VISUALIZATION: FRESHMAN DEMOCRATS RELY LESS ON BUSINESS DONORS

Compared to previous freshmen classes, the 14 Virginia House Democrats who were first elected in 2017 collectively rely less on campaign contributions from companies and business trade groups that lobby the General Assembly. A chart shows that some first-term Democrats have kept their distance from the business class, which traditionally has been an important source of campaign donations.

PROPOSED FUNDING COULD MEAN MILLIONS FOR SW VA. SCHOOLS

Proposed increases in state at-risk add-on education funding could mean more than $8 million for Southwest Virginia school divisions in the upcoming fiscal year, new state figures show. Last week Gov. Ralph Northam proposed a $140 million increase in the add-on funding, which is directed to school divisions with high populations of students whose families live at or below the federal poverty level.

SEXUAL ASSAULT ACCUSER OF VIRGINIA LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR RUNNING FOR STATE ASSEMBLY IN CALIFORNIA

A college professor who accused Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault in a 2004 incident is running for a state Assembly seat in California, as Fairfax's own 2021 Virginia gubernatorial bid gears up. Vanessa Tyson, a member of the Democratic Party like Fairfax, this week launched her bid for an open state Assembly seat based in Whittier, east of Los Angeles.

VIRGINIA LAWMAKER PROPOSES BILL TO END LEE-JACKSON HOLIDAY

A Virginia lawmaker has filed a bill that would scrap the state’s Lee-Jackson holiday celebrating two Confederate generals and add one on Election Day. Del. Joseph Lindsey’s measure is one of hundreds lawmakers will consider when they convene next month for the start of the 2020 legislative session.

VIRGINIA'S MENHADEN TUG-OF-WAR MAY END IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

After 30 days of hand-wringing by fisheries managers and Virginia’s largest menhaden fishing fleet, the U.S. Department of Commerce recently handed the Commonwealth of Virginia a decision that read more like an ultimatum: Adopt a two-year-old Chesapeake Bay reduction fishery limit or be forced to stop fishing for menhaden in state waters.

FAIRFAX SOLAR PLAN COULD SPUR CHANGE TO VA. LAW MEANT TO SHIELD DOMINION ENERGY

Fairfax County is moving to buy energy from contractors who would install solar panels on more than 100 county buildings, part of a growing environmental effort that aims to remove protections against competition given to the powerful Dominion Energy company.

MOUNT VERNON’S STATE POLITICIANS PUSH LEGISLATION TARGETING WATERFOWL HUNTING HIDEOUTS

A push by residents of Little Hunting Creek to curb the alleged illegal discharging of firearms and unsafe hunting practices in their nook of Fairfax County’s Mount Vernon area has prompted the introduction of new state legislation targeting the licensing of waterfowl blinds. Hunting blinds are camouflaged hideouts of varying complexity for archers and shooters to go after ducks and other wildlife. Right now, it is legal to obtain a license to set up a stationary blind in the Little Hunting Creek area.

DEMOCRAT ANNOUNCES HE WILL CHALLENGE GRIFFITH

An intelligence analyst from the New River valley has announced he will challenge Congressman Morgan Griffith in the November 2020 election. Cameron Dickerson announced his campaign last week. In a statement, he suggested that the Ninth Congressional District needs to return to a way of doing things that was exemplified by Democratic representative Rick Boucher, who served from 1983 until Griffith, R-Salem, unseated him in 2010.

VIRGINIA LIQUOR STORES SOLD NEARLY 71 MILLION BOTTLES IN 21ST RECORD-BREAKING YEAR IN A ROW

The Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority sold nearly 71 million bottles in 2019 on the way to its 21st consecutive year with record sales. In August, the agency announced its revenue for fiscal year 2019 eclipsed $1 billion for the first time in history.

PIPELINE PROTESTERS PUSH PAST CHRISTMAS

Tree-sitters protesting the Mountain Valley Pipeline weren’t especially concerned that Santa Claus didn’t show up with presents Wednesday. The group of about 12 protesters — only two of which are stationed high above the ground in a white pine and a chestnut oak — mingled around the makeshift campsite off Yellow Finch Lane in Elliston, treating the day as if it was any other.

HIGHER TAX FOR BLACK LUNG TRUST FUND INCLUDED IN FEDERAL SPENDING BILL

Advocates for funding the federal government’s Black Lung Disability Trust Fund got some relief after President Donald Trump signed a spending package last week that included a one-year extension of a tax rate to support benefits for disabled miners and their surviving dependents. But the extension was not the long-term solution that some miners and other groups called for over the past year.

EBERT RETIRES AFTER 52 YEARS OF HIGH-PROFILE PROSECUTIONS

Prosecutor Paul Ebert is a man of few words, but in 52 years before juries and judges he learned to use those words to great effect. He has a particularly pithy way of summing up the two cases that came to define his career: the sniper and the snipper.

CONSERVATION EASEMENT RESOLVES LONG-RUNNING FOXFIELD DISPUTE

A lawsuit that embroiled a famed horse racing track in Albemarle County has been dismissed because the property now is under a conservation easement. The Foxfield race course and surrounding land have now been placed under an easement held by the Albemarle Conservation Easement Authority.

CASINO WOULD HAVE LARGEST LABOR IMPACT ON DANVILLE, COMPARED TO OTHER LOCALITIES

When it comes to the notion of casinos in Virginia, such an operation would have the largest effect on the Danville region’s labor force compared to the effect a large gaming project would have on the other four localities in the running.

WISE COUNTY DR. PLEADS TO DRUG CHARGES

A Wise County doctor has pleaded guilty to illegally prescribing oxycodone. Dr. Raymond Michael Moore, 61, of Wise, who had a medical practice in Norton, Va., pleaded guilty Dec. 19 in federal court to fourteen charges, including illegally prescribing more than 25,000 oxycodone pills, more than 17,000 hydrocodone pills, and more than 10,000 benzodiazepine pills; obtaining drugs by fraud; health care fraud; making a false statement to law enforcement; and failing to maintain required records.

EDUCATION IN TRANSPARENCY

George Mason University Foundation was formed some 53 years ago with the sole purpose to “receive, manage, invest and administer private gifts for the benefit of the University, including endowment and real property.” George Mason University, in Fairfax, is Virginia’s largest public university, and it receives tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer dollars each year. Yet, the GMU Foundation is allowed to keep secret donor information, according to a Virginia Supreme Court decision

RIGGLEMAN ROILS BOTH THE LEFT AND RIGHT

Denver Riggleman is more than a little bit of a political enigma. The Nelson County businessman who’s halfway through his first term in the House of Representatives, where he represents the sprawling Fifth Congressional District, draws the ire of folks from across the political spectrum. And the Republican with more than a slight streak of libertarianism in him is seemingly just fine with that.

RECYCLING: THE GOOD ALONG WITH THE BAD

MANY local trash bins are full of all the trimmings and trappings of Christmas. Discarded packaging, cardboard boxes, wrapping paper and ribbons are waiting to be picked up and hauled away. Most of this detritus from the holiday has likely been tossed into the recycling container without another thought. ... The bad news is that there are fewer and fewer places to send recyclable material.

THE ROUNDUP STICKUP

Tort lawyers often use the threat of jackpot verdicts to extort settlements from business targets. But when does a shakedown become criminal extortion? Last week the federal government charged Timothy Litzenburg for allegedly crossing that legal line. Mr. Litzenburg, 37, made a name for himself at the Miller Firm in Virginia, where he was part of a team suing Bayer on behalf of a groundskeeper who said the weed killer Roundup caused his cancer. Trial lawyers profit by taking a hefty chunk of a settlement or damages. But when Mr. Litzenburg opened his own law firm last year, he allegedly had a different business model in mind.

KOCH AND MCNAB: VRS SHOULD CONTINUE TO BUILD UPON ITS SUCCESS

To paraphrase an old proverb, state public employee pension systems should be rarely seen and not heard. This decade, however, has seen increasingly dire warnings about the risk these funds pose to taxpayers. By the end of 2018, the Pew Charitable Trusts estimated that state pension funds were not only underfunded by $1.5 trillion, but that the problem was getting worse.

James V. Koch is president emeritus at Old Dominion University. Robert M. McNab is professor of economics at Old Dominion University.