By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER,
Washington Post
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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.
By ANDREW CAIN AND ERIC KOLENICH,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
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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.
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.
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.
By GAVIN STONE,
Virginian-Pilot
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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.
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.
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.”