Today's Sponsor: CGI

VaNews Oct. 22, 2019
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Today's Sponsor:


** CGI
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CGI congratulates DGS and eVA on its recent award for innovation ([link removed]) - 2019 Government Experience Award from the Center for Digital Government.

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


** FROM VPAP
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** VISUALIZATION: THE FIRST MILLION-DOLLAR SEPTEMBER ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

In the many fundraising records broken in this year's General Assembly elections, one number really stands out. Democratic Senate candidate Debra Rodman raised $1 million in the latest reporting period -- nearly double the previous record for the month of September before an election. VPAP looks back at the previous high-water marks for September, going back to the days when $100,000 was a really big deal.


** OPEN SEAT PROFILE: HD 73 IN HENRICO COUNTY ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

House District 73 became an open seat when freshman Del. Debra Rodman (D-Henrico) decided to run for the State Senate. The district includes portions of western Henrico County and a portion of one precinct in Richmond. VPAP provides maps and charts that explore the district's demographics, voter engagement and partisan tendencies in recent statewide elections.


** EXECUTIVE BRANCH
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** LEADERS PITCH BRISTOL, OTHER VA. SITES TO AMAZON EXECS AT ROUNDTABLE ([link removed])
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By DAVID MCGEE, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

A trio of Amazon executives listened attentively, took notes and acknowledged a dialogue centered on workforce training, education and broadband during a Monday afternoon economic roundtable. Gov. Ralph Northam, members of his cabinet and the area’s legislative delegation hosted the executives along with educators, business leaders and economic developers anxious to convince the online retail giant to consider Virginia sites outside the Crystal City-Arlington area,


** SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA SEEKS OPPORTUNITY FROM AMAZON ([link removed])
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By AMY FRIEDENBERGER, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Amazon officials made their first visit to far Southwest Virginia this week to give local legislators and economic development leaders the chance to pitch the region’s assets so it can have a stake in the company’s second headquarters that will open in Northern Virginia.


** GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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** PARTISAN DIVIDE REMAINS ON PLANS TO MANDATE PAID SICK LEAVE IN VIRGINIA ([link removed])
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By NED OLIVER, Virginia Mercury

A bipartisan panel of lawmakers reviewing proposals that would require Virginia businesses to give their employees paid sick and family leave adjourned for the year without offering a recommendation one way or the other.


** STATE ELECTIONS
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** NEW PAC AD HITS DUNNAVANT AND STURTEVANT BY LINKING THEM TO SEN. AMANDA CHASE ([link removed])
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By PATRICK WILSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

A California PAC hoping to help elect female progressive candidates in Virginia is launching an ad tying state Sens. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, and Glen Sturtevant, R-Chesterfield, to an embattled member of their caucus — Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield.


** RODMAN, DUNNAVANT RELEASE ATTACK ADS ([link removed])
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By PATRICK WILSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, and challenger Del. Debra Rodman, D-Henrico, are amping up their attack ads in what is already the biggest-spending Virginia Senate race for TV ads.


** 12TH SENATE DISTRICT CANDIDATES DEBATE ISSUES, CONTROVERSIES ([link removed])
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By MORGAN EDWARDS, VCU Capital News Service

It may have been Friday night lights around Virginia for high school football, but in the political field, the two candidates competing for the Senate District 12 seat took to the stage to debate key issues. Incumbent Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, faced off against challenger Del. Debra Rodman, D-Henrico, in front of an audience of about 60 people at Virginia’s home for Public Media’s station in Chesterfield County.


** BELL, ALCORN TALK SCHOOL FUNDING, REDISTRICTING ([link removed])
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By TYLER HAMMEL, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

For the second time, House of Delegates incumbent Republican Rob Bell and Democrat Elizabeth Alcorn made their cases to voters at a candidate forum in Fluvanna County. Del. Bell, R-Albemarle, has represented the 58th District — which covers Greene County and parts of Albemarle, Fluvanna and Rockingham counties — since 2002. Alcorn, a retired dentist and small-business owner from Dyke, is a rare challenger in the consistently red district.


** DEMOCRATS COLLABORATE ON RURAL GROUND GAME ([link removed])
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By SANDY HAUSMAN, WVTF

On a rainy Sunday in Southern Albemarle County, a dozen people have gathered at a local cidery to meet candidate Tim Hickey – a Democrat running for State Delegate in the 59th district. “The 59th district runs from southern Albemarle County down through the eastern part of Nelson County and includes all of Buckingham, all of Appomatox and most of Campbell County,” the candidate says.


** ELECTION INTEGRITY SEMINAR SPOTLIGHTS NEW SECURITY MEASURES ([link removed])
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By CJ PASCHALL, WHSV

With Election Day 2019 just two weeks away, local and state officials met for a seminar on Sunday to address just how secure Virginia's elections really are. The event, Sunday Seminar “Election Integrity”, was organized by the League of Women Voters. The League says the forum was to give voters an opportunity to ask questions of election officials and highlight the steps the state has taken since election systems in several states were breached in 2016.


** STATE GOVERNMENT
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** TASK FORCE SEEKS TO END VIRGINIA'S RACIAL DISPARITIES IN MATERNAL MORTALITY ([link removed])
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By LUANNE RIFE, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

A meeting on preventing maternal deaths had stretched into its second hour when a woman in the audience stood, her pregnancy apparent. Dr. Rochanda Mitchell, a fellow at the University of Virginia, said she plans to give birth where she works, as it’s the best place for herself and her newborn should they run into complications. But that isn’t the only reason. She also thought about her skin color. “If I were to go to another hospital in labor, they don’t know who I am, an implicit bias might come in,” she said.


** CHESTERFIELD, HENRICO AMONG LOCAL COURT SYSTEMS WITH MOST CLERK STAFF VACANCIES ([link removed])
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By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Chesterfield and Henrico counties are among the state’s five localities with the largest number of vacancies in their general district court clerk’s offices. Virginia judicial officials are seeking $11.2 million in the next state budget to fill less than half of the 276 open deputy clerk positions statewide.


** BODY-WORN CAMERAS: HELP NEEDED ON TIME-CONSUMING POLICE FOOTAGE ([link removed])
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By MAURA MAZUROWSKI, Virginia Lawyers Weekly (Paywall for some articles)

Public defenders are no strangers to long hours. But as police departments continue to adopt use of body-worn cameras, lawyers are seeking help to maintain an ever-growing workload. “Going through body-worn footage takes a tremendous amount of time that’s an addition to what [lawyers] have already been doing,” said David Johnson, executive director of the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission.


** ERROR RESULTS IN PROJECT DELAY, $1M IN ADDED COSTS ([link removed])
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By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The expansion of Western State Hospital in Staunton will be delayed by nine months and inflate costs by about $1 million because an architect working with a state agency based drawings for the $22.3 million project on an outdated building code. Leaders of the House Appropriations Committee reacted with outrage Monday to a revelation by state mental health officials that the 56-bed expansion of the mental institution won’t be done until April 2021, a delay that comes during a crisis in overcrowding at state mental hospitals.


** ECONOMY/BUSINESS
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** SOUTHSIDE ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE SAYS BROADBAND PROJECT IS TOO COSTLY TO PURSUE IN 18-COUNTY COVERAGE AREA ([link removed])
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By SARAH HONOSKY, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

As demands for broadband grow in Appomattox County, residents hoped to see the third primary electrical provider in the county fill the void of underserved and unserved areas. But despite growing demands, Southside Electric Cooperative announced Monday steep project costs are preventing them from moving forward with broadband at this time.


** TRANSPORTATION
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** IT COULD COST $800 MILLION TO BUILD I-64′S NEW TOLL LANES ([link removed])
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By DAVE RESS, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Tackling Hampton Roads’ chronic traffic jams with an HOT lane — high occupancy toll — network will mean roughly $800 million worth of roadwork, the Virginia Department of Transportation estimates in new figures released this week. The aim is to create a dedicated HOT lane and part-time shoulder lane for HOT traffic — lanes equipped to charge variable tolls depending on how fast traffic is moving — on Interstate 64 from Jefferson Avenue in Newport News through an expanded Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel and on to Bowers Hill in Chesapeake.


** VIRGINIA TRANSPORTATION LEADERS ADVANCE 31 PROJECTS TO IMPROVE INTERSTATE 81 ([link removed])
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By TIM SAUNDERS, WDBJ

Plans to widen 13 miles of Interstate 81 in Roanoke and Botetourt counties are among more than two dozen projects advanced by the Commonwealth Transportation Board last week, in an effort to address safety and improve traffic flow on the busy highway. The action last week by the CTB, which added 31 projects to Virginia's six-year highway improvement program, is designed to support initiatives of the Interstate 81 Corridor Improvement Program.


** VIRGINIA OTHER
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** DIOCESE REMOVES PRIEST WHO ADMITTED CONTACT WITH MINOR ([link removed])
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Associated Press

A northern Virginia priest has been removed from his parish after the Catholic Diocese of Arlington says he admitted to sexual contact with a minor. Arlington Bishop Michael Burbidge said in a letter written over the weekend that Christopher Mould is no longer pastor of St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Clifton.


** LOCAL
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** 80 YEARS LATER, ALEXANDRIA LIBRARY SIT-IN ARREST CHARGES ARE DISMISSED ([link removed])
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By PATRICIA SULLIVAN, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

It was the quietest of protests. Five young African American men sat reading at separate tables in Alexandria’s new whites-only library on Queen Street. They had just been refused library cards; in 1939, that was a privilege off-limits to black citizens. But the demonstration caused an uproar.


** SCRUTINY OF PUBLIC FINANCING INTENSIFIES AFTER $1.5B DOWNTOWN REDEVELOPMENT DEAL​ CLEARS PLANNING COMMISSION ([link removed])
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By MARK ROBINSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Days after clearing a procedural hurdle, the $1.5 billion plan to redevelop downtown Richmond around a new arena is facing renewed scrutiny for its reliance on a special tax zone. The Richmond Planning Commission last week unanimously endorsed six ordinances pertaining to zoning, right-of-way changes and the sale of city-owned land for the massive project, helping it move through a multi-pronged review process that will end with a final vote by the City Council.


** MONEY POURING INTO DANVILLE PARI-MUTUEL MEASURE AS COMPANY GIVES $150,000 TO CAMPAIGN ([link removed])
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By JOHN R. CRANE, Danville Register & Bee

More than $200,000 has been contributed to the campaign to convince voters to allow pari-mutuel betting in Danville on Nov. 5. Peninsula Pacific Entertainment LLC gave $150,000 to the political action committee Danville Wins with Pari-Mutuel on Oct. 15, according to the Virginia Department of Elections website.

Today's Sponsor:


** CGI
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CGI congratulates DGS and eVA on its recent award for innovation ([link removed]) - 2019 Government Experience Award from the Center for Digital Government.


** EDITORIALS
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** OF 530,000 CONVICTIONS, STATE FINDS 13 INNOCENTS ([link removed])
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Free Lance-Star Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

It has taken 18 years, but the Virginia Forensic Science Board has managed to sort through 530,000 old cases from between 1973 and 1988 in which investigators collected biological evidence in anticipation of the development of DNA testing technology. That the investigators saved that evidence was both fortuitous and prophetic.


** DO NOT REST AFTER IMPROVED ACCREDITATION SCORES ([link removed])
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Daily Press Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

In Chesapeake, staff and students celebrated with bright blue balloons. In Hampton, a group of alumni hired an airplane to tow a banner over the city declaring victory. Accreditation scores were a cause célèbre in several school divisions across Hampton Roads in recent weeks, including Hampton and Chesapeake where 100% of schools were accredited.


** HIGH-SPEED HOPES ([link removed])
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Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

During weekday rush hours, as well as weekends, dozens of cars and rideshares jockey for space at Amtrak’s Staples Mill Road station. Each day, four different rail lines — the Palmetto, the Silver Service, the Carolinian and the Northeast Regional — connect passengers to points due north (as far as Boston) and south (as far as Miami). Amtrak is right to call Staples Mill a “major rail hub.”


** OP-ED
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** REYNOLDS: VIRGINIA CHAMBERS SHOULD RENOUNCE PIPELINES ([link removed])
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By ED REYNOLDS, Published in the Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

The national media headlines read. "After skepticism, U.S. Chamber of Commerce forms Climate-Change Task Force.”

Reynolds is retired from a global engineering and technology company. He has worked in the Roanoke city schools for the last eight years as a volunteer and substitute teacher.
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