Today's Sponsor: Gentry Locke Government & Regulatory Affairs

VaNews Dec. 9, 2019
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Today's Sponsor:


** Gentry Locke Government & Regulatory Affairs
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Celebrating one year as part of the Capitol Square community. Learn more about our growing team at [link removed]

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


** FROM VPAP
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** VISUALIZATION: HOUSE ELECTIONS COST A RECORD $66 MILLION ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

Virginia House of Delegates candidates spent $66 million, a third more than the previous election cycle record, set just two years ago. Spending was driven by a record number of major-party contested races (64 out of 100) and money from groups outside Virginia seeking to help Democrats recapture control of the General Assembly for the first time in a generation.


** VISUALIZATION: THE WRITE-IN WINNERS ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

Last month, 44 candidates won elections across Virginia despite the fact that their names did not appear on the ballot. VPAP looks at which elected offices are most likely to include write-in winners (Soil and Water Conservation Board, anyone?) and shows just how few votes it took some candidates to gain office.


** EXECUTIVE BRANCH
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** NORTHAM SUSPENDS POLICY THAT ALLOWED 8-YEAR-OLD GIRL TO BE STRIP SEARCHED ([link removed])
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By GARY A. HARKI, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Gov. Ralph Northam has suspended a portion of a Virginia Department of Corrections policy that permitted strip searches of minors. An 8-year-old girl was strip searched in late November at Buckingham Correctional Center in Dillwyn before being allowed to visit her father. “I am deeply disturbed by these reports — not just as governor but as a pediatrician and a dad,” Northam wrote in a statement sent Friday morning to The Virginian-Pilot.


** NORTHAM SUSPENDS POLICY ALLOWING STRIP SEARCH OF 8-YEAR-OLD GIRL AT VIRGINIA PRISON ([link removed])
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By FRANK GREEN, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Gov. Ralph Northam has halted a Virginia Department of Corrections policy that allows the strip-searching of children following the search of an 8-year-old girl at the Buckingham Correctional Center on Nov. 24. In a statement Friday, Northam said, “I am deeply disturbed by these reports — not just as governor, but as a pediatrician and a dad. I’ve directed the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security to suspend this policy


** VIRGINIA GOVERNOR TO UNVEIL BUDGET PRIORITIES ([link removed])
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Associated Press

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is set to unveil some of his top spending priorities ahead of next year’s legislative session. The governor, a Democrat, has a news conference planned Monday to preview a budget proposal.


** VIRGINIA LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR SEEKS VINDICATION IN COURT ([link removed])
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By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press

Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax says he's done everything he can to clear his name after two women accused him of sexual assault: he's requested police investigations, taken a lie-detector test and begged the media to report on evidence he says exonerates him. On Friday, he tried another approach as he went to federal court in Alexandria to pursue a libel lawsuit against CBS Corp. for airing interviews of the two women who accused him in a way that he says insinuated his guilt.


** GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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** DEMOCRATS' VOTING PROPOSALS INCLUDE SCRAPPING PHOTO ID REQUIREMENT, ALLOWING NO-EXCUSE ABSENTEE BALLOTING ([link removed])
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By MEL LEONOR, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Registered voters in Virginia could find themselves with ample time to cast election ballots, no questions asked, under proposed voting reforms widely supported by Democrats. Democrats — who will now control the General Assembly and veto pen — have long supported easing the voter experience to allow more Virginians to participate.


** STATE ELECTIONS
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** "ARE YOU READY TO START WINNING AGAIN?" AFTER MORE LOSSES, VIRGINIA REPUBLICANS COME TOGETHER FOR ANNUAL EVENT ([link removed])
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By AMY FRIEDENBERGER, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

It’s been one month since Republicans suffered defeat at the ballot box that resulted in Democrats taking control of the General Assembly, and they’re drinking a lot of booze in the remote mountains of Bath County. In rooms throughout the Omni Homestead Resort on Friday night, macaroons and cream puffs covered tables as a few hundred Republican activists filtered in and out to mingle with their peers. In one room, they sipped liquor brought from the distillery owned by the wife of Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Nelson.


** VIRGINIA REPUBLICANS LOOK FOR A WAY OUT OF THE WOODS ([link removed])
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By LAURA VOZZELLA, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Virginia Republicans, deep in the political wilderness after yet another election loss, gathered at a posh mountain resort to try to reverse their decade-long slide. For members of a party that has not won a statewide election since 2009 and just lost control of the state House and Senate, the most fervent hope was that the GOP’s fortunes can’t sink any lower. “We’re at rock bottom,” said Matt Colt Hall, a southwest Virginia native and political commentator for the conservative blog Bearing Drift.


** MONEY TALKS — AND IT WAS LOUD IN THE FINAL DAYS OF THE ‘19 GENERAL ASSEMBLY CAMPAIGN ([link removed])
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By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Who’d have thought a job that pays $17,640 to $18,000 a year was worth quite so much? Turns out, some relative newcomers to Virginia politics, as a look at some of the campaign finance spending for the final 10 days of this year’s General Assembly election campaign shows.


** FEDERAL ELECTIONS
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** KAINE SAYS HE'S NOT READY TO ENDORSE IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY ([link removed])
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By MEL LEONOR, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is not ready to weigh in on the Democratic primary for president, saying in an interview on Friday that he’s not sure if he will endorse a candidate by the time Virginians cast their ballots on Super Tuesday, March 3. “When my gut says, I think this person would be a good president, I think they can win and I think they can win Virginia — I have sort of three tests — then I will endorse them,” Kaine told reporters and editors at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “My gut is just not answering those questions right now.”


** STATE GOVERNMENT
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** STATE SENTENCING GUIDELINES: DOES THE PUNISHMENT FIT THE CRIME? ([link removed])
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By EVAN GOODENOW, Winchester Star (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Seven months. That’s the jail time Evan John Bender received when he was sentenced in Frederick County Circuit Court on Nov. 26. It’s also the amount of jail time Alessandrew Rashaun Williams got on Aug. 16. Bender, 27, pleaded no contest to abduction, assault, and strangulation charges ... Williams, 23, pleaded no contest to marijuana distribution and possession of hashish oil charges involving less than two pounds of pot


** NEW RESEARCH AUTHORITY FOCUSED ON ENERGY ALTERNATIVES IN SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA ([link removed])
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By AMY FRIEDENBERGER, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

A new research authority has its sights set on promoting opportunities for energy development in Southwest Virginia. The Southwest Virginia Energy Research Authority met in Abingdon on Friday to discuss how it can help grow the region’s economy and review ideas for how to accomplish that goal. The group formed this fall following the passage of a new law, and this was only its second meeting.


** MISGUIDED SCIENCE OF EUGENICS HAD ROOTS AT CENTRAL VIRGINIA TRAINING CENTER ([link removed])
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By CARRIE J. SIDENER, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

The doctors and nurses of the institution now known as the Central Virginia Training Center had a philanthropic goal: to care for those who had no place else to go. But as more patients were admitted in the 1920s to the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and the Feebleminded, the institution found itself at the center of the now-discredited eugenics movement, defined as the science of improving the human race by controlling who can have children.


** 'IT'S GOING TO BE MISSED WHEN IT'S GONE': AMHERST COUNTY RESIDENTS MOURN LOSS OF CVTC ([link removed])
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By JUSTIN FAULCONER, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Growing up on Colony Road three decades ago, John Grieser never imagined Central Virginia Training Center - the once-bustling economic engine for his native Old Town Madison Heights - would one day cease to exist. “It had its own ZIP code at one time,” Grieser said of the 390-acre campus next door to his childhood home that for decades served as Amherst County’s largest employer.


** CONGRESS
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** KAINE SUPPORTS MODIFYING VIRGINIA’S RIGHT-TO-WORK LAW ([link removed])
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By BEN PAVIOUR, WCVE

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va) says he supports changes to Virginia’s right-to-work law but not wholesale repeal, in a shift from his earlier comments on the topic. Speaking to reporters after a keynote speech at Virginia Chamber’s Virginia Economic Summit on Friday, Kaine said he thinks workers shouldn’t be forced to join unions. But he said he also wants to prevent freeloaders from benefiting from union bargaining.


** GUN CONTROL, IMPEACHMENT CREATED HEATED TOWN HALL HOSTED BY SPANBERGER ([link removed])
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By CATHY DYSON, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Abigail Spanberger opened Sunday’s town hall in Spotsylvania County with updates on federal issues she’s been working on in Congress, such as lowering prescription prices and negotiating a trade agreement, but talk quickly turned instead to topics that have dominated local and national news in recent weeks.


** SPANBERGER, WITTMAN PROPOSE BIPARTISAN LEGISLATION EXPANDING USE OF 529 FUNDS ([link removed])
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By ADELE UPHAUS–CONNER, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Fredericksburg-area congressional representatives Abigail Spanberger, D–7th District, and Rob Wittman, R–1st District, introduced bipartisan legislation Friday to expand the use of 529 college savings accounts to include workforce programs for students. The bill, called the Freedom to Invest in Tomorrow’s Workforce Act, would allow students to use their 529 funds to pay for training, certification and credentialing programs, in addition to traditional two- or four-year college degree programs.


** MILITARY HOUSING CONTRACTORS SAY THEY’RE TRYING TO DO BETTER. LAWMAKERS TELL THEM TO TRY HARDER. ([link removed])
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By HUGH LESSIG, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Months after vowing to improve poor living conditions, privatized military housing contractors returned to Capitol Hill Thursday, facing lawmakers who demanded more progress. Five companies, including those that manage thousands of homes in Hampton Roads, recited a litany of reforms to the House Armed Services readiness panel in the course of a 90-minute hearing.


** ECONOMY/BUSINESS
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** MOMENT IN THE SUN: AIRCRAFT CARRIER JOHN F. KENNEDY CHRISTENED AT NEWPORT NEWS SHIPBUILDING ([link removed])
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By HUGH LESSIG, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

The aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy was christened Saturday at Newport News Shipbuilding with a salute to a hero of America’s greatest generation and a look ahead to a new frontier in warship construction. With the crash of a bottle against its hull, sponsor Caroline Kennedy revisited the role she played as a 9-year-old in 1967, when she launched the first aircraft carrier in her father’s name.


** WATER TREATMENT PLANT IS FIRST OF ITS KIND FOR U.S. TEXTILE MAKERS ([link removed])
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By DAVID MCGEE, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

American Merchant expects to use 300,000 gallons of water daily and will employ a $2.5 million state-of-the-art plant to treat it. About 70% of that water is expected to be recycled and reused in the towel-making process with the balance dumped into the city’s sewer treatment system, company Chairman Robert Burton said. “This is the most advanced water treatment facility the U.S. textile industry has ever witnessed.


** VIRGINIA’S ‘CLEANEST-BURNING COAL PLANT’ RACKS UP THIRD CONSENT ORDER FOR AIR POLLUTION VIOLATIONS ([link removed])
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By SARAH VOGELSONG, Virginia Mercury

A Southwestern Virginia power plant praised by Dominion Energy as “one of the cleanest-burning coal plants in the country” has agreed to consent orders for violating state environmental laws more times than any other Dominion facility in Virginia since 2002, despite only being in operation seven years.


** TRANSPORTATION
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** FAIRFAX CONNECTOR BUS SERVICE TO RESUME ON MONDAY ([link removed])
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By JUSTIN GEORGE, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Fairfax Connector bus workers have ended a strike as a union and a county contractor agreed to continue negotiating toward a new contract without a work stoppage, officials said Sunday. Regular bus service on all 91 Connector routes is expected to resume on Monday in time for the morning commute,


** VIRGINIA OTHER
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** VIRGINIA RISES RANKS IN NATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH REPORT ([link removed])
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By BRIDGET BALCH, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Virginia has improved its national ranking on public health indicators, from 20th last year to 15th this year, according to a new national report by the United Health Foundation. State highlights include decreases in smoking, air pollution and infant mortality, but a significant increase in drug-related deaths, an increase in chlamydia and more frequent mental distress, the report says.


** LOCAL
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** FAIRFAX OFFICIALS PREPPING NOW FOR BUSY 2020 ELECTION CYCLE ([link removed])
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By BRIAN TROMPETER, Inside NOVA

Fairfax County supervisors, concerned about the dearth of parking and possible security risks for students, said Dec. 3 they favored that schools used for polling be closed for classes during elections. “By law, you can’t stop people from going into the voting place,” said Supervisor John Cook (R-Braddock), who noted that the elementary school in his precinct held a field day during this year’s June 11 primary.


** OVERFLOW CROWD TURNS OUT IN BLUE COUNTY TO SUPPORT SECOND AMENDMENT ([link removed])
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By STEPHEN GUTOWSKI, Washington Free Beacon

An overflow crowd of gun-rights supporters turned out on Tuesday evening to the Democratic-controlled Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meeting to push the locality to declare it would not help enforce unconstitutional gun laws.


** SECOND AMENDMENT SANCTUARY RESOLUTIONS A BAROMETER FOR THE SHIFTING POLITICS IN RICHMOND'S SUBURBS ([link removed])
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By C. SUAREZ ROJAS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Since November’s general election, more than 40 Virginia localities -- nearly all of them in rural areas -- have adopted resolutions declaring themselves a "sanctuary" for gun owners, hoping to send a message to state lawmakers before the legislative session begins in January.


** AFTER THE MASS SHOOTING, 450 VIRGINIA BEACH CITY EMPLOYEES ASKED FOR WORKERS’ COMP. MOST WERE FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL REASONS. ([link removed])
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By ELISHA SAUERS, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

A city office assistant was on the way to the restroom when she saw a man shoot three people dead about 50 paces ahead. She yanked out her earbuds. The country music she had been listening to was supplanted with pops and screams and the panicked whisper of her supervisor pleading for her to hide with her.


** SPOTSYLVANIA MAY BAN EMPLOYEES FROM SERVING ON BOARD ([link removed])
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By SCOTT SHENK, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

The gun rights sanctuary pledge on the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors agenda Tuesday is expected to dominate the meeting, but another issue also is likely to draw serious discussion. The meeting agenda includes several proposed amendments that would ban county employees from continuing in that position if elected to the board in the future, among other restrictions. The issue arose earlier this year after Supervisor Kevin Marshall was hired to a position in the county’s economic development office


** VIRGINIA SHERIFF VOWS TO DEPUTIZE RESIDENTS IN RESPONSE TO POTENTIAL GUN RESTRICTIONS ([link removed])
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By ASHLEY ANNE, WDBJ

The Culpeper Board of Supervisors Tuesday discussed an adopted resolution declaring the locality a Second Amendment Constitutional County. The Board unanimously passed the resolution, joining a growing number of localities in response to expected gun control legislation in the now Democratic-controlled Virginia General Assembly. At the meeting, the local sheriff vowed to deputize scores of residents, if necessary, to push back on potential state-imposed gun restrictions.


** VOTE LOCAL ORGANIZERS: TRY, AND TRY AGAIN ([link removed])
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By YANN RANAIVO, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

A vigorous effort to try to give Democrats control of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors was not successful last month — but plans remain to continue that push in upcoming years, according to organizers. Republicans Darrell Sheppard, an incumbent, and Sherri Blevins won their respective races on Nov. 5, ensuring that the GOP’s 4-3 dominance of the governing body remains in place for at least another two years.

Today's Sponsor:


** Gentry Locke Government & Regulatory Affairs
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Celebrating one year as part of the Capitol Square community. Learn more about our growing team at [link removed]


** EDITORIALS
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** NORTHAM NIXES MEDICAID WORK REQUIREMENTS ([link removed])
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Winchester Star Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Throughout the past decade until 2017, Republicans in the General Assembly steadfastly stood foursquare against the expansion of Medicaid protection to working Virginians. The primary reason: The state feared it would be forced to pick up more and more of the tab should the federal government renege on its pledge to pay for the lion’s share of the expansion. But look who now is demonstrating bad faith?


** IS IT TIME TO RETHINK THE DILLON RULE? ([link removed])
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News & Advance Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

In Virginia, if a local school division wants to begin the school year earlier than the day after Labor Day, officials have to petition the state government, specifically the Virginia Department of Education. If a county wants to ban the application of biosolids — sludge, as the end product of water treatment plants is more commonly known — on local farms, they’re out of luck. If a city council wanted to forbid the carrying of firearms — openly or with a concealed-carry permit — in any city office building, too bad, they couldn’t do it.


** SECOND AMENDMENT SANCTUARIES ([link removed])
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Winchester Star Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Movement gains impetus across the Valley There’s little doubt many folks across Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley want their Second Amendment rights protected. And they are willing to take matters into their own hands, via the power of petition, to assure this transpires. In no less than 22 of 95 of the commonwealth’s counties — Appomattox, Campbell, Charlotte, Pittsylvania, and Carroll included — petitions have been roundly circulated in an effort to stave off Gov. Northam’s gun-control initiative.


** 'BECAUSE WORDS MATTER': RACISM IN THE STATE CODE ([link removed])
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News & Advance Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

There’s a lot of history in the Code of Virginia, the compilation of laws and official acts of the General Assembly, that goes back to the earliest days of the commonwealth. As it turns out, a lot of that history is ugly and tainted with racism and discrimination. That’s the conclusion of the Commission to Examine Racial Inequality in Virginia Law, a panel that Gov. Ralph Northam created in June


** DEMOCRATS SHOULD APPROVE REDISTRICTING REFORM ([link removed])
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Daily Progress Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Virginia Democrats have the opportunity to prove whether they’re principled — or just partisan. Are they out for their own interests — or those of their constituents? We’re talking about the opportunity to advance redistricting reform by approving legislation to put the issue straight to the voters next fall.


** SHOULD METRO AMERICA SUBSIDIZE RURAL AMERICA? ([link removed])
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Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

We often write about the economy of Southwest Virginia, how it lags behind the rest of the country, and pose questions about how it could be improved. Whenever we do, we sometimes hear from people — who never want to be quoted — who ask: Why bother? Maybe investing in rural America — especially the coalfields of Appalachia — is simply a waste of resources. Maybe the federal government should simply buy out people who live there and let the region revert to nature as a giant national forest.


** DEFUSING A TOXIC TIME BOMB ([link removed])
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Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Dominion Energy’s working plan for cleaning up the four toxic coal ash ponds across the state is one more important step in the long overdue effort to remove a serious threat to the health of Virginia’s residents and the environment. It’s past time to move from talking to getting the job done.


** AN UNCONVENTIONAL HOUSING SOLUTION ([link removed])
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Free Lance-Star Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

AS THE weather gets colder, the problem of finding shelter for the homeless in our area becomes more acute. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires communities that receive homeless assistance grants to conduct an annual census every January, which they routinely do. Yet the problem of homelessness just keeps getting worse.


** VIRGINIA’S GREAT GAMBLE ([link removed])
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Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Virginia could reap a bounty of tax revenue by expanding legal forms of gambling to allow brick-and-mortar casinos as well as online casino gaming and sports wagering, according to a long-awaited study released in November.


** CALDWELL BUTLER'S STANDARD ON IMPEACHMENT ([link removed])
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Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

The U.S. Constitution is simultaneously both clear and unclear about the standard for impeachment. It lists four possible reasons to remove a president: “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” The first two are commonly understood and have the benefit of a specific definition under federal law. The latter two, however, do not.


** OP-ED
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** SCOTT: MEDICAID EXPANSION MOVES VIRGINIA FORWARD ([link removed])
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By ROBERT B. SCOTT, Published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Much has been said about the fact that the U.S. has millions of uninsured or poorly insured health care recipients despite being the richest economy in the world, and that health costs in most developed nations are only half of ours. Fortunately, Virginia has taken steps to help rectify this by enrolling 325,000 adult Virginians through Medicaid expansion. Seventy percent of these people earn below the federal poverty level and 30% are slightly above.

Robert B. Scott, M.D., is emeritus professor of internal medicine at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.


** SHERLOCK: FIXING HEALTH CARE SHOULD BE PRIORITY NO. 1 ([link removed])
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By JAMES SHERLOCK, Published in the Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

We elected a new General Assembly on Nov. 5. Every candidate ran on reducing the cost of health care. I offer here opportunities to fulfill those promises. Virginia has not had a free market in health care since the 1973 passage of Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need law. The Virginia Department of Health has not only limited the supply of health care facilities but also has given a few chosen hospital systems full control of the business.

James C. Sherlock is a retired naval officer living in Virginia Beach.


** FARRAR: IT'S TIME FOR VIRGINIA TO LEGALIZE POT ([link removed])
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By BILL FARRAR, Published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Pending changes in Virginia’s legislature have everyone in the advocacy community making wild guesses as to what might be possible when the General Assembly reconvenes in January. Pent-up demand for positive change is real. The question remains: How much change is possible in one 60-day session?

Bill Farrar is the director of strategic communications for the ACLU of Virginia.


** TOWN: VIRGINIA LAWMAKERS HAVE A CONSERVATION MANDATE IN 2020 ([link removed])
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By MICHAEL TOWN, Published in the Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Virginia voters spoke loudly on Nov. 5. Given the choice between maintaining the status quo of climate obstruction and modest — if any — gains to protect our environment, or bold action to hold corporate polluters accountable and address the climate crisis, voters chose the latter in sweeping fashion.

Michael Town is executive director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters.


** TRINKLE: NATIONAL ISSUES WILL DROWN OUT LOCAL ONES ([link removed])
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By DAVE TRINKLE, Published in the Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

I was fortunate to enjoy 12 good years on Roanoke City Council and retired about a year and a half ago. I promised myself then to stay away and try not worry about things left undone or things that may indeed be undone. I have been pretty good at this having attended only one council meeting

Trinkle is a former member of Roanoke City Council.


** FRALIN: VIRGINIA WESTERN DRIVING THE REGION’S KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY ([link removed])
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By W. HEYWOOD FRALIN, Published in the Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

The future is bright for the Roanoke Valley and the New River Valley regions. We are moving away from an energy and manufacturing-based economy to a knowledge-based economy. At the center of this movement are our educational institutions. Our K-12 system is greatly improved, and our Governor’s School is excellent. The emerging Academic Health Center created through the partnership of Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic, and more recently, Radford University’s new nursing school are providing visible evidence of an exciting new economy.

Fralin is chairman of Medical Facilities of America Inc. and a member of the Virginia Western Educational Foundation Board of Directors.


** WOISLAW: NORFOLK’S AIRBNB RULES MAY NOT PASS MUSTER ([link removed])
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By DANIEL WOISLAW, Published in the Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Planning to rent out your home to visitors through an online booking service such as Airbnb? If you live in Norfolk, you might just be inviting Big Brother into your living room. That’s the conclusion we can draw from Norfolk’s new ordinance requiring property owners to register with the city and submit to warrantless inspections if they plan to rent rooms to visitors.

Daniel Woislaw is an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, located in Arlington.
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