Category: LEAD

Virginia Legislator Wants to Expand Universal License Recognition

The Center Square

Universal license recognition became law in Virginia on July 1 for 85 different occupations, but some legislators believe ULR should be expanded to apply to more professions in the commonwealth.

ULR helps licensed professionals in approved occupations who are moving to Virginia or live near the border and want to pursue work in the commonwealth. Now, barbers, estheticians and home inspectors, for example, who have held their license for at least three years and are in good standing can easily find work in Virginia without becoming relicensed and potentially going without work for the duration of that process.

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Virginia Gov. Youngkin Makes Closing Argument on Abortion with $1.4 Million Ad Buy

Neil W. McCabe

The Spirit of Virginia political action committee run by Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin kicked off a $1.4 million ad buy defending the Republican position on abortion—marking the first serious effort to counter Democrats by any Republican politician since the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned both the 1973 Roe v. Wade and the 1992 Casey decisions the created the so-called right to an abortion.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch captured the reluctance of Republicans to mention abortion in its article about the ad.

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Virginia School Board Adopts GOP Gov’s Parental Rights Policy After Parents Slap It with Lawsuit

Virginia Star Staff

The Virginia Beach School Board approved Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s gender transition notification policy Tuesday after being hit with a lawsuit from parents, according to The Virginia Pilot.

In August, the board voted on the policy but was deadlocked with five votes in favor and five against, effectively stalling the proposal, which prompted several parents to file a lawsuit in September demanding the district protect parental rights. The board took up the issue again this week, however, and voted 9 to 1 in favor of adopting Youngkin’s policy, with one member abstaining, according to The Virginia Pilot.

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Virginia Gov. Youngkin Makes Closing Argument on Abortion with $1.4 Million Ad Buy

Neil W. McCabe

The Spirit of Virginia political action committee run by Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin kicked off a $1.4 million ad buy defending the Republican position on abortion — marking the first serious effort to counter Democrats by any Republican politician since the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned both the 1973 Roe v. Wade and the 1992 Casey decisions that created the so-called right to an abortion.

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Miyares and 26 Other State AGs Request Federal Government End Catch-and-Release Policies

The Center Square

Twenty-seven attorneys general, led by Florida’s Ashley Moody, are demanding Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “fix the problem you created” and close the catch-and-release loophole DHS is “currently exploiting to implement its mass release policy at the Southwest Border.”

The coalition filed a Petition for Rulemaking demanding that Mayorkas amend DHS’s catch-and-release policies. In their 6-page letter, they point to how “DHS is releasing aliens at a rate of over one million per year, and that does not include the aliens being released on parole under § 1182(d)(5).”

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Virginia U.S. Rep. Bob Good Laments Pelosi-McCarthy Pact, Betrayal

Neil W. McCabe

The Virginia Republican congressman and House Freedom Caucus member, who was one of the eight House Republicans voting to oust Speaker Kevin O. McCarthy (R.-CA-20) Wednesday told radio show host John Fredericks McCarthy lost his gavel because he trusted Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-11).

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Victim Who Was Sexually Assaulted by Trans Student Files Lawsuit Against Loudoun County School District

Virginia Star Staff

A former female student, who was sexually assaulted by a male student claiming to be transgender, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) for allegedly covering up the attack, according to court documents.

The assault was first reported in 2021 by the Daily Wire after the student’s father, Scott Smith, was arrested for disorderly conduct at a board meeting after he demanded that the board admit they covered up his daughter’s attack. Now the student and her parents, identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe, Jane Roe and John Doe respectively, are suing the district for $30 million for its “indifference to sexual assault” and failure to protect Jane Doe from harm, according to court documents.

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Virginia Democrats’ Mega-Donor, Wife Back Cam-Girl Delegate Hopeful with $310K

Neil W. McCabe

When the votes are counted in Virginia after the November 7 off-cycle legislative elections, in a big way, it is a referendum on the political effectiveness of a mega-wealthy money manager who has devoted himself to Old Dominion politics—and who is not Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin.

Instead, that man is Micheal Bills, who has given more than $15 million in direct contributions to Democratic candidates.

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Crops Predicted to Yield Average Harvest for Virginia

The Center Square

Despite drought conditions, Virginia crops are likely to produce average yields this harvest season.

Broilers (chickens raised for meat production), cattle and turkeys are the commonwealth’s top farm commodities, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2021. Still, “miscellaneous” crops, including vegetables, barley, mushrooms, sunflowers and other field crops, are the state’s next highest-grossing commodity.

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Shock Poll Shows Virginia in Play: Trump, Biden Tied at 37 Percent

Neil W. McCabe

Nearly a year before the 2024 presidential election, former President Donald J. Trump is running neck-and-neck with the man who replaced him in the White House, Joseph R. Biden Jr., with each with the support of 37 percent of Virginians, according to a poll by the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies of 1,000 of the commonwealth’s adults conducted September 5 through September 11.

“Virginia looks a lot like America as a whole in this survey,” said Professor Stephen J. Farnsworth, the center’s director.

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Purple Commonwealth: Virginia Poll Shows 42 Percent to 42 Percent Split Between Republicans, Democrats

Neil W. McCabe

Old Dominion residents go into the commonwealth’s Nov. 7 legislative elections equally split between Democrats and Republicans, with 42 percent of voters telling the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies poll of 1,000 Virginia adults conducted Sept. 5 through Sept. 11.

“Virginia has rapidly returned to its purple state status,” said Stephen J. Farnsworth, professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington, and the center’s director. The poll included 833 registered voters, 771 likely voters, and carries a 3-percentage point margin of error.

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Virginia GOP State Senate Hopeful Emily Brewer Tells John Fredericks Her Adoption Story Blunts Left’s Abortion Narrative

Neil W. McCabe

The Republican House Delegate running to represent the State Senate’s 17th District told radio host John Fredericks she counters the Democrats’ pro-abortion messaging with her own adoption story during her Thursday “The John Fredericks Show” appearance.

“I was adopted. It’s something that ever since I’ve been in the House of Delegates in the past six years, I’ve worked on adoption and foster care reform because that’s not just the issue,” said Delegate Emily Brewer, who currently represents the chamber’s 64th District.

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Virginia Rep. Bob Good Tells ‘Meet the Press’ Why He’ll Back One-Week Continuing Resolution

Neil W. McCabe

A Virginia Republican congressman and member of the House Freedom Caucus told “Meet the Press” hostess Kristen Welker he supports passing a seven-day continuing resolution to keep the federal government operating past the Saturday expiration of Fiscal Year 2023.

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Governors Have ‘Limited Effect’ on State Economy, Says Virginia Economist

The Center Square

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has recently touted rising employment rates and general fund surpluses, causing some to wonder how much influence governors have over a state’s economy.

A regional economist from the University of Virginia argues that governors have less impact than people might think. 

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Franconia-Springfield Rail Project Receives $100 Million in Federal Funding

The Center Square

The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority is set to receive $100 million in federal funding for another transportation project designed to improve travel in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

Drivers traveling from Fredericksburg into the district should be enjoying reduced commute times due to the installation of the long-awaited express lanes along the I-95 corridor. Soon, construction will begin on the Franconia-Springfield Bypass. This rail bridge will allow Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express trains to “seamlessly cross over two freight rail tracks, preventing delays and expanding capacity for additional service,” according to a press release from U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine’s office.

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‘Losing Our Freedom of Speech’: Parent Speaks Out Against Middle School’s Explicit Reading List

Virginia Star Staff

Cooper Middle School in McClean, Virginia, gave students an age- inappropriate reading list for their 7th grade English class this year, a concerned parent told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Students in the English class were assigned a wide variety of books on topics that spanned from illegal immigration to Black Lives Matter (BLM), according to a copy of the list. Although the reading list clarifies that students will not have to read every single book, one teacher at the middle school said students would have to choose books to read from the provided options unless a parent offered an alternate, school-approved book, an orientation video welcoming students to the class showed.

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Virginia Gov. Youngkin Seeks to Ready Virginia for AI Adoption

The Center Square

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has issued an Executive Directive requiring the state’s Office of Regulatory Management to develop protocol and guidance for the use of artificial intelligence in the commonwealth, both by the state government and educational institutions.

While lawmakers nationwide are eager to understand AI and respond with appropriate legislation governing its use, Youngkin wants Virginia to move faster.

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Parents File Lawsuit After Virginia School Board Shoots Down State’s Model Transgender Policies

Virginia Star Staff

Two parents filed a lawsuit against the Virginia Beach School Board this week for voting down proposed policies that pertain to keeping parents informed about their child’s identity.

The state’s Department of Education released the model policies in July and claimed that this step would “safeguard parent’s rights.” The school board opted out of adopting the policies in August, resulting in the  parents, represented by the Cooper and Kirk law firm, suing to try and force the district to adopt them, according to court documents.

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Virginia Representative Proposes Defunding Colleges with Vax Mandates

Virginia Star Staff

The COVID-19 pandemic is over, but vaccine mandates imposed by colleges and universities are not. Now a Virginia congressman has introduced a bill to withhold federal funds from institutions of higher education that require vaccinations against the disease.  

President Joe Biden declared the pandemic over in ending the public health emergency May 11. Despite this, nearly 100 colleges and universities currently require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 for the 2023-2024 school year.  

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Most Voters Say Virginia Democrat Who Live Streamed Sex Acts for Tips Should Drop Out of Race: Poll

Just the News

Most likely voters say that Susanna Gibson, the Virginia Democrat who live-streamed sex acts with her husband online while asking for tips, should drop out of the House of Delegates race in a highly competitive suburban Richmond district, according to a new survey. 

While 56% likely general election voters say Gibson, a nurse practitioner and mother of two young children, should drop out of the race, just 30% say she should continue and 14% say they are unsure, according to a survey released Wednesday by the political research groups Founders Insight and co/efficient.

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Virginia Tech DEI Director May Have Violated School Policy in Forwarding Email Slamming School Board Candidates over Youngkin Policies

Virginia Star Staff

A diversity, equity, and inclusion officer at a leading university in southeastern Virginia may have violated her school’s policy by using work email to forward a message slamming conservative school board candidates as “hateful” and urging readers to canvass for the candidates’ opponents shortly before early voting begins.

One school board member targeted in the forwarded email told The Daily Signal that she is considering a lawsuit.

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Report: Virginia Ranks ‘Best State for Teachers’

The Center Square

Virginia is 2023’s best state for teachers, according to a study conducted by personal finance website WalletHub.

WalletHub ranked states by 24 weighted metrics in two major categories: Opportunity and competition and academic and work environment. Virginia placed first for the former and eleventh for the latter, but opportunity and competition was weighted more than twice as heavily as academic and work environment because “competitive salaries and job security are integral to a well-balanced personal and professional life,” according to the study.

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Retreat: Youngkin Moves Confederate Memorial Statue from Arlington to VMI

Neil W. McCabe

Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin executed an orderly retreat in his battle to preserve Arlington National Cemetery’s Confederate Memorial, dedicated by President T. Woodrow Wilson in 1914, and the final resting place of nearly 500 Confederate veterans and their loved ones.

The Washington Post reported that the governor found a home for the bronze statue:

The Board of Visitors at VMI unanimously approved a motion Wednesday to accept the statue for placement at the Virginia Museum of the Civil War at New Market Battlefield State Historical Park — owned and operated by the college — north of VMI’s campus in Lexington. The battlefield is a focal point of the school’s history — it was there in 1864 that its cadets joined Confederate forces to successfully push back Union troops. An enormous mural mounted inside the college’s chapel depicts the VMI corps of cadets’ charge across the New Market battlefield.

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Rep. Bob Good Warns If McCarthy Uses House Democrats Again His Speakership ‘Unsustainable’

Neil W. McCabe

The Memorial Day Weekend debt deal Speaker Kevin O. McCarthy negotiated with President Joseph R. Biden Jr. may turn out to be his political Katrina, as House Freedom Caucus member and Virginia Republican congressman told radio host John Fredericks McCarthy had driven House conservatives to begin preparations for forcing a vote on the California Republican’s job security.

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Virginia Improper Payments for Unemployment Highest in the Country

The Center Square

Virginia has given out $817.3 million in improper unemployment benefits over a three-year period.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported that 43.8% of the unemployment benefits paid out by the state from July 2019 through June 2022 were improper. Department of Labor reported a 21.52% national improper payment rate over the three-year period. Improper payments are payments that should not have been made or were made in the incorrect amount.

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Virginia State Senator Chase Quits Write-In Campaign Despite Tying Primary Loss to 346 Illegal Votes

Neil W. McCabe

The Republican state senator, who calls herself “Trump in heels” and lost the June 20 primary for Virginia’s 12th Senate District, told The Virginia Star her reasons for not launching a write-in campaign in the general election.

“Many of you have asked if I’m organizing a write-in campaign this year in Senate District 12. I’m currently not organizing a write-in campaign,” said State Senator Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield County), whose district changed since her reelection in 2019. Chase lost to former State Senator Glen Sturtevant.

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Rogue Write-in Campaign Risks Youngkin’s Agenda, Ambitions

Neil W. McCabe

A one-time ally of Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, and unsuccessful state senate hopeful, told The Virginia Star he is still seething from dirty tricks during the primary campaign, and he is running a write-in campaign against the GOP nominee that threatens to block the governor and GOP’s chance to with control of Old Dominion’s Senate.

“Governor Youngkin can do a lot of things today via his executive authority like Democrats do when they’re in the executive office, but he doesn’t, and he doesn’t because he does not want to rock the boat,” said Republican Matt Strickland, who served as an Army combat medic with multiple kinetic tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Gov. Youngkin Pardons Virginia Dad Who Protested after Daughter’s Sexual Assault by Transgender Student

Just the News

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Sunday pardoned Scott Smith, a father who was convicted for protesting the Loudoun County School Board after his daughter was brutally sexually assaulted at school by a boy with a skirt in the girl’s bathroom.

“Scott Smith is a dedicated parent who’s faced unwarranted charges in his pursuit to protect his daughter,” Youngkin said when issuing his absolute pardon to Smith. “Scott’s commitment to his child despite the immense obstacles is emblematic of the parental empowerment movement that started in Virginia.”

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Amazon Web Services Plans to Build Two Data Centers in Virginia

The Center Square

After announcing in January that it was going to invest $35 billion over the next 17 years in bringing more data centers to Virginia, Amazon Web Services, the cloud services arm of Amazon, has chosen to invest about one-third of those funds in Louisa County to build two data centers by 2040. 

Northern Virginia – and Loudoun County in particular – is the data center capital of the world, with nearly 300 centers in the region and roughly 70% of the world’s internet traffic routing through Loudoun, according to news source Governing. Data centers house servers, data storage drives, network equipment and other IT infrastructure to store companies’ digital data. They play a vital role in cloud computing and artificial intelligence, necessitating increased storage capacity.

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Virginia Governor Announces New Education Initiative After Pandemic Learning Loss

The Center Square

Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced his ALL IN VA plan, intended to help Virginia students recover from COVID-19 learning loss and return to higher academic standards, on the heels of the announcement of the Virginia Assessment Results for the 2022-23 school year.

The plan is the latest in a long string of interventions and reforms the governor has made in education during his tenure. 

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Virginia Legislators Pass Budget in Special Session

The Center Square

The Virginia General Assembly met Wednesday in Richmond and voted to finalize the overdue budget deal recently reached by the House and Senate finance committees – but not without a few impassioned speeches from the floor, many over the unique resolution lawmakers were asked to pass.

The assembly passes amendments to the state’s two-year budget every odd year, but this year, the House and Senate continued debating the budget past the July 1 deadline, the start of the fiscal year. Finally, the committees reached a deal, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin called a special session for legislators to codify it. 

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Federal Judge Rules Texas Law Requiring Age Verification on Porn Sites First Amendment Violation

Just the News

A federal judge has ruled that a Texas law requiring pornography sites to install age-verification measures violates the Constitution’s First Amendment prohibition against free-speech restrictions.

The law also requires such sites to prominently display warning labels about what some consider the dangers of porn.  

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Revised Virginia Math Standards to Take Effect Next School Year

The Center Square

The State Board of Education completed its review of state standards of learning for math and has approved new 2023 standards to go into effect during the 2024-25 school year. 

In 2000, the General Assembly voted to make it a law that the board must review the state’s standards of learning for core subjects every seven years. The last review was in 2016.

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Virginia Democrats Lead with Abortion in 2023 Election Season

The Center Square

As the 2023 general election nears, Virginia Democrats hope to draw voters to the polls by featuring abortion and reproductive rights prominently in their campaign messaging. 

“Democrats have been over performing since the Dobbs ruling was handed down,” J. Miles Coleman of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics told The Center Square.

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Virginia Gov. Youngkin Calls Special Session to Finalize Budget

The Center Square

Just days after the House and Senate budget committees reached a deal, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin called a General Assembly Special Session for Wednesday, Sept. 6, to pass amendments to the state’s biennial budget. 

Budget negotiations have been fraught with difficulty this year, with the Republican-led House and the Democrat-led Senate unable to compromise on the governor’s proposed tax cuts and other big-ticket items like K-12 education. 

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Virginia County to Add 5,000 Households to Voucher Waitlist

The Center Square

Through a special application and lottery process in September, Arlington, Virginia, is opening up the waitlist for its Housing Choice Voucher Program for the first time in more than 10 years.

The process will add 5,000 people to the housing voucher waitlist, likely keeping the list full for years to come, according to the local agency that manages the Arlington Housing Choice Voucher Program.

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USDA Dispersing Funds for Rural Infrastructure Improvements

The Center Square

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday over $800 million in federal funds to improve electric infrastructure and water systems in rural communities, of which Virginia is set to receive nearly $6 million in loans and over $3.8 million in grants.

The Wise County Public Service Authority will receive the lion’s share of Virginia’s USDA dollars in this round of funding. A loan of $1.2 million and a grant of more than $3.5 million will be used to replace more than 29,000 linear feet of water line, install 12 gate valves, and assemble 10 fire hydrants, among other things, to address a current health hazard.

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Virginia Natural Gas Pipeline Continues Construction Through Opposition

The Center Square

After a ruling in its favor from the Supreme Court at the end of July, it appeared that construction on the 303-mile natural gas Mountain Valley Pipeline could continue unhindered in Virginia. Not so.

The Supreme Court decision settled objections to a provision congressional Republicans had slipped into the debt ceiling bill passed in June. The provision directed government agencies to grant the needed permits for the pipeline’s completion. It moved jurisdiction over the pipeline from the Fourth Circuit Court – which had ruled against it in several cases – to the D.C. federal court.

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Virginia AG Issues Opinion Backing Model Policies

The Center Square

Virginia’s Attorney General Jason Miyares issued an opinion this week, arguing that the governor’s model policies comply with federal and state nondiscrimination laws and that “local school boards are required to adopt policies that are consistent with them.”

The opinion comes at the request of Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has been advocating since the release of the latest version of the Virginia Department of Education’s “Model Policies on Ensuring Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents in Virginia’s Public Schools” for their adoption — to strong resistance from some districts in the commonwealth.

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Environmental Groups Fight Virginia’s Repeal of Regional Greenhouse Gas Cap-and-Trade Program

The Center Square

Environmental groups are suing the Youngkin administration over its attempts to remove Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a commitment by several states to reduce their carbon emissions. 

The filing is the latest in an ongoing policy tug-of-war between the commonwealth’s legislative and executive branches, environmental groups and businesses that started with former Gov. Ralph Northam’s efforts for Virginia to join the RGGI.

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November Virginia General Assembly Results Difficult to Predict

The Center Square

Elections don’t get much juicier than those for Virginia’s 2023 General Assembly this November.

The big question in this election season: Will Republicans maintain control of the House of Delegates and flip the Senate, leading to a Republican trifecta for the commonwealth?

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America First Legal Demands Answers After Biden DOJ Intervenes in Virginia School District’s Adoption of Youngkin Trans Policies

Virginia Star Staff

America First Legal is demanding answers after the Justice Department under President Joe Biden intervened in a Virginia school district’s adoption of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s policies that center parental rights in transgender issues.

“The Department of Justice seems to suggest that protecting the constitutional rights of parents and students will lead to ‘hate crimes,’” Ian Prior, senior adviser at America First Legal, told The Daily Signal in a written statement Monday. “Once again, we are witnessing the top law enforcement organization in the land come unglued from reality and unmoored from its core functions, all in the name of opposing anyone that doesn’t approve of its state-approved message.”

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Fairfax County Becomes Third Virginia Locality to Pilot Guaranteed Income Program

The Center Square

Beginning in 2024, Fairfax County will be the third locality in Virginia to offer a pilot guaranteed income program after Richmond and Alexandria.

Pilot guaranteed income programs are — in this case, localities — attempt to provide a guaranteed, consistent direct cash benefit every month to a limited number of families in their city or county who meet specific qualifications. As they are experimental, they have a prescribed end date.

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Summit Reveals Complications with Broadband Deployment Funds in Virginia

The Center Square

Virginia’s Director of the Office of Broadband, Tamarah Holmes, spoke this week at the National Conference of State Legislatures’ annual legislative summit about the benefits and challenges of the federal government’s Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program.

The BEAD Program apportions $42.5 billion to the states to develop programs to deliver high-speed internet access to areas without an internet connection or where the internet functions more slowly.

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Virginia Gas Prices in Lower Tier Nationally

The Center Square

Today’s gas prices in Virginia are higher than a month ago but lower than a year ago and lower than the national average.

Unleaded regular is going for an average of $3.67 per gallon in the commonwealth; diesel for $4.19. The price is almost 30 cents higher than a month ago when gas was $3.41 per gallon, but it’s 20 cents less than today’s national average of $3.87.

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Largest Virginia School District Defies Gov. Youngkin’s Guidance on Bathrooms, Pronouns

Virginia Star Staff

Virginia’s largest school district announced Tuesday that it will be defying guidance from Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration that requires students to use bathrooms on the basis of biological sex, rather than gender identity, according to a press release.

The Virginia Department of Education released a final version of its model policies for the state’s public schools in July that requires teachers to use a student’s biological name and pronouns unless given written permission by a parent to use something else. Fairfax County Public Schools said it does not plan to adopt the state guidance after determining that the district policies are in line with federal and state anti-discrimination laws, according to a press release.

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