The Virginia Office of the Commonwealth Attorney, in the state’s Loudoun County, unknowingly hired a registered sex offender, having failed to submit the successful applicant to a background check.
The unidentified male was hired as a paralegal and fired days later.
In an interview with a local Fox News affiliate, the man, identified only as John, said he is trying to rebuild his life following five years in prison, in which he spent his time studying legal issues.
Read More
Monday morning on The John Fredericks Radio Show, host Fredericks welcomed House Delegate Terry Kilgore to the show to discuss the process of new legislation that will undo mask mandates will go through the House, Governor, and Senate.
Read More
Governor Glenn Youngkin signed his first bill on Monday. HB 828, sponsored by Delegate Tony Wilt (R-Rockingham), was the first bill passed out of the 2022 General Assembly last week. It passed without receiving any recorded ‘no’ votes in either the House or the Senate.
In 2021, Delegate Wendy Gooditis (D-Clarke) sponsored a bill to create a state-run assistance program to help dairy farmers participate in the federal Dairy Margin Coverage Program that provides financial assistance for small and mid-sized dairy farmers when milk prices drop. In January, Wilt said in committee that the federal government didn’t have the program available in time, which meant that farmers would miss an application deadline at the beginning of February.
“So what this bill simply does is extend that time to May 15,” Wilt said.
Read More
The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee (SFAC) advanced a bill that would eliminate the state sales and use tax of 1.5 percent on groceries and personal hygiene products. In its Thursday meeting, the committee combined Senator Jennifer Boysko’s (D-Fairfax) SB 451, focused on the hygiene products, with bills from Senator Stephen Newman (R-Beford), Senator Ryan McDougle (R-Hanover), and Senator Bill DeSteph (R-Virginia Beach) that included all groceries.
Read More
CHESAPEAKE, Virginia – The Super Bowl is finally here and DraftKings Sports-Book–an official betting partner of the NFL–goes all in with a huge offer! New customers can get 56-1 odds on either team to win the big game! Bet just $5 and win $280 in free bets if your team wins! Just use promo code GODZILLA! The magic promo code of all time!
Read More
Representative Elaine Luria (D-VA-02) criticized efforts to regulate congressional stock trading which Representative Abigail Spanberger (D-VA-07) is championing.
“So my thoughts on it, you know, I think this whole concept is bull***t. Because I think that, why would you assume that members of Congress are going to be inherently bad or corrupt? We already have the STOCK Act that requires people to report stock trades. Why would you assume – I mean, the people that you’re electing to represent you, it makes no sense that you’re going to automatically assume that they’re going to use their position for some nefarious means or to benefit themselves. So I’m very strongly opposed to any legislation like that,” Luria told Punchbowl News this week.
Read More
House Republicans took over six hours on Friday to pass several bills confirming low-level appointments made by former Governor Ralph Northam, a reaction to the Senate’s vote earlier this week to block Governor Glenn Youngkin’s appointment of former Trump EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler as Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources.
Republican leaders in the House and the Senate have been hinting at potential trouble over potential blocked nominees for weeks, but on Thursday, Senator Emmett Hanger (R-Augusta) told The AP that Youngkin seemed ready to move on from Wheeler’s confirmation.
Read More
RICHMOND, Virginia – The House Education Committee voted to advance school mask-optional language in a special meeting Friday; Senator Siobhan Dunnavant’s (R-Henrico) SB 739 was the only bill on the agenda.
As introduced in the Senate, Dunnavant’s original bill focused on in-person learning, but earlier this week Senator Chap Peterson (D-Fairfax City) moved to amend the bill to include the masking clause; that vote got broad support from both sides of the aisle. A later vote to pass the amended bill only had two Democrats supporting it, but that was enough to pass out of the Democrat-controlled Senate. On Wednesday, Delegate Amanda Batten (R-York) said that the sudden change surprised Republicans.
Read More
The House of Delegates passed seven election-reforms bills on Thursday, including a bill to require photo identification to vote, a bill shortening early voting from 45 days to 14 days, and a bill requiring voters to submit absentee ballot requests for each election.
Delegate Phillip Scott (R-Spotsylvania) introduced HB 39 to shorten early voting. He said on the House Floor on Wednesday, “There’s been a lot of information out there about those who participate in early voting, there’s a lot of information about the strain that puts on the localities having to staff these locations, find places to host the early voting.”
Read More
Thursday morning on Outside the Beltway with John Fredericks, host Fredricks welcomed Proclaiming Justice to the Nation’s Laurie Cardoza-Moore to the program to discuss how parents can take over local school boards and her Taking Back America’s Children’s Summit this weekend in Orlando, Florida.
Read More
RICHMOND, Virginia – Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears cast her first tie-breaking vote in the Senate on Thursday. Senator Jeremy McPike (D-Prince William) voted with Republicans against SB 137, a bill that would allow defendants in most felony cases to appeal a judge’s discretionary sentence if the judge does not provide a “written explanation that adequately explains the sentence imposed[.]” When the 20-20 vote result was clear, Earle-Sears asked bill patron Senator John Edwards (D-Roanoke) and opponent Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Rockingham) to come to the dais, where they discussed the bill. Then, Earle-Sears voted against the bill.
“What I wanted to do was to give the patron an opportunity to talk to me about the bill in a way that I may not have, you know, heard before. And then I also wanted to hear the opposing view. I always want to give people the opportunity so that they can make their case. And as I was listening to all sides, what appeared to me was that the bill unfortunately is poorly written,”she told The Virginia Star.
Read More
Wednesday was a good day for Governor Glenn Youngkin, who received two major education policy wins from the Democrat-controlled Virginia Senate, which passed Senator Siobhan Dunnavant’s (R-Henrico) bill requiring parental notification of sexually explicit instructional material in public school classes. Senators Lynwood Lewis Jr. (D-Accomack) and Montgomery “Monty” Mason (D-Williamsburg) voted with all the Republicans to pass the bill 20 to 18.
Dunnavant said, “Senate Bill 656 is a bill that we discussed and passed out of this body before that seeks to inform parents when controversial, sexually explicit material is being discussed in the classroom. It has nothing to do with libraries. It has an enactment clause that specifically protects books and ensures that it does not censor books.”
Read More
The Virginia Senate passed a bill that will allow parents to opt their children out of wearing masks at school. Democratic Senators Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax City) and Lynwood Lewis Jr. (D-Accomack) joined with Republicans to pass SB 739 after the Senate debated the bill for over an hour on Wednesday.
Bill sponsor Senator Siobhan Dunnavant (R-Henrico), an OB/GYN, said during debate, “Two years into this pandemic, keeping unproven measures in place is no longer justifiable. We must evolve; science doesn’t stand still. We did masks and boxes and other things because we thought maybe they might help but they have not proven to do so. I will say further that you have before you a conflict between two constitutional priorities in Virginia. One is that school boards get to decide policy for their districts. But the other is that we are a parental rights state. You’re going to have to choose which authority, ceded by the Constitution, you’re going to stand by today.”
Read More
Virginia’s Democrat-controlled Senate is suddenly about to pass a bill allowing parents to opt their children out of wearing masks. In Tuesday’s session, Senator Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax City) amended Senator Siobhan Dunnavant’s (R-Henrico) in-person learning bill to include the mask-opt-out clause – and 10 out of 21 Democrats voted with Republicans to approve the change, setting up the bill for final passage on Wednesday.
Despite vocal Democrats and some urban school boards pushing back against Governor Glenn Youngkin’s executive order requiring a school mask mandate opt-out, Petersen has been calling for a masking off-ramp. On Monday, he sent a letter to several northern Virginia schools warning of his plans to introduce legislation to that effect. He argued that mask-wearing is a political decision.
Read More
Virginia Senate Democrats defeated an effort to revive confirmation of former Trump EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler as Governor Glenn Youngkin’s secretary of natural and historic resources. In committee last week, Democrats voted to remove Wheeler from SJ 84, the bill to confirm Youngkin’s cabinet selections. On Tuesday, Republicans opposed a vote to confirm the committee amendment.
Senator Richard Stuart (R-King George) said that Wheeler had been impressive in committee interviews, and had a record of helping Virginia.
“But I get the politics. I understand that some of these environmental groups out there don’t like him because of who he worked for. And that’s just a real shame, because we have an opportunity here to confirm somebody who has the real credentials and I’ve not heard one member in this body object to his credentials or his qualifications,” he said.
Read More
In yet another scandal involving Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS), an email published on Twitter shows school security officials told school administrators to seek warrants from magistrate judges to arrest students who refused to wear masks.
An email from security head John Clark, posted on Twitter by commentator Ned Ryun, shows Clark giving teachers instructions on February 1 about how to obtain those warrants. The instructions were given just after the school vowed to defy Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who banned mask mandates on his first day in office.
Read More
According to CBS reporter Scott MacFarland, who has been covering sentencing of the defendants stemming from the mostly peaceful January 6, 2021 protest at the U.S. Capitol building, federal prosecutors are seeking nearly two years in prison for an aspiring rapper from Virginia who entered the Capitol that day.
“[Antionne] BRODNAX identified himself by date of birth and social security number, and admitted to the agents that he entered the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021,” a probable cause statement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says. “BRODNAX also provided the following additional information. BRODNAX said he had traveled to Washington, D.C., prior to January 6, 2021, to shoot a music video. On January 6, 2021, BRODNAX saw a rally of which many participants descended on the U.S. Capitol Building. BRODNAX followed the crowd to the United States Capitol Building and entered the building after United States Capitol Police (USCP) moved the gates that blockaded the door.”
Read More
The House of Delegates passed a bill to fund a group violence intervention program based on the “Operation Ceasefire” projects implemented in Boston. That’s been a goal of now-Speaker Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) since 2019, and Governor Glenn Youngkin promised it during his campaign. Delegate Tony Wilt (R-Rockingham) introduced HB 833; the version that passed out of the House on Monday would create a grant fund managed by the attorney general to fund violent crime reduction strategies, training and equipment for law enforcement, grants to law enforcement and other organizations engaged in group violence intervention.
Read More
No, this is not another Qanon or Pizzagate conspiracy theory. It’s a sober recitation of the facts and incidents that can support no other conclusion.
Let’s start with one important stage-setting fact: According to OpenSecrets.org two organizations account for practically all of the contributions made by teachers unions: The National Education Association (about $20 million in 2016) and the American Federation of Teachers (almost $12 million). Both groups — which compete for members, but also collaborate with each other through the NEA-AFT Partnership — are consistently among the organizations that contribute the most money to candidates and political groups. From 2004 to 2016, their donations grew from $4.3 million to more than $32 million — an all-time high.
Even more than most labor unions, they have little use for Republicans, giving Democrats at least 94 percent of the funds they contributed to candidates and parties since as far back as 1990, where the Open Secrets’ data begins. Go here for a detailed breakdown of teachers union political giving.
Read More
The Supreme Court of Virginia dismissed a lawsuit from Chesapeake parents challenging Governor Glenn Youngkin’s school mask mandate opt-out order. The Monday opinion found procedural problems with the lawsuit, which in an unusual move was filed directly with the Supreme Court instead of a lower court. It also found that state law used to support rigid mask mandates allows school boards flexibility, but warned that it was not offering an opinion on the legality of Youngkin’s underlying Executive Order Two.
“By allowing school boards to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended COVID-19 mitigation strategies ‘to the maximum extent practicable,’ SB 1303 necessarily gives the boards a degree of discretion to modify or even forgo those strategies as
they deem appropriate for their individual circumstances,” the court wrote. “With respect to implementing policies on student masking, that discretion persists even if EO 2’s masking exemption provisions are unlawful.”
Former President Donald Trump released a blistering attack Friday afternoon on former Vice President Mike Pence’s claims earlier in the day about the January 6, 2021 Joint Session of Congress over which Pence presided at which Electoral College votes submitted by the states were counted.
In a speech before the Florida Chapter of the Federalist Society in Orlando on Friday, Pence asserted, “There are those in our party who believe that as the presiding officer over the joint session of Congress, I possessed unilateral authority to reject Electoral College votes. And I heard this week that President Trump said I had the right to ‘overturn the election.’ President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election.” (emphasis added)
Read More
Legislation that would make parole release for inmates more difficult passed the Virginia House of Delegates on Friday.
House Bill 435, sponsored by Del. Thomas Wright, R-Victoria, passed the chamber on strict partisan lines 52-48. The legislation was supported by the chamber’s Republicans and opposed by its Democrats.
Read More
Two Democratic senators voted with Republicans in committee to advance Senator Siobhan Dunnavant’s (R-Henrico) SB 656 requiring Virginia public schools to notify parents about sexually explicit instructional material, allow parental review, and provide non-explicit alternatives. The bill instructs the Department of Education to create model policies; if passed, school boards would be required to pass similar policies.
“This is the opportunity for parents to have a conversation with their child,” Dunnavant said in the Senate Committee on Education and Health on Thursday.
Read More
After oral arguments on Wednesday, Arlington County Circuit Court Judge Louise DiMatteo granted a temporary injunction blocking enforcement of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s school mask mandate opt-out Executive Order Two. In the opinion issued Friday, DiMatteo declined to decide on the validity of Youngkin’s mask policy, but found that the lawsuit is likely to succeed on the merits, thanks to state law.
“The efficacy of the Governor’s school mask policy contained in EO2 does not bear upon whether he has the authority to issue it,” DiMatteo said in the opinion.
Read More
Freshman Delegate A.C. Cordoza (R-Hampton) said in a Thursday speech in the House of Delegates that the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus (VLBC) wouldn’t allow him to join due to political differences, but VLBC Chair Lamont Bagby (D-Henrico) told The Virginia Star that it was due to concern over Cordoza’s motives.
“When I came to this assembly, I expected to be welcomed with open arms by my brothers and sisters in the Legislative Black Caucus. Instead, I was rejected by a vote. While I’m sure a few of my brothers and sisters voted for me to join them, the majority did not,” Cordoza said in his speech. “This was disheartening but not shocking. The questionnaire for entry had little to do with being black, and had more to do with being leftist.”
Read More
Virginia’s Attorney General Jason Miyares joined radio host Jeff Katz of The Jeff Katz Show on WRVA, where he expressed his dismay about Loudoun County Public Schools’ (LCPS) current mask mandate policy.
“I’ve gotta admit, that was a pretty astonishing even coming from the Loudoun County administrators,” Miyares said.
Read More
The Richmond City Democratic Committee voted Thursday to censure Senator Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond) over threats Morrissey made to Petersburg NAACP President Lafayette Jefferson.
RCDC member Jimmie Lee Jarvis made the motion to censure the senator. “I was very upset to read, and then hear, Sen. Morrissey’s appalling and repeated threats of violence against a constituent, Mr. Jefferson,” Jarvis said according to The Virginia Scope.
Read More
RICHMOND, Virginia – The House of Delegates passed a bill banning consideration of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in admissions to Virginia’s governor’s schools. That’s a reaction to controversy at Thomas Jefferson (TJ) High School for Science and Technology, where officials instituted a merit lottery to try to expand the largely Asian American student base to underrepresented groups while still maintaining a high standard. Conservatives saw that as part of a broader wave of watered-down academic standards in the name of equity, and Republicans campaigned in 2021 on restoring Virginia’s educational standards of excellence.
Delegates debated HB 127 on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Delegate Richard (Rip) Sullivan (D-Fairfax) said he and his wife spent years as proud TJ Colonials parents.
Read More
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) doubled down on his position that if public universities want to mandate COVID-19 vaccines, they must wait until the General Assembly passes a law to that effect.
“The COVID-19 vaccine is a critical tool in our fight against COVID-19, and it could save your life. The Attorney General has been vaccinated , has received the booster, and he encourages everyone to get the vaccine,” Miyares’ spokeswoman Victoria LaCivita told The Virginia Star. “He also promised to be an Attorney General that calls balls and strikes – and according to Virginia law, only the General Assembly can enact a statute that requires the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of enrollment or in-person attendance, as it has with six other vaccines.”
Read More
The House of Delegates Finance Committee advanced a bill to eliminate Virginia’s grocery tax and a bill to double the standard deduction on income tax; those are two key promises Governor Glenn Youngkin made in his campaign as part of his focus on “kitchen-table issues.”
HB 90, sponsored by Delegate Joe McNamara (R-Roanoke) exempts food for human consumption and essential personal hygiene items from state and local sales taxes. On Monday, Delegates Candi Mundon King (D-Prince William) and Delegate Richard ‘Rip’ Sullivan (D-Fairfax) expressed concern about how a different Youngkin-inspired tax bill would impact low-income Virginians. McNamara recalled those remarks in the Wednesday committee meeting.
Read More
Elementary and high schools throughout the country this week are having children participate in Black Lives Matter at School’s “Week of Action,” using lesson plan “resources” based on the activist organization’s core principles that seek to disrupt Western family structure, and teach children to affirm the “transgender” and “queer” lifestyles.
Black Lives Matter (BLM) at School has provided a toolkit for schools and teachers with a curriculum that features a movie for different grade bands matched to “the 13 guiding principles of the BLM movement.”
Read More
The House of Delegates passed a bill to repeal the 2020 law authorizing localities to ban firearms on locality property. Delegates debated the bill on Wednesday before the vote Thursday.
“House Bill 827 returns our code back to its prior position,” Delegate Tony Wilt (R-Rockingham) said on Wednesday. “Other portions of the bill: it eliminates the requirement to destroy firearms that are confiscated and rather allows them to be offered for sale through a licensed dealer. And it also limits the ability of localities to sue firearm manufacturers.”
Read More
After Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) wrote a legal opinion last week saying that vaccine mandates for public university students are illegal, several of the state’s largest schools have backed off their COVID-19 vaccine requirements.
“Absent specific authority conferred by the General Assembly, public institutions of higher education in Virginia may not require vaccination against COVID-19 as a general condition of students’ enrollment or in-person attendance,” Attorney General Jason Miyares said in his opinion.
Read More
The Washington NFL football team on Wednesday officially announced its new name as the “Commanders,” according to multiple news reports.
The team changed its name from the Washington Redskins several years ago, amid decades of pressure from those who said the name was derogatory toward Native Americans.
Read More
RICHMOND, Virginia – The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee blocked Governor Glenn Youngkin’s nominee for Secretary of Natural Resources, former Trump EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. On Tuesday afternoon, Senator Creigh Deeds (D-Bath) moved to remove Wheeler’s name from a Senate resolution to confirm the nominees.
“We received a letter from 150 former EPA employees, who suggested that Mr. Wheeler had undermined the work of the EPA and worked against the environmental interests in this country. We think that members of the governor’s cabinet ought to be able to unite us as Virginians, and certainly the secretary of natural resources ought to be one that we have confidence in, in terms of working for the preservation and conservation of our natural resources,” Deeds said.
Read More
RICHMOND, Virginia – The Republican-controlled House of Delegates passed two bills addressing the minimum wage, including a repeal of increases passed by Democrats in previous sessions. Delegate Nick Freitas (R-Culpeper) and Delegate Sally Hudson (D-Charlottesville) debated about the need for minimum wage increases on the House floor Monday.
“I have it on good theological guidance that nothing in this bill is going to cause you to be cast into eternal darkness and gnashing of teeth,” Freitas said, defending his HB 320 against a claim that eliminating minimum wage increases harms “the least among us,” a reference to Jesus’ teaching in the Bible.
Read More
After students at George Mason University (GMU) fought the school’s administration on mandatory booster shots for COVID-19, the school Monday announced that it has scrapped the mandate, though it did not credit the students for their efforts.
“George Mason University announced today it will strongly encourage students who remain unvaccinated to get the COVID-19 vaccine and booster, but no longer require it, in observance of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares’ opinion,” the school said in a message written by President Gregory Washington.
Read More
Two police officers have died following a shooting Tuesday afternoon at Bridgewater College in Virginia, authorities stated.
The shooting occurred at 1:20 p.m., and a male suspect was apprehended at 1:55 p.m., the college stated in a press release.
In an email sent to students and faculty shortly after 5:00 p.m., Bridgewater College President David Bushman identified campus police officer John Painter and campus safety officer J.J. Jefferson as the two casualties.
Read More
RICHMOND, Virginia – The House of Delegates passed a bill significantly rewriting a section of Virginia law that handles crimes committed on school property and how officials report those offenses to law enforcement and parents. On Tuesday, eight Democrats crossed the aisle to help pass the bill, 59 to 40.
Read More
A Virginia Senate committee advanced legislation that would increase parole board transparency by making their votes on whether someone receives parole available to the public upon request.
Senate Bill 5, sponsored by Sen. David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke, advanced through the General Laws and Technology Committee on a 14-1 vote with substantial bipartisan support. Current law does not prohibit the parole board from disclosing information regarding parole votes, but does not give them any obligation to do so.
Speaking to the committee, Suetterlein said his legislation would simply make the votes public, which is similar to almost every other action undertaken by the state government.
Read More
A House of Delegates Finance subcommittee advanced a bill to provide a $300 income tax refund for individuals and $600 for married persons for the 2021 tax year, a key promise from Governor Glenn Youngkin’s Day One Game Plan.
“Virginia has seen a steady increase in its tax revenues, and it’s far exceeding the forecasted growth, largely due to an increase in non-withholding taxes and a standard deduction below the federal level. Virginians have overpaid on their taxes as evidenced by the state’s surplus, and should have some of their money repaid. The aid given to Virginia from the federal government to facilitate the Commonwealth’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in Virginia ending its 2021 fiscal year with a surplus of over $2.6 billion,” HB 935 sponsor Delegate Roxann Robinson (R-Chesterfield) said in the Monday subcommittee meeting.
Read More
A Virginia mother addressed her children’s school board Thursday night regarding the district’s mask mandate, which subverts Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order allowing parents to choose whether or not to mask their children in school.
A Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) mother, Carrie Lukas, condemned the school board for requiring children to mask up for school while “across Virginia, right now, adults are gathering in gyms, bars and clubs and laughing together maskless.”
“Yet my five kids spent all day today, eight hours, in masks in Fairfax County Public Schools,” she said. “My first grader has never been inside his school without a mask. He’s never had a chance to smile at his friends or hear his teachers’ unmuffled voice, and it is outrageous and ridiculous.”
Read More
Seven legislators have introduced 11 animal welfare bills in the Virginia General Assembly after investigations by PETA and the USDA found troubling conditions at a Cumberland beagle breeder-for-research. A newly-published report of an October 2021 site visit to the Envigo facility lists violations including staff providing medication without veterinarian approval, dangerous kennels blamed for deaths of multiple puppies, and buildup of grime and feces. Poor record-keeping was blamed for untreated medical conditions, unrecorded deaths, and an inability to determine cause of death in other cases.
“There continue to be severe staffing shortages and currently there are approximately 32 employees at the facility, with only 17 staff members directly responsible for all husbandry, daily observations, and medical treatments for almost 5000 dogs,” the report states.
“Mortality records show that from 2 Aug 2021 to 3 Oct 2021, nine dogs […] were injured from having a body part (such as a limb or tail) pulled through the wall of the kennel by a dog in an adjacent kennel and bitten. The exact injuries varied in each case, however regardless of whether it was a minor or substantial injury, these nine dogs were subsequently euthanized. Dogs sustaining injuries from being pulled through the enclosure wall have experienced physical harm and unnecessary pain,” the report states.
Read More
The Senate Judiciary Committee killed a bill that would have expanded the power of the Office of the Attorney General to conduct its own criminal prosecutions if requested by local law enforcement. The bill was on Attorney General Jason Miyares’ wishlist and would have allowed Miyares to intervene in cases where Miyares and the chief local law enforcement officer don’t like the way the local Commonwealth’s attorney handles a case.
Under Virginia law, the governor can already ask the attorney general to conduct criminal prosecutions, but otherwise the attorney general’s local prosecutorial power is limited to some specific types of cases. Progressive prosecutors in some jurisdictions have pushed for more lenient sentences, or declined to prosecute certain kinds of cases; that’s frustrated conservatives who say prosecutors should represent the interest of the state, not the accused person.
Read More
Virginia’s Attorney General released a legal opinion Friday saying that under Virginia law, vaccine mandates for college students are illegal.
“Absent specific authority conferred by the General Assembly, public institutions of higher education in Virginia may not require vaccination against COVID-19 as a general condition of students’ enrollment or in-person attendance,” Attorney General Jason Miyares said in his opinion.
Read More
RICHMOND, Virginia – Most of the action in the General Assembly is occurring in committees as legislators decide which bills will survive to be voted on by the full Senate and House of Delegates. House Republicans have advanced some key bills on local gun control repeals, elections reform, and school misdemeanor reporting. Senate Democrats have advanced some key bills, but much of their work has been in killing Republican-introduced legislation.
“What has not surprised me is there has been a conspicuous partisan divide with Democratic pushback against Governor Youngkin’s agenda, particularly in the area of tax reform and education reform, and masks,” Senate Minority Leader Thomas Norment (R-James City) told The Virginia Star.
Read More
Governor Glenn Youngkin has a 44 percent favorable, 42 percent unfavorable rating, according to a new survey from Public Policy Polling conducted about a week-and-a-half into the new administration. However, only 44 percent of respondents approved of Youngkin’s job performance on COVID-19, while 47 percent disapprove — within the plus-or-minus 3.8 percent margin of error. On specific questions about COVID-19 policy, the poll found more separation, including that 55 percent disagree with Youngkin’s EO Two ending school mask mandates, versus 40 percent who agree.
“Virginians are also supportive of school boards across the state, agreeing that local school boards that oppose Youngkin’s order removing mask mandates in schools and have filed lawsuits are right. Voters support the school boards by a 15-point margin (55-40). By an even larger 25-point margin (56-31), Virginia voters say they think local school districts should set mask requirements themselves, rather than have the mask requirements set by Youngkin,” PPP reported.
Read More
RICHMOND, Virginia — The Senate Education and Health Public Education Subcommittee recommended killing two bills from Senator Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia Beach): SB 766 which would ban transgender girls from playing girls’ sports, and SB 570, which would codify Governor Glenn Youngkin’s “inherently divisive concept” ban. In its Thursday afternoon meeting the subcommittee also recommended killing Senator Travis Hackworth’s (R-Tazewell) SB 20 to eliminate a requirement that school boards adopt policies for the treatment of transgender students.
Kiggans, who is running for Congress, told the subcommittee that she was carrying SB 570 on behalf of the Youngkin administration.
“I said yes to carry this bill because I heard the voices of parents that spoke in November. You know, I was one of those parents as well,” Kiggans said, noting that Youngkin frequently talked about teaching kids how to think, not what to think.
Read More
Attorney General Jason Miyares announced a new policy to cut attorneys’ fees for debt collection on student loan debt at Virginia’s public colleges. Under Virginia law, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) is responsible to provide debt collection services on behalf of state agencies, and can retain as revenue up to 30 percent. Miyares’ internal policy limits that to 15 percent on new claims referred to the OAG, where possible.
“As someone who worked to put themself through college and still has their own student loans, I understand the strain student loans can put on working families. By working to reduce the attorney collection fee from 30 percent to 15 percent on accounts deemed delinquent by the respective universities, we are making immediate, internal procedural improvements that will help Virginians,” Miyares said in a Wednesday press release.
Read More
A source inside the Virginia Capitol Thursday spoke exclusively to The Virginia Star about Wednesday’s tiff between Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) and Del. Don Scott (D-Portsmouth), who claimed in an interview with the Washington Post that the Governor was not comporting himself in a manner consistent with his Christian faith.
At the time of Washington Post’s publication, Scott was expecting the governor to meet with him in his office.
Read More