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Sea-level rise among port’s concerns
Over the years, scientists have warned about sea-level rise, especially in Norfolk, which has the highest rate on the East Coast. “Norfolk is very flat. When you see a small increase in water levels, a wide part of land floods in response,” says Molly Mitchell, a researcher at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which issues annual sea-level report cards for 32 coastal communities in the United States. Hampton Roads as a whole will probably see between 1 and 3 feet in sea-level rise by 2050, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Mitchell says that’s just the beginning.
Virginia could see more days with worse air quality ratings. Here’s why.
Virginians could start seeing more days rated with poorer air quality, the state says. But that’s because of changes in the standards – not the air. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality puts out daily forecasts that grade air quality based on public health threats from pollution emitted by sources like cars, power plants and wildfires. … The department said last week that residents might notice an uptick in days marked as moderate as opposed to good. That’s because a recent revision of federal pollution standards is stricter about what constitutes good air.
Federal official celebrates rural broadband effort in Stafford
Richland Baptist Church in Stafford County was crawling with federal officials and black SUVs on Monday, but the contingent was there to celebrate, not investigate. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and her troops, along with Comcast and Stafford officials, descended on the property to tout a public–private partnership that brought high-speed broadband to the western part of the county. “While over 650 homes may seem like a small number to some, I assure you it is huge for us and means the world to our residents,” said Meg Bohmke, chair of the Stafford Board of Supervisors.
Virginia lawmakers approve bipartisan spending plan
Weeks of Virginia state budget drama ended Monday with pledges of bipartisan goodwill as the General Assembly passed a compromise two-year spending plan that boosts funding for education and other priorities without increasing taxes. Votes in both the Senate and the House of Delegates were nearly unanimous. Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who had raised the specter of an unprecedented state government shutdown by vowing not to sign the budget the legislature passed in March, rushed Monday to sign the new document after a special one-day legislative budget session.
Virginia lawmakers to study campus safety policies after series of protests
The Virginia House of Delegates has formed a select committee on maintaining campus safety and allowing students to exercise their First Amendment rights, after more than 125 arrests at four of Virginia’s college campuses. According to Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Richmond, the Senate will announce its plans to form a similar committee on Tuesday. “I’ve heard very different scenarios from those who were on the ground and in encampments either as students or as community members that were part of those protests,” Hashmi said. “I think it’s important to get a very clear picture of what’s happened.”
600-acre data center project in Henrico up for deciding vote
Two years after a previous rezoning attempt by another group fizzled out, local development firm Hourigan is one vote away from securing approval for a massive industrial development in Varina that’s planned to include multiple data centers. Henrico supervisors are slated to vote tonight on Hourigan’s request to rezone 622 acres southeast of the Interstate 64-295 interchange from agricultural use to the county’s Light Industrial district. The change would allow more than half of the largely wooded site to be developed for manufacturing, office and production uses, including advanced manufacturing and data centers.
General Assembly passes budget with funds for priorities, no tax hike
The General Assembly found a way to compromise with Gov. Glenn Youngkin on tax policy while paying for such priorities as raises for teachers and state employees in a $188 billion two-year budget that the legislature adopted on Monday. The House of Delegates voted 94-6 to pass the spending plan for July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2026. In the Senate, the vote was 39-1. The budget compromise avoids a showdown with Youngkin over modernizing Virginia’s tax code and returning the state to a multistate compact for reducing the greenhouse gases that scientists link to global warming and climate change. It also sidesteps — for now — an unresolved debate over whether to allow electronic “skill” games in convenience stores ...
Virginia’s skill game debate could stretch into the summer
After finishing work on almost everything else taken up during the 2024 session, the Virginia General Assembly and Gov. Glenn Youngkin have decided to keep talking about skill games. The governor and several lawmakers said Monday that they’ll continue seeking a way to get the slot machine lookalikes taxed and regulated in response to a major lobbying push by business owners and the companies that make and distribute the games. “What we decided was that we would pick that up at another day,” Youngkin said Monday as he signed a bipartisan budget deal that didn’t address the legality of skill games. “That’s a commitment that we’ve made.”
Maxson: Access to contraceptives is about more than birth control
In March, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation to protect contraception access in the state. House Bill 609 requires insurers to cover contraceptive medications and devices with no out-of-pocket costs and guarantees the right to use them. Despite a petition signed by 37,000 Virginians in favor of the bill, Gov. Glenn Youngkin sent it back to the legislature requesting it be amended to allow insurance plan sponsors with religious objections to contraception to opt out of the requirement. In their reconvening, the legislature did not accept the amendment and returned the original bill to the governor for his signature or veto.
Republican group takes rare step of targeting GOP incumbent who voted to oust McCarthy
A political action committee that helps Republicans get elected to Congress is doing the unusual — spending more than $450,000 to defeat a GOP incumbent. That incumbent, conservative two-term Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., voted to remove former Rep. Kevin McCarthy as House speaker last fall. It’s just the latest example of how money is flowing into races involving some of the eight Republican lawmakers who voted along with Democrats to oust McCarthy. About $3.3 million has been spent on ads in the Virginia race going into Friday, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact.