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VPAP Visual Record Vetoes in 2024
With the final vetoes complete as of last Friday, Governor Glenn Youngkin has set a new record for bills vetoed in a single year, axing a total of 201 bills. This year alone, Youngkin has killed more legislation than any recent governor of Virginia has in their full four-year term.
Westbrook and Allen: Our boys were found innocent. So why are they still in prison?
Another year has come and gone and we’re approaching another presidential election season without our sons. They were found not guilty by a federal jury of their peers, but still sentenced to life in prison. It has been nearly 23 years since we’ve last had our boys, Terence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne, at our dinner table. We’ve since had four presidential administrations, countless promises of criminal justice reform, and still no end in sight for the injustice they are experiencing. We are calling on the Biden Administration to grant them clemency — and asking that you do, too.
DOD contract fuels $41.2M expansion of Orange County rocket factory
Defense contractor L3Harris Technologies has entered into an agreement with Orange County to fund a $41.2 million expansion and modernization of the company’s Aerojet Rocketdyne facility there. The effort is intended to increase solid rocket motor production while growing the company’s presence in the commonwealth, according to a joint statement from Orange County, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and L3Harris.
Va. casino gaming revenues total $60.1M in April
Virginia’s three casinos reported about $60.1 million in gaming revenues for April, according to Virginia Lottery data released last week. ... April’s casino gaming revenues were a 7.6% decrease from the $65.08 million reported in March. Virginia law assesses a graduated tax on a casino’s adjusted gaming revenue. For the month of April, taxes from casino AGRs totaled $10.8 million.
VIPC launches $100M fund partnership for Va. startups
The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. is partnering with seven venture capital fund managers to invest $100 million in 100 Virginia-based startups. Through the partnership, announced Monday by Gov. Glenn Youngkin and named Virginia Invests, VIPC will commit $40 million to the seven funds using previously awarded funding from the U.S. Treasury Department’s State Small Business Credit Initiative.
Amazon data center arm buys Manassas site
Amazon.com Inc. has acquired another Manassas-area site approved for data center development, this one for $218 million. The e-commerce giant’s data center arm, Amazon Data Services Inc., bought the 91-acre assemblage at 14237 and 14209 Dumfries Road from Parsons Business Park LLC on April 25, according to Prince William County property records. The sale price works out to about $2.4 million per acre.
Yancey: Roanoke city manager’s departure comes as city council faces an unusual amount of turnover
The job of the next Roanoke City Council just got more interesting. But first, so does the job before city voters this summer and fall. City Manager Bob Cowell announced his resignation Monday night, at the tail end of the council meeting. Cardinal’s Tad Dickens has more details, such as they are. I’ll focus on the politics — and the future. Cowell’s departure comes as the Roanoke City Council is about to undergo an unusual amount of turnover. At least three, and maybe four, members of the seven-member council won’t be there next year. Mayor Sherman Lea and council member Trish White-Boyd are retiring. Council member Luke Priddy is resigning to take a job out of town. That guarantees three new members on the dais.
In the face of a lawsuit and veto, Virginia Beach’s election system still up in the air
A Circuit Court judge Monday denied a request that would have prevented district-based elections of Virginia Beach City Council members this fall and will issue an opinion soon on whether a lawsuit against the city’s voting system can move forward. The 2024 election will continue as planned under the current ward-based system, said Deputy City Attorney Chris Boynton. Former Norfolk Judge Charles Poston presided over a hearing Monday on a lawsuit brought by former Councilman Linwood Branch and several other residents who contend that the city “illegally manipulated the Virginia Beach electoral system by eliminating three at-large seats that are expressly established under the City Charter,” and deprived the rights of voters. On Friday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a bill that would have aligned Virginia Beach’s city charter with its district-based election system, citing the pending lawsuit.
Backed by rival GOP factions, veterans in Virginia’s 7th District primary look similar on paper
Save for the facial hair, it would have been hard to tell Derrick Anderson and Cameron Hamilton apart. Sitting side by side at a candidate forum here earlier this month, the front-runners in one of Virginia’s most competitive GOP primaries both highlighted their time serving in elite military units and then in the federal government. Both pledged to go hard on China and campus protesters while pitching themselves as Republicans’ best chance to flip this battleground seat.
Patriot Front members admit to vandalizing Richmond’s Arthur Ashe mural in 2021
Two Patriot Front members admitted in federal court filings that they vandalized the Arthur Ashe mural in Richmond’s Battery Park in 2021. In the filings, Nathan Noyce and Thomas Dail admit and deny allegations made against them, others and Patriot Front — which the Southern Poverty Law Center calls “a white nationalist hate group” — in a civil lawsuit from two anonymous Battery Park neighborhood residents. Neither has been arrested in connection to the Battery Park vandalism.