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By SAMUEL B. PARKER,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
The judge who presided over the Huguenot High School graduation shooting trial issued a gag order on Tuesday forbidding prosecution and defense attorneys from speaking to the media as they prepare their arguments on a recently filed motion to withdraw Amari Pollard’s guilty plea. Pollard in February pleaded guilty to first-degree murder charges in the June 6 shooting of Shawn Jackson outside the Altria Theater after Judge W. Reilly Marchant ruled that Pollard’s actions did not meet the legal threshold for self-defense.
VaNews April 15, 2024
By ANNA BRYSON,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
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The Virginia Board of Education’s lab school committee voted on Thursday to alter the lab school application process by eliminating the standard second review of applications and instead recommending the approval of lab schools upon first review.
The change in the lab school approval process comes as the future of lab school funding is in flux, and the lab school funding in the current budget can only be used until June 30.
VaNews April 15, 2024
By KATIE KING,
Virginian-Pilot
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Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed several bills intended to help those who were inaccurately approved for unemployment benefits.
One of the bills requires the Virginia Employment Commission to notify those who received nonfraudulent overpayments that they have 30 days to request a waiver. It directs the commission to issue a waiver if the applicant was not at fault and said demanding repayment would be contrary to “equity and good conscience” — meaning it would deprive the individual of the money needed for basic necessities, such as food, shelter, medicine and childcare.
VaNews April 15, 2024
By MICHAEL MARTZ,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
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Gov. Glenn Youngkin filled vacancies in three high-level positions in state government on Friday, including the Department of Taxation and the Virginia Lottery. Youngkin named James Alex, an executive at a global accounting firm, as tax commissioner to succeed Craig Burns, who retired last month after serving in the job for more than 13 years under three governors. … The governor also appointed Khalid Jones, an investment entrepreneur and securities litigator, to lead the Lottery, a semi-independent agency … Finally, Youngkin named Robert Ward as chief transformation officer, replacing Eric Moeller, who resigned earlier this year after two years in a job that the governor created to improve operations of state agencies ...
VaNews April 15, 2024
By MICHAEL MARTZ,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
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Gov. Glenn Youngkin proposes to fill the $110 million revenue hole in the next two-year budget for the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority. But legislators and leaders of the state’s alcoholic beverage industry still want ABC to be independent of the executive branch to avoid the perceived “political influence” that they say led to the projected shortfall. Four influential business groups — the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, the Virginia Beer Wholesalers Association, the Virginia Distillers Association and the Virginia Wineries Association — are asking legislators to reject Youngkin’s proposed budget amendments, which would reverse the General Assembly’s effort to make ABC independent of the governor’s control.
VaNews April 15, 2024
By EMILY HEMPHILL,
Daily Progress
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A federal judge has denied the University of Virginia’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the school and its Title IX office failed to appropriately address accusations that a high-ranking faculty member groomed, harassed and sexually assaulted an undergraduate student roughly five years ago. The student, who graduated in 2020, filed her suit against UVa last April. In it, she claims the school’s Title IX office neglected to provide a timely investigation after she accused a professor more than 40 years her senior of initiating an inappropriate, yearlong sexual relationship with her back in 2018 — a clear violation of UVa policy that “strictly prohibits” sexual or romantic relationships between professors and undergraduate students.
VaNews April 15, 2024
Virginian-Pilot
Editorial
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The notion that a budget is a reflection of values is oft repeated around statehouse halls each year as executive and legislative branches spar over what to fund and what to exclude, what to support and what to discard, while crafting their spending plans.
That’s certainly true here as Gov. Glenn Youngkin and the General Assembly have, over five months, offered starkly different visions for the commonwealth’s future. That back and forth, while unnecessarily combative, is likely to land with a consensus budget that makes modest strides, not bold leaps, toward meeting the commonwealth’s priorities.
VaNews April 15, 2024
By VICTORIA HIGGINS,
published in
Virginian-Pilot
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This legislative session, Virginia came close to adopting strong renewable energy policy that put the Old Dominion on the right track for meeting state climate goals. While this forward progress was put on hold, the work state Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg and the Senate Local Government Committee put into Senate Bill 697 does not go unnoticed and, most importantly, shouldn’t end here.
In 2020, Virginia adopted the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), setting a state-mandated goal of 100% clean energy by 2045. Until now, no significant legislation has been proposed to ensure that Virginia remains on track to achieve this goal.
Higgins of Richmond is the Virginia director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
VaNews April 15, 2024
By GAVIN STONE,
Virginian-Pilot
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Attorneys representing the Newport News School Board and former superintendent George Parker asked the Virginia Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that allowed former Richneck Elementary School teacher Abigail Zwerner, who was shot during class by a 6-year-old student, to sue for damages. Additionally, the school board and Parker filed a motion asking the circuit court to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming they are immune from liability in the shooting. A Newport News Circuit Court judge ruled in November that Zwerner was not limited to filing a Worker’s Compensation claim and could instead sue for liability.
VaNews April 15, 2024
By SEAN JONES,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
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A developer’s plan to rezone 622 acres for an eastern Henrico County technology park was given its first stamp of approval by the county Planning Commission. Developer Hourigan is pushing the project as an extension to the nearby White Oak Technology Park, with a plan to have co-locating data centers. ... Co-location data center facilities include server space used by multiple companies, government agencies and other entities, as opposed to enterprise data centers like those for Meta and Amazon, which are entirely built and managed by one company. Environmentalists and local historians opposed the tech park extension.
VaNews April 15, 2024
