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How the push for campaign finance reform in Virginia failed again in 2024

By DEAN MIRSHAHI, WRIC-TV

Virginia’s lax campaign finance laws allow state lawmakers to use campaign cash on vacations, club memberships, high-priced hotel stays and dinners and other personal spending unrelated to their political work. Efforts to set limits on that spending and other campaign finance reform proposals, including capping donations and banning public utilities like Dominion Energy from giving money to candidates, have failed to pass in Virginia for years. This year, many of these bills had quiet deaths in Virginia’s Democratic-controlled General Assembly.

VaNews March 27, 2024


From Richmond to NOVA, Virginia Dems tout budget, criticize Youngkin

By CHARLOTTE RENE WOODS AND MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Virginia Democratic budget leaders brought their road show to state Capitol and Northern Virginia on Tuesday to contrast their priorities in the budget they adopted this month and counter criticism from Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The Democrats' statewide "Put Virginia Families First Tour," began Monday in Portsmouth and continued Tuesday with stops in Richmond and in Prince William and Fairfax counties in Northern Virginia.

VaNews March 27, 2024


Youngkin signs ‘Lucia’s Law,’ prompted by Henrico girl’s murder

By ANDREW CAIN, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Gov. Glenn Youngkin has signed legislation prompted by the murder of Lucia Bremer, a 13-year-old Henrico County middle school student ambushed in 2021 by a fellow student in her friend's garage. The measure, which the governor signed on the third anniversary of Bremer's murder, makes it a class 5 child neglect felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $2,500 fine, for adults to let a child possess a firearm after they are notified that the child poses a threat of violence.

VaNews March 27, 2024


Virginia governor vetoes dozens of gun-control bills thwarting Democratic legislators

By EMMA COLTON, Fox News

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed more than two dozen gun control bills Tuesday that had sailed through the state’s Democratic-controlled General Assembly before landing on the Republican governor’s desk. “I swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia and today, I’ve done exactly that,” Youngkin said Tuesday in a comment provided to Fox News Digital.

VaNews March 27, 2024


Youngkin signs bill filed after shooting death of Henrico teen, vetoes 30 others related to guns

By CHARLIE PAULLIN, Virginia Mercury

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin handed down several vetoes, amendments and signatures on a number of gun and public safety bills the Democratic-controlled legislature pushed for this session. Among the measures Youngkin signed into law are ones that would create a felony charge for parents or guardians who allow a child under 18 to access a firearm despite knowing the child has a history of violent or threatening behavior.

VaNews March 27, 2024


Youngkin vetoes ban on assault-style weapons, other gun-control bills

By ANDREW CAIN, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed 30 more bills Tuesday afternoon, many of them gun control measures, including proposals to ban the purchase and sale of assault-style weapons. He also signed 31 measures and proposed amendments to six. Youngkin has now vetoed 80 bills so far this year and 121 in his term, breaking Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s record of 120 in his four-year term from 2014 to 2018.

VaNews March 27, 2024


Youngkin acts on gun bills, vetoing dozens as expected, amending six and signing two pairs

By SARAH RANKIN, Associated Press

Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Tuesday he had vetoed 30 pieces of gun-related legislation, including measures that would have halted the sale of certain semi-automatic firearms. Youngkin’s vetoes, which drew criticism from Democrats, were not surprising. But the governor had been vague enough on the issue that he had left even gun-rights groups with a degree of uncertainty about how he would act on the dozens of bills the Democratic-controlled General Assembly sent him during this year’s session.

VaNews March 27, 2024


Kaine solicits feedback on workforce training bill from students at Piedmont Virginia Community College

By EMILY HEMPHILL, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

Sen. Tim Kaine was in Charlottesville Monday morning to visit Piedmont Virginia Community College’s adult education center, where the Virginia Democrat said he wanted to learn how he could fine-tune legislation he’s proposed for years that would expand access to federal grants to those seeking high-quality, short-term job training programs. The students and faculty at PVCC’s Thomas Jefferson Adult Career Education facility are among those who stand to benefit from Kaine’s Jumpstart Our Businesses By Supporting Students, or JOBS, Act.

VaNews March 27, 2024


Virginia offers help to Baltimore port blocked by bridge collapse

By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Virginia officials scrambled on Tuesday to help neighboring Maryland with maritime commerce disrupted by the early morning collapse of a bridge in Baltimore in the main shipping channel to the city’s busy port. Aubrey Layne, chairman of the board at the Port of Virginia, said the port in Hampton Roads would not be directly affected by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapsco River after it was struck by a freight ship early on Tuesday. But Layne, a former state transportation and finance secretary, said the Virginia port would assist the Port of Baltimore and shipping companies to divert cargo.

VaNews March 27, 2024


A woman accuses a schoolmate of raping her at age 12. The Fairfax school system says she is making it up.

By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press

A 24-year-old woman told jurors Tuesday that she was repeatedly raped and sexually harassed a decade ago as a seventh-grade student in Virginia, and that school officials reacted to her pleas for help with indifference. Lawyers for the school system say she is making it up, and she wept on the stand when she was cross-examined about evidence suggesting her allegations were untrue. An eight-person civil jury in U.S. District Court in Alexandria will have to decide whether the woman — identified in court papers only by her initials B.R. — is telling the truth, and whether school officials should be held liable for their response.

VaNews March 27, 2024