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By SHANTEL DAVIS,
WWBT-TV
There was another packed house in the Powhatan school board meeting room Tuesday night as nearly 200 hundred people urged the board for two things.
“Two months after a racist death threat was made, we have seen almost no movement forward,” said Chiara Hoyt, secretary of the Powhatan chapter of NAACP. … On the table, the school board approved the 2023 Transgender Model Policy with a 4-1 vote. This means teachers are now required to only call students by their name and pronoun associated with their official school record.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By NATHANIEL CLINE,
Virginia Mercury
In a state budget amendments, Gov. Glenn Youngkin pledged to support Metro with an additional $133.7 million amid a projected shortfall for the transit agency. The pledge came with a caveat: It would strip funding from a transit investment fund used by Northern Virginia jurisdictions.
Leaders from the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, the regional body of jurisdictions responsible for funding Metro, urged lawmakers to reject the amendment.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By MICHAEL MARTZ,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., has plenty of money and time as the field of Republican challengers narrows two months before the GOP Senate primary on June 18.
Kaine, seeking his third Senate term, has raised more than $13 million for his re-election campaign, including $2.5 million in the quarter that ended on March 31, and had nearly $8.8 million in the bank, according to reports filed this week at the Federal Election Commission.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By JESSICA BLAKE,
Inside Higher Ed
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed a bill last week that would have allowed the governing board of each public college or university to hire its own legal counsel, underscoring his stance on who should be in charge of the state’s higher education institutions.
The legislation, introduced by a Democrat in January, appeared designed to counter an opinion submitted by state attorney general Jason Miyares last year that said that higher education boards have “a primary duty” to prioritize serving the state over their individual institutions.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By EMMA COLEMAN,
Roanoke Times
(Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Roanoke’s Gun Violence Prevention Commission welcomed three new members and a new chairperson at its meeting Tuesday, day 54 since the last shooting with injuries was reported in the city. Since Jan. 1, Roanoke has recorded two homicides. At least one of those, which killed 27-year-old Uhura Willis Feb. 17, was gun-related. As of Tuesday, seven other people have been shot but not killed in aggravated assault incidents. In the same time frame in 2023, 20 people were shot but not killed.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By NATALIE ANDERSON,
Virginian-Pilot
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
When she was 16, Sara Tasneem said she had been forced to marry her rapist while she was six months pregnant. “My abuser was 13 years older than me and he was able to marry me and continue abusing me for the following seven years under the protection of a marriage certificate,” Tasneem said. Tasneem said she faced legal barriers when trying to leave the marriage. ... She was one of several abuse victims who shared personal testimonies with Virginia lawmakers last month before the General Assembly ultimately voted to end the practice in the commonwealth. Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed the bill, filed by Del. Karen Keys-Gamarra (D-Fairfax County), into law this month.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By BRAD KUTNER,
WVTF-FM
Virginia’s legislature returns to Richmond Wednesday to review Governor Glenn Youngkin’s vetoes and amendments. While tension remains high, at least one bill with strong bipartisan support could see Youngkin rebuked.
The last Virginia governor to have a veto overridden was Bob McDonnell in 2011. McDonnell said a bill increasing payouts for medical malpractice cases would hurt businesses. Legislators disagreed and after a 2/3rds vote in both chambers, the law is still increasing maximum payouts in the Commonwealth to this day.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By MATTHEW DALY AND LEAH WILLINGHAM,
Associated Press
Coal miners will be better protected from poisonous silica dust that has contributed to the premature deaths of thousands of mine workers from a respiratory ailment commonly known as black lung disease, the Labor Department said Tuesday as it issued a new federal rule on miners’ safety.
The final rule, announced by Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, cuts by half the permissible exposure limit for crystalline silica for an eight-hour shift.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By ANNE ADAMS,
The Recorder
(Subscription Required)
Passions were high. Voices were loud. The county attorney walked out after being insulted. Meeting protocol and rules for addressing the board were abandoned. After three and a half hours of debate, dialogue, demands and pleas, the Highland County Board of Supervisors passed its new EMS plan — one announced only this morning — with some minor changes.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By GRAHAM MOOMAW,
Virginia Mercury
The debate over how high taxes need to be to properly fund core government services is a more normal topic than many of the hyperpartisan culture war issues that now dominate politics. But the budget battle playing out between Gov. Glenn Youngkin and the Democratic-led General Assembly is anything but routine.
One day before state lawmakers were set to return to Richmond to take up Youngkin’s amendments and vetoes, House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, posted a campaign-style video accusing Youngkin of standing in the way of a bipartisan budget that boosted funding for K-12 education.
VaNews April 17, 2024
