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By GRAHAM MOOMAW,
Virginia Mercury
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced Tuesday that he’s no longer seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2025 and will instead run for lieutenant governor next year.
Stoney’s downshift appears to put Democratic congresswoman Abigail Spanberger on a clear path to become her party’s next pick for governor, making her the lone Democrat officially running for the seat.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By ANGELIA WILLIAMS GRAVES AND PHIL HERNANDEZ,
published in
Virginian-Pilot
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Right now on the governor’s desk sits landmark legislation that is essential for the safety of doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers. House Bill 861, which we passed through the General Assembly earlier this year, is known as the “Protecting Frontline Healthcare Workers Act.” We call on the governor to sign it into law. This bipartisan bill would finally make it illegal to knowingly bring a firearm, large-blade knife, explosive or other dangerous weapon into a hospital or emergency department. Believe it or not, there is no current state law that directly prohibits this conduct.
Del. Hernandez represents Norfolk’s 94th House District and sponsored HB861. Sen. Graves represents Norfolk’s 21st Senate District and sponsored SB515.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By JOEY LOMONACO,
Fredericksburg Free Press
Two of the five candidates who took the stage at the Fredericksburg Convention Center on Tuesday night are military veterans who spent time in the special forces. Two others immigrated to the United States, while yet another is an ordained minister who claimed his bishop told him 10 years ago that “the Lord was sending me to Washington.” However, seeing as voters and not providence will determine the Republican candidate for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, Derrick Anderson, Cameron Hamilton, Maria Martin, John Prabhudoss, and Terris Todd gathered for a wide-ranging candidate forum that covered issues from immigration to inflation, while also serving as a platform for the candidates to tout their credentials.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By ROSLYN RYAN,
Powhatan Today
After previously voting it down, the Powhatan County School Board voted 4-1 on April 16 in favor of adopting a controversial policy related to the division’s treatment of students who identify as transgender or nonbinary.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s “Model Policies on Ensuring Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents in Virginia’s Public Schools,” had been opposed 3-2 by the Powhatan School Board last December, during the last meeting of the previously-elected board.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By DAVE RESS,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Some Virginia state employees will pay more for health insurance beginning July 1, following the state’s latest review and projection of claims.
Overall, the state Department of Human Resource Management proposed a 6.3% increase in total premiums for the next fiscal year.
But full-time employee contributions — the sums taken out of paychecks — will rise by less than that. For some plans, there will be no increase at all.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By TRENT ENGLAND,
published in
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Virginia voters can have confidence in November that the election process will be simple and their votes will count. That’s because of the defeat of two radical election proposals pushed by well-financed lobbying groups. Each would have made voting less transparent and more confusing. Voters were spared the latest mess only by gubernatorial veto on April 8. That bill, Senate Bill 428, would have required the commonwealth to assist local implementation of an election system known as ranked choice voting, or RCV.
England is founder and executive director of Save Our States and co-chairman of the Stop Ranked-Choice Voting Coalition.
VaNews April 23, 2024
Virginian-Pilot
Editorial
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
By signing a bill last month that abolished child marriage, Gov. Glenn Youngkin made Virginia one of only a dozen states to prohibit the practice and the first Southern state to do so.
That’s a landmark for the commonwealth, one that should have earned unanimous support in the legislature. Those who voted against, including three Republicans from Hampton Roads, should account for their opposition.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By LUCA POWELL,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
A Richmond man associated with the white supremacist group Patriot Front is accused of striking a police officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol building. Nathaniel Noyce of Richmond is charged with assaulting law enforcement officers, civil disorder, and violence and disorderly conduct at the Capitol.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By CHARLIE PAULLIN,
Virginia Mercury
President Joe Biden stopped by Prince William Forest Park in Triangle on Monday, as the country celebrated Earth Day, to tout two initiatives to combat climate change: expanding solar access and creating jobs to fuel America’s environmental efforts.
Called the Solar for All program, Biden told the crowd that families could save about $400 a year on their electric bills by tapping into the federal initiative that will provide grant funding to expand the development of solar projects nationwide.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By MICHAEL J. PETRILLI,
published in
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
If Virginia’s school system were a person, we’d say it was born on third base and thought it hit a triple. Indeed, the commonwealth’s education officials have spent so many years patting themselves on the back that their arms must hurt.
It’s true that some national magazines have ranked Virginia’s schools highly in the past. But that’s not surprising, given that it’s also one of the wealthiest states in the nation.
Petrilli is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution.
VaNews April 23, 2024
