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Trump’s tax bill has become a battlefield for tobacco giants
Two of the largest tobacco firms in the United States are waging a lobbying battle over a key provision in the GOP’s massive tax and spending bill. The version of the legislation that the House passed last month included language to claw back a $12 billion tax break that tobacco producers — most of them in North Carolina — use to make their products cheaper to export. The version of the legislation the Senate is considering would leave the tax break untouched. Now cigarette manufacturers and their allies in Congress are wrestling over the final fate of the provision — with Sen. Thom Tillis (North Carolina), a Republican whom Democrats hope to unseat in midterm elections, stuck in the middle.
State agencies begin moving out of James Monroe Building
The state government has begun moving out of the James Monroe Building. The Office of the State Inspector General recently relocated to a small office complex on Governor Street called Reid’s Row. By the spring of 2026, the state expects the 29-story Monroe building to be empty, Banci Tewolde, director of the Department of General Services, told the state’s Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. General Services handles real estate for the state government.
Va. panel approves Barbara Johns statue for U.S. Capitol
A state commission has given final approval to Virginia’s bronze statue of teenage civil rights heroine Barbara Johns that will become part of the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. Capitol by the end of the year. The Johns statue will replace a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that the state removed from the U.S. Capitol in December 2020. Each state gets two statues in the collection. Virginia’s other statue depicts George Washington.
Proposed Chester data center gets thumbs down from planners
The Chesterfield Planning Commission unanimously recommended against a rezoning case that proposed a data center in Chester. The development from Denver-based data center planning company Tract would be located on 744 acres at 16100 Branders Bridge Road. “Where I have a real challenge is where it’s located,” said Gib Sloan, who represents the Bermuda District on the planning commission, during Tuesday’s meeting. “We need to look at a case through the health, safety and welfare of its citizens.”
Planning Commission recommends denial of 700-acre data center project in Chesterfield
A proposed data center campus in southeast Chesterfield failed to get an endorsement from the county Planning Commission this week. Denver-based developer Tract is seeking zoning approval of a data center project on more than 700 acres just outside Colonial Heights. The assemblage includes 16100 Branders Bridge Road and multiple other parcels. Planning commissioners voted unanimously to recommend that the project be denied by the Board of Supervisors, which is anticipated to provide a final verdict on the zoning request at a future meeting.
Defense in Prince William Digital Gateway lawsuit asks judge to strike case
Following an eventful first two days, a scheduled four-day trial on the PW Digital Gateway data center project reached its penultimate stage Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by the Oak Valley Homeowners’ Association and 11 individual plaintiffs, all Gainesville-area residents.
Unreleased report cites millions in Richmond tax overpayments that weren’t refunded, ‘confusion’ in process
Three years after the Richmond Inspector General's Office began investigating a complaint regarding the finance department's handling of tax credits and refunds, no formal report on the matter has been published. However, CBS 6 obtained a draft report that outlined what investigators characterized as a confusing process for returning money to overpaying business owners and millions in excess taxes that were never credited back to taxpayers.
Virginia doesn’t have statewide data center regulations. Localities are making their own rules.
Virginia is home to over a third of the data centers worldwide. These energy hungry facilities have brought business to the commonwealth, but communities are seeing the impact of the electricity and water usage hit their utility bills. Now, many localities are debating how to balance the opportunities and challenges data centers present, and grappling with how to regulate them.
UVA professors ask university board to halt DEI dismantling
A group of University of Virginia professors is asking the school’s Board of Visitors to suspend any further actions to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programming until the legality of those programs is settled in federal or state court. As VPM News has previously reported, there’s nothing currently in federal law that explicitly prohibits DEI offices and initiatives. Regardless, Virginia’s public universities have been swift to do away with these initiatives in the wake of anti-DEI executive orders from President Donald Trump. The UVA chapter of the American Association of University Professors, an organization primarily dedicated to protecting academic freedom and shared governance in higher education, sent the request to the UVA board in a June 5 letter.
Democrats in Virginia have a hefty fundraising advantage heading into November general election
Democrats in Virginia have built up a hefty fundraising advantage for their effort to reclaim the governor’s mansion in a November election that is seen as a bellwether for the party in power in Washington ahead of the 2026 midterms. Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA spy turned congresswoman, has a more than 2-to-1 fundraising advantage over her GOP opponent for governor, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who has struggled to draw support from her fellow Republicans.