Virginia Budget Includes Delay on Styrofoam Ban Effective Dates

The recently-passed Virginia budget for fiscal years 2023-2024 includes legislation delaying implementation of state bans on polystyrene for five years. The ban, sponsored by Delegate Betsy Carr (D-Richmond) required large food vendors to stop using the packaging material by July 2023, and all vendors by July 2025. But those deadlines are now July 2028 and July 2030, respectively.

After the ban’s final passage in 2021 under Democratic control, Virginia earned praise for its position from environmental groups. At the time, restaurant lobbyists warned that restaurants needed the containers amid an increase in takeout due to COVID-19. At the same time then-Governor Ralph Northam signed the bill, he also signed a ban on executive branch agencies using single-use plastics, which was reversed this year by Governor Glenn Youngkin.

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Virginia’s Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program to Receive Nearly $22.8 Million in Federal Money

Virginia is receiving almost $22.8 million in federal funds to help reclaim abandoned mine land, according to a Wednesday announcement from Governor Glenn Youngkin. In February, Senators Mark Warner (D-Virginia) and Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) announced that the funding is possible thanks to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in 2021.

“We are excited to get to work and assist in getting others back to work with this announcement of federal funds,” Youngkin said in his release. “Creating jobs in coal-impacted communities is a priority and through the reclamation and repurposing of these mined lands, we hope to see an additional economic activity for properties that can become suitable for development.”

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Commentary: The Biden Bust Could be Coming to a Neighborhood Near You Soon

For many readers, the above title will conjure up memories of the 2008 housing crash caused by the proliferation of subprime mortgages and the subsequent tsunami of defaults. But a better corollary for the coming Biden bust is the Carter crash that occurred three decades earlier. During the final two years of Carter’s term, sales of existing and new homes collapsed because the Fed was forced to raise interest rates sharply to get double-digit inflation under control. This, in turn, produced double-digit mortgage rates that priced millions of potential buyers out of the market.

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National Association of Scholars’ Civics Alliance Releases ‘American Birthright’ Model Social Studies Standard

A coalition of organizations and individuals convened by the National Association of Scholars (NAS) has released its model social studies standard, “American Birthright,” to teach America’s foundational history of liberty.

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National Education Association President: ‘Radicalized Supreme Court Issuing Decisions That Do Not Reflect Views or Values of America’

The president of the nation’s largest teachers’ union told union delegates at the start of the Representative Assembly (RA) Sunday that 2016 was the year of a “fateful election,” one that made clear the U.S. Supreme Court would become “radicalized.”

In her keynote address Sunday in Chicago, National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle targeted former President Donald Trump for his choices in appointing Supreme Court justices.

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First Virginia Casino Opens Temporary Site in Bristol

The Hard Rock Bristol Casino is opening its temporary location on Friday — the first casino to be opened in Virginia after the General Assembly legalized casinos with five prospective host cities in 2020. The casino has already hosted invitation-only events in Bristol on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, including a Thursday event at the Bristol Motor Speedway for casino employees.

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