Youngkin vetoes bills on birth control, Confederate tax loopholes
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed bills meant to ensure access to contraceptives and close tax loopholes for Confederate heritage groups Friday night, continuing a record-breaking veto spree that also nixed measures to ban guns from psychiatric hospitals and remind parents to store weapons out of their children’s reach. Acting on bills that the General Assembly sent back to his desk in April without his proposed amendments, Youngkin signed seven and vetoed 48, taking his veto total for the year to 201 — more than the 120 that the previous record-holder, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, issued over four years as governor.
Youngkin vetoes skill games bill but signals openness to a compromise
Just hours from his midnight deadline to take action on the remaining legislation on his desk, Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Friday vetoed another 48 measures, including a bill to legalize skill games and create a regulatory framework for the electronic devices in Virginia. However, when speaking to reporters after an impromptu signing ceremony for the state’s bipartisan spending plan at the state Capitol earlier this week, Youngkin signaled a willingness to consider a new proposal on skill games that lawmakers hope to deliver to him in the coming weeks, “in the same spirit that we made a commitment to work on this budget.”
Democrats regroup on taxes, climate after budget compromise
Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, smiled ruefully after a meeting of the Senate Democratic Caucus on Monday as the General Assembly prepared to act on a state budget compromise that included all of the spending that Democrats had sought in a political showdown with Gov. Glenn Youngkin. "We gave up some good stuff," said Deeds, one of 12 legislators who negotiated the compromise with the Republican governor.
Fox News floats VSU as host for vice presidential debate
Is a debate still in the cards for Virginia State University? Fox News hopes so. In a letter Friday to both the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns, Fox News has offered to moderate a debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and the yet-to-be determined running mate of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. Trump immediately accepted the invitation, even calling out VSU by name, but President Joe Biden’s camp does not appear to be as intrigued.
‘How do you get hypothermia in a prison?’ Records show hospitalizations among Virginia inmates
The Virginia State Police investigator seemed puzzled about what the inmate was describing: “unbearable” conditions at a prison so cold that toilet water would freeze over and inmates were repeatedly treated for hypothermia. “How do you get hypothermia in a prison?” the investigator asked. “You shouldn’t.” The exchange, captured on video obtained by The Associated Press, took place during an investigation into the death of Charles Givens, a developmentally disabled inmate at the Marion Correctional Treatment Center, who records show was among those repeatedly hospitalized for hypothermia.
Boy Scouts love this scenic Va. river. Locals say they’re ruining it.
Anne McClung was tending horses in her 19th-century barn one day last summer when she noticed a change in the Maury River flowing swiftly nearby. She’s known the river all her 76 years, but it didn’t take a practiced eye to recognize clouds of silt in the normally clear waters. McClung could think of only one cause: The Boy Scouts. The National Capital Area Council of the Scouts, based in Bethesda, has maintained a campground and lake a few miles upstream from McClung’s home for almost six decades. In recent times, the Scouts have drained the lake every fall, causing sediment to pour into one of Virginia’s most iconic and well-loved rivers.
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
Youngkin vetoes bills on skill games, contraception and Confederate heritage tax breaks
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin took action on a final batch of bills from the year’s regular legislative session Friday, signing seven but vetoing 48, including closely watched measures that would have ended a tax break for a Confederate heritage organization and allowed small businesses to host skill games, which are similar to slot machines. The vetoes came after Youngkin first proposed amendments that the legislature rejected. In a nighttime statement, he said he was willing to keep working with the Democratic-controlled General Assembly on the issues but was vetoing measures that were “not ready to become law.”
Youngkin vetoes contraception rights bills, raising veto total to record 201
Gov. Glenn Youngkin added to his record list of vetoes Friday, killing 48 more measures, including two that would add a right to contraception in Virginia law. But even though the General Assembly rejected his proposed amendments to bills that bar the sale of children’s personal data and using that data to target advertising, he decided to sign into law House Bill 707 and Senate Bill 361. Del. Michelle Maldonado, D-Prince William, and state Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, sponsored those measures.
Youngkin vetoes bills on contraception access, skill games, Confederate heritage rollbacks
Last week, Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed 48 more bills passed by the Democratic-led General Assembly, blocking legislation aimed at preserving contraception access, ending state perks for Confederate heritage groups and legalizing slot machine lookalikes known as skill games. Friday was the governor’s deadline to act on a final batch of bills the General Assembly had returned to him in April. Most of the vetoes dealt with legislation Youngkin tried to amend in ways the legislature opposed.
Youngkin vetoes bills that would safeguard right to birth control, end tax exemptions for Confederate groups
Gov. Glenn Youngkin took action Friday on the last remaining legislation from the recent session, signing seven bills and vetoing 48 others, including high-profile measures related to birth control, skill games and tax exemptions for organizations with Confederate ties. “While I look forward to working with the General Assembly to see if we can reach agreement on language in the future, today I must act on the language before me, and there are several bills which are not ready to become law,” Youngkin said in a statement. Del. Cia Price and Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Richmond, carried the birth control bill in their respective chambers. “This is such a popular issue,” said Price, D-Newport News. “It was the one thing that I was holding out hope for, but the governor has his allegiances to the most extreme part of his party.”
Youngkin Vetoes Measures to Remove Tax Breaks for Confederate Heritage Group
Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia vetoed on Friday two bills that would have revoked tax exemptions for the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a century-old organization that has often been at the center of debates over the state’s Confederate past and its racial history. In doing so, Mr. Youngkin sided with fellow Republicans in the legislature who almost unanimously opposed the bills and the efforts by the state’s Democrats to curtail the Commonwealth’s relationship with Confederate heritage organizations.
Biden-Harris campaign responds to Youngkin’s veto of contraceptive rights measure
On Friday, May 17, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin took final action on a last set of bills from 2024’s regular legislative session; Youngkin signed seven of the measures and vetoed 48. The Biden-Harris campaign released a statement Saturday in response to Youngkin’s veto of a bill that would have protected contraceptive rights in the Commonwealth.
Under Glenn Youngkin, Parole in Virginia Has Nearly Vanished
In early April, Sarah Moore got the news she was dreading: Her husband, Dennis Jackson Moore, had been denied parole again. It was his fourth rejection in as many years. Dennis, who goes by Vega, is 45. He has spent more than half his life in prison in Virginia for a murder and armed robbery he committed as a teenager. At the time, his defense argued that he did not fully understand the charges against him and had been misled by a detective when he gave a recorded confession. Vega was tried in adult court.
Youngkin calls out Biden for refusal of VSU presidential debate: ‘Huge snub’
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin called out President Biden for refusing to participate in a debate originally scheduled by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) for Oct. 1 at Virginia State University (VSU), which would have been the first historically Black college or university (HBCU) to host a presidential debate.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State budget includes money to study tapping into natural gas pipeline in Tazewell and Russell counties
Studies that will explore the economic development benefits of extending natural gas from a major pipeline in Southwest Virginia to Tazewell and Russell counties were funded in the state budget approved last week. Each county will receive $100,000 from the general fund for fiscal year 2025 for its own study. Originally, the budget amendment filed by state Sen. Travis Hackworth, R-Tazewell County, asked for a total of $250,000 just for Tazewell County, where officials have been working for more than a decade to tap into a pipeline that runs through the county. Tazewell County is the third largest producer of natural gas in the state, but businesses and residents there have little access to it.
FEDERAL ELECTIONS
Fox News requests chance to host vice presidential debate at Virginia HBCU
Fox News has requested the opportunity to host a vice presidential debate at Virginia State University, an HBCU, after President Joe Biden ignored the proposal for a presidential debate on the network for Oct. 1. Anchor Bret Baier said former President Donald Trump has accepted the request on behalf of his future vice president, who has yet to be announced, but Biden’s campaign has not accepted yet.
Virginia’s Republican U.S. Senate candidates face off in Staunton ahead of primary
Four Republican candidates lobbed attacks at Democratic incumbents, Sen. Tim Kaine and President Joe Biden, and appeared to jockey for former President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the Virginia Senate primary race during a candidate forum on Friday. Scott Parkinson, Johnathan Emord, Eddie Garcia, and Chuck Smith met each other on stage Friday morning in front of roughly 100 people at Victory Worship Center and World Outreach, a church on a hill that overlooked a cow pasture and I-64 in Staunton.
Republican candidates for Virginia U.S. Senate seat speak at public forum
In a divisive political atmosphere, and a divided Virginia government, the 2024 election is important in the Commonwealth. The presidential election is not Virginians’ only item on the ballot this year—the U.S. Senate spot held by Democratic incumbent Tim Kaine is up for election this year. Kaine plans to rerun for the spot, launching his campaign in Virginia. The Republican Party is looking to take control of the seat and take down the Democrat’s lead in the Senate.
‘We can win’: Democratic candidates for 5th District address voters at Amherst forum
Three candidates running for the Democratic nomination to represent Virginia’s 5th Congressional district addressed issues affecting voters in Amherst on Thursday with laughter and cordial exchanges in stark contrast to the highly contentious battle playing out on the Republican side of the race. Gloria Witt, of Amherst County; Crozet resident Paul Riley and Gary Terry of Danville spoke for an hour during a question-and-answer forum that drew more than people 50 to Second Stage Amherst. They are each looking to come out on top of a June 18 primary and achieve a feat no Democrat has done since former Congressman Tom Perriello left office in January 2011 — turning the district blue.
In a GOP stronghold, two Democrats seek chance to take on Wittman
Two Democrats — the former legal director of the ACLU of Virginia, and New Kent County’s former treasurer — are vying for the nomination to challenge a long-serving GOP incumbent in a strongly Republican district. New Kent’s Herb Jones, a retired Army colonel who tried but failed to unseat Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st in 2022, is facing Leslie Mehta, currently on leave as counsel and chief of staff of the Richmond Metropolitan Transportation Authority, in the June 18 Democratic primary.
STATE GOVERNMENT
Bristol Casino reports nearly $14M in April revenues
Adjusted gaming revenues for the first four months of this year topped $55 million for the Bristol Casino, future home of Hard Rock. On Wednesday the Virginia Lottery released its monthly casino revenues report, showing the temporary Bristol Casino generated nearly $14 million in adjusted gaming revenue – hitting $13.94 million. Through the first four months of the year, the casino’s revenues exceeded $55.7 million, or about 1% ahead of the first four months of 2023, lottery records show.
CONGRESS
Kaine listens to appeals regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine was at St. Thomas Episcopal Church Friday, where he met with members of the Appalachian Peace Education Center and heard their concerns regarding the ongoing violence in Gaza. Kaine heard from several speakers, who presented him with a call to action. “When we see the epidemic of violence, the genocide in Palestine, we don’t know all the solutions. But we do know that sending more bombs and more rockets is not the answer,” Buckey Boone, APEC chairman, said. “We want you to speak out against the mass killing and forced migration of people, the starvation of children, the total destruction of the medical system.
ECONOMY/BUSINESS
Dominion approved for 3 long-term battery storage pilots
Dominion Energy recently received state regulatory approval to use developing battery storage technologies that could have major implications for the commonwealth’s renewable energy transition. The projects include two battery systems at Darbytown Power Station, a natural gas plant in Henrico County. One will utilize an iron-air battery system; the other, a zinc-hybrid technology. An additional project to help power Virginia State University’s Multi-Purpose Center will use metal-hydrogen batteries. Battery storage is expected to double on the United States electric grid in 2024.
Second lawsuit is filed against Luna Innovations, alleging securities fraud
A newly filed federal lawsuit seeking class-action status against Roanoke-based Luna Innovations Inc. is looking to expand the timeline of the company’s alleged securities fraud. Plaintiffs’ lawyers accuse the fiber-optic sensing company of issuing financial reports that illegally inflated Luna’s stock price. The suit — which identifies Luna, its former chief executive officer, Scott Graeff, and two former chief financial officers, Eugene J. Nestro and George Gomez-Quintero, as defendants — makes allegations similar to a case filed in April.
HCA Healthcare trying for third time to build facility in Hanover
For the third time, HCA Healthcare is trying to build a medical facility at a site on Sliding Hill Road in Hanover County. And for the third time, rival health system Bon Secours is pushing back. After failing to build a hospital and a freestanding emergency room last year, HCA has now applied for a Certificate of Public Need to erect a $21 million outpatient surgery center. The health system said the new facility would better distribute resources throughout the Richmond area and lower patients’ costs.
HIGHER EDUCATION
Who were the mysterious ‘men in black’ at the UVa encampment?
Who were the men in black? In the fallout since the University of Virginia’s controversial decision to have Virginia State Police break up a small encampment of anti-war protesters on May 4, UVa officials have cited a number of justifications. Among them is a claim that four mysterious men in black, wearing helmets and backpacks, joined the encampment the night before. “At least two of these [men] were known to law enforcement personnel as participating in violent acts elsewhere in the commonwealth,” UVa President Jim Ryan said in a "virtual town hall" days after the incident. “This became a safety and security issue, especially when the four men came in on Friday night.” Since then, the university has offered almost no further details on the mysterious quartet ...
UVa graduates walk out on President Jim Ryan’s opening commencement address
The University of Virginia’s Final Exercises were barely underway Saturday morning when a couple dozen graduates walked out in protest. Their exit was triggered by the entrance of UVa President Jim Ryan, who took the stage in front of Old Cabell Hall to welcome the crowd of thousands to Grounds and congratulate the class of 2024. ... With many students and parents still getting situated by the time Ryan stepped up to the podium, it was difficult to make out which graduates were participating in the walkout and which were taking their seats.
Oakes family, VCU to host state’s first ever anti-hazing summit
The family of Adam Oakes will host a statewide hazing prevention summit at Virginia Commonwealth University next month, a first-of-its-kind event that brings together educators and anti-hazing foundations aimed at stopping the dangerous behavior. The event will be June 4 at the VCU Student Commons. About 30 groups have signed up so far, including 19 colleges, one K-12 school district, fraternity representatives and foundations, said Courtney White, Oakes' cousin.
VIRGINIA OTHER
Virginia has history of underfunding school construction
... Richmond Public Schools has acknowledged it’s been playing Whac-A-Mole with infrastructure issues. The district created a facilities plan in 2017, but some schools — like Woodville Elementary — were and still are on the list for needed upgrades. RPS is just now developing a plan to build a new Woodville. Meanwhile, Chesterfield County’s long-term school facilities plan is carefully charted to build and renovate numerous school buildings over the next five years.
Attorney says he misled client into taking plea in Richmond graduation shooting case; judge rejects motion to withdraw
Room 301 at the John Marshall Courts Building was packed Friday afternoon as Amari Pollard, the man who pleaded guilty in February to the shooting death of Shawn Jackson after Huguenot High School’s 2023 graduation ceremony, returned to court. He was there for a hearing on his motion to withdraw, or to legally ‘take-back’ his guilty plea.
Burned by the British in 1781, lost barracks are found in Williamsburg
Years after the Williamsburg barracks were burned, former Continental Army soldier Spencer Davis, of Virginia, recalled seeing the glow from the blaze in the distance. A British force had pounced on the Americans at night, killing two, causing the others to flee, and setting the fire, Davis recalled. It happened in 1781, near the close of the Revolutionary War. The barracks, built in 1776 after the Declaration of Independence, had been a proud symbol for the new country.
LOCAL
Loudoun schools scrap 2-hour delay proposal
Loudoun County Public Schools is no longer considering starting school two hours late on 16 days next year to accommodate state-mandated training for teachers. In a division-wide letter to parents on May 17, Superintendent Aaron Spence said LCPS received nearly 2,000 comments from parents after administrators first announced the proposal at a May 14 School Board meeting. Officials are now exploring alternatives, he said.
Loudoun Schools Abandon Delayed Start Training Plan Amid Parental Pushback
Just days after presenting a plan to the School Board to have 16 two-hour delayed school days to accommodate more than 36 hours of state-required teacher training, division administrators announced Friday they are changing course after receiving nearly 2,000 responses from the community. “After carefully reviewing the feedback and recognizing that the adjusted arrival schedule is not an ideal option for the majority of the families we heard from, we are reconsidering our approach,” according to the emailed announcement.
Prince William supervisors mull eliminating data center overlay district
A proposal to eliminate Prince William County’s data center overlay district, a 10,000-acre zone south of Manassas where numerous data centers have been built in recent years because they are largely allowed by right, is being debated by the Board of Supervisors. Gainesville Supervisor Bob Weir, whose district includes much of the county’s data centers, introduced a zoning text amendment to undo the district due to the intensity of development in recent years.
Richmond suspends registrar’s city credit card after $70K in 2023 charges
City officials on Thursday suspended the purchasing card of Richmond General Registrar Keith Balmer — who is under investigation by the Richmond Inspector General’s Office for claims of nepotism and financial impropriety — after he spent nearly $70,000 on the card in 2023, according to records obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The charges included almost $15,000 for furniture, $8,903 at a local art supplier, about $6,500 on hotels and lodging, and over $6,000 on food and beverages, a transaction log for Balmer’s card shows.
How the Shenandoah County School Board Decided to Restore Confederate School Names
Proud and satisfied, or sad and embarrassed. However citizens of the commonwealth view Shenandoah County School Board’s recent decision, Virginia appears to be the first in the nation to restore Confederate school names, after years of vigorous community engagement, a controversial renaming process, and a change in board priorities related to race, diversity and inclusion.
Roanoke police settle ACLU lawsuit with new department policy
The Roanoke Police Department and the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia reached a settlement agreement this month in a lawsuit related to an immigrant’s visa situation. The lawsuit, which the ACLU-VA says is the first of its kind, was filed in Roanoke Circuit Court in March. The civil rights group sued the police department on behalf of an immigrant survivor of domestic violence, whose request for a visa certification was denied by the department “despite clear state law,” according to an ACLU-VA press release published Friday.
EDITORIALS
By setting aside partisan bickering, Virginia officials reached a compromise budget
It’s rare in our deeply divided, hyperpartisan political environment to see elected officials pass anything remotely resembling a genuine compromise, but the two-year state budget approved this week is a notable, and laudable, exception. Democratic lawmakers who lead the General Assembly and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin each made substantial concessions from their priority wish list in order to reach agreement on a deal that, by and large, advances the commonwealth’s interests. Both sides deserve credit for choosing engagement rather than extremism in order to see this through.
Segregationist history? In RVA, the past is our present
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” — William Faulkner For a city that has spent 150 years attempting to erase its most painful chapters — the most recent effort spurred by conservative backlash to the Black Lives Matter movement and nationwide protests after the brutal police killing of George Floyd — Faulkner’s famous observation in “Requiem for a Nun” is proving more prescient than ever. Friday marked the anniversary of the 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, which ruled legal segregation in public schools unconstitutional. Seventy years later, metro Richmond’s schools remain more segregated than ever.
COLUMNISTS
Schapiro: When business gave Byrd machine the business
At the Jefferson Hotel — an overstated example of Beaux Arts architecture — there was a comparatively understated side entrance through which politicians and plutocrats could discreetly slip into the Rotunda Club, one of the few places in Richmond they could dine and do what state law would discourage until 1968: order with a meal a highball or three. The Rotunda Club, now no more than a memory, was in December 1958 where Lindsay Almond, a conservative Democratic governor absolute on preserving racial segregation, was warned by 29 business and professional leaders that the state’s economy could be crippled by continued defiance to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education outlawing separate public schools for white and Black children. Friday was the 70th anniversary of the decision.
Yancey: Rural Virginia sees same population growth rate as Nashville. That growth just isn’t evenly distributed.
Nashville has grown so fast it’s no longer just Nashville. It’s now sometimes jokingly called Nashvegas. Far from being just a country music city, Nashville is now a corporate center, a health care center, home to teams in the National Football League, the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer. It’s considered on the short list of cities to get a Major League Baseball team once the next round of expansion comes. Nashville is one of the hot cities in the country right now, economically speaking. The latest Census Bureau figures show that since 2000, the Nashville metro area has seen 50,532 more people move in than move out. That’s the equivalent of Nashville adding a county about the size of Virginia’s Henry County. It also works out to a net-migration growth rate of 3% since the last census headcount in 2000.
OP-ED
Coyner and Aird: Riverside Regional Jail needs competent leadership — now
There has been a crisis of leadership at Riverside Regional Jail. With the departure of the superintendent, there is an opportunity to chart a new course, to invest in quality leadership — and we are calling on the Riverside Jail Authority Board, made up of the city managers and county administrators of all the participating localities, to hire the most qualified candidate with successful experience running a jail. In 2022 alone, Riverside Regional Jail witnessed the heartbreaking loss of four lives, adding to the seven deaths recorded in the preceding year and another seven in 2020.
Wood: Protect Virginia’s vulnerable coast from offshore drilling
Virginia banned offshore drilling in our state waters nearly four years ago, but we are still at risk from oil and gas extraction today. Oil and gas development is still allowed in most federal waters further off our coast, and its impacts can forever damage coastal communities, economies and businesses. Oil spills don’t respect state or federal boundaries, yet much of the Atlantic Coast is still open for drilling. President Joe Biden has an opportunity now to do something about this once and for all.
Maizlish: Virginia should reject Confederate symbols and honor worthy figures instead
The Shenandoah County School Board’s vote reverting the names of Honey Run Elementary School and Mountain View High School to names that honor Confederate generals shows an ignorance of American and Virginia history. The decision warrants a review of the history of the Civil War and an examination of how the United States came to honor men who committed treason. Supporters of the school board’s decision claim that these Confederate names honor Virginia’s heritage. They argue that removing the names “erases history.” The truth is Confederate memorials such as these school names were part of an organized propaganda campaign to erase and rewrite Civil War history.
Fedderman: For Virginia schools, learn from the past and ready for the future
As we mark the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court decision that promised an end to public school segregation, we face a sobering reality: Too many of Virginia’s schools are sliding back into segregation, undoing decades of progress. This is not just a failure to live up to legal mandates; it’s a failure in our responsibility to our children — and to justice. As the first Black male president of the Virginia Education Association, I feel a deep, personal resonance on this anniversary. It’s time to come together, learn from our mistakes, and renew our commitment to realizing the promise of the Brown decision for diverse and adequately resourced schools.