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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.
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.
Deaths, ill treatment at Riverside spark call for regional jail reform
Denise Gunn asked Chesterfield County prosecutors to go to court to revoke her son Kevin Wyatt’s probation last year, thinking he’d be safer in jail than on the street. He died in Riverside Regional Jail eight months later of an overdose of cocaine and fentanyl, she said. He was due to be released from the Prince George County facility in three weeks. When jail officials called Gunn, some 10 hours after her son’s death, they asked her if her son brought drugs into jail, she said. But he’d been there for months, she replied. How could he have?
Measure expanding Virginia localities’ speed-limiting authority takes effect July 1
Gov. Glenn Youngkin took his final actions on bills from Virginia’s 2024 legislative session on Friday, signing seven more measures into law. One of those was legislation that will expand all localities’ speed-reducing authority to include roadways within a business or residential district and state-owned highways. Lawmakers passed a measure a few years ago allowing localities to decrease roadway speed limits in their jurisdictions to as low as 15 mph. However, lawmakers found that the Virginia Department of Transportation denied seven of eight speed limit decrease requests because, by state law, only the Commissioner of Highways could authorize changes on state-maintained roads.
Danville taking inventory of water service lines under EPA mandate
Danville Utilities is taking an inventory of public and private water service lines as part of an EPA mandate to remove lead from water systems across the country. All water service lines, public and private, that are found to have lead will have to be replaced in 10 years, according to the EPA mandate, said Danville Utilities Director Jason Grey. Danville Utilities is currently compiling an inventory for public lines — those leading from the water main to a property’s water meter — by going through its records, Grey said.
Va. Sen. Mark Warner meets with students, university staffs over FAFSA glitches
Monday afternoon U.S. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia met with Northern Virginia students and both high school and college administrators to hear concerns over the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly shortened to FAFSA. Months behind schedule, the U.S. Department of Education rolled out what was supposed to be a new, shorter, easier process for filling out FAFSA around New Year’s. But in addition to being late, the rollout of the new application has been plagued by glitches and other difficulties that are blamed for a large drop in students both filling out and completing the form.
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.
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.
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.