINIA TO MARK PIVOTAL MOMENT WHEN AFRICANS ARRIVED ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By BEN FINLEY, Associated Press

Four hundred years after American slavery and democratic self-rule were born almost simultaneously in what became the state of Virginia, ceremonies will mark the arrival of enslaved Africans in the mid-Atlantic colony and seek healing from the legacy of bondage that still haunts the nation.


** IN ONE UNUSUAL VIRGINIA NEIGHBORHOOD, ROOTS STRETCH TO THE FIRST AFRICANS IN AMERICA ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Sweat and gossip flowed as neighbors waited to place orders at the back window of the house: Fish platter. Fish sandwich. Some of Miss Margaret’s homemade cake. Margaret Wilson presided over the cheerful chaos of the Aberdeen Gardens fish fry from a folding chair. At 80, she holds special prominence, one of the few surviving original residents of a community unlike any other in the country.


** THE FOUNDING FAMILY YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF: THE BLACK TUCKERS OF HAMPTON ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By RICK HAMPSON AND DEBORAH BARFIELD BERRY, USA Today

As Walter Jones walks his family’s ancient cemetery, shovel in hand, he wonders about those who rest there. The gravestones date back as far as the 1800s. Some bear the names of folks Walter knew; some have faded to illegibility; some are in pieces. And, under the brush he’s cleared away and the ground he’s leveled, there are burial sites unmarked by any stone. The cemetery means so much to Walter because his extended family – the Tuckers of Tidewater, Virginia – believe they are as much an American founding family as any from the Mayflower.


** LOCAL
------------------------------------------------------------


** PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY’S DATA CENTERS TOP 5 MILLION SQUARE FEET ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By JEFF CLABAUGH, WTOP

Prince William County, Virginia, has been aggressively courting data center landlords, and it is paying off. Data center projects in the county have now reached a total of 5.2 million square feet. In recent years, development has brought more than 40 projects to Prince William County, with $9 billion in capital investment, including six data center projects completed in fiscal 2019. According to the county’s Department of Economic Development, that has resulted in more than 1,170 highly skilled jobs and hundreds of construction jobs.


** STONEY WANTS TO USE BUDGET SURPLUS ON PENSION RAISES, COMMUNITY CENTERS ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By ROBERTO ROLDAN, WCVE

City of Richmond retirees may soon get a cost of living raise for the first time in over a decade thanks to a $15.4 million budget surplus. Mayor Levar Stoney announced the surplus at a press conference in City Hall on Wednesday. A report from the city’s Department of Finance shows the largest portion of the surplus, roughly $7 million, came from increasing property values. The city also collected about $6.5 million in delinquent property and car taxes.


** NEWPORT NEWS BECOMES LARGEST VIRGINIA SCHOOL DISTRICT TO MAKE ALL MEALS FREE ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By MATT JONES, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

No students in Newport News Public Schools will have to worry about lunch money when they come back from summer break. Last week, the school division received approval from the Virginia Department of Education to use a federal program that reimburses meals at schools with a certain proportion of students from low-income families.


** HAMPTON ROADS TEACHERS TURN TO CROWDSOURCING SITES FOR CLASSROOM SUPPLIES ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By ROBYN SIDERSKY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Science teacher Heather Overkamp has her eye on biotechnology kits that will help her teach medical health lessons this coming school year. The field changes fast, she said, and her independent research students need to keep up with the newest technologies. But the price tag — $500 — is one her district likely won’t pay. So she’s crowdsourcing.


** VIRGINIA BEACH BANS ELECTRIC SCOOTERS ON MOST OF THE OCEANFRONT ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By STACY PARKER, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

More than a month after allowing scooters on Atlantic Avenue’s trolley lanes, the City Council backtracked on its decision, further tightening the rules on the rides. The council voted 6-5 on Tuesday to ban them in most of the Oceanfront resort area and along streets with speed limits above 25 mph — effective immediately.


** EDITORIALS
------------------------------------------------------------


** CITY TO LEAD BY EXAMPLE ON EQUITY ISSUES ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
Daily Progress Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

W hen it comes to equitable wages, Charlottesville is right to turn its gaze inward. Deputy City Manager Mike Murphy notes that city leaders have been looking at equity issues in the community at large. It only makes sense for the government also to look at its own record in that regard.


** A COMPLETE COUNT ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

As the 2020 census approaches, Virginia is taking extra steps to ensure its communities are ready to participate. On Wednesday, the Virginia Complete Count Commission held its monthly meeting at the Patrick Henry Building in Richmond. Established by Gov. Ralph Northam last December, the body brings together up to 40 voices with diverse backgrounds from across the state to “serve as a conduit” between the U.S. Census Bureau and Virginia.


** TRANSGENDER RULING A MOVE TOWARD EQUAL PROTECTION ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
Daily Press Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Gavin Grimm only wanted to go to the bathroom when he entered the facilities designated for boys at Gloucester High School in the fall of 2014. Then a sophomore, Grimm had been using male public restrooms for months and later told media outlets he considered it a natural progression of his gender transition from a female. Using the boys’ bathrooms at school didn’t seem like a big deal.


** CARING FOR OUR ELDERS ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

It’s no secret that our population is aging. By 2030, all baby boomers will have turned 65 years old, with an estimated 10,000 people reaching that age each day. The number of 65-plus people in the U.S. also will outnumber children, according to a 2018 U.S. Census Bureau projection. That observation should shift our focus on “who is aging?” to incorporate the question of “who is working?”


** STAFFORD WINS WITH STRATEGIC TAX BREAK ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
Free Lance-Star Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Like their counterparts throughout the country, Stafford County economic development officials are constantly trying to attract new businesses to the region. They recently scored a win when a Baltimore-based commercial real estate developer announced plans to build a new Class A warehouse and e-commerce distribution center adjacent to the Stafford Regional Airport.


** COLUMNISTS
------------------------------------------------------------


** SCHAPIRO: WITH OPINION SHIFTING, VIRGINIA FIREARMS CROWD PLAYS INSIDE GAME ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By JEFF E. SCHAPIRO, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

This time of year in Virginia, it’s usually candidates who are clogging your mailbox, bugging you for money and your vote. In politics, turnabout is fair play. A summertime annoyance is tumbling through the letter slots of prospects for the House of Delegates and state Senate: questionnaires from pressure groups.
------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe ([link removed]) Donate ([link removed]) Content Policy ([link removed]) Privacy ([link removed])

This email was sent to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
why did I get this? ([link removed]) unsubscribe from this list ([link removed]) update subscription preferences ([link removed])
Virginia Public Access Project . P.O. Box 1472 . Richmond, VA 23218 . USA