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Ramadan: Spanberger displays a rare trait in politics – intellectual honesty
Last week, former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, now the Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia, made headlines by announcing she would not sign legislation that fully repeals Virginia’s right-to-work law if elected. Her decision may have removed a wedge issue from the campaign trail, but more importantly, it revealed something increasingly rare in politics: intellectual honesty.
Youngkin signs bipartisan child welfare reforms and sets new goals for foster care
Katie Jones was 11 the last time she saw her childhood home, where her father, an alcoholic, stayed between jail stints and her mother struggled with heroin addiction. One day after school, just moments after she had settled in with a bag of chips and her homework, police and social services workers pulled up outside. Within minutes, Jones and her five siblings were loaded into vehicles, separated from each other, and plunged into the foster care system — an experience that would shuffle her through five homes, three schools, and years of uncertainty before she aged out at 18, never adopted.
Virginia education department violated procurement rules in extending $83M contract
The former leadership at the Virginia Department of Education failed to follow state procurement rules when it extended a major student assessment contract worth nearly $83 million, according to a finding by the Office of the State Inspector General. The state’s contract with the education company Pearson is one of the biggest and most politically sensitive in state government. It includes work to develop, administer, score and report statewide students’ assessments, including the Standards of Learning tests.
After Virginia clerk says Youngkin vetoes aren’t valid, a defiant governor digs in
Gov. Glenn Youngkin insisted Thursday that he properly stripped three items from the state budget despite a finding by the clerk of the House of Delegates that his “purported vetoes” violate the state constitution. The Republican governor, up against a General Assembly fully but narrowly under Democratic control since the midpoint of his four-year term, has racked up more than 400 vetoes — more than any of his predecessors. Democrats have never mustered the supermajority needed to override any of them.
Kroger building $40 million store on Mechanicsville Turnpike
Grocery store chain Kroger broke ground Thursday on a long-planned, $40 million store on Mechanicsville Turnpike. The 123,000-square-foot Kroger Marketplace will sell clothing and feature a Starbucks, pharmacy, 18-pump gas station and more than 500 parking spots. It will also feature almost 10,000 square feet for retail shops adjacent to the grocery store. The new location, at Mechanicsville Turnpike and Compass Point Lane, will replace a smaller store just up the road in the Creighton Crossing shopping center. . . . The new location will have 300 employees, about twice as many as the closing store.
Va. will allow some criminal records to be sealed next year
Next summer, certain people with past convictions will be eligible to apply for their criminal records to be sealed — meaning long-past convictions won’t show up on background checks. This can help people who have been formerly incarcerated and rehabilitated get a fresh start when applying for jobs, loans or apartments. The process stems from a 2021 law that underwent several years of workshopping before its delayed implementation. ... Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, virtually joined a panel of criminal justice experts Wednesday in Richmond to discuss the law’s evolution and the journey for beneficiaries that lies ahead.
Yancey: Federal judge in Roanoke has a new side hustle: Author of a young adult novel.
Like many writers, the author of a new novel that’s set in Virginia has a day job to support his writing habit. In the case of “Charlie-Man,” a young adult novel coming out this summer, the author’s day job is one of the hardest gigs in the country to land: Thomas Cullen is a federal judge. Virginia is no stranger to judges who are also authors. J. Harvie Wilkinson III, who sits on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, has written six books, three of those after he ascended to the bench from the law school faculty at the University of Virginia.
Virginia gubernatorial hopefuls share their housing ideas as commonwealth struggles with supply
Virginia’s housing problems, like the nation’s, date back to the 2008 financial crisis. The influx of homes created a bubble that burst and saw foreclosures at record rates. Developers have been reluctant to ramp up home construction ever since. Only now is the U.S. starting to reach pre-2008 levels of new construction for privately owned housing. Virginia is smack dab in the middle of the national average for such new construction, according to real estate industry trackers Construction Coverage. Their lead data analyst Michael Stromberg said incentives to build lean towards new luxury homes.
Reforms to VCU Health must wait following Youngkin veto
The effort to restructure the leadership of the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System will have to wait another year, after Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed the measure earlier this month. Following the failure of the Clay Street real estate project, in which VCU Health paid $73 million to exit, the governor, legislators and health system leaders all agreed to restructure VCU Health’s board of directors, which requires rewriting state law. . . . But the legislation will not become law, because Youngkin vetoed it, saying it would have unnecessarily shifted power from the governor’s mansion to legislators.
Denied for dissent?
Several Virginia Commonwealth University students who did everything they needed to do to graduate were denied their degree for sitting on the wrong patch of grass on April 29. The students were part of an event, which VCU officials said was unauthorized, that marked the one-year anniversary of a prior pro-Palestinian protest on the campus. The 2024 pro-Palestinian protest at VCU led to a clash between student demonstrators and law enforcement. It wasn’t a good look for a university that prides itself on promoting free expression and diversity of thought.