Javascript is required to run this page
VaNews
March 29, 2024
Top of the News

Youngkin vetoes Virginia bills mandating minimum wage increase, establishing marijuana retail sales

By SARAH RANKIN, Associated Press

Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed two top Democratic legislative priorities on Thursday: bills that would have allowed the recreational retail sales of marijuana to begin next year and measures mandating a minimum wage increase. The development, which drew criticism from Democrats who control the General Assembly, did not come as a surprise. While Youngkin had not explicitly threatened to veto either set of bills, he told reporters he didn’t think the minimum wage legislation was needed and had repeatedly said he was uninterested in setting up retail marijuana sales.


Blame game ensues as $2 billion sports and entertainment deal falls apart

By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Aubrey Layne was secretary of finance for a Democratic governor facing a Republican-controlled legislature in negotiations over the biggest economic development deal in Virginia history — Amazon HQ2, a national competition to land a $5 billion bid for the retail giant’s East Coast headquarters with up to 50,000 new jobs on the line. Virginia won half of the prize — at least $2.5 billion in investment and 25,000 jobs, with potential for more — when Amazon chose a site in Arlington County’s Crystal City neighborhood in late 2018.


Youngkin arrived like a GOP star, but arena failure clouds legacy

By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

No Virginia governor has come into office with a deeper dealmaking background than Glenn Youngkin, who as former co-chief executive of the Carlyle Group made a fortune acquiring and merging companies around the globe. But as the Republican chief executive of a purple state, Youngkin has struggled to translate that business acumen into political success — or even economic development success, with the demise Wednesday of his much-touted plan to bring the Washington Wizards and Capitals to Alexandria.


Virginia Board of Education changes school rating system

By ANNA BRYSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

The Virginia Board of Education on Thursday voted 7-1 to change the school accreditation model that will now publicly rank each Virginia school in a system with at least four performance categories. The new system could develop into a school rating score signified by a number of stars or different category labels for schools. Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration has long criticized Virginia’s current accreditation system, saying that it is confusing for parents and lacks transparency.


Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel project behind by 18 months

By JOSH JANNEY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

The completion of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion project has been delayed by 18 months and isn’t expected until 2027, the Virginia Department of Transportation announced Thursday. The more than $3.9 billion project will widen Interstate 64 from two to four lanes in each direction and construct two two-lane tunnels, doubling the road segment’s capacity. The project was expected to be completed in 2025. But the Thursday announcement of the revised project schedule sets the substantial completion date for Feb. 26, 2027, and a final completion date for Aug. 27, 2027.


Friday Read Birds, bees and even plants might act weird during the solar eclipse

By CAROLYN Y. JOHNSON, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

A total eclipse isn’t just a spectacle in the sky. When the moon consumes the sun on April 8, day will plunge into twilight, the temperature will drop — and nature will take notice. Reports abound of unusual animal and plant behavior during eclipses. A swarm of ants carrying food froze until the sun reemerged during an 1851 eclipse in Sweden. A pantry in Massachusetts was “greatly infested” with cockroaches just after totality in 1932. Sap flowed more slowly in a 75-year-old beech tree in Belgium in 1999. Orb-weaving spiders started tearing down their webs and North American side-blotched lizards closed their eyes during an eclipse in Mexico in 1991.

The Full Report
32 articles, 22 publications

FROM VPAP

VPAP Visual How Representative is the General Assembly?

The Virginia Public Access Project

See how closely the members of the Virginia General Assembly match up with the population they represent in terms of education, race, age, and sex.

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

Youngkin vetoes bills to create legal pot market, raise minimum wage

By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) said Thursday that he has vetoed bills to establish a state-regulated marketplace for marijuana and to raise Virginia’s minimum wage, gutting two Democratic priorities a day after opposition to his plans for a sports arena in Alexandria led Wizards and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis to keep the project in the District. Both sets of bills had been widely seen as bargaining chips as Youngkin angled for Democratic support for the $2 billion arena project. Though he had expressed opposition to each, Youngkin had carefully avoided using the word “veto” while talks about the arena were still underway.


Youngkin vetoes legal cannabis market, minimum wage hike

By ANDREW CAIN AND ERIC KOLENICH, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Thursday announced he has vetoed seven more bills, including measures to set up a legal market to sell cannabis and to increase the state's minimum wage. In 2021, Virginia made it legal for adults to possess and use small amounts of cannabis, but did not authorize buying or selling, and a black market has emerged in the void. Youngkin has long said he was not interested in setting up a legal market for sales.


Youngkin vetoes bills on retail marijuana sales, minimum wage

By GRAHAM MOOMAW, Virginia Mercury

Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed legislation Thursday that would have established a retail marijuana market in Virginia and raised the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour, torpedoing two top Democratic priorities from the 2024 General Assembly session. The moves came one day after Youngkin’s top priority — the proposal to bring a professional sports arena to Alexandria — imploded under the weight of community opposition, questions about its public financing scheme and partisan combat in Richmond. Ted Leonsis, the owner of the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals, announced he’d reached a deal to keep the teams in D.C. Blocking bills at what could be a record-setting pace, Youngkin has now vetoed 86 pieces of legislation the General Assembly passed earlier this year.


Gov. Youngkin vetoes cannabis bill, minimum wage hike

By MARKUS SCHMIDT, Cardinal News

With the stroke of his veto pen, Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Thursday ended a bipartisan effort to create a legal adult-use cannabis market in Virginia by next year. In his latest round of legislative actions, Youngkin rejected a total of seven measures, while signing 100 into law. Youngkin vetoed both SB 448, sponsored by Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, and HB 698, introduced by Del. Paul Krizek, D-Fairfax County. The legislation would have tasked the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority, the agency created to oversee and regulate a marijuana retail market, to begin accepting applications for testing, cultivating, processing, retail and transporter licenses by Sept. 1, with retail to begin on May 1, 2025.


Youngkin vetoes bills that would legalize retail marijuana sales, increase minimum wage

By GAVIN STONE, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Thursday vetoed seven bills, including those with the potential to reshape life in Virginia. HB 698 and SB 448 aimed to establish a retail market for marijuana starting in May 2025. HB 1 and SB 1 would have increased the state’s minimum wage from $12 per hour to $13.50 at the start of the new year and $15 per hour starting in 2026. Both passed the House and Senate by tight margins. The marijuana bill would have “endanger[ed] Virginians’ health and safety,” Youngkin said in a release.


What the arena deal demise means for toll relief in Hampton Roads

By EMILY HARRISON, WVEC-TV

It’s official: The Washington Capitals and Wizards will not be moving to Virginia. This means some of the negotiating between Virginia Republicans and Democrats has also come to an end. For months, Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin pushed legislators to make room in the budget to allow a $2 billion district that would house the new arena in Alexandria, Virginia. This includes several offers to work on other agendas that were important to Democrats, including more tunnel toll relief.


Lead Fairfax Co. prosecutor calls Gov. Youngkin’s gun vetoes ‘boneheaded’

By NICK IANNELLI, WTOP

The lead prosecutor in Fairfax County, Virginia, slammed Gov. Glenn Youngkin on guns, using the word “boneheaded” when describing the governor’s recent vetoes. It came after Youngkin announced earlier this week that he’d vetoed 30 pieces of gun-related legislation. While Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, a Democrat, said he was pleased that the Republican governor did not veto a bill that would create new restrictions related to firearms that have a serial number that has been scratched off. He told WTOP that Youngkin “did make a lot of, in my opinion, boneheaded decisions when it comes to common-sense gun laws.”

FEDERAL ELECTIONS

Loyalty test: Bob Good and his conservative allies want voters to know he’s Trump’s man

By JASON ARMESTO, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

Mike Johnson's grip on the speaker's gavel in the U.S. House of Representatives was already loose, but now two of the hard-right Republicans responsible for the coup that ousted his predecessor are not ruling out doing it again. Four members of the 42-strong conservative House Freedom Caucus were in Scottsville Wednesday as part of Rep. Bob Good's "Freedom Fighters Tour" reelection campaign.

STATE GOVERNMENT

Virginia adopts regulatory changes for special education amid federal review

By NATHANIEL CLINE, Virginia Mercury

The Virginia Board of Education on Thursday adopted changes to how the state handles compliance complaints regarding students with disabilities. Since 2019, Virginia has been under ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of Education, which previously determined that the state repeatedly failed to resolve complaints filed by parents and did not have “reasonably designed” procedures and practices to ensure a timely resolution process for those complaints. The regulatory changes, which would align Virginia with federal regulations, replace standards that had not been updated since July 29, 2015.

ECONOMY/BUSINESS

Potomac Yard developer blames Tysons talk for failure of pro sports arena deal

By ANGELA WOOLSEY, FFXnow

The deal to bring the Washington Capitals and Wizards to Alexandria’s Potomac Yard is officially dead, and the developer says suggestions that an arena could be built in Tysons instead were the final nail in the coffin. Alexandria City officials revealed yesterday (Wednesday) that they had ended negotiations with developer JBG Smith, Wizards and Capitals owner Monumental Sports & Entertainment, and other stakeholders for a stadium in the proposed Potomac Yard Entertainment District. About an hour later, Monumental owner Ted Leonsis and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that the two professional sports teams will stay at Capital One Arena in Chinatown after all.


$1M grant to expand wireless capability along 460 corridor

Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 15 articles a month)

The Virginia Coalfield Coalition received a $1 million grant from the Virginia Department of Energy’s Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization grant to increase wireless network access along 20 miles of the Route 460 corridor. The new towers will serve two major industrial parks, at least 25 businesses, about 131 households and enable use of various mobile technology, according to a written statement.


Millions in federal dollars announced to address Virginia’s abandoned coal mines

By BRAD KUTNER, WVTF-FM

A top official at the U.S. Department of the Interior was in Richmond Thursday to announce millions of dollars to help reclaim abandoned coal mines from Wise to Chesterfield Counties. Acting Deputy Secretary of the Interior Laura Daniel-Davis was joined by Governor Glenn Youngkin’s Director of the Department of Energy, former Delegate Glenn Davis, to announce the nearly $23 million in funds made available thanks to the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Davis said the money will go towards training and creating much needed jobs in the region.

TRANSPORTATION

Hampton Roads Transit gets $1M to buy electric buses

By MARTA BERGLUND, WVEC-TV

Congressman Bobby Scott (D-3rd District) stopped by the Hampton Roads Transportation District Commission meeting Thursday to present $1 million in federal funding. The money will allow HRT to purchase more electric, zero-emission buses. Hampton Roads Transit currently operates six all-electric buses out of around 300, but it has the goal of going fully electric by 2049.

HIGHER EDUCATION

After historic $14 million federal fine, Liberty University declares ’new day’

By KATE ANDREWS, Virginia Business

The past four years have been rough on Liberty University’s reputation, judging by the sheer tonnage of negative press that the Lynchburg-based evangelical education powerhouse has received. But with a $2 billion-plus endowment and one of the nation’s largest private, nonprofit college enrollments, Liberty appears to be not only surviving but thriving, even amid embarrassing media stories about its former president and chancellor, Jerry Falwell Jr., as well as far more serious allegations brought by 22 former students and employees who claimed in the 2021 “Jane Does” lawsuit that Liberty officials discouraged them from reporting sexual assaults to authorities.


GMU calls off plan for cricket and baseball stadium at Fairfax campus

By ANGELA WOOLSEY, FFXnow

It has not been a great week for plans to bring professional sports teams to Northern Virginia. Just a day after negotiations for a Washington Wizards and Capitals arena in Alexandria officially fell through, George Mason University has announced that it’s no longer planning to build a joint baseball and cricket stadium in Fairfax for the Washington Freedom.


Plans to build GMU cricket and baseball stadium canceled

By GABRIEL KING AND VIVIANA SMITH, The Fourth Estate

On March 28, President Washington announced that Mason will not complete the construction of the baseball and cricket stadium on west campus. “After hard work and due diligence from the team at Mason, we have concluded that this opportunity does not meet the strategic objectives and interests of our campus and community and the Washington Freedom,” Washington said. This decision to cancel the construction follows the announcement to temporarily pause west campus construction on March 1.

VIRGINIA OTHER

Superfund Cleanup Begins at Hidden Lane Landfill

By TIM FARMER, Loudoun Now

Sixteen years after Hidden Lane Landfill was named a federal Superfund site, the Environmental Protection Agency is beginning work to remove contaminated soil and address tainted groundwater at the former dump that sits between Broad Run Farms and CountrySide in eastern Loudoun. The roughly 30-acre private landfill operated without a county permit from 1971 until it was forced to close under a 1983 court order.


Loudoun couple charged with entering Capitol during Jan. 6 riot

By JESS KIRBY AND EVAN GOODENOW, Loudoun Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

A Lowes Island husband and wife are accused of entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Thomas Kasperek and Dr. Daphne Thomas Kasperek were arrested by the FBI on March 28 during a search of their home on Blockhouse Point Place, according to Robert L. Jenkins Jr., the attorney representing Thomas Kasperek. ... They were charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a Capitol building; and demonstrating or picketing in any Capitol building, according to a criminal complaint filed with their arrest. All the charges are misdemeanors.


Former Del. Fariss granted bond on drug, gun charges

By RODNEY ROBINSON, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)

A former Virginia House of Delegates representative from Campbell County received bond Thursday morning after his arrest over the weekend. Matt Fariss, 55, who represented Virginia’s 59th House District for a 12-year stint and left office in January after losing a re-election bid for a redistricted seat, was arrested Sunday and booked into the Amherst County Adult Detention Center, according to jail records. Fariss, who was present in court Thursday standing next to his attorney Chuck Felmlee in an orange jumpsuit with family in attendance, ...


Fariss bond set at $5,000; preliminary hearing set for June

By MARK D. ROBERTSON, Cardinal News

A district court judge set a $5,000 bond for former Del. Matt Fariss in Lynchburg General District Court on Thursday morning, nearly five days after the ex-lawmaker’s Saturday night arrest on drug and firearm charges in Campbell County. Judge Stephanie Maddox presided over the bond hearing and stipulated that Fariss’ freedom until his June 4 preliminary hearing will also be contingent upon random drug and alcohol tests and on Fariss seeking drug abuse treatment.

LOCAL

Why an effort to expand the Arlington police auditor’s access to records unraveled

By JO DEVOE, ArlNow

Last year, an attempt to broaden the Arlington police auditor’s access to police records quietly fizzled before reaching the public for discussion. The auditor currently can access police records for publicly filed misconduct complaints and review summaries of the Arlington County Police Department’s internal investigations, which ACPD has about a month and a half to generate and anonymize. The fizzling ensures that, for the near term, the auditor continues to have fewer powers than the state code allows, than what auditors in Alexandria and Fairfax County enjoy, and than what the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement says is essential to effective oversight.


Prince William’s tech corridor stretches into mid-county

By PETER CARY, Piedmont Journalism Foundation

Prince William County is poised to add yet another “data center alley” to its already burgeoning tech industry — this time in the mid-county area. The Prince William Board of County Supervisors moved Tuesday, March 19 to allow 85-foot data centers on 90 acres known as Parson’s Farm, a former landscaping outlet along Dumfries Road. In April, the planning commission will hear another application to add at least three more 80-foot-tall data centers at Colchester Industrial Park and surrounding properties about three miles south on Dumfries Road.


Prince William County to pilot tool to determine if person can be released before trial

By BRITTNEY MELTON, WUSA-TV

Prince William County Criminal Justice Services team announced Thursday that it is ready to launch its Public Safety Assessment (PSA) tool. It is designed to determine whether a person charged with crimes can be released back into the community pending trial. Prince William County will be one of five communities in Virginia to pilot the tool that uses nine scoring factors to help judges and judicial officers make release conditions. It is said to help ensure court appearance and public safety during the pretrial period for the person facing charges.


Projects raise questions about Warrenton’s growth plan

By HUNTER SAVERY, Fauquier Times

Quietly and quickly, big decisions about what growth should look like in Warrenton over the next few years have begun to inch their way before town officials in 2024. Last week, it was the Warrenton Town Planning Commission considering a proposal to radically overhaul the Warrenton Village Center along Oak Springs Drive near Broadview Avenue and Lee Highway to add 386 new apartments and amenities such as a swimming pool and dog park. Earlier this month, Warrenton Town Council and Fauquier County Supervisors agreed to start an annexation process that could eventually lead to the construction of up to 270 new homes on the south side of Warrenton as part of a proposed project known as the Arrington subdivision.


Richmond ballpark could lose $25 million due to arena

By ERIC KOLENICH, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

A $25 million chunk of funding for the nascent Diamond District baseball stadium is being held up by the debate surrounding Gov. Glenn Youngkin's now defunct plan to build an arena in Alexandria. The city of Richmond hopes to use state sales tax revenue to help pay off the minor league ballpark, but the law giving the city that authority expires in July. Now the Richmond ballpark needs help from Youngkin and state lawmakers. The tax problem is not dire enough to kill the Richmond project, but it could increase the difficulty of paying for it.


Danville school leaders tout agreement with Va. Department of Education

By CHARLES WILBORN, Danville Register & Bee

Nearly four years into a memorandum of understanding with the Virginia Department of Education, leaders with Danville Public Schools point to progress on the road to getting all schools fully accredited, but admit it’s a long and sometimes bumpy ride to get there. On June 18, 2020, the Danville School Board inked the agreement with the state. It came in response to a study requested by then-Superintendent Stanley Jones when the number of accredited schools began to fall.

 

EDITORIALS

Port of Virginia will lend a hand as Baltimore begins its recovery

Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

If there was any question as to why the commonwealth continues to invest in improvements to the Port of Virginia, it was answered on Tuesday when a malfunctioning container ship slammed into a support tower of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, collapsing it into Baltimore Harbor. Hampton Roads facilities will handle additional commercial traffic as federal and state officials investigate the accident and set about the challenging task of removing and rebuilding the bridge. Being able to step up in this critical moment demonstrates the value of our port and the need to ensure its continued ability to serve national, as well as local, interests.


The Caps and Wizards are staying, and downtown D.C. is ready for revival

Washington Post Editorial (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

In the end, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) triumphed over Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), and the Capitals and Wizards are staying where they belong: in the capital city. It’s a win the city’s struggling downtown needed. This moment feels like 1995, when the teams’ owner at the time, Abe Pollin, signed an agreement to move them from Maryland to Chinatown. Suddenly, other business owners considered the area, which is close to the White House, the Capitol and every Metro line. Investment poured in for restaurants, offices and residences.

COLUMNISTS

Yancey: Gov. Youngkin says Virginia’s continued out-migration shows why taxes should be cut

By DWAYNE YANCEY, Cardinal News

One Saturday afternoon, when he could have been watching basketball, Gov. Glenn Youngkin instead was at his computer, playing around with a database on homebuilding statistics. He didn’t like what he found. That discovery will have to wait just a bit while I explain the significance of the governor of Virginia spending his spare time researching construction stats. Since 2013, Virginia has repeatedly seen more people move out of the state than move in. The state is still gaining population — just more slowly — because births outnumber both deaths and the net out-migration. That period of time covers four different governors from two different parties but I’ve only seen one of them focused on that particular status — our current one.

OP-ED

Rahaman: Voters are raising their voices for equality. Does Youngkin hear them?

By NARISSA RAHAMAN, published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

The Virginia General Assembly has ended its session for the year, with several bills passing through the legislature that would improve the lives and livelihoods of LGBTQ+ people. Yet, Gov. Glenn Youngkin has yet to take action on many of these pieces of legislation. This month, Youngkin signed into law a bill that codifies marriage equality — a bill passed by a bipartisan coalition — that extends marriage rights to same-sex couples and interracial couples via an update to the outdated Virginia Code.

Rahaman is the executive director of Equality Virginia, an advocacy organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) equality.


Persons: Honor promises to people with developmental disabilities

By GREY PERSONS, published in Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Virginia stands at a pivotal moment in its history, poised to uphold its commitment to ensuring “A Life Like Yours” for all its citizens, including those with developmental disabilities. The recent allocation of $200 million in the state budget to eliminate the priority-one waitlist for Medicaid waivers marks an historic moment to be recognized and celebrated. At long last, this funding promises access to crucial services for thousands of individuals identified as needing support. However, it’s crucial to recognize that merely funneling funds into the existing system won’t suffice. Virginia must strive for a more integrated, individualized approach ...

Persons of Norfolk is president of The Arc of Virginia Board of Directors.