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Grieving mother joins AG in challenging Virginia's early release policy
Virginia's enhanced earned sentence credits program is facing scrutiny as victims' families join Attorney General Jason Miyares in calling for reform, while supporters defend the initiative as an effective rehabilitation tool. Before 2020, offenders in Virginia were required to serve 85% of their sentences. However, a law passed by the General Assembly and signed by former Governor Ralph Northam changed this requirement, allowing inmates to earn up to 180 days off their sentence for each year served, effectively reducing their time to about 66% of the original sentence.
Virginia AG says enforcing Virginia’s ban on ‘ex-gay therapy’ for minors would violate religious freedoms
Virginia’s attorney general office says it won't enforce the state’s ban on so-called ‘ex-gay therapy’ for minors. The notice comes after a consent decree was announced between the state and a Front Royal County counselor who wanted to engage in the practice. “For five years, Virginia’s children struggling over gender confusion and sexuality have been left without professional help,” said Victoria Cobb with the Family Foundation of Virginia announcing a new agreement with the Virginia Attorney General’s office. It would block any enforcement of the Commonwealth’s five-year-old ban on so-called “ex-gay” therapy for minors.
Miyares’ office green lights agreement preventing state from enforcing parts of state ban on conversion therapy
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is siding with two Virginia counselors. Miyares’ office agreed to what’s called a consent decree to settle a lawsuit filed by John and Janet Raymond — two counselors who said Virginia’s ban on conversion therapy for minors violated their free speech and religious rights. The decree will prevent the state from disciplining counselors who engage in conversation “talk therapy” with LGBTQ youth.
Court partly reverses Va. ban on efforts to change minors' sexual orientation
Virginia’s state law that bans medical professionals from practicing conversion therapy — seeking to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity — on minors is no longer fully in effect. A Henrico County judge entered an order that permanently prohibits the state from enforcing parts of the 2020 law that apply to talk therapy. Other means of conversion therapy, such as electric shock and nausea-inducing drugs, are still banned.
SC GOP taps Virginia governor to headline Silver Elephant Gala fundraiser
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin will keynote the South Carolina GOP’s annual fundraising gala, the state Republican Party announced Tuesday. Youngkin’s election in November 2021 gave Republicans nationwide a morale boost after Democrats won the presidency while gaining control of the U.S. Senate a year earlier.
State Democrats celebrate new maternal health care laws
Del. Destiny LeVere Bolling (D–Henrico) — and more than a dozen of her Democratic colleagues — took the stage Monday outside a Portsmouth preschool, with a tent shielding a crowd of about 100 people from the midday sun. “Tomorrow, July 1, moms, babies and families across the commonwealth will begin to feel the benefit of maternal health policies that fundamentally transform how Virginia supports mothers, babies, and families,” said LeVere Bolling. The crowd fanned their faces with handouts on the package legislation, which Democrats called “the momnibus.” . . . The bills are Democrats' answer to disparities in maternal mortality, a long waitlist for subsidized child care, and access to health care.
Coyner: Free college courses? In Virginia, it's the law
Two years ago, I carried a bill that passed with strong bipartisan support to open more doors for Virginia’s high school students. The law makes every course in the Virginia Passport and Uniform Certificate of General Studies programs free for high school students when taken through our community college system — whether in person at their local high school or online. Why? Because every student deserves a real pathway to college or a career that doesn’t come with crushing debt. Because families should have access to meaningful courses that count toward a degree without wondering if they can afford them.
Youngkin ignores assembly on vetoes as budget takes effect
Virginia will have a new budget on Tuesday, but it won’t include money to pay for wider access to weight loss drugs, hire nursing home staff under Medicaid or prevent the state from issuing contracts that allow vendors to pocket a portion of any savings they find. Those three provisions were among 37 line-items that Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed in the revised budget that the General Assembly adopted in late February.
Gas station's opening in Rockingham County draws a crowd
Before the sun came up on Monday morning, Cristi Trego left her home in Houston, Delaware, to make the four-and-a-half-hour drive to Mount Crawford in Virginia’s Rockingham County to stop at one particular gas station. “We love Buc-ee’s,” Trego said about herself and her 3-year-old grandson, Mason, as they were waiting in line to meet Buc-ee the Beaver. . . . The nation’s northernmost Buc-ee’s travel center, and the first in Virginia, opened Monday morning amid huge crowds, sweltering weather, and a parking lot that was full-to-bursting with cars. County sheriffs and Buc-ee’s employees eventually had to begin directing the traffic that came from as far away as Georgia.
Judge voids Virginia Beach district-based election system, but not results
A Circuit Court judge ruled Monday that the district-based election system Virginia Beach imposed to comply with federal voting rights law is void. According to the ruling, that’s because the General Assembly did not vote to pass corresponding legislation that would have officially changed the city’s charter. Attorneys said Monday’s summary judgement, means that the “10-1” system used in the past two local election cycles is not permitted unless and until the state legislature passes legislation that amends the city charter to that effect. However, the ruling applies only to future elections ...