A BILL BEFORE THE VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE WOULD LET COLLEGE ATHLETES PROFIT OFF THEIR LIKENESS

Had the rules been different when he was a college athlete, Phillip Sims believes he could have earned money for his ability to play football. Sims was a quarterback at the universities of Alabama and Virginia, where receiving compensation for one’s athletic talent is forbidden by the NCAA. But a proposal before the Virginia General Assembly would change that for collegiate athletes in the state.

SUBCOMMITTEE ADVANCES BILL BANNING LGBTQ DISCRIMINATION

A General Assembly subcommittee advanced a bill Thursday that would prevent discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in housing, public accommodations, employment and credit applications.

DEMOCRATS DEBATE APPROACH TO MARIJUANA DECRIMINALIZATION

Newly empowered Democrats are pushing ahead on marijuana decriminalization, one in a bevy of issues that had long faced Republican roadblocks. How to go about it is attracting heated debate. A proposal backed by high-ranking Democrats and Gov. Ralph Northam's administration is drawing intense criticism from legal justice advocates and some Democratic lawmakers. They argue that it doesn’t go far enough to stem discrimination in marijuana enforcement, and that portions of the proposal could exacerbate the impacts of that disparity.

LAWMAKERS REJECT PLAN TO BOOST AFFORDABLE HOUSING BY ALLOWING DUPLEXES IN SINGLE-FAMILY NEIGHBORHOODS

It was assailed by conservative media outlets as a “war on the suburbs” and lauded by progressives as a critical step toward addressing the state’s growing shortage of affordable housing.

WOMEN TO PRESIDE OVER BOTH CHAMBERS AS VIRGINIA OFFICIALLY RATIFIES ERA

Women are set to preside over both chambers of the Virginia legislature as the state ratifies the Equal Rights Amendment. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax said Friday that he plans to let Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, preside over the state Senate during Monday’s vote. Lucas is the president pro tempore of the Senate, the first woman and first African American lawmaker to hold the title. Speaker of the House Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax, is the first female to preside over the House of Delegates.

GUN RIGHTS GROUP MOCKS HOUSE SPEAKER FOR BEING UNARMED DURING 1996 CARJACKING

An Instagram post affiliated with the Virginia gun rights group that hosted Monday's huge rally in Richmond mocks House Speaker Eileen ­Filler-Corn for being unarmed during a carjacking more than 20 years ago.

NORTHAM-BACKED GUN BILLS CLEAR HOUSE PANEL

Democrats in the House and Senate are gearing up to reconcile gun control measures that are moving through both chambers with different or contradictory provisions. That includes two key proposals in the gun control package Gov. Ralph Northam backs — legislation calling for universal background checks and a “red flag” law that would allow the temporary removal of guns from people in crisis.

VA. HOUSE COMMITTEE ADVANCES ITS FIRST DEMOCRATIC GUN-CONTROL BILLS TO FLOOR

Virginia Democrats advanced most of their gun-control bills Friday in the House of Delegates, voting to expand background checks on gun buyers and reinstate the one-handgun-purchase-per-month rule, among other measures, but did not hear a proposal for an assault-weapons ban.

HOUSE OF DELEGATES PANEL MOVES GUN BILLS TO FLOOR

House of Delegates Democrats on Friday advanced several gun control bills to the floor for a vote, including stiffer penalties for “recklessly” leaving loaded guns with children and requiring reporting of lost or stolen firearms. The House Public Safety Committee voted on party lines for most of the seven gun control bills that for years got shot down by the committee when Republicans controlled it.

MASK CHARGE TIED TO GUN RALLY SHOULD BE DROPPED, EXPERTS SAY

A 21-year-old Richmond woman wearing a bandana over the bottom half of her face in a crowd of about 22,000 people, many of whom also had their faces covered on a freezing Monday morning, was the only person charged under a state law that prohibits masks.

BELL'S INHALER, EPIPEN, BUS DRIVER, SCOTTSVILLE BILLS ADVANCE

Several bills from Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle received committee and subcommittee endorsements this week. Among those bills is HB 860, which would authorize school nurses to stock Albuterol inhalers at the school and would authorize them to administer the medication to students in emergencies. Under current law, school nurses only can administer asthma inhalers if the student has a prescription and provides the medication.

7-YEAR SENTENCE IMPOSED FOR THEFT FROM CAMPAIGN, OTHERS

A former lawyer has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison for embezzling more than $1.6 million from groups including the campaign fund of Virginia Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw.

MONTHS FROM 2020 ELECTION, VA. UPDATES CYBERSECURITY, VOTING EQUIPMENT RULES

Virginia elections officials are taking new cybersecurity steps as part of new voting-equipment policies ahead of the 2020 presidential election. More significant security measures are planned starting in 2021. Under new plans for voting systems and electronic poll books that are set to be adopted by the State Board of Elections next week, the companies that make voting machines and the check-in systems used by local elections officials in the state will update all existing software to at least meet 2015 standards.

WITH SALE OF ICONIC BUILDING IMMINENT, CIT LOOKS TO REINVENT ITSELF IN RICHMOND

The irregular glass tower that long has defined the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology has disappeared from the logo for the state enterprise that has been based near Washington Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia since its creation more than three decades ago. Soon, the CIT headquarters will be gone, too. Virginia is preparing to sell the 26-acre property along the Dulles Toll Road in Herndon to help finance a proposed new state innovation partnership with a mobile presence wherever high-tech research is done and entrepreneurs gather in Virginia.

STATE EXAMINES CONVICTIONS TIED TO POSSIBLE FLAWED FORENSIC HAIR ANALYSIS

Alexander Cameron, an inmate serving life for rape and abduction, responded a year ago to a notice that officials were looking for offenders who might have been wrongly convicted by overstated expert hair testimony. Cameron adamantly maintains he is innocent of the 1986 assault in Alexandria, and a July 31 letter from the state forensic science lab notified him that hair evidence used to help convict him “exceeded the acceptable limits of science.”

VIRGINIA'S JOBLESS RATE HOLDS AT 2.6%

Virginia’s unemployment rate held steady at 2.6% from November to December, as the state’s labor force grew and the number of people who were counted as employed increased. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 2.6% in December was down from 2.8% in December 2018, state officials announced Friday.

LOCAL OPINION DIVIDED ON RAISING MINIMUM WAGE IN VIRGINIA

An increase in Virginia’s minimum wage could be coming soon, as Democrats say the change is a priority -- and they have control of all facets of government in Richmond. Multiple bills end the week in committees in both chambers. Democrats and the bills’ supporters tout the positive impact it will have on families all across the commonwealth and opponents say it’ll do more harm than good.

MR. PEANUT DIES IN SUPER BOWL

As far as peanut life expectancy goes, 104 years doesn’t seem so bad. The never stale, always dapper Mr. Peanut has apparently met his advertising end in a most peculiar fashion.

SUFFOLK RESPONDS TO MR. PEANUT’S DEMISE

Two days after the reported death of 104-year-old marketing icon and Suffolk native Mr. Peanut, everybody in Suffolk was still shell-shocked and hoping for better news in the days ahead. Mr. Peanut’s death was reported on his official social media accounts Wednesday.

FULL-COURT PRESS

From robocalls to press conferences, the Navy Hill District Corp. that Dominion Energy top executive Thomas F. Farrell II heads is pulling out all the stops to generate public support for the $1.5 billion Richmond Coliseum replacement plan ahead of the scheduled vote by City Council in late February.

ROANOKE COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD SUPPORTS EQUALIZED TAXING AUTHORITY

The Roanoke County School Board passed a resolution Thursday supporting General Assembly legislation that would equalize taxing rules between counties and cities. One bill in the House of Delegates and two in the state Senate would grant counties the same authority as cities to impose and modify taxes on cigarettes, admissions, transient room rentals, meals and travel campgrounds.

SW VA. TOWNS CALL FOR EXTENSION OF FEDERAL FEE SUPPORTING COAL SITE CLEANUP

Community leaders gathered in Wise and St. Paul on Friday to kick off a pair of projects aimed at improving former coal sites and drawing more economic activity to Southwest Virginia. But the celebrations come amid a wider concern about the future of federal funds for cleaning up abandoned mines across the state.

A HOLIDAY WHOSE TIME HAS PASSED

Public holidays, like flags, anthems and memorials, function best as symbols of broad social consensus. They won’t please all of the people all of the time, but they surely fail if they become emblems of division and disunion. That’s the problem with Lee-Jackson Day in Virginia, the state holiday honoring a pair of Confederate war heroes who also happened to be native sons. Gen. Robert E. Lee, the Confederate Army’s military commander, and Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, one of its most successful battlefield leaders, were once touchstones of Southern pride.

LOBBY DAY 2020: AN AFFRONT TO DR. KING

There was something eerie and insulting about the thousands of gun-toting lobbyists who packed the area around Capitol Square on Monday to demand that Virginia lawmakers not step on their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

OCASIO-CORTEZ IS WRONG ABOUT THE GUN RALLY IN RICHMOND

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” Al Pacino’s character Michael Corleone complains in “The Godfather: Part III.” We feel for ya, buddy. We thought we were done writing about this past Monday’s Gun Lobby Day rally in Richmond — but no, now we’ve been pulled back in. The culprit this time is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York.

SCHAPIRO: LOBBYIST'S CAREER TRACKED, WAS SHAPED BY, VA.'S SUBURBANIZATION

Nearly 40 years ago, at the peak of his powers as a lawyer-lobbyist, Bill Thomas had back-door privileges at the governor’s office, then on the third floor of the state Capitol. If he needed to see the governor or a top aide, Thomas — himself, the man to see in Richmond — would slip through the unmarked door reserved for the chief executive.

MARTIN: THE STAGE WAS SET BUT NORTHAM DID NOT GET HIS RIOT

Have you ever wondered why time-honored traditions seem to become marred, destroyed even, by modern thinking? It seems that generations that have known sacrifice for the liberty and freedom they desire for everyone are ever being replaced by those demanding entitlements for their own selfish interests.

Martin is a member of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. He lives in Blue Ridge.