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By SAMANTHA WILLIS,
published in
Daily Progress
(Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently took action on a flurry of Virginia legislators’ measures related to reproductive health, mostly blocking bills designed to preserve the public’s access to abortions and birth control as these same issues roil national debates and as other states pass laws that restrict women’s bodily autonomy and roll back decades of abortion protections.
First, a surprising signoff: Youngkin, a Republican, signed a bill from Democratic Del. Vivian Watts of Fairfax that prevents electronic menstrual data — often collected in period-tracking digital apps — from being subject to search warrants, subpoenas or court orders.
Willis, a writer and journalist whose experience in digital, print and broadcast media spans 12 years, is editor-in-chief of the Virginia Mercury.
VaNews April 16, 2024
By DAVID MCGEE,
Bristol Herald Courier
(Metered Paywall - 15 articles a month)
The Bristol Casino, future home of Hard Rock, reported more than $16.2 million in adjusted gaming revenues in March, its most successful month to date.
The Virginia Lottery, which oversees casino gaming in the state, on Monday reported a combined $65 million in gaming revenues from the state’s three casinos, the temporary Bristol Casino, temporary Caesar’s Virginia in Danville and the permanent Rivers Casino in Portsmouth.
VaNews April 16, 2024
By STAFF REPORT,
Loudoun Times
(Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Twelve Democrats and four Republicans have qualified for the ballot for the June 18 10th Congressional District primary elections, according to the Virginia Department of Elections. Early voting for the primaries begins May 3. ... The winner of the November general election will take the seat held since 2019 by Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Leesburg), who is stepping down at the end of her term due to a serious health condition.
VaNews April 16, 2024
By DAVE RESS,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Tragedy in Richmond — with eight people, including four juveniles, killed in shootings since Easter — but success in Hopewell, where efforts to break cycles of retaliation have produced a 72% drop in shootings, show Virginia cannot let up on gun violence prevention efforts, two Tri-Cities legislators say.
That’s why the $72.5 million the General Assembly put in the state budget for community violence intervention programs is so important, said state Sen. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, and Del. Carrie Coyner, R-Chesterfield.
VaNews April 16, 2024
By PATRICK LARSEN,
VPM
The General Assembly will take another look at legislation that would allow the state’s two biggest electric utility companies to request ratepayer funds to cover costs of early development for small modular nuclear reactors.
SMRs are well-described by their name. They’re smaller than a traditional reactor — those are often rated at about 1,000 MW. An SMR would produce about one-third of that. They’re modular — meaning they can be built off-site and used in an array of one or more reactors.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office made some changes to the bills that supporters say would protect electric ratepayers against major bill impacts — opponents of the measures maintain the bills have ratepayers fronting the risk of an unproven technology.
VaNews April 16, 2024
By JASON ARMESTO,
Daily Progress
(Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Days before the University of Virginia announced its controversial decision to withhold an independent review of the deadly 2022 mass shooting on Grounds, UVa’s police chief sent an urgent email to the Albemarle County commonwealth’s attorney. “I apologize for the last minute and fairly urgent request,” Police Chief Tim Longo wrote to Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley. ... “Fairly urgent and at President Ryan’s respectful request,” he wrote, referring to the school’s President Jim Ryan. The messages sent on Nov. 14 of last year were obtained by The Daily Progress via a Freedom of Information Act request.
VaNews April 16, 2024
By SARAH HAMMOND,
WVEC-TV
If you’re looking for a lottery ticket in Virginia today (Monday), you might be out of luck. That’s because hundreds of convenience stores are protesting a move by Gov. Glenn Youngkin to regulate skill games in the state.
Nik Patel said skill games are a big part of their business at Border Station in Chesapeake. “We have big expenses like anybody else. Wages are going up. So those skill game machines would provide extra income to offset those costs,” he said.
VaNews April 16, 2024
By NICK BROADWAY AND MICHELLE WOLF,
WAVY-TV
A Virginia senator and local business owners are speaking out against amendments to a skill games bill which would affect businesses in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Richmond and Roanoke.
Republican state Sen. Bill DeSteph held a community discussion Monday afternoon at Scandal’s Bar and Lounge in Virginia Beach.
VaNews April 16, 2024
By KATE ANDREWS,
Virginia Business
More details have rolled in about the five Petersburg casino contenders, all of whom presented their plans during a town hall Sunday at the Petersburg Public Library. Hosted by state Sen. Lashresce Aird, D-Petersburg, the town hall saw officials representing Bally’s, Cordish Cos., Penn Entertainment, Rush Street Gaming and The Warrenton Group reveal more details about their casino proposals, even though the city doesn’t yet have the state legislature’s go-ahead to include a casino referendum on this fall’s ballot.
VaNews April 16, 2024
By NORMAN K. STYER,
Loudoun Now
The four-year effort to increase opportunities for agricultural operations even as western Loudoun properties are carved up into new subdivisions is nearing a final Board of Supervisors vote, but debate continues over whether the new policies would hamper broader countryside conservation efforts.
Following a public hearing that stretched to nearly 3 a.m. April 11, county supervisors have scheduled a June vote on the proposed zoning regulations for rural cluster subdivisions aimed at limiting development on the best spaces for farming, defined as having prime agricultural soils.
VaNews April 16, 2024
