Search
By CHARLIE PAULLIN,
Virginia Mercury
A recent state report shows that federal help for people struggling to pay utility bills is decreasing, reaching only a fraction of the Virginians who need it and covering only a fraction of the costs they face.
Dana Wiggins, director of a Consumer Advocacy at the Virginia Poverty Law Center, said the report from the Virginia Department of Social Services underscores how vulnerable households have to balance paying for utility bills with groceries amid inflation and prescription costs.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By CAITLYN BURCHETT,
Virginian-Pilot
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Gov. Glenn Youngkin wants to hear recommendations from a stakeholder work group before making significant changes to the military survivor and dependent tuition waiver, which is growing increasingly expensive for Virginia colleges.
Youngkin added the proposed work group as one of more than 200 amendments to the two-year budget bill he returned Monday to General Assembly lawmakers. While the goal is to find ways to improve the long-term viability of the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program, delaying reforms means colleges will have to absorb growing costs of the program for at least another year.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By SABRINA MORENO,
Axios
Virginia has become the first state in the South to ban child marriage.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bill this week that closes a loophole in state law allowing minors to marry if they’re emancipated.
Only 11 other states in the U.S. have made it illegal for children to marry without exceptions, according to Unchained at Last, an advocacy group that helps girls get out of forced marriages.
Six of those laws, including Virginia’s, passed in the past two years.
In four states — California, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Mississippi — there is no minimum age.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By ANNABELLE KINNEY,
WDBJ-TV
Governor Youngkin signed an amended version of the Name, Imagine, and Likeness bill into law this week. It will essentially streamline how N-I-L will operate in the Commonwealth.
House Bill 15-0-5 was sponsored by Republican Delegate Terry Austin. It does three main things.
First, it would prohibit organizations with authority over college athletics, for example the ACC, from preventing universities and athletes from using NIL agreements.
Second, it would require schools to have policies in place to oversee the compensation athlete’s get.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By DANIEL EGITTO,
ArlNow
Two local lawmakers who spearheaded bills to limit domestic abusers’ access to firearms blasted recent vetoes of that legislation at a press conference today (Thursday).
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) last month struck down bills from State Sen. Barbara Favola and Del. Adele McClure that would have strengthened existing gun control laws around people who have physically attacked family members and romantic partners.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By MATT GREGORY,
WUSA-TV
Is the budget battle in Richmond derailing Metro? This week, WMATA was set for a first vote on the transit agency’s already frugal 2025 budget. Then Governor Glenn Youngkin unveiled more than 200 amendments, including one that changes how Virginia will contribute to Metro’s budget shortfall.
Metro’s Thursday meeting should have moved the much-maligned 2025 budget to its first vote. Instead, it’ll take time.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By ANNA BRYSON,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Gov. Glenn Youngkin is seeking to remove language from the state budget that would let school divisions use a statewide contract to encourage chronically absent students to return to school.
Thousands of students had been using the service before the Youngkin administration scrapped the program halfway through the school year.
Some parents and school division leaders were dismayed to learn in December that an academic and attendance recovery program, Engage Virginia, would cease, meaning that more than 7,200 students would lose its services ...
VaNews April 12, 2024
By MELISSA GOLDIN,
Associated Press
CLAIM: A video shows Virginia Governor Ralph Northam during a 2019 radio interview speaking in support of infanticide, or “after-birth abortions.”
AP’s ASSESSMENT: False. Northam was giving a hypothetical example of what could happen if a mother whose fetus had severe deformities, or wasn’t otherwise viable, requested an abortion while in labor. His comments came in response to a question about whether he supported state legislation that would have loosened restrictions on abortions later in pregnancy. Experts told The Associated Press that abortions in the third trimester are extremely rare.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By LARRY CHOWNING,
National Fisherman
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed into law “The Right to Fish” bill, (Virginia House Bill 928) to protect commercial watermen from interference, said state Delegate Hillary Pugh Kent.
Kent, who represents Virginia’s Northern Neck and Caroline County in the state legislature, was primary sponsor of the measure, inspired by reports of Virginia commercial fishermen being harassed while working on the water.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By BILLY SHIELDS,
VPM
Amy Fleishman lives in Poolesville, Maryland — just across the Potomac River from Loudoun County.
She previously enjoyed shopping and grabbing a bite to eat in Leesburg, activities within reach by using White’s Ferry. But that ended about four years ago when the owners of the Virginia-side landing filed suit over use of the site.
“We were horrified because we used the ferry quite often,” she said.
She can still drive over the Point of Rocks Bridge to get to the commonwealth, but it takes about 45 minutes longer than the ferry.
“So, we just don’t go to Virginia,” Fleishman said.
VaNews April 12, 2024