NORTHAM SAYS HE WOULD BACK REDISTRICTING AMENDMENT. WILL IT CLEAR THE HOUSE?

Democrats finally hold the power in Richmond, after being locked out for decades in part due to gerrymandering. How they’ll exercise that power over Virginia’s redistricting process could change the state’s politicking for decades. Lawmakers will convene in Richmond in January for a second and final look at a proposed constitutional amendment that would shift power over the drawing of legislative and congressional districts from the General Assembly to a 16-member commission of legislators and citizens.

FAMILY'S HOPES FOR PARDON FROM VIRGINIA GOVERNOR LANGUISH FOR YEARS

Believing their loved one is innocent of a murder-for-hire, the family of Jermaine Doss submitted a pardon request to then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe in May 2014. More than five years later, they still don’t have an answer.

VIRGINIA STATE CHRISTMAS TREES COME FROM FLOYD COUNTY

Two big pieces of Southwest Virginia will soon be headed to Richmond to help celebrate the holidays. Sweet Providence Farm in Floyd is providing this year’s state Christmas trees. The Fraser fir that will go in the main room of the governor’s mansion was cut down Tuesday

GOP 'UNLIKELY' TO FILL JUDGESHIPS WHILE IN CONTROL

Republicans are not likely to force a vote on empty judgeships — including a seat on the Virginia Court of Appeals — before they lose control of the General Assembly. Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, R-James City, and other Republican leaders say they see no way for the current assembly to meet to elect judges without bipartisan and bicameral agreement, even though three special legislative sessions have not been formally adjourned.

BILL AGAIN FILED TO END LICENSE SUSPENSIONS FOR COURT DEBT

The first bill prefiled by a Virginia senator for the upcoming General Assembly session seeks to end a policy of suspending driver’s licenses for unpaid court fines, which is also the subject of a lawsuit in a Charlottesville federal court. SB1, filed by Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Moneta, seeks to repeal the requirement that the driver’s license of a person convicted of violating the law who fails pay court fines be suspended.

INCREASINGLY DIVERSE GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO INCLUDE FIRST INDIAN AMERICAN MEMBERS

Washington Dulles International Airport is to Suhas Subramanyam what Ellis Island represents for many of his soon-to-be peers in the General Assembly. The airport, he says, was his mother’s gateway to the U.S., to Virginia, from her native India. Here she settled, here Subramanyam was born, and here he was elected to the Virginia statehouse.

FORMER DELEGATE WARD ARMSTRONG WILL MAKE BITTERSWEET JOURNEY BACK TO RICHMOND

Ward Armstrong hasn’t been in the House of Delegates chamber in Richmond during session since he was booted out as the Minority Leader for the Democrats and delegate for the 10th House District eight years ago. But he plans to end his hiatus in January, when he returns to see Eileen Filler-Corn sworn in as the new House Speaker

FREITAS TO CHALLENGE SPANBERGER FOR CONGRESSIONAL SEAT

Del. Nick Freitas, a Republican from Culpeper who was re-elected Nov. 5 in a write-in campaign, says he is running for the congressional seat held by Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th.

REPORT: HEALTH CARE ACCOUNTS FOR 20% OF PRISON EXPENSES

The price of medical care for Virginia’s 30,000 inmates now accounts for one-fifth of all operating expenses for state prisons and is driven in part by an aging inmate population, a new report says. The cost of inmate health care grew from roughly $140 million per year to more than $230 million in the decade that ended June 30, according to figures in the “Update on Inmate Health Care” report from the staff of the Virginia House Appropriations Committee.

VIRGINIA LOOKS TO UVA AND VCU FOR HELP AS PRISON HEALTH CARE COSTS SOAR

Facing soaring health care costs, inmate deaths linked to shoddy care and a subsequent federal lawsuit with no end in sight, Virginia’s prison system is turning to the state’s university hospital systems for help.

DIGGING DEEPER INTO THE JLARC GAMING REPORT

While a gaming casino in Bristol is expected to generate less revenue than others in larger cities statewide, its local impact could be the greatest, according to a new state gaming study.

REP. BEN CLINE'S FIRST YEAR IN CONGRESS

Rep. Ben Cline walked out of a meeting about the ballooning cost of higher education frustrated. He had just been defeated — again. Cline, a Republican from Botetourt County, put forward a pair of proposals to increase transparency and accountability at higher education institutions as well as to deal with the ease with which people are able to obtain tens of thousands of dollars in student loans. The House Education and Labor Committee, like Congress controlled by the majority party Democrats, swiftly killed his ideas.

WEXTON BILL WOULD USE CREDIT CARD DATA TO TRACK FIREARMS PURCHASES

Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) wants banks and credit card companies to flag purchases that could signal a person is preparing to carry out a mass shooting, a solution she said could circumvent the usual partisan debate on gun violence.

BIRD DEMAND GROWS, BUT STATE FARM NUMBERS SHRINK

When Ronney Cornwell, 67, of Mount Crawford, first started raising turkeys in 1983, they were a lot lighter. “You’d have a bird, 16 weeks old, weigh 13.25 pounds,” he said of heavy hens. “When these birds get 16 weeks old now, they’ll probably weigh 24 pounds — we’ve almost doubled the weight.”

PARTNERSHIP WANTS TO FILL ALMOST ALL HRBT CONTRACTS WITH A SMALL BUSINESS

Hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts are up for grabs for small, women-owned and minority-owned businesses in Hampton Roads, as planning begins on the enormous $3.86 billion project to fix the region’s biggest traffic headache. The seven-year-long effort to alleviate congestion along the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel is opening up a wide variety of contracting opportunities for businesses in the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise and Small, Women-owned and Minority-owned Business programs.

TEACHING RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Damariya Carlisle, age 9, jumped as an instructor hauled a crab pot onto the steel deck of the barge docked on the Elizabeth River, a Chesapeake tributary in Norfolk, Va. She marveled at the Atlantic blue crabs’ claws but worried they might pinch her. The visit was part of a fourth-grade class trip in October.

2020 CENSUS IN VIRGINIA: SOME GROUPS ARE LIKELY TO BE UNDERCOUNTED

More than a quarter of the state’s “hard-to-count” population lives in Hampton Roads, representing potentially millions of dollars in federal funding lost when the government attempts to count every resident next year. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, these groups of people have historically been at risk of being missed in the once-a-decade census at disproportionately high rates.

‘THEY JUST WEREN’T FIRST:’ VIRGINIA CHALLENGES PLYMOUTH FOR THANKSGIVING BRAGGING RIGHTS

Virginia wants you to know that nearly two years before the Pilgrims invented cranberry sauce at Plymouth Rock, or whatever, the real first English Thanksgiving took place here, along the James River. In particular, Virginia wants New England to know that. So last year, the folks marketing the 400th anniversary of a series of major Virginia historical events sent postcards to state and federal lawmakers in Massachusetts.

NEW BOARD BRINGS NEW LEADERSHIP, NEW PLANS

In November, Loudoun voters tipped the balance of power for political parties on the county board dramatically, reversing a 6-3 Republican majority on the Board of Supervisors. What will change as the government shifts to Democratic control? “People should not expect really drastic difference,” said re-elected County Chairwoman Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large).

ISOLATION, PARANOIA AND A $3,027 MISTAKE: A VIRGINIA BEACH ENGINEER’S PATH TO MASS MURDER

If the walls in DeWayne Craddock’s office could talk, they would tell co-workers as much about Craddock as he did. Nothing. They were bare. And then, shortly before he died, a sign of life. Craddock, an engineer for the city of Virginia Beach, put up a poster for the zombie television show “The Walking Dead.”

CHARLOTTESVILLE VOTES TO REMOVE ANOTHER STATUE, AND MORE CONTROVERSY FOLLOWS

When the Charlottesville City Council voted this month to remove a prominent statue depicting Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and Sacagawea from the city’s downtown core, it marked the third time in three years the city acted to banish a long-standing statue it determined to be divisive, a vestige of racism or culturally insensitive.

SOME LYNCHBURG CITIZENS CALL FOR 'SECOND AMENDMENT SANCTUARY' STATUS

The Second Amendment sanctuary trend has hit Lynchburg. An online petition calling for Lynchburg to become a Second Amendment sanctuary garnered more than 400 votes two days after being posted and reached more than 550 votes by Friday.

QUESTIONS LINGER: WHAT WILL SECOND AMENDMENT SANCTUARY ENFORCEMENT LOOK LIKE?

The ever growing number of Second Amendment sanctuary declarations in Virginia makes it clear residents are concerned about preserving their gun rights. How local law enforcement agencies will mete out justice of a largely symbolic measure that varies from locality to locality remains much less clear.

SHERIFF ENDORSES SECOND AMENDMENT RESOLUTION AT GREENE COUNTY HEARING

Greene County residents packed the county meeting room, hallway and rallied outside the county administration building Tuesday night to encourage the county Board of Supervisors to adopt a Second Amendment Sanctuary Resolution. As of Nov. 28, 22 counties in Virginia, including Madison County, have passed resolutions to become Second Amendment sanctuaries if the state legislature passes gun restrictions in its next session.

NORTON COUNCILMAN BRINGING GUN RIGHTS SANCTUARY RESOLUTION TO AGENDA TUESDAY

A growing list of Second Amendment sanctuary calls will include Norton on Tuesday, when a city council member will present his own for consideration. Councilman Mark Caruso, a tourism business owner and licensed gun dealer, hopes to see council pass a resolution similar to what has been passed by nine Virginia county boards of supervisors in recent weeks.

AN OVERWORKED OFFICE VERSUS A BASIC TASK

In court and outside of it, attorneys embroiled in Danville’s federal court case involving the Rollin’ 60s Crips said they had more evidence and documents to sift through than with any case they’d ever done. Jimmy Turk, a longtime defense attorney in southwest Virginia, said after his client took a plea deal that this case had the most discovery — that is, pertinent information the prosecution must provide to defense attorneys — of any case he’d ever seen.

VIRGINIA HAS A SANCTUARY PROBLEM

What if your political party won an election that gave it complete control of the state government for the first time in decades, but some local officials decided that they aren’t going to enforce the new laws you pass if they don’t agree with them? That’s not a hypothetical situation. That’s exactly what’s happening in counties across Virginia as more than a dozen local boards of supervisors have either passed, or are considering, resolutions declaring them Second Amendment sanctuaries

LAW PRESERVING FREEDOM OF ACTION SHOULD STAY

The bottom line is this: Should you be pressured to join a cause you don’t believe in? No. Should you be compelled to contribute to such a cause, just to hold a job? Of course not. Freedom from pressure. Freedom from compulsion. The ability to choose. That, in essence, is what Virginia’s so-called right-to-work law is all about.

VIRGINIA URANIUM'S 'HAIL, HAIL MARY' PASS

Just this past summer, Virginia Uranium Inc. (VUI) reached the end of the legal road when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments that Virginia’s decades-old moratorium on mining uranium was illegal under federal law. Lawyers for VUI, based in the Pittsylvania County seat of Chatham, argued that the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 superseded any state regulation of the industry and any steps along the production process.

COULD HEMP BE SAVIOR OF STATE'S FARMS?

Back in the late 1980s and 1990s when it became painfully clear to Virginia’s tobacco farmers that the future of the commonwealth’s cash crop was not too bright, everyone was casting about for a new crop to raise that could replace the dollars tobacco generated.

WHEN HURRICANE SEASON ENDS

After a slow start, the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season roared to life in late summer, giving birth to a dozen powerful storms that caused considerable damage to coastal communities from the Caribbean to Canada. Now that it is has formally concluded — the season officially lasts to Nov. 30 — it’s critical that Virginia does not lose sight of that tropical threat

WHAT WILL WE DO WITH THE STATUES ONCE THEY'RE TAKEN DOWN?

“Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts,” Paul Simon once sang. He never sang, though, about what happens to those heroes when the next generation comes along.

PPAS OFFER A FINANCIAL BRIGHT SIDE FOR OUR SCHOOLS

For cash-strapped schools across the commonwealth, every dollar counts. More educational institutions across Virginia are embracing clean energy as a tool for environmental — and financial — sustainability. A report released last month from Generation180, a Charlottesville clean energy nonprofit, documents the scope of Virginia schools going solar. Since 2017, the number of K-12 schools using solar energy tripled from 29 to 86 locations.

ROANOKE'S 40-YEAR CHALLENGE

The hot thing on social media right now is the “10-year challenge” — to post a picture of yourself from when the decade began and one now to see the changes. If Roanoke did the same, we’d want those pictures to be from the area around Jefferson Street and Reserve Avenue. In 2010, that area was a combination of industrial brownfields and a construction zone that was giving rise to the medical school and research institute that opened later that year.

NEWSPAPERS STORIES DON'T JUST HAPPEN

“Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country,” the New York newspaper editor Horace Greeley supposedly advised. There’s some dispute as to whether Greeley really said that, but there’s no doubt that lots of people took that advice. One of them was a young man from Bedford County named M.H. Claytor. A natural-born entrepreneur, Claytor went to Texas, where he started and then sold newspapers in San Antonio and Dallas. With money in his pocket, the 32-year-old Claytor came home in 1886

REFORMING MENTAL HEALTH

Sen. Creigh Deeds, a Democrat from Bath County and the party’s 2009 nominee for governor, has for the last six years waged a relentless battle to improve mental health care in the commonwealth. He is not alone, and though much progress has been made, following through on a promising plan to reform Virginia’s mental health care system must be a priority in next year’s legislative session.

VIRGINIA’S GUN LOBBY WANTS TO BE ABOVE THE LAW

Vigilantism, with its alluring tingle of defiance and frontier justice, conjures a cinematic idea of American individualism. A similar impulse is at work among advocates of the so-called Second Amendment sanctuary movement, a trend in mainly rural counties declaring they will refuse to enforce restrictive state gun laws. Both are examples of individuals who, lacking legal authority, put themselves above the law, thereby promoting chaos.

CASEY: EASY PATH TO SLAPP SUITS UNDER SCRUTINY BY VIRGINIA LAWMAKERS

Next month, Virginia Democrats assume complete control of the General Assembly for the first time since 1995. Many are expecting legislative action on gun control, the Equal Rights Amendment, repeal of abortion restrictions and increases to the minimum wage. Another issue is also beginning to draw Democratic lawmakers’ attention, and it has national political implications. It’s the commonwealth’s relatively weak law regarding court actions known as SLAPPs, or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.

MILLER: AFFORDABILITY REMAINS THE FOCUS FOR COLLEGES

One of the hottest topics in higher education is affordability. Unless you are among the nation’s exclusive (and expensive) colleges and universities, you are undoubtedly focusing 24/7 on making your institution affordable. This is true for many public as well as private institutions. It’s all in the numbers. First, there’s the dramatic drop in the traditional market of 18-to-21-year-old students, a trend that is forecasted to continue until 2026.

Scott D. Miller is president of Virginia Wesleyan University in Virginia Beach

CUMMING: DOWN TO THE ENTRYWAY OF HIGHER EDUCATION

For millions of Americans, community college is the gateway to higher education, job skills and a better life. This fall, for me, community college has been a gateway in the other direction. It led me, temporarily, out of the bubble of elite higher education.

Cumming is an associate professor of journalism at Washington & Lee University.

RATKE: 2020 CENSUS: WE ALL COUNT

David was kicked out of school for his aggressive behaviors related to autism. Tonya was moved from one foster home to another because many people are reluctant to adopt teens with a history of trauma. Matthew, who has developmental disabilities, was not able to work because employers did not know how to utilize his unique skills. At Lutheran Family Services of Virginia (LFSVA), we saw abundant possibilities for these individuals

Ray Ratke is CEO of Lutheran Family Services of Virginia.

SANNER: NEW VIRGINIA LEADERSHIP SHOULD LOOK TO BLUEPRINT FOR CLEAN WATER, CLIMATE ACTION AND GREEN JOBS

Even before the November election it was clear that the environment is a top issue for Virginia voters, highlighted both in candidate campaigns and polls. In our region, all environmental issues are linked to the Chesapeake Bay. When the commonwealth supports programs to clean up the bay and its rivers, it also is taking steps to address climate change, improve the quality of life in communities and create green jobs.

Peggy Sanner is the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Virginia assistant director and senior attorney.

KIRWIN: VIRGINIANS, INCLUDING REPUBLICANS, SHOULD SUPPORT WIND ENERGY

With the recent elections, Democrats will control both the Virginia General Assembly and the Executive Mansion. Legislatively, the political debate over the existence of climate change is moot. The General Assembly will act. What the correct actions are will be the only question. I won’t pretend to have the magic answer, but I am sure that solutions must be economically sustainable, and it is essential that any solutions are pro-growth and create jobs. Fortunately, both are possible

Brian Kirwin is a Republican political consultant from Virginia Beach.

A STRIKE IN VIRGINIA WILL DETERMINE THE FUTURE OF THE AREA’S PUBLIC TRANSIT

More than a year ago, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and WMATA General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld chose to contract out the new Cinder Bed Road Metrobus garage in Lorton. They brought in Transdev, a massive French corporation, to handle the garage’s operations and maintenance. Wiedefeld claimed the move would save the agency money.

Raymond Jackson is president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689.

FULLMER: MORE EARLY VOTING DAYS ARE GOOD, BUT MORE SITES WOULD BETTER

Last month, the Virginia State Board of Elections recommended that the commonwealth create a 45-day early voting window for the 2020 elections. If adopted, any voter could cast a ballot as early as late September, potentially before the presidential nominees have even debated one another. Virginia would match five states — Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, South Dakota and Vermont — with the longest early vote window in the nation. The average window in early voting states is 19 days.

Elliott Fullmer is an associate professor of political science and director of the Washington Initiative at Randolph-Macon College.

LAURANT: FULL CIRCLE AT LAST? OR NOT

Parole of Haysoms’ killers puts 1980s crime in spotlight again Most true murder stories have a short shelf life. An arrest is made, a trial takes place, and either guilt or innocence is decided. And the world moves on, the mystery either solved or set aside. That, however, has not been the case with the gruesome 1985 demise of Derek and Nancy Haysom in their Boonsboro home.

Laurant is a retired News & Advance columnist.

MORSE: CHANGE IN LEGISLATIVE STAFF MEANS LOSS OF CONTINUITY

Paul Nardo, clerk of the Virginia House of Delegates got hustled out the door on Monday by the incoming Democratic Party majority. The new rulers canned him, basically. Robert Vaughan, the able, if occasionally proud, staff director of the House Appropriations Committee — a 37-year veteran of state budget wrestling — got the hook, too. OK, something happened — something called an election.

After writing editorials for The Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot in the 1980s, Gordon C. Morse wrote speeches for Gov. Gerald L. Baliles, then spent nearly three decades working on behalf of corporate and philanthropic organizations

KILGORE: THINK TWICE BEFORE CALLING COALFIELD APPALACHIANS RACISTS AND SEXISTS

During President Obama’s reelection bid, a radio commentator stated with certainty that the conservative “hillbilly firewall” would hinder a second term in the states with sizable Appalachian districts. The prediction was not a compliment to our mountain region on many fronts but does prove that stereotyping mountain residents appears to be the last politically correct bigotry promoted by much of the media.

Kilgore is a lawyer, historian, author and founder of the Appalachian College of Pharmacy in Buchanan County. He lives in St. Paul.