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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 JOEY LOMONACO,
Fredericksburg Free Press
The General Assembly is likely headed for a special session before adopting its budget ahead of a statutory July 1 deadline, an outcome that could leave school districts — including Fredericksburg’s — in limbo as they look to finalize their own funding.
“Because of the conversation happening around Richmond… there is not agreement on the budget and the governor’s amendments on the budget,” Del. Joshua Cole (D-Fredericksburg) told the Free Press in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon.
Cole’s comments come on the eve of a pivotal veto session where legislators will also address more than 200 of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed amendments to the budget.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By KONRAD PUTZIER,
Wall Street Journal
(Subscription Required)
Big technology companies are cutting back on office space across major coastal cities, leaving some exposed landlords with empty buildings and steep losses.
The pullback marks a sharp reversal after years when companies such as Amazon.com, Meta Platforms’ Facebook and Google parent Alphabet had been bolstering their office footprints by adding millions of square feet of space. Their expansion continued even after the pandemic erupted and many employees started working remotely. Tech companies have been the dominant tenant in West Coast cities like Seattle and San Francisco, and by 2021 these companies came to rival those in the finance industry as Manhattan’s biggest user of office space.
Now, big tech companies are letting leases expire or looking to unload some offices. Amazon is ditching or not renewing some office leases and last year paused construction on its second headquarters in northern Virginia.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By GHAZALA HASHMI AND MARCIA S. "CIA" PRICE,
published in
Virginian-Pilot
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
In a striking disregard for the values and will of Virginians, Gov. Glenn Youngkin last week proposed a substitute that would gut Virginia’s Right to Contraception Act (RTCA), vital legislation we introduced as a critical defense against the growing right-wing assault on reproductive freedom.
The governor claimed our bill, which would protect Virginians’ right to use condoms, the pill, IUDs and Plan B, went “too far.” Instead, he replaced it with a Section 1 bill, reducing the legislation to a non-binding suggestion rather than an enforceable law. Simply put, it’s not worth the paper it’s written on.
Sen. Hashmi represents Chesterfield County and Del. Price represents Newport News. Both are Democrats.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By NORMAN K. STYER,
Loudoun Now
After a three-year stalemate, the Kuhn family is hoping to get White’s Ferry running again by donating it to Montgomery County, MD.
Chuck and Stacy Kuhn bought the ferry in early 2021 after it closed following a Loudoun County Circuit Court ruling that the longtime owners did not hold legal authority to use the ferry’s Virginia landing at Rockland Farm. At the time, the Kuhns hoped to quickly restart the operation that provided an important economic and commuter link since 1786. Today it is the only Potomac River crossing between Point of Rocks and the American Legion Bridge.
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
By ANTONIO OLIVO,
Washington Post
(Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
A helicopter hovers over the Gee family farm, the noisy rattle echoing inside their home in this rural part of West Virginia. It’s holding surveyors who are eyeing space for yet another power line next to the property — a line that will take electricity generated from coal plants in the state to address a drain on power driven by the world’s internet hub in Northern Virginia 35 miles away.
There, massive data centers with computers processing nearly 70 percent of global digital traffic are gobbling up electricity at a rate officials overseeing the power grid say is unsustainable unless two things happen: Several hundred miles of new transmission lines must be built, slicing through neighborhoods and farms in Virginia and three neighboring states. And antiquated coal-powered electricity plants that had been scheduled to go offline will need to keep running to fuel the increasing need for more power, undermining clean energy goals.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By TOM ROUSSEY,
WJLA-TV
Northern Virginia Congressman Gerry Connolly is calling on Metro to hand over documents to the commission overseeing safety after the transit agency refused a request for them.
“It’s not a matter of voluntary compliance,” Connolly (D – VA 11th District) told 7News in an interview Tuesday afternoon. “Metro must comply.”
… The Washington Metrorail Safety Commission (WMSC) – which was created in part by Connolly and other members of Congress to bring independent oversight to Metro – said it requested documents related to drug and alcohol testing of Metro employees, hazardous materials, and other safety-related issues.
VaNews April 17, 2024
By DAVE RESS,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Virginia could put some $50 million of taxpayer funds to better use by tighter oversight of overtime payments and trying a new approach at behavioral health facilities, the Office of the Inspector General said. It found that Virginia state agencies’ overtime payments for the 11 months that ended May 31, 2023, had increased by 90% since the 2010 decision to leave overtime pay decisions with individual state agencies instead of the state’s central personnel management office. That increase is not adjusted for the pay increases state employees have received over those dozen years.
VaNews April 17, 2024
Virginian-Pilot
Editorial
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
State lawmakers have an opportunity today to protect vulnerable communities from destructive and recurrent flooding by voting to return Virginia to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The proceeds from this market-based cap-and-trade program represent a lifeline for Hampton Roads, among other parts of the commonwealth. Gov. Glenn Youngkin has made it his mission to withdraw from this multistate program despite its success, but lawmakers need not be so short-sighted. RGGI membership is making a difference in Virginia and lawmakers can make certain it continues to do so by taking bold action during Wednesday’s veto session.
VaNews April 17, 2024
