Search
By CAMERON THOMPSON,
WTVR-TV
The way localities can choose to help pay for new school construction and renovation is up for debate this week at the Virginia General Assembly.
Governor Glenn Youngkin (R - Virginia) vetoed a bill passed by the Democratic-controlled General Assembly that would have allowed Virginia cities and counties to add a one-percent sales tax to fund school construction and renovation projects if approved by voters in a referendum.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By KATE RYAN,
WTOP
There are newfound hopes that ferry service that once carried up to 800 cars a day across the Potomac River between Montgomery County in Maryland and Loudoun County in Virginia could resume.
The current owners of White’s Ferry, Chuck and Stacy Kuhn, made a formal offer to donate the ferry landing property to Montgomery County, with the hopes of resuming ferry service between Poolesville, Maryland, and Leesburg, Virginia.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By KATELYN HARLOW,
WRIC-TV
A bill that permits educational programs about periods to be taught in public schools, if school boards allow it, has been signed into law by Governor Glenn Youngkin.
The law was introduced by Del. Holly Seibold (D-12) and permits each school board to provide an instructional program on menstrual education as a part of health education instruction offered for students in grades four through eight, as the school board deems appropriate.
Currently, within the Standards of Learning Documents for Health for those grades, which were adopted in 2020, there is no educational guidance about menstrual cycles.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By SARAH RANKIN,
Associated Press
Gambling regulations, school construction and the state budget were on the agenda for Virginia lawmakers returning to Richmond on Wednesday to consider Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed amendments to legislation and his record number of vetoes.
Democrats who control the General Assembly don’t have the numbers to override Youngkin’s vetoes without GOP support, but their leaders have signaled that they plan to reject many of his proposed changes, including most of those he made to the two-year budget bill. Youngkin’s rewrite of the spending plan — he’s submitted more than 200 amendments — was so extensive, it exceeded the governor’s authority, legislative leaders say.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By CHEYENNE PAGAN,
WRIC-TV
An oversight hearing was held Tuesday morning in Washington D.C. about the ongoing challenges the United States Postal Service has been facing across the country.
The hearing comes after metro Richmond residents have been expressing concerns about delays, missing mail and stolen mail over the last several months.
Lawmakers had a chance to question top leaders in the Postal Service and find out what’s been causing mail issues, not just in Richmond, but elsewhere as well.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By CHARLIE PAULLIN,
Virginia Mercury
The Washington D.C. area has seen tree canopy decline from over 50% to just under that amount in less than a decade, according to the regional government authority.
Officials with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, which includes Northern Virginia jurisdictions, voted last week to set a goal of maintaining at least that 50% amount.
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 KATIE KING,
Virginian-Pilot
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Amid rising tension between the General Assembly’s Democratic majority and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the legislature will reconvene Wednesday to take up the governor’s unprecedented number of vetoes and budget amendments — and Democrats appear ready for a fight. “Buckle Up Glenn,” Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, wrote Friday on social media. “I am coming back to Richmond on Wednesday to deal with your nonsense.” Lucas, who chairs the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, shared the message alongside a photoshopped picture of herself with the governor, with Lucas poised to knock him out while donning red boxing gloves.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By JUSTIN FAULCONER,
News & Advance
(Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Amherst County public schools’ officials plan to write Lynchburg-area legislators in the Virginia General Assembly in hopes of urging Gov. Glenn Youngkin to reconsider a recent veto of Senate Bill 14, which would allow any locality to levy a 1% surcharge on sales taxes to fund school construction if voters approve it in a local referendum. Superintendent William Wells has expressed support for the bill he said could provide a much-needed revenue stream for school capital needs that are mounting.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By CHARLOTTE RENE WOODS,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Rather than sign or veto a legislature-approved right-to-contraception proposal, Gov. Glenn Youngkin offered a substitute that the bill’s patrons and legal experts say is not as strong. The legislature returns Wednesday to take up Youngkin’s proposed amendments to 116 bills as well as his 153 vetoes. The proposals’ patrons — Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, and Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News — say the bill matters because of the shifting national landscape surrounding reproductive health care laws.
VaNews April 17, 2024