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By EMILY HEMPHILL,
Daily Progress
(Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
When it rains, it pours, and the storm is not letting up for the Greene County Water & Sewer Department. Since withdrawing from the Rapidan Service Authority less than a year ago, the county-run service has incurred more than $20 million in debt — and it has proposed initiatives that could increase that figure eightfold. Greene County residents have complained of paying “an outrageous amount of money,” often hundreds of dollars more than they previously paid under the Rapidan Service Authority, for water bills that arrive months late with inaccurate meter readings.
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
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
By SCOTT GELMAN,
WTOP
Fairfax County Public Schools would lose over $6 million in funding for English language learners in each of the next two years, as a result of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed changes to the state’s budget.
That is one of several findings in the school district’s analysis of the proposed changes, which was obtained by WTOP.
The proposed amendments to the state’s budget would also reduce overall funding for the state’s largest school district by $16.7 million in fiscal year 2025 and $24 million in fiscal 2026, the school division’s review found.
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 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 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
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
