Today's Sponsor: OneVirginia2021

VaNews Dec. 24, 2019
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Today's Sponsor:


** OneVirginia2021
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Happy Holidays! We're thankful for our volunteers as we work towards taking an enormous leap forward to reform redistricting. onevirginia2021.org ([link removed])

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** FROM VPAP
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** VISUALIZATION: FEWER CANDIDATES FOR LOCAL OFFICE ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

Six out of 10 elections for local office such as school board and county supervisor went uncontested across Virginia this fall. An analysis of county elections during the last three cycles tells an increasingly familiar tale of two Virginias. In the vibrant urban crescent, competition in county-level elections is up. But in rural areas that losing population, an increasing number of local elections -- particularly contests for open seats -- are at best attracting a single candidate.


** EXECUTIVE BRANCH
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** NORTHAM RENEWS 15 ‘ENTERPRISE’ ZONES TO BOOST DEVELOPMENT ([link removed])
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Associated Press

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is renewing 15 “Virginia Enterprise Zones” aimed at boosting economic development and private investment. Northam announced Monday that the state was extending the designation to sites around Virginia for five years. The state partners with local governments through the program to provide incentives to businesses that invest in economically struggling areas.


** GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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** VIRGINIA LAWMAKERS WILL AGAIN PUSH TO BAN USE OF PHONES WHILE DRIVING ([link removed])
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By PATRICK WILSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Saying distracted driving is an epidemic that is leading to preventable deaths, advocates for a ban on using cellphones while driving in Virginia will make a push for legislation again next year. Lawmakers supporting the effort say changes in the makeup of the General Assembly mean the bill has a good chance of passage. “I think we’ll get it done on a bipartisan basis,” Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, said at a news conference Monday


** DEMOCRATS DEBATE FAIRNESS OF PROPOSED REDISTRICTING AMENDMENT ([link removed])
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By BEN PAVIOUR, WCVE

For years, Virginia Democrats have campaigned against gerrymandering. But some are reluctant to hand over their powers to draw maps to a commission, citing concerns about black representation and the influence of the Virginia Supreme Court.


** LAWMAKER’S NEW BILL SAYS ONLY MILK FROM A “HOOVED MAMMAL” SHOULD BE CALLED MILK ([link removed])
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By MARIE ALBIGES, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Plant and nut-based beverages that market and label themselves as “milk” have steadily gotten more room on the grocery store shelves over the years, packed next to the traditional dairy products that have seen demand shrink over time. Now, one Virginia lawmaker wants to make sure consumers don’t confuse the two.


** SEN. STUART WANTS TO PUT TUITION INCREASES TO A VOTE BY STUDENTS ([link removed])
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By MECHELLE HANKERSON, Virginia Mercury

A proposal from a Republican senator would require student approval before a public college or university approves a tuition raise. Sen. Richard Stuart, R-Stafford, wants tuition hikes to go to the students who will have to pay for it before a governing board votes. His legislation, which he introduced last year too and calls “crazy,” calls for two-thirds of a school’s student body to approve the raise before formal adoption.


** EX-LAWMAKER'S MOTHER INDICTED ON EMBEZZLEMENT CHARGES DIES WEEKS BEFORE COURT APPEARANCE ([link removed])
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By LISA VERNON SPARKS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The mother of a late former Virginia delegate who is accused of embezzlement has died, roughly two weeks before her scheduled court appearance in Hampton. Anna S. Gear was a patient in the intensive care unit at Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News when she died Saturday morning, her son Donald “Don” Gear confirmed Monday. She was 89.


** STATE GOVERNMENT
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** JUDGE NIXES DEFENSE MOTION TO LIMIT DISCOVERY IN LAWSUIT OVER VSP HELICOPTER DEATHS ([link removed])
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By TYLER HAMMEL, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The widows of two Virginia State Police officers who died on Aug. 12, 2017, will be allowed access to contracts between the department and a helicopter manufacturer. In a recent order, Albemarle County Circuit Court Judge Claude Worrell overruled a motion from Dallas Airmotive Inc. that sought to limit the scope of the plaintiffs’ discovery requests.


** MANY FACTORS PLAY INTO TAXING CASINOS ([link removed])
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By JOHN R. CRANE, Danville Register & Bee

When it comes to taxing casinos, the state would have different strategies to maximize its revenue and result in the greatest economic impact for communities that vote to approve and attract casino projects, according to a state casino study. "These include applying different tax rates to different casino markets or levying a graduated tax that is higher on larger amounts of gaming revenue," states the report "Gaming in the Commonwealth."


** CONGRESS
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** TWO VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS WANT TO REPLACE LEE STATUE IN U.S. CAPITOL ([link removed])
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By JENNA PORTNOY, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

For more than a century, Virginia has been represented in the U.S. Capitol by statues of George Washington and Robert E. Lee. Reps. A. Donald McEachin and Jennifer Wexton, both Virginia Democrats, say it’s time to replace the statue of the Confederate general with one depicting an African American leader.


** VIRGINIA GOVERNOR SEEKS BILL REPLACING LEE STATUE IN CAPITOL ([link removed])
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By SARAH RANKIN, Associated Press

Gov. Ralph Northam’s office said Monday that he will push for legislation replacing Virginia’s statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee housed in the United States Capitol. The governor filed a drafting request for a bill that would outline the process for removing the statue — one of Virginia’s two in the National Statuary Hall Collection — and selecting a replacement, Northam spokeswoman Alena Yarmosky said.


** VIRGINIA LAWMAKERS WILL CONSIDER WHETHER TO REPLACE A LEE STATUE IN THE U.S. CAPITOL ([link removed])
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By PATRICK WILSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Gov. Ralph Northam will push legislation in next year’s General Assembly session asking lawmakers to replace a statue of Robert E. Lee in the U.S. Capitol. Lee and George Washington represent Virginia in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the Capitol. Virginia provided the statue of Lee, in his Confederate uniform, in 1909.


** VIRGINIA BEACH STRONG ACT SIGNED INTO LAW BY PRESIDENT TRUMP ([link removed])
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WTKR

President Trump has signed a bill into law that makes it easier for people to provide financial assistance to families of the Virginia Beach Mass shooting tragedy. Congresswoman Elaine Luria announced Trump’s signing of her bipartisan Virginia Beach Strong Act (HR 4566 [congress.gov]) on Monday.


** ECONOMY/BUSINESS
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** OVER 600 WORKERS FURLOUGHED AT BUCHANAN COUNTY MINE ([link removed])
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By TIM DODSON, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Over 600 workers were furloughed this month at Coronado Coal’s mine in Buchanan County, according to the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy. The company notified the state agency on Dec. 16 that it was idling a mining facility and that “a little over 600 workers would be furloughed until a trade deal was reached between the U.S. and China on coal exports,” according to Tarah Kesterson, a spokeswoman for DMME.


** CONGRESS SAVES COAL MINER PENSIONS, BUT WHAT ABOUT OTHERS? ([link removed])
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By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH, New York Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The $1.4 trillion spending bill passed by Congress last week quietly achieves what a parade of select committees and coordinating councils could not: rescue a dying pension fund that is the lifeblood of nearly 100,000 retired coal miners. For the first time in 45 years of federal pension law, taxpayer dollars will be used to bail out a fund for workers in the private sector. And now that there’s a precedent, it might not be the last.


** VERIZON ROLLS OUT 5G SERVICE IN HAMPTON ROADS ([link removed])
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By ROBYN SIDERSKY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

In the race to launch 5G service in Hampton Roads, Verizon will edge out AT&T to be first. The communications company announced plans Monday morning that 5G Ultra Wideband mobility service will go live. For Verizon cellphone users, that means faster speed for internet browsing, video streaming, downloads and apps.


** REPORT SAYS VIRGINIA ECONOMY GAINED STEAM IN 2019, BUT LABOR SHORTAGES ARE A HINDRANCE ([link removed])
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By JOHN REID BLACKWELL, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Virginia is poised to finish 2019 with its fifth straight year of economic growth and its second straight year of growth exceeding 2%, according to a new report by economists at Old Dominion University that also identifies some weak points in the economy.


** BON SECOURS ANNOUNCES RAISING MINIMUM WAGE TO $15 IN THREE YEARS ([link removed])
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By BRIDGET BALCH, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Bon Secours Mercy Health, a Catholic health system with 48 hospitals in two countries — including four in the Richmond region — announced Friday that it plans to increase the minimum wage it pays to all employees and associates to $15 an hour by the end of 2022. The policy change — which will include a systemwide investment of $17 million over three years — follows a trend set by several health systems across the country


** TRANSPORTATION
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** CSX-VIRGINIA RAIL DEAL ALSO MEANS GOOD NEWS FOR N CAROLINA ([link removed])
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Associated Press

A multi-billion-dollar deal between CSX Corp. and Virginia to improve passenger rail service to and from Washington, D.C., also includes good news for efforts to run high-speed trains between Virginia and North Carolina. The freight railroad has agreed to let the North Carolina Department of Transportation acquire about 10 miles (16 kilometers) of railroad right-of-way in Warren County (NC) to the Virginia line, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Monday. This is on top of 65 miles (104.6 kilometers) of CSX line that Virginia will acquire north of the border to near Petersburg, Virginia. The land would be key toward meeting a goal of 110 mph passenger trains between Raleigh and Richmond, Virginia.


** VIRGINIA OTHER
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** VIRGINIA SEEING SUDDEN SURGE IN DEATHS OF OAK TREES AROUND STATE, FORESTERS SAY ([link removed])
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By KATHERINE HAFNER, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Around mid- to late summer, Adam Downing started receiving about double the number of calls he usually does about oak trees dying. Downing is a forestry and natural resources agent with the Virginia Cooperative Extension, and he could tell this was a “pretty significant increase” in calls, mainly from homeowners. He’d even noticed one oak, which he passed each day on his drive to work, go from healthy to being removed. Particularly strange was how quickly the trees seemed to perish.


** VA. ZOO’S CLOSURE HIGHLIGHTS LOOSENING OF USDA WELFARE CHECKS ([link removed])
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By KARIN BRULLIARD, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

When a U.S. Department of Agriculture animal welfare inspector visited Wilson’s Wild Animal Park this summer, she identified no violations. The federal inspection report for the (Winchester) Virginia zoo, home to about 200 exotic and barnyard animals, was pristine. But that is not what local law enforcement officers found the very next day. Sent by the state attorney general, their observations triggered a search one week later by a team of veterinarians, zoologists and law enforcement officers. They discovered an array of problems


** LOCAL
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** SOME NORFOLK RESTAURANT OWNERS FEAR A NEW CASINO RESORT WOULD HURT THEIR BUSINESSES ([link removed])
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By RYAN MURPHY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Is Norfolk’s proposed casino going to help or hurt downtown restaurants? That’s the question posed — and answered — Thursday night by Phil Smith, the owner of downtown brew house Brick Anchor, and one that has been lingering for months as the city has faced criticism about how it has proceeded with a potential land sale to the Pamunkey Indian Tribe.


** KEEPING WATCH: STATUE DEFENDERS TAKE SECURITY INTO THEIR OWN HANDS ([link removed])
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By LISA PROVENCE, C'ville Weekly

Nearly four years after a student’s petition called for their ouster, three years after a City Council vote to remove them, two years after a deadly white supremacist rally in support of them, and months after a judge ruled generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson must stay, Confederate statues continue to roil Charlottesville. In the latest skirmishes, vandalizations of the statues have prompted Confederate monument supporters to mount their own security measures, including the installation of a trail camera and a tripwire at the Jackson statue, and hiring private security.

Today's Sponsor:


** OneVirginia2021
------------------------------------------------------------

Happy Holidays! We're thankful for our volunteers as we work towards taking an enormous leap forward to reform redistricting. onevirginia2021.org ([link removed])


** EDITORIALS
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** FUNDING INCREASES BODE WELL FOR HEALTHIER BAY ([link removed])
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Free Lance-Star Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Just nine months ago in this space, we lamented a proposal from President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to cut federal spending for the Chesapeake Bay cleanup by 90 percent, from $73 million to $7.3 million. Thankfully, that is old news. Around the same time last spring, freshman Rep. Elaine Luria (D–2nd) proposed a substantial increase in federal Bay funding: $90 million for 2020, with an increase of $500,000 in each of the next four years for a five-year total of $455 million. Representatives Rob Wittman (R–1st) and Bobby Scott (D–3rd) signed on to the House measure
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