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By SEAN JONES,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Several years after Petersburg joined the fight for the right to operate Virginia’s fifth and final casino, residents and city leaders watched Sunday as five developers bid to show that they had the best project for the city. Each proposal promised jobs, an economic spur for the financially stressed city and millions of dollars in tax revenue. The five companies in the running are Bally’s, Penn Entertainment, the Warrenton Group, Rush Street Gaming and The Cordish Companies, which has partnered with former NFL and Virginia Tech football Hall of Famer Bruce Smith.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By MATT BUSSE,
Cardinal News
Among more than 200 budget amendments proposed by Virginia’s governor that lawmakers are preparing to consider is one that would cancel the creation of a $5 million program to help low-income families buy homes.
The pilot program would provide grants for people who earn up to 60% of an area’s median income to put toward a down payment on a home. The grants would be forgivable if recipients regularly pay the mortgage and live in the home for at least 15 years.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By SCOTT GELMAN,
WTOP
Fairfax County Public Schools would lose over $6 million in funding for English language learners in each of the next two years, as a result of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed changes to the state’s budget.
That is one of several findings in the school district’s analysis of the proposed changes, which was obtained by WTOP.
The proposed amendments to the state’s budget would also reduce overall funding for the state’s largest school district by $16.7 million in fiscal year 2025 and $24 million in fiscal 2026, the school division’s review found.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER AND LAURA VOZZELLA,
Washington Post
(Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Democratic leaders and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) remain at loggerheads as Virginia lawmakers return to the state Capitol on Wednesday to take action on the budget and other bills the governor has proposed changing, barreling toward a June 30 deadline to adopt a two-year spending plan or begin shutting down the state government. Democrats have said repeatedly in recent days that they are in no mood to compromise with Youngkin, who welcomed the legislature’s budget in March by calling it “backward” and going on a tour around the state proclaiming how misguided it was.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By DEAN MIRSHAHI,
WRIC-TV
All Virginia hospitals with an emergency department will have to have at least one doctor on-site at all times instead of on-call starting in July 2025.
Two identical bills proposing the staffing requirement from Del. Patrick A. Hope (D-Arlington) and state Sen. Stella G. Pekarsky (D-Fairfax) easily passed out the General Assembly and were signed into law by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R).
VaNews April 17, 2024
By JOHN R. CRANE,
Danville Register & Bee
Danville Casino’s revenues went up in March by more than $2 million as the gaming facility brought in an increasing amount of money for the second month in a row.
Last month’s gambling activity generated about $21.08 million, a more than 10% increase over February’s $18.7 million, according to the latest figures from the Virginia Lottery.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By TEO ARMUS,
Washington Post
(Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Amazon has fallen so far behind schedule in creating new jobs at its Northern Virginia headquarters that its workforce at those offices shrank last year, the company confirmed, showing how the project that it had pitched as an economic jolt is instead hitting a slowdown. Following a much-hyped sweepstakes across North America, the tech giant in 2018 made a deal with Virginia officials to locate half of its second headquarters in Arlington, just outside D.C.: In exchange for as much as $750 million in taxpayer subsidies from the commonwealth, it agreed to build a massive new campus near the Pentagon and fill it with tens of thousands of new employees.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By DEAN MIRSHAHI,
WRIC-TV
Veterinarians will not be allowed to declaw cats in Virginia starting in July, unless there are certain “therapeutic” reasons to do so.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) signed a bill from Del. Marty Martinez (D-Loudoun) that prohibits declawing procedures on cats by veterinarians.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By DAVE RESS,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Convenience stores across Virginia shut their doors for an hour Tuesday in a protest aimed at asking the General Assembly to reject Gov. Glenn Youngkin‘s proposal to toughen a bill that would legalize electronic skill games. It was the second day in a row of store owner protests; on Monday, more than 500 declined to sell Lottery tickets.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By DEAN MIRSHAHI,
WRIC-TV
Virginia’s Democrat-controlled General Assembly will meet Wednesday to act on Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s amendments to the new proposed state budget.
Gov. Youngkin has called his 233 changes to the two-year spending plan a “Common Ground Budget” after making campaign-like tour stops in Virginia labeling the proposed deal passed by lawmakers as a “backward” plan that would raise taxes.
VaNews April 17, 2024