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Virginia Attorney General supports Texas law making illegal immigration a state crime

By EZRA HERCYK, WSET-TV

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares has joined a 22-state coalition supporting a Texas law that makes illegal immigration a state crime and authorizes state officials to enforce it. Texas’s state law, SB4, makes illegal immigration into Texas a state crime and allows state magistrates and judges to order those who have crossed the border illegally back to the country from which they entered. The U.S. government and private plaintiffs filed suit over the law. A U.S. District Court blocked the law, and the case is currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

VaNews March 25, 2024


Youngkin learning the hard way on dealing with General Assembly on budget

By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

It's not unusual for Gov. Glenn Youngkin to attend Republican caucus meetings in the General Assembly, but the governor went further on March 9, the final day of the legislative session, to personally lobby Republican legislators to vote against the budget bills pending before the legislature that afternoon. Youngkin's unusual gesture did not go over well with the Democrats who control both chambers of the assembly, especially Senate Finance Chair Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, and House Appropriations Chairman Luke Torian, D-Prince William, already locked in a power struggle with the Republican governor over tax policy and the $2 billion sports complex in Alexandria that he has made his top priority.

VaNews March 25, 2024


D.C. AG to Leonsis: Caps, Wizards can’t leave arena for 23 years

By MEAGAN FLYNN, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb sent a clear message to Wizards and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis this week as Leonsis forges ahead with his plan to leave Capital One Arena: You’re legally stuck here for another two decades. In a March 18 letter to a representative of Leonsis’s company, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, Schwalb (D) accused Monumental of breaking promises to the city by negotiating with Virginia, and said the plan to pull the teams out of Capital One Arena before 2047 — the end of a planned lease extension — was a no-go.

VaNews March 25, 2024


Wittman, McClellan visit U.S. Postal Service in Sandston as facility undergoes audit

By THAD GREEN, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

As Virginia lawmakers continue to press the issue on the state’s mail crisis, Reps. Rob Wittman, R-1st, and Jennifer McClellan, D-4th, toured the U.S. Postal Service Richmond Regional Processing and Distribution Center in Sandston on Friday. “We are grateful that the Postal Service took the time to show us around the distribution center and let us talk to them about the concerns that we have over mail delivery delays,” McClellan said. “We’ve got a ways to go, but at least they’re being a little more transparent now, and we appreciate that.”

VaNews March 25, 2024


VCU students, employees protest plan to cut faculty

By ERIC KOLENICH, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Two dozen Virginia Commonwealth University students and faculty wore red bandanas and held up handwritten signs at Friday’s board meeting to protest the university’s plan to terminate 14 professors. Emma Draga, a VCU senior, told the board of visitors it’s the professors who determine the quality of a student’s education, not the construction of new buildings. “Professors are our lifeline,” she said. The university is cutting $25 million from the budget this year, which resulted in the reduction of at least 76 positions. VCU employs close to 10,000 workers.

VaNews March 25, 2024


Pro-Palestinian group asks judge to block Virginia attorney general’s demand for documents

By DEAN MIRSHAHI, WRIC-TV

A pro-Palestinian group based in Virginia wants a Richmond judge to limit what documents it must turn over to Attorney General Jason Miyares as his office investigates its fundraising and allegations that it indirectly supports Hamas. Miyares is looking into whether the AJP Educational Foundation, Inc., a part of the northern Virginia-based group American Muslims for Palestine, violated the state’s charitable solicitation laws by asking for donations without properly registering with the state.

VaNews March 25, 2024


Williams: For Youngkin, racial ignorance is bliss

By MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

The ongoing political program to keep Americans functionally illiterate about systemic racism brings to mind the sort of quote from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that you seldom seem to hear. “Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance,” King wrote in his 1967 book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” “It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn.”

VaNews March 25, 2024


Loudoun County dad pardoned by Youngkin outraged after school board censors public comment

By BAILEE HILL, Fox News

A Virginia dad convicted then pardoned by Gov. Glenn Youngkin for protesting the Loudoun County School Board expressed outrage Thursday over the group’s latest bid to “shut” out parents. Last week, the board voted along party lines to turn cameras off during the public comment portion of meetings, according to FOX5. When the new policy takes effect in April, it will only provide audio and closed captioning during that portion of the meeting.

VaNews March 25, 2024


Roanoke woman charged in Jan. 6 riots turns down plea agreement

By LAURENCE HAMMACK, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

A Roanoke woman charged with partaking in the riots at the U.S. Capitol has declined a plea agreement offered by federal prosecutors. The decision by Casey Jane Tryon-Castro means that she will soon face trial on charges that include participating in a civil disorder, disorderly conduct and stealing a police riot shield. Tryon-Castro, 34, joined a large crowd of Donald Trump supporters that had gathered near an entrance to the Capitol on its Lower West Terrace the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021.

VaNews March 22, 2024


Palm: Liberty University’s struggles to recover from Clery Act failures

By EDWARD F. PALM, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The inherent liability of a religious institution, it seems to me, is the presumption that God is on its side. Given that mindset, I can understand why such an institution might consider itself to be above the law of the land and why it would place a premium on protecting its image. I suspect that’s why Liberty University has been fined an unprecedented $14 million for failing to comply with the Clery Act.

Palm retired from the Marine Corps as a major and went on to an academic career. He lives in Forest.

VaNews March 22, 2024