VaNews
February 24, 2021

Today's Sponsor:


** The Virginia Press Association
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In these difficult times, trusted local journalism is needed more than ever. We support the ideals of a free press in a democratic society.
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Top of the News


** Virginia GOP to select gubernatorial nominee at convention in Liberty University parking lots ([link removed])
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By NED OLIVER, Virginia Mercury

After rejecting proposals to hold a state-run primary, a party-run canvass and an unassembled convention to choose their nominees for statewide office, Virginia Republicans settled Tuesday evening on a plan to hold a traditional convention in an untraditional location: parking lots scattered around Liberty University in Lynchburg. “Liberty University has over 25,000 parking spots they’re willing to let us utilize for a one-location, drive-in convention,” explained GOP Central Committee member Willie Deutsch. “It is really now the last option on the table.” The convention is set for May 8.
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** Virginia is set to become first Southern state to declare racism a public health crisis ([link removed])
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By BILL ATKINSON, Progress Index (Metered paywall - 10 articles a month)

Virginia, a state long associated with racist and segregationist behavior, is now only a signature away from becoming the first state in the South to declare racism as a public health crisis. The Virginia State Senate on Tuesday, on a voice vote, approved the declaration and sent it on to the desk of Gov. Ralph S. Northam, who is expected to sign it. Sponsored by Del. Lashrecse D. Aird, D-Petersburg, the resolution previously passed the House of Delegates on an almost-straight party vote, with Republican Del. Carrie E. Coyner of Chesterfield County aligning with House Democrats to back it.
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** Virginia moving quickly to make expanded absentee voting permanent ([link removed])
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By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Expanded absentee voting policies that a record number of Virginians used last year to cast ballots during the pandemic would become permanent under measures passed Tuesday by the General Assembly. Both the Senate and House of Delegates approved legislation to create drop boxes for collecting absentee ballots, offer prepaid postage for mailed-in ballots and establish a method for correcting errors on absentee ballots. Those measures are part of sweeping bills that would overhaul Virginia’s early voting system after changes enacted on a temporary basis last year proved widely popular. They now head to Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who is expected to sign them into law by a Sunday deadline.
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** Va. Senate Democrats scuttle bill to bar personal use of campaign funds ([link removed])
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By PATRICK WILSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Democratic state senators balked on Tuesday at a bill that would ban their personal use of campaign money, stopping the proposal with a recommendation that the state study the issue. Anyone wanting to know how their senator voted won’t find any record, either, because senators took the action via an unrecorded voice vote.
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** Late change in bill could result in more electronic General Assembly meetings, even after pandemic ([link removed])
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By PATRICK WILSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Virginia House Democrats approved a late change to a bill Tuesday that an open-government advocate said could result in more electronic General Assembly meetings even when the pandemic is under control. The change, pushed by Del. Marcus Simon, D-Fairfax, was controversial, drawing rebukes from Republicans. Six Democrats didn’t vote, and what had been an innocuous Senate bill on electronic meetings nearly died.
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** Virginia Senate bill demands Metro change station name to include bank or lose millions in funding ([link removed])
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By JUSTIN GEORGE AND ROBERT MCCARTNEY, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

A Virginia Senate bill would withhold at least $166 million pledged to Metro unless the transit system adds the name of Capital One bank to the McLean rail station. The legislation would rename the Silver Line station as “McLean-Capital One Hall,” a reference to a performance venue the bank is building a quarter-mile from the site. Sen. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax) said she inserted the provision in transportation funding legislation because the bank did not like being “squeezed for money.”
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** VB mayor proposes holding referendum one night before state could change city voting system ([link removed])
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By BRETT HALL, WAVY-TV

Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer, along with several City Council members, are making a last-ditch effort to try and stop state lawmakers from changing the city’s voting system without voter input. At Tuesday’s City Council work session, Dyer announced he planned to send a letter to state Senate leadership to express his support for holding a citywide referendum in November to gauge the public’s opinion on the way the city currently elects its leaders. Dyer made the statement less than two hours after Republican allies in the Virginia state Senate fought hard to allow him the chance to even write that letter. Senate Democrats pushed back on state Sen. Jen Kiggans’ (R-Virginia Beach) motion to put off a final vote on a bill that would unilaterally outlaw Virginia Beach’s current voting setup.
The Full Report
59 articles, 28 publications
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** FROM VPAP
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** VPAP Visual Quiz: Do you know 'compact' when you see it? ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

Virginia's new Redistricting Commission will be required to draw legislative boundaries that are "compact." But what exactly does a compact district look like? Try our interactive quiz to see if your perception matches that of a compactness algorithm.
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** From VPAP Maps, Timeline of COVID-19 in Virginia ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

Our COVID-19 dashboard makes it easy to track the latest available data for tests performed, infections, deaths and hospital capacity. We've added a link to VDH vaccination data. There's also a filter for each city and county, plus an exclusive per-capita ZIP Code map. Updated each morning around 10:30 a.m.


** EXECUTIVE BRANCH
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** Northam makes late push to boost state procurement from woman-, minority-owned firms ([link removed])
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By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Gov. Ralph Northam is making a late push through legislation and the budget to make the state live up to higher goals for awarding public contracts to companies owned by women and racial or ethnic minorities. The House of Delegates is poised to act Wednesday on a substitute bill that Northam sent to the General Assembly earlier this month that would set a goal of awarding 23.1% of state contracts to minority- and woman-owned companies. It also would create a new Division of Procurement Enhancement to help state agencies comply with the strengthened policy.
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** Gov. Northam directs Virginia flags flown at half-staff to honor 500K lives lost to COVID ([link removed])
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By SAMANTHA MITCHELL, WSET-TV

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced he is directing all U.S. and Virginia flags be lowered "immediately" and to stay at half-staff until sunset on Friday, Feb. 26. The order is in accordance with a White House proclamation to honor the lives of the 500,000 Americans who have died from the coronavirus. According to the governor, of those 500,000 lives lost, 7,486 of them were Virginians.


** GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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** Legislators at odds over how to extend workers’ compensation pay for Virginia's first responders and nurses ([link removed])
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By AMY FRIEDENBERGER, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Holly Zimmerman hasn’t worked since July, when she fell ill from caring for COVID-19 patients. “Nurses take care of whoever walks in the door, risking our lives every day,” said Zimmerman, who has been a nurse for 34 years. After catching the virus, she’s had multiple seizures, experienced memory loss, and suffered severe respiratory infection.
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** Senate spikes bill to rein in personal use of campaign cash ([link removed])
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By SARAH RANKIN, Associated Press

The Virginia Senate effectively killed a measure Tuesday that would have prevented politicians from putting campaign funds toward personal uses, with an exception for child care-related expenses. Virginia has one of the least restrictive and policed campaign finance systems in the country and is an outlier in the nation for not already having such a ban. But state lawmakers, who insist they want to work on the issue, have repeatedly balked in recent years at making a change.
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** Virginia Senate punts on campaign finance bill, but lawmakers agree to study future reform ([link removed])
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By GRAHAM MOOMAW, Virginia Mercury

A proposal to make it illegal for Virginia politicians to use campaign funds to enrich themselves failed in the state Senate Tuesday, the latest sign of the legislature’s continuing wariness on campaign finance reform. Several senators said they agreed with the proposal generally, but insisted policymakers should take more time to study it before imposing new rules on candidates running in Virginia’s wide-open fundraising system. “The critical component here is to actually get it right,” said Sen. Jill Vogel, R-Fauquier, an election lawyer who noted that she sponsored a similar bill in the past and wants it to be wrapped into an upcoming study on comprehensive campaign finance reform.
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** Lawmakers in Virginia, Maryland grapple with school reopening bills ([link removed])
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By GABRIELLA MUÑOZ, Washington Times

Virginia lawmakers are wrestling over requiring school districts to provide in-person instruction by the summer as political pressure mounts for students to return to classrooms. This week, the House of Delegates’ Education Committee approved a bipartisan bill that would require full-time, in-person classes for kindergarten through 12th grade across the state. It also would require that schools COVID-19 safety standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which have provided guidelines for reopening. It would not provide additional funding for schools to meet the CDC’s standards, but lawmakers are planning to allocate millions to get more resources to educators.
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** Virginia Democrats have made sweeping changes in state laws ([link removed])
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By ANA LEY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Virginia’s General Assembly adjourns Monday with Democrats boasting big changes in law that reverse many conservative policies long kept in place by Republicans who once controlled the state. It’s the Democratic party’s second year in power, and in that span they have pushed sweeping overhauls to criminal justice practices and bills that would make Virginia the first state in the South to abolish the death penalty and legalize marijuana. With a Democrat in the governor’s mansion, their legislation will likely be signed into law.
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** Greenway tolls bill passes General Assembly ([link removed])
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By RENSS GREENE, Loudoun Now

After years battling the Dulles Greenway’s powerful lobbying firm—and often some of Loudoun’s own elected representatives—Loudoun’s state legislators have pushed a bill aimed at fighting the Greenway’s ever-increasing tolls through the General Assembly to the governor’s desk. The Virginia Senate on Tuesday voted 33-5 to pass Del. Suhas Subramanyam (D-87)’s House Bill 1832. Its companion bill, Sen. John J. Bell’s (D-13) Senate Bill 1259 had already passed in both chambers.
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** State reform of Governor’s Schools blocked; local boards act ([link removed])
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By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press

A push to increase the numbers of Black and Hispanic students at Virginia’s selective “Governor’s Schools” by changing admissions policies has failed, despite the support of Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration. But what supporters were unable to achieve at a statewide level may become a reality at a local level, as more county school boards implement some of the changes they sought. Virginia education Secretary Atif Qarni spearheaded an effort last year to address the lack of diversity at the state’s 19 Governor’s Schools, especially Thomas Jefferson High School in Fairfax County and Maggie Walker High in Richmond.
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** Farmworkers are left out of minimum wage laws again by Senate ([link removed])
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By SABRINA MORENO, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

In August, millions of farmworkers in the U.S. were recognized as heroes by the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. Five months later, Virginia prioritized them in vaccine eligibility due to high COVID-19 exposure risk that’s infected more than 1,300 statewide. Then on Monday, a Democrat-led Senate panel killed a bill that would have included farmworkers in Virginia’s minimum wage requirements.
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** Virginia’s legislature votes to remove tribute to segregationist governor ([link removed])
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By LAURA VOZZELLA, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

The state Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday for a bill to remove the statue of segregationist governor and U.S. senator Harry Flood Byrd from Capitol Square, sending the measure to the desk of Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who is expected to sign it. A Democrat who dominated state politics for four decades, Byrd was the architect of Virginia’s policy of “massive resistance” to school desegregation in the 1950s and ’60s. The Senate vote came one day before the 65th anniversary of Byrd’s declaration — made on Feb. 24, 1956 — that Virginia would oppose the integration of public schools required by the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling. The state’s policy shuttered some schools for years.
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** Virginia lawmakers vote to remove segregationist’s statue ([link removed])
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By SARAH RANKIN, Associated Press

A statue of segregationist Harry F. Byrd Sr., who served as Virginia’s governor and a U.S. senator, will be removed from the state capitol grounds under a bill that won bipartisan final approval from lawmakers Tuesday. By a vote of 36-3, the Senate advanced the measure that had already cleared the House, sending it to Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who supports it. Byrd, a Democrat, ran the state’s most powerful political machine for decades until his death in 1966 and was considered the architect of the state’s racist “massive resistance” policy to public school integration.
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** Legislators send Northam bill to remove Byrd statue from Capitol Square ([link removed])
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By ANDREW CAIN, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)

Legislators are sending Gov. Ralph Northam a bill to remove from Capitol Square the statue of segregationist Harry F. Byrd Sr., architect of Massive Resistance to school desegregation. The Senate voted 36-3 Tuesday to remove the statue of Byrd, a Democrat who was governor from 1926 to 1930 and a U.S. senator from 1933 to 1965. The House had voted in late January to back the bill sponsored by Del. Jay Jones, D-Norfolk.
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** Ban on abortion coverage through exchange plans repealed ([link removed])
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By CAMERON JONES, VCU Capital News Service

The Virginia General Assembly passed two bills that repeal the ban keeping some health insurance plans sold in the state from covering abortions House Bill 1896, introduced by Del. Sally L. Hudson, D-Charlottesville, and Senate Bill 1276, introduced by Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan, D-Richmond, loosen restrictions through Virginia’s health insurance exchange.
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** Budget Brings Mixed News for Foster Children, Advocates Say ([link removed])
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By CLARA HAIZLETT, WCVE-FM

The Virginia House and Senate have released their proposed amendments to the two-year state budget. That includes their suggested funding for child welfare, which advocates say contains both good and bad news for children and families in foster care. The House and Senate kept all of the funding the governor proposed, about $16 million for positions in the Department of Social Services and $14 million for prevention services, which help keep children out of foster care entirely. But Allison Gilbreath with Voices of Virginia’s Children says they were hoping for more support.
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** Advanced recycling bill goes to governor after ‘Great Polystyrene Compromise of 2021’ ([link removed])
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By SARAH VOGELSONG, Virginia Mercury

Legislation to classify chemical recycling as manufacturing rather than solid waste management is on its way to the governor despite early resistance from the House of Delegates. The hotly contested bill, which supporters say will encourage the repurposing of plastic waste while creating jobs and opponents say will allow the fledgling industry to sidestep regulation, passed the House Monday on a 90-8 vote. Key to its success was a move by lawmakers to yoke the advanced recycling bill to a proposal from Del. Betsy Carr, D-Richmond, that would ban all food vendors from using plastic foam food containers starting in 2025.
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** Bill to deem farmers markets essential gains traction in General Assembly ([link removed])
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By RACHEL SMITH, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)

During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Gov. Ralph Northam’s executive order called for the closure of all nonessential services in Virginia, farmers markets were forced to shut down — even though the markets might have supplied fresh, healthy food when the conventional food chain was not working. “This created some challenges for markets on how to stay open. Many created online stores and pick-up-only programs,” Dorothy McIntyre, manager of the Forest Farmers Market, said, noting that by their very nature, outdoor farmers markets seemed like the perfect answer to what was happening.
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** Student driver safety bill, prompted by York County crash that killed three teens, passes through General Assembly ([link removed])
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By WILFORD KALE, Virginia Gazette (Metered Paywall - 4 Articles per Month)

The student driver safety bill — House Bill 1918 — that came about as a result of the death in October 2019 of York County high school student Conner Guido and two other teenagers has passed the General Assembly and is awaiting the governor’s signature to become law. Introduced by Del. Martha H. Mugler, D-Hampton, the legislation specifically requires that “any student who applies to obtain a pass to park a vehicle on school property provide evidence that the student possesses a valid driver’s license or driver privilege card.”
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** Four women of color named judges in Chesapeake, Norfolk and Suffolk ([link removed])
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By JONATHAN EDWARDS, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Linda Bryant has touched just about every aspect of the state’s criminal justice system in her career: local prosecutor, deputy attorney general, administrator of Hampton Roads Regional Jail and member of the state’s parole board. Now she’ll be a judge. Bryant, who will sit in Chesapeake General District Court, is one of four new judges — all women of color — appointed Tuesday to preside in courtrooms across South Hampton Roads.
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** Newport News, rest of Peninsula area get 8 new judges as General Assembly fills open seats ([link removed])
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By PETER DUJARDIN, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 1 article a month)

The Virginia General Assembly on Tuesday selected eight new judges to fill open seats in Newport News and a wide-ranging judicial district that spans from the Peninsula to the Middle Peninsula. Newport News — which is losing three of its 13 judges to retirements this year — got four of the state legislature’s new appointments: A lower court judge elevated to Newport News Circuit Court, and three local attorneys becoming judges for the first time.
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** General Assembly elects new judges, including successor to Roanoke judge who quietly left midterm ([link removed])
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By AMY FRIEDENBERGER AND NEIL HARVEY, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The General Assembly elected new judges Tuesday to benches around the Roanoke Valley, including someone to fill a vacancy left by a Roanoke Juvenile and Domestic Relations District judge who recently and quietly stepped down. Heather Ferguson will succeed John Weber III, who became a domestic court judge in 2015. His first term on the bench was due to extend through June, and his motivation for departing early has not been announced and remains unclear.
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** Out of prison, former state delegate Ron Villanueva speaks to 10 On Your Side ([link removed])
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By ANDY FOX, WAVY-TV

A former Virginia lawmaker is now out of prison and looking to start a new life. 10 On Your Side has been covering Ron Villanueva’s story — and conviction — for a couple of years. The former Virginia Beach city councilman and state delegate was sent to prison in 2019 after pleading guilty to defrauding the U.S. government. He served less than a year due to COVID-19 and is now released from prison. 10 On Your Side’s Andy Fox sat down and talked exclusively with Villanueva about the path forward.


** STATE ELECTIONS
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** State GOP leaders opt for drive-up convention at Liberty University to nominate candidates ([link removed])
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By PATRICK WILSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

After months of disagreement, the Virginia Republican Party’s governing body agreed Tuesday night on a method to nominate statewide candidates for the November election. They’ll hold a drive-up convention May 8 on the campus of Liberty University. The decision followed feuds among members of the party’s State Central Committee, who had opted for a convention to nominate candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general. But such a gathering would be illegal under Virginia’s COVID-19 rules.
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** Three former GOP governors urge party to pick 2021 nominees via canvass ([link removed])
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By GRAHAM MOOMAW, Virginia Mercury

Three former Republican governors of Virginia have teamed up to try to help their party resolve a bitter internal battle over how to pick its slate of 2021 nominees. On Tuesday, former Govs. Bob McDonnell, George Allen and Jim Gilmore sent a letter addressed to Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Rich Anderson and members of the party’s State Central Committee urging a solution to the procedural impasse that has thrown the start of the 2021 contests into confusion. With various factions arguing over whether the party should hold a primary, canvass or convention, the three ex-governors are proposing a party-run canvass as the most workable nominating method.
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** Alumnus runs for governor: Pete Snyder launches gubernatorial bid ([link removed])
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By CLAIRE HOGAN, Flat Hat

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States, Pete Snyder ’94 saw small businesses struggling to stay afloat. Using his background in business, he started the Virginia 30 Day Fund, aimed at providing short-term, forgivable loans to small businesses throughout the commonwealth. But as the pandemic raged on, the scope of the project grew, and with it, his ambitions. Now, the 48-year-old College of William and Mary alumnus is running for governor of Virginia, hoping to secure the Republican nomination in 2021. At the College, Snyder was a walk-on wrestler, a member of Sigma Chi fraternity, class president and a government major who studied abroad in Moscow. Snyder speaks fondly about his time in Williamsburg. “It was awesome,” Snyder said in a phone interview. “I absolutely loved being in the ‘Burg. It truly changed my life, and I’m not being hyperbolic about that.”
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** Herndon community organizer announces candidacy for 86th District House seat ([link removed])
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By NATHANIEL CLINE, Loudoun Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Democrat Irene Shin, a nonprofit organizer from Herndon, has announced she is running for the 86th House of Delegates seat currently held by Del. Ibraheem Samirah (D). The 86th District includes parts of western Fairfax and eastern Loudoun counties. "I’ve worked as a community organizer, an activist, a General Assembly advocate, and most importantly, as someone who brings people together to get things done,” Shin said in a prepared statement.
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** Linkous drops out of 12th District race days after announcing run ([link removed])
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By TONIA MOXLEY, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Less than two weeks after announcing his run, a GOP candidate has dropped out of the 12th District state House race. Larry Linkous, 67, announced his candidacy for the seat now held by Del. Chris Hurst, D-Blacksburg, on Feb. 11. Hurst, 33, unseated Republican incumbent Joseph Yost in 2017.


** FEDERAL ELECTIONS
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** Poll: Majority Of Virginia Republican Voters Say Biden Did Not Win The Election Legitimately ([link removed])
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By ALLY SCHWEITZER, DCist

A new poll conducted by the Wason Center for Civic Leadership at Christopher Newport University shows that 61% of Republican voters surveyed in Virginia believe Joe Biden did not legitimately win the presidential election, while another 11% said they were not sure. “This is the new Lost Cause in Virginia politics,” said Wason Center Academic Director Quentin Kidd in a statement. Sixty-eight percent of Virginia voters say Biden won the election fairly; 26% say he did not.


** STATE GOVERNMENT
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** Prince William Health District adds inspectors to field COVID-19 complaints about stores, restaurants ([link removed])
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By DANIEL BERTI, Prince William Times

The Prince William Health District has hired three contractors to help investigate and enforce COVID-19 complaints in the county, Manassas and Manassas Park, officials said. The new employees, brought on in early February, will make unannounced visits and inspections to businesses that have received complaints about not following COVID-19 guidelines. Each contractor will cover a specific area of the district: east, central and west. If the contractors witness businesses violating the rules “egregiously,” they can report back to the health department, which can immediately suspend a business’s occupancy permit, according to Patrick Jones, an environmental health specialist for the Prince William Health District.
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** Blackstone mayor, Nottoway residents speak out: ‘why has rural Virginia been abandoned?’ ([link removed])
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By ALEX THORSON, WRIC-TV

Thousands still remain without power in central Virginia, including roughly 850 customers in Nottoway county. Several more are in the dark among Lunenburg, Amelia, Brunswick, Prince Edward, Charlotte and Dinwiddie counties. The mayor of Blackstone is speaking out about the thousands in need, saying the state isn’t doing enough to help. “Many of them are hanging on for dear life,” said Mayor Billy Coleburn. “There are elderly people right now, as we speak, that are out of money to fuel the generator and they’re at the mercy of the clock.” . . . [A] spokesperson with Governor Ralph Northam’s office said there’s been “extensive communication” between the Virginia Department of Emergency Management officials and elected leaders in this region of the state regarding federal disaster aid.
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** Virginia prison staffer says she was fired on suspicion of smuggling after body scan detected tampon ([link removed])
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By NED OLIVER, Virginia Mercury

A dental hygienist who says she was fired by the Virginia Department of Corrections after a body scanner detected she was wearing a tampon can proceed with a sex discrimination lawsuit against the state, a federal judge ruled this week. The employee, Joyce Flores, alleged she was interrogated for hours at Augusta Correctional Center on suspicion she was smuggling contraband. She said she was ultimately terminated from her position at the facility despite demonstrating to female guards that she was menstruating and allowing them to search her car and work area — steps she says turned up no evidence of illegal activity.
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** Man awaiting trial in Franklin County murder case died of COVID-19 complications, authorities say ([link removed])
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By ALICIA PETSKA, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

An 84-year-old Moneta man who was charged in a homicide case died of COVID-19 complications, according to the medical examiner’s office. Donald Taylor’s death on Feb. 8 was announced by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, but county authorities said they couldn’t comment on the cause or other details. The medical examiner’s office conducted an exam and recorded the cause of death. Taylor, who was taken into custody Dec. 17, was being held at the Western Virginia Regional Jail.


** ECONOMY/BUSINESS
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** Mountain Valley Pipeline still on target for completion this year, developers say ([link removed])
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By LAURENCE HAMMACK, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Developers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline say it remains on schedule for completion by year’s end, despite a restart in seeking government approval to cross nearly 500 streams and wetlands. All required permits should be in hand by summer, “allowing us to ramp up to full construction,” Diana Charletta, president and chief operations officer of Equitrans Midstream, the lead partner in the joint venture, said during an earnings call Tuesday.


** TRANSPORTATION
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** First vehicles in 7 years cross the Waterloo Bridge ([link removed])
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Fauquier Now

For the first time since January 2014, vehicles rolled across the historic Waterloo Bridge on Tuesday afternoon. Once slated for abandonment or replacement with a modern structure, the 143-year-old span underwent a $3.65-million restoration over the last 10 months. The project began last April to strengthen the Rappahannock River bridge that stands south of Orlean and about seven miles west of Warrenton.


** HIGHER EDUCATION
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** EVMS to hold forum on how turning school into true ‘academic medical center’ could benefit region ([link removed])
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By ELISHA SAUERS, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Eastern Virginia Medical School will host an online event centered on the potential benefits of an academic medical center for the community Wednesday evening. The forum, “What’s in it for Hampton Roads? The Benefits of a Collaborative Academic Medical Center,” will bring together local officials and national experts to discuss the medical school model, one they say could attract more public and clinical resources to the Norfolk-based school.
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** COVID-19 Testing At JMU Requires Many Hands ([link removed])
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By MEGAN WILLIAMS, Daily News Record (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

When James Madison University began the 2020-21 school year in August, the recommendation at the time from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was to not test people without symptoms for COVID-19, out of concern for the number of tests and resources available. As a result, students from all over the country and the world flooded the campus and began attending classes, sleeping in dorms and socializing, albeit while trying to maintain social distancing and mask-wearing. The result was a surge in cases and quickly.


** CORONAVIRUS
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** Vaccine doses to double in Roanoke area ([link removed])
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By LUANNE RIFE, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The number of COVID-19 doses is expected to double this week in the Roanoke area as retail pharmacies begin to receive their own shipments from the federal government. “When I got the call on Saturday evening that we would be getting 3,700 more doses in our community through our retail pharmacies, I was very surprised by that in a good way,” Dr. Cynthia Morrow, director of the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts, said Tuesday during her weekly media briefing. The health district has been receiving 3,150 weekly doses from Virginia’s allocation, although that number, too, could rise soon. The state learned late last week that its federal allotment is increasing from about 130,000 weekly doses to 161,000 doses.
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** Health district has spread limited vaccine doses to 1/5 of Valley residents so far ([link removed])
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By RYAN ALESSI AND RANDI B. HAGI, Harrisonburg Citizen

About 20% of the Central Shenandoah Valley’s residents have received at least one COVID-19 vaccination dose so far, said Dr. Laura Kornegay, health director for this area’s public health district. Kornegay said Tuesday during U.S. Rep. Ben Cline’s telephone town hall meeting that her staff has helped administer 60,000 doses across its coverage area, which includes Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, as well as Augusta, Highland, Bath and Rockbridge counties. That is ahead of Virginia’s vaccination rate of about 13%.
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** Federal government wants to speed up vaccinations. How they do it is out of Virginia's control ([link removed])
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By SABRINA MORENO, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)

Decentralized planning between state and federal governments left chronically underfunded public health departments to organize mass testing efforts when there were few supplies in the first few months of the pandemic. Nearly a year and half a million COVID-deaths in the U.S. later, communication among the entities remains fractured and marked by confusion as the largest vaccination campaign in history depends on a coordinated approach.
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** Vaccine Pre-Registration Sync With State Still Ongoing, County Says ([link removed])
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By JO DEVOE, ArlNow

Arlington County officials say names of people pre-registered to receive a coronavirus vaccine are still migrating into the state’s new Vaccinate Virginia system. It has been more than one week since Arlington County shut down its pre-registration platform to send 41,000 names to the Virginia Department of Health’s new statewide platform. The delay means that for now, some pre-registered individuals may not see their registration status. But that does not mean the pre-registrations have gone missing, county spokeswoman Cara O’Donnell said in an email.


** VIRGINIA OTHER
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** How Barbara Johns Changed Equality In Virginia’s Education System ([link removed])
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By JOI BASS, WCVE-FM

On April 23, 1951, 16-year-old Barbara Johns organized a student walk out at Robert Russa Moton High School. The walk out would form part of the foundation of Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark Supreme Court decision that paved the way for school desegregation. Joan Johns Cobbs, her sister, says she was as surprised as everyone else the day of the walk out. “When she came to school and came to the auditorium, got on the stage and asked us to go out on a strike for a better school, just like everybody else in there, I was completely in the dark,” Johns Cobbs said.
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** Now under construction in Newport News, Navy’s Doris Miller aircraft carrier is an important lesson in history ([link removed])
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By DAVE RESS, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Living in Newport News’ Southeast Community, Darnell Prigmore sort of knew that the familiar Doris Miller Community Center on Wickham Avenue was named for a Navy hero, but he didn’t learn Miller’s whole story until he got curious about the name of a Ford-class carrier that he and his team at Newport News Shipbuilding are working on. Michael Lawrence, a shipfitter who has worked on every one of the shipyard’s carriers since 1990, got curious too. So did a younger colleague, welder Jessica Rosser, whose mom is a regular at the community center.
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** A look at Virginia’s history of eugenics and how its ideals of racial superiority remain today ([link removed])
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By DENISE M. WATSON, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Every day, Elizabeth Catte drove by Staunton’s old Western State Hospital, which was being renovated and given a new life. Others in town were excited about the luxurious Blackburn Inn & Conference Center opening in 2018. The reinvigorated pre-Civil War architecture and boutique rooms meant tourist dollars. But Catte, a 20th-century historian, only noticed the forgotten cemetery behind the manicured acreage. Between 1927 and 1964, Western State surgeons sterilized around 1,700 people without their consent.
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** Historic Black Gloucester School getting historical highway marker ([link removed])
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By KARA DIXON, WAVY-TV

A historic school building in Gloucester will receive a historical highway marker from the commonwealth later this year. The Woodville Rosenwald School is located just off the road on Route 17 and looks like any other home. But once you go inside, the construction and collection of old school desks reminds visitors that it’s anything but ordinary. “It’s amazing to us that it’s still standing,” said Dr. Wesley Wilson, who is the president and executive director of the Woodville Rosenwald School Foundation. For the last couple years, the foundation has worked to not only save the building from being demolished, but restore it, according to Wilson.
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** Virginia man arrested during U.S. Capitol assault is "brainwashed," daughter says ([link removed])
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CBS News

Robyn Sweet was always close to her dad, Doug, growing up in Virginia. As a kid, she considered him her "rock." Her dad's career at the shipyards near his home ended back in the early 1990s when he was injured on the job. Sweet's parents divorced, and Doug works as a handyman in town. Sweet said she doesn't remember growing up with politics, but things changed when her father began to attend rallies. "When Charlottesville happened," Sweet told CBS News' Ben Tracy, "my dad was there."


** LOCAL
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** Fairfax considers lower tax rate in budget aimed at economic recovery ([link removed])
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By ANTONIO OLIVO, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Fairfax County Executive Bryan J. Hill on Tuesday proposed a budget that would lower the residential tax rate by 1 cent and establish a $20 million economic recovery fund, a plan that anticipates more suffering among local businesses in Virginia’s largest jurisdiction as the pandemic continues. Much of the $4.5 billion spending plan comes at the expense of the county’s 12,000 employees, who would not receive pay raises during the next fiscal year. The Fairfax school system would also receive far less than it requested, with Hill proposing an additional transfer of $14.3 million over the current budget instead of the extra $104 million school officials requested.
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** Federal Judge Dismisses Challenge to Academies’ Admission Changes ([link removed])
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Loudoun Now

A federal lawsuit challenging new admission procedures for Loudoun’s Academy of Science and Academy of Engineering and Technology has been dismissed. Thirty-seven Loudoun County parents in September brought the lawsuit claiming the changes violated their constitutional rights. The changes were proposed by then-Superintendent Eric Williams as one element of the school division’s anti-racism campaign after the state Attorney General’s Office announced it was investigatingcomplaints about the extremely low numberof Black and Hispanic students accepted into the advanced STEM programs.
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** Manassas School Board votes to return pre-k through fourth grades; no decision on older students ([link removed])
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By JARED FORETEK, Inside NOVA

Pre-K through fourth-grade students in Manassas City Public Schools will have the option to return to hybrid in-person learning starting March 23, but the school board Tuesday night once again declined to set any timetable for the return of older students. For those general population students from lower grades whose guardians choose to send them to school, in-person learning will start twice per week beginning March 23. Career and technical education programs will start March 15 and other school-dependent learners will be back March 17. But a vote to bring middle and high school students back starting April 6 failed 4-3.
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** Construction of Virginia Beach’s new City Hall building expected to conclude by fall ([link removed])
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By ALISSA SKELTON, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Virginia Beach is scheduled to finish construction of a new $50 million City Hall building by fall. More than 300 employee workspaces are scheduled to shift to the new site between November and January of next year, said Tom Nicholas, public works facility engineer, who briefed the City Council on the issue on Tuesday afternoon.
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** CVEC, Sun Tribe seek permit for solar installation in southern Albemarle ([link removed])
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By ALLISON WRABEL, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

Sun Tribe Development and Central Virginia Electric Cooperative want to build solar panels and a battery energy storage system south of Batesville in Albemarle County. Representatives from CVEC say the project will produce enough energy to power approximately 2,600 homes for a year, but will help control costs for all of CVEC’s customers. The companies are applying for a special use permit from Albemarle County to build a 8-megawatt solar-energy electrical generation facility and 4-megawatt battery energy storage system on about 80 acres of a 136-acre parcel, almost two miles south of Batesville along Craigs Store Road.

Today's Sponsor:


** The Virginia Press Association
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In these difficult times, trusted local journalism is needed more than ever. We support the ideals of a free press in a democratic society.


** EDITORIALS
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** Democrats in name only? ([link removed])
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Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

It’s fashionable — and correct — these days to point out how many Republicans have lost touch with their party’s heritage. Some on the right like to call those closer to the center-right “RINOs,” meaning “Republicans in name only.” Actually, it’s the other way around. Those so-called RINOs are closer to their party’s traditions than those doing the name-calling.
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** VEC hit by fraud payouts ([link removed])
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Daily Progress Editorial (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

Not getting your unemployment check on time? Perhaps it’s because the VEC spent too much of its time (and your money) on fraudulent payments. The Virginia Employment Commission suspects it paid more than $40 million in unemployment funds to people who submitted claims on behalf of prison inmates. Prisoners, obviously, are ineligible — they have no jobs to lose, no reason to claim benefits.
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** Remove voting barriers ([link removed])
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Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Every 10 years, the U.S. census is a snapshot of demographic change in our commonwealth. This coming fall, that evolution is unlikely to be reflected at the polls. Earlier this month, the U.S. Census Bureau announced redistricting data would be available by Sept. 30 — six months later than the original March 31 deadline.


** COLUMNISTS
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** Williams: Marijuana justice is a chance for real-time reparations ([link removed])
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By MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

The rejection of reparations for the enslavement of Black people in America often can be summed up as, “Well, it’s too late now.” No similar argument can be made against repairing the longstanding harms caused by the unequal enforcement of laws prohibiting marijuana — an injustice occurring here and now, in real time. The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission found in November that while Black and white Virginians use marijuana at similar rates, Black residents are 3½ times more likely to face arrest.


** OP-ED
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** Langrehr: I-81 task force is MIA ([link removed])
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By DON LANGREHR, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

As the widening of a 5-mile Roanoke Valley stretch of Interstate 81 slowly proceeds, traffic accident deaths continue to mount. In recent weeks, three more Virginia residents died on this roadway in two separate crashes with tractor-trailers. News reports described the accidents as tractor-trailers striking the victims’ vehicles. In both collisions, the truck operators face charges in the tragic deaths of Kandy Poarch, Gary L. King and Janet W. Ridenhour.

Langrehr lives in Roanoke, works in Radford, and would prefer to not die on I-81.
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** Goldschmidt: What Virginia owes nurses ([link removed])
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By MARY KAY GOLDSCHMIDT, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Nurses have been at the forefront of caring for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic in Virginia, working long, arduous hours, day after day for almost a year now. We have often done so under dire circumstances, lacking sufficient personal protective equipment, working while sick and battling near-constant fatigue. Still, we have risen to the challenge.

Goldschmidt is Commissioner on Government Relations for the Virginia Nurses Association
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** Morris: It's not the state's money to tax ([link removed])
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By KENNON MORRIS, published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

In 2020, the federal government gave businesses a bridge loan called the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The purpose was to keep employees on the payroll during the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies had to submit an application with the formula for the number of employees and payroll per week, plus itemized expenses such as electricity to determine the amount of the loan. The amount was set up as loan from lending institutions, and the business signed the note and was given the money.

Morris is vice president of Northern Neck Lumber in Warsaw.


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