Spokespeople for a Virginia man said in press release Tuesday that he has been hamstrung by police after stepping in to break up a fight between his friend and an armed aggressor.
Lloyd Muldrow, Marine veteran and member of the Marine Corps Security Force went to visit a friend, Marshal Collins, in Baltimore last month. When he arrived, Collins was in a violent struggle with a man called Wesley Henderson, who had allegedly pistol whipped Collins, causing him to bleed from his head.
Read More
A federal court in Pennsylvania ruled that an antitrust lawsuit from 42 states against the Chesterfield, Virginia-based manufacturer of Suboxone can go forward, a “major victory” according to an announcement from Attorney General Jason Miyares.
“The intentional implementation of an illegal ‘product hopping’ scheme to block or delay generic versions of a medication used to help individuals recover from opioid addiction is a despicable exploitation of the opioid epidemic. The decisions made by Indivior Inc. caused purchasers to pay artificially high prices for a leading opioid addiction treatment, making access to recovery more difficult for Virginians while putting more money into the pockets of the manufacturers amid a national opioid crisis,” Miyares’ release states.
Read More
California regulators moved forward with a plan to ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars by 2035, a policy that also impacts Virginia and other states that have chosen to link their emissions law to California’s. In the wake of the decision reported by The New York Times, Virginia Republicans are once again expressing frustration over the 2021 legislation that tied Virginia’s regulations to California’s zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) requirements.
“In an effort to turn Virginia into California, liberal politicians who previously ran our government sold Virginia out by subjecting Virginia drivers to California vehicle laws,” Governor Glenn Youngkin said in a Twitter statement Friday.
Read More
With Congress in recess and midterm elections approaching, Virginia’s senators and representatives have been touring the Commonwealth, visiting local businesses and organizations while highlighting legislative goals and wins.
“The Democrat Party is an evil to be defeated,” Representative Bob Good (R-VA-05) told the Amherst County Republicans on Monday while describing his efforts to advance national pro-life legislation, according to video from The Danville Register and Bee.
Read More
The Virginia Board of Contractors voted to reduce licensing requirements in construction-related trades, a change meant to address a shortage of skilled labor and to comply with Governor Glenn Youngkin’s push for regulatory cuts. The cuts reduce the years of experience requirement for journey-level tradesman in in-demand construction fields from four to two years, create an extra pathway for skilled workers to become licenses, and eliminate a continuing education mandate.
“This is a major win for all Virginians,” Youngkin said in a press release. “Increasing opportunities for people to become licensed in high-demand, high-paying jobs while also helping businesses find the talent they desperately need will strengthen our Commonwealth. Since day one my administration has been working to reinvigorate job growth and make Virginia the best place to live, work and raise a family. I’m confident that these actions will move us closer to that goal.”
Read More
RICHMOND, Virginia — Attorney General Jason Miyares stopped at the Calhoun community center in Gilpin Court, a low-income neighborhood with a local reputation for violence. Miyares met privately with local leaders and parents and handed out backpacks with school supplies to residents as part of a series of stops he is making around Virginia.
“I came here to the Calhoun Center to hear what was happening, and what people are saying is happening,” Miyares told reporters after the Thursday meeting. “A lot of it was about school safety, but also about larger issues in the community.”
Read More
Governor Glenn Youngkin is scheduled for another round of stops supporting GOP candidates across the U.S., fueling speculation that he is evaluating a possible presidential campaign, and earning skepticism from Virginia politicians, including Senate Minority Leader Thomas Norment (R-James City.)
“I am hopeful that maybe he will intensify his focus on the Commonwealth’s issues,” Norment told reporters on August 19, and referenced the ambitions of Virginia’s recent governors.
“Doug Wilder wanted to be president. George Allen wanted to be president. Bob McDonald wanted to be president. Tim Kaine wanted to be next to the throne,” he said.
Read More
RICHMOND, Virginia — A drone delivered a small package to Virginia’s Executive Mansion on Wednesday morning as part of an announcement that Walmart partner DroneUp is expanding with 655 new jobs plus a drone pilot training facility at Richard Bland College. In May, DroneUp announced that it would deliver to 34 sites across the U.S. by the end of 2022. Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer said that would include customers near three Walmart drone delivery hubs in Chesapeake, Chesterfield County, and Chester.
“Our delivery capacity will be four million homes by the end of this year. Our goal is 30 million by the end of next year,” DroneUp CEO Tom Walker told the media. “Our partnership with Walmart is unique because there’s 4,700 Walmarts. 92 percent of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart. So as we work with the FAA and negotiate that broader range, we’re starting to go three, four, five, ten miles. It’s not long before 92 percent of the U.S. population can be receiving products.”
Read More
Attorney General Jason Miyares announced a settlement with two landlords, culminating a lawsuit alleging that the Richmond-based landlords defrauded tenants by offering services for low-income tenants without providing the services. Jump Start U2, Inc, and Vasilios Education Center, Inc., and their operator Carl Vaughan must pay $10,000 in restitution to consumers who paid for services that weren’t provided; they’re also not allowed to collect on over 175 judgements against tenants, worth more than $200,000 in total.
“We will not tolerate landlords who take advantage of Virginians seeking affordable housing by violating and ignoring laws designed to protect Virginia consumers. My office is dedicated to protecting vulnerable Virginians from such abusive practices, and we will continue to hold bad actors accountable,” Miyares said in a press release Tuesday.
Read More
Governor Glenn Youngkin, Senator Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond), Delegate Kim Taylor (R-Dinwiddie), and Petersburg Mayor Samuel Parham announced the Partnership for Petersburg on Monday. The partnership is an effort to help poverty-stricken Petersburg by improving education, health care, public safety, transportation, economic growth, and relationships between the community and leaders.
“Today, we formally launch the Partnership for Petersburg, a holistic partnership bringing more than 40 initiatives under six separate pillars to make a significant difference in the lives and livelihoods of Petersburg’s great people as well as the economic health of the city itself,” Youngkin said in a press release. “It is my sincerest hope to be able to point to the Partnership as a model for our work with other cities across the Commonwealth.”
Read More
At the University of Virginia, the student-run newspaper issued a public call to remove the name of the university’s founder, Thomas Jefferson, from campus.
According to Fox News, the op-ed in The Cavalier Daily claimed that Thomas Jefferson “glorifies racists, slaveholders and eugenicists,” while offering no evidence to support this assertion.
Read More
RICHMOND, Virginia – The Virginia Board of Education postponed certifying Greene County Administrator Mark Taylor for Spotsylvania County supervisor in its August 17 meeting after parents and school board members offered public comments criticizing Taylor’s qualifications and his ties to school board chair Kirk Twigg. School board member and former chair Dawn Shelley said Taylor hadn’t received a recommendation from the school board, which hadn’t voted in public meeting to select Taylor out of the two finalists.
“Whatever the Department of Education received from the chairman of the Spotsylvania school board was fraudulent. The application was incomplete,” Shelley told the BOE.
Read More
The congressional candidates for Virginia’s seventh and tenth districts met in a virtual forum on Monday evening where they discussed policy problems faced by people with disabilities. At the beginning, moderator Connor Cummings said that the event was a sensory-friendly forum, not a debate, and instructed candidates to speak about themselves, not their opponents. As a result, the forum’s tone was professional and policy-focused, lacking the fireworks of traditional forums and debates driven by attacks and personality.
Read More
The Youngkin administration asked the Virginia Board of Education to delay reviewing new history and social science standards, a necessary first step that includes public hearings. On Wednesday, in the first meeting with a majority of Youngkin-appointed members, the board agreed to delay accepting the standards for first review until September, although board President Daniel Gecker expressed concern about falling behind on a timeline to approve the standards.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow asked for the delay, saying that would allow the five new Youngkin-appointed members more time to get up to speed and to address technical errors like the accidental omission of language that referred to George Washington as the “Father of Our Country.”
Read More
Nearly 100,000 more Virginians are employed than at the end of January, a key milestone highlighted by Governor Glenn Youngkin in a Friday press release.
“With 100,000 jobs added since January, we are well ahead of pace to reach our goal of 400,000 jobs during my term. However, the slowdown in monthly job creation and the lower level of job participation have my full attention. We will continue the critical work to return more Virginians to the workforce and will double-down on policies that make Virginia attractive for job growth and business investment,” Youngkin said. “We remain laser-focused on our mission to make Virginia the best place to live, work and raise a family.”
Read More
The General Assembly will reconvene September 7, which has triggered alarm from pro-choice groups who are worried that Republicans may try to introduce pro-life legislation. But a spokesperson for Governor Glenn Youngkin said that the session will be focused on appointing judges and that Youngkin’s pro-life legislation won’t be introduced until the 2023 session.
“Governor Glenn Youngkin is calling the legislature back to Richmond on September 7, and we have a feeling he will try to sneak an abortion ban through the House of Delegates,” REPRO Rising Virginia tweeted Thursday.
Read More
Nathaniel Kaine, son of Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), has been appointed chief of staff for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Tim Kaine, the Democrats’ 2016 vice presidential nominee, serves on the Senate Armed Services and Budget committees, both of which are involved in funding and oversight for the border enforcement agency.
Read More
Richmond held a gun buyback program Saturday in an attempt to curb gun violence, but some critics have cautioned that such programs would not likely have that effect.
Individuals who seek to get rid of their firearms on a no-questions-asked policy were to do so at Liberation Church in Richmond. The city council approved the gun buyback event and bought the firearms using gift cards.
Read More
Well here we are again! Welcome to the first NFL 2022 edition of GodzillaWins.com, our NFL football preview!
I don’t speak for Jack from Tunica and Nate from Reno, I’ll let them get crushed by me again this year – but as for Godzilla – I am poised for a record setting year!
Read More
The left denies it, but it’s truly happening – a massive realignment is underway in the American electorate as Latinos are leaning in with the GOP. This November, Republicans are running Hispanic nominees in key battleground districts, headlined by rising stars like Myra Flores, Cassy Garcia, and Monica De La Cruz in Texas, Michelle Garcia Holmes and Alexis Martinez Johnson in New Mexico, Lori Chavez-DeRemer in Oregon – and of course, Yesli Vega in Virginia. Over the past two years, the Old Dominion has been ground zero for this shift, providing a glimpse into what the future of the Republican Party might look like on a national scale.
Read More
RICHMOND, Virginia — Governor Glenn Youngkin is directing $397 million in excess funds to be set aside for unspecified tax relief in 2023, as Virginia has $3.2 billion in excess cash — $2 billion in unplanned revenues plus Fiscal Year 2022 spending that was $1.2 billion less than planned.
“Today I formally report to the General Assembly that Virginia ended the fiscal year with a record general fund balance,” Youngkin said at a Friday morning joint meeting of the House of Delegates Finance and Appropriations Committees and the Senate Finance Committee.
Read More
Standards of learning tests (SOL) for the 2021-2022 school year show improvement across most subjects from the previous academic year, but the administration is warning that there’s still an achievement gap compared to pre-COVID-19 levels. In a virtual press conference Thursday, Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) officials said that gap shows the impact of virtual learning.
“The research is becoming clearer and clearer: students whose schools were closed for in-person instruction suffered the most. Being in person for school matters,” Superintendent of Public Education Jillian Balow said.
Read More
Richmond’s Office of Elections is removing a second referendum on whether or not to approve a casino in the city, after developers and city officials backed down in the face of opposition from the General Assembly.
Read More
The average length of stay for COVID-19 patients went up in the first quarter of 2022 according to the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association (VHHA).
“What we saw in the Omicron wave was that those coming into hospitals were staying longer for their COVID hospitalization with an average length of stay of ten-and-a-half days,” VHHA Vice President of Data Analytics, David Vaamonde said during a Monday presentation of hospital and emergency department visit trends.
Read More
Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin will deliver the keynote address at the Michigan state GOP convention to support the party’s gubernatorial nominee, Tudor Dixon, in her bid to unseat Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Read More
RICHMOND, Virginia – Governor Glenn Youngkin and First Lady Suzanne Youngkin made an unannounced appearance at the Virginia Board of Education meeting Wednesday, the first board meeting held with a majority of Youngkin-appointed members. The board is considering how to implement changes required by laws passed by the General Assembly while considering the administration’s priorities, including how to move forward with lab school expansion.
“We’ve accomplished a lot in the first seven months that I hope gives this group a great foundation. At the heart of it, the budget that I had the great privilege of signing this past June was exactly the budget that I think collectively, on a bipartisan basis, we hoped for in education. The largest education budget in the history of Virginia. An extraordinary investment in Virginia’s children. A ten percent raise for teachers. A thousand-dollar bonus. A $1.25 billion dollar capital foundation that supports well over $3 billion of investments into our schools, into the facilities themselves,” Youngkin said in remarks delivered to the board.
Read More
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) granted federal loan forgiveness to former ITT Technical Institute students, including $141.6 million across 7,190 Virginians, after findings that the school falsely advertised the value of its degrees.
“Attending higher education is a big decision, and a sacrifice for many Virginians,” Attorney General Jason Miyares said in a press release.
Read More
Attorney General Jason Miyares is warning that the latest congressional budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2023 will cut funding for the Virginia Army National Guard (VANG) Counter Drug unit program by about ten percent, eliminating several positions.
“The current proposed budget reductions would result in the loss of five VNG Counter Drug Unit analysts across the Commonwealth, one of which would be lost in Southwest Virginia. The loss of this analyst in SWVA would leave only two VANG Counter Drug analysts to provide support for the 52 counties in the Western District of Virginia. As you are both aware, this region is already underserved, underfunded, and has long been nearest the epicenter of the opioid crisis in our country,” Miyares said in a letter sent to Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Mark Warner (D-VA) as well as Representatives Ben Cline (R-VA-06) and Jennifer Wexton (D-VA-10).
Read More
The Virginia Department of Education on Tuesday hastily issued a correction after reports circulated that the agency was planning on excising language identifying George Washington as the “Father of our Country” and James Madison as the “Father of the Constitution.”
Read More
A new report on the January 2022 I-95 snow incident says that Virginia agencies failed to apply lessons from a December 2018 snow incident on I-81.
“VDOT needs to improve on applying what is learned from prior events and ensure it is applied to future events,” the Office of the State Inspector General (OSIG) recommended in an August report. “Lessons learned from the 2018 I-81 Snow Incident, as well as those from the 2022 I-95 Snow Incident, should be analyzed and incorporated into each agency’s policies and procedures.”
Read More
Virginia Democrats trumpeted the Inflation Reduction Act after the House of Representatives passed the legislation on Friday, putting President Joe Biden on the path to a key win on his goals ahead of the 2022 congressional midterms. At the same time, Republicans mocked the bill’s title and criticized its policies.
In a speech on the House Floor, Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA-08) compared the bill to landmark legislation from the U.S.’ past.
“This is our generation’s signature contribution to American history. Our Social Security Act. Our Civil Rights Act, even the Bill of Rights,” Beyer said.
Read More
Governor Glenn Youngkin signed a certificate Friday recognizing August as Hidden Heroes Month in Virginia to honor caregivers for wounded, ill, or injured military and veterans.
“Virginia is proud to partner with the Elizabeth Dole Foundation and their Hidden Heroes program to support and acknowledge caregivers that receive little support or acknowledgment for their selfless sacrifices,” Youngkin said in a press release. “In fact, most of these Hidden Heroes simply consider the challenging work they do as unconditional love or carrying out their civic and patriotic duty, without realizing they should be categorized as caregivers. I call on all my fellow Virginians to join me in thanking and supporting them. They deserve nothing less.”
Read More
Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) said that Richmond authorities need to provide an explanation after questions arose about the alleged July 4 mass shooting Richmond police said they prevented.
“If there are facts suggesting that this really was a potential mass tragedy, those need to be put on the table,” Kaine said Friday according to WTVR. “City officials didn’t have to put it on the table at the outset. They could have just said, ‘we’ve arrested some people.’ But they put it on the table that we’ve arrested them, and this was going to be a mass shooting incident.”
Read More
Richmond law enforcement will distribute cold case decks of cards to inmates at the Richmond City Justice Center; the cards feature pictures and names of victims of unsolved homicides.
“The loss of a murdered loved one is devastating. Not receiving justice makes it even worse. I’m hopeful that this creative tool will help law enforcement provide answers and justice to these families,” Attorney General Jason Miyares said in an announcement.
Read More
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) had $469,819.49 stolen in an alleged Nigerian email scam, according to a Department of Justice court document and an FBI Richmond press release that announced the extradition to the U.S. of three Nigerian nationals alleged to have participated in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme that also targeted a North Carolina university, a Texas college, local Texas governments, and Texas construction companies.
Read More
Federal law enforcement has seized another load of counterfeit diabetic socks at the Area Port of Norfolk-Newport News. The 165,707 pairs of socks in the seizure would be worth more than $2.6 million in manufacturer suggested retail price if they were legitimate.
“Norfolk, VA CBP Officers Seize Second Significant Sham Socks Shipment destined to Loudoun County, VA,” the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Baltimore field office announced Tuesday.
Read More
After refusing to pass a transgender policy required by Virginia law, the Hanover County Public School Board has introduced a proposed transgender policy that, if enacted, will require a written request from both the student and their parents if that student wants to use a restroom or locker room that doesn’t correspond with their biological sex. Under the proposed policy the school board would approve or deny the requests.
Read More
Ten new fellows will join the Virginia Management Fellows program, a joint project between Virginia Tech and the Virginia Department of Human Resource Management aimed at preparing fellows for permanent roles in Virginia agencies.The 10 fellows will be part of the 2022-2024 cohort, the fifth cohort since the program was approved by the General Assembly in 2017.
Read More
The Blue Ridge Poison Control Center is seeing a rise in calls related to THC, including Delta-8 THC exposures among children, Director Christopher Holstege told a taskforce on Tuesday, echoing concerns nationally from the CDC issued in 2021.
“Certainly my colleagues and I have been talking about this extensively and seeing these as they were doing surveillance, with some of the first reports, we also started to see these in the fall of 2020, especially Delta-8, but more edibles, which is why we’re seeing the toddlers get to these products,” Holstege said.
Read More
Speaker of the House of Delegates Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) reappointed retired judge Dennis Hupp to a two-year term on the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission (VCSC), a body that creates felony sentencing guidelines.
“As someone who has had the pleasure of practicing before Judge Hupp, I know what an exceptional jurist he has been, and I’m grateful to him for agreeing to return to the Criminal Sentencing Commission where we previously served together,” Gilbert said in a Monday announcement.
Read More
Attorney General Jason Miyares joined an amicus brief opposing the Biden administration’s ongoing lawsuit over the CDC’s mask mandate for interstate travel. A district court vacated the requirement, but the CDC appealed, and the Health Freedom Defense Fund v. Biden case is now in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
“Mask Mandates across the country have been lifted in virtually every aspect of daily life. For months, Americans have been traveling safely while making their own, autonomous decisions. The CDC mask mandate on public transportation, like air travel, is obsolete and no longer necessary – not to mention a clear example of federal overreach,” Miyares said in a press release.
Read More
Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed concerned parent, author, and member of the Independent Women’s Network, Stephanie Lundquist-Arora to the newsmaker line to talk about how she is fighting the woke culture of Fairfax County Virginia’s school board from the inside.
Read More
The Virginia State Corporation Commission approved applications from Dominion Energy for its proposed Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project to feature 176 wind turbines 27 miles off Virginia’s coast, although the project still needs federal approvals.
Read More
On Friday, Governor Glenn Youngkin participated in a ribbon cutting ceremony, signed new legislation, and participated in a roundtable discussion all based around supporting and improving education for the state of Virginia.
Read More
Higher education institutions from across Virginia have begun the initial planning stages to establish K-12 lab schools as they await guidance from the Virginia Department of Education.
More than 30 schools have expressed interest in creating lab schools, which would be public schools run by colleges, universities or other higher education institutions. One of the goals of the program, which was approved by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin earlier this year, is to connect students with university resources they would not otherwise have access.
Read More
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is finishing model policies for school districts to give parents notice about lessons featuring “sexually explicit content,” according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
VDOE policy requires schools to post all “sexually explicit content,” including all materials used for the lessons and curriculum, on the school’s website and also requires parents to be alerted at least 30 days before the lessons take place. The policy says it is designed to help parents make decisions for their children “in accordance with their customs, faith and values.”
Read More
A Virginia mother is preparing to call on Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and the Virginia Board of Education to remove her sons’ out-of-school suspensions from their permanent record as it threatens their higher education chances, Stephanie Lundquist-Arora told the DCNF.
Read More
As global and national gasoline prices continue to trend downward, the average cost for a gallon of gas in Virginia has fallen below $4.
As of Aug. 2, the average gallon of gas costs about $3.97, according to numbers provided by AAA. For a gallon of diesel, the average cost is dipping closer to $5 per gallon, but still sits at about $5.16. This is much lower than gas prices one month ago, which were about $4.63 for a gallon of regular gas and more than $5.70 for diesel.
Read More
Virginia localities have begun receiving payments from an opioid-related settlement with three distributors, which are separate from the state funding and total more than $4 million in the first installment.
McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health agreed to pay the commonwealth and its localities about $530 million for allegedly being involved in higher overdose rates. Virginia will receive about $15 million and the Opioid Abatement Authority will receive more than $9.9 million in the first installment, in addition to the $4 million heading to localities.
Read More
State Senator Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia Beach) is criticizing her opponent for Congress Representative Elaine Luria (D-VA-02) for voting in favor of the CHIPS and Science Act while holding NVIDIA stock.
“Elaine Luria’s vote to provide billions of dollars in subsidies for an industry in which she owns up to $25 million in stocks would be unethical, self-serving, and the latest example of how she will put her bottom line ahead of her constituents’ well-being,” Kiggans said the day of the vote.
Read More