By Jessica Nolte Capital News Service RICHMOND – As Virginia faces an estimated $1.26 billion budget shortfall, the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus announced that its top priority during the General Assembly’s session is to protect funding for K-12 education. Additionally, the VLBC will focus on criminal justice reform, job creation, increasing the minimum wage and public safety. “These are the issues we will continue to fight for because there must be a change,” Del. Roslyn Tyler, a Democrat from Jarratt and president of the caucus, said at a news conference Wednesday. In November, Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration warned higher education…
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By Jesse Adcock and Mary Lee Clark Capital News Service Democrat Jennifer McClellan of Richmond easily won a seat in the Virginia Senate in a special election Tuesday, but Republicans retained control of the chamber by holding on to a district west of the capital city. As expected, McClellan won the 9th Senate District race, receiving 91 percent of the votes against her opponent, Libertarian Corey Fauconier. McClellan, an attorney who currently serves in the Virginia House of Delegates, will be sworn in as a state senator on Wednesday as the General Assembly convenes for its 2017 session. During the…
August sales soar on year, rebound from restrained July According to the August 2016 Home Sales Report released by the Virginia Association of REALTORS® (VAR), residential real estate sales have rebounded strongly from a lagging July and are markedly higher than at this time last year. Year-to-date measures continue to outpace prior years and suggest sustained market strengthening. Volume through the end of August 2016 exceeded $25.941 billion, a gain of 6.8 percent from last year’s accumulation of $24.294 billion. “Particularly strong sales in Virginia’s densest regions fostered an August boom,” stated 2016 VAR President Bill White. “We are beginning…
From: Editor & Publisher Virginia Press Association By: Sharon Knolle Small, community newspapers across the country are not just surviving, but-in many cases-actually thriving. Many of them have managed to dodge the layoffs and downsizing that larger papers have had to face. Chip Hutcheson, president of the National Newspaper Association (which represents more than 2,100 community newspaper companies), said, “You don’t hear about community papers going out of business. It’s not the doom and gloom that major market papers face. At a recent press association meeting, I met several people who say they started a (small) paper two or…
A meeting is set tonight, at Thomas Dale High School at 6:30 to discuss water quality of fly ash holding ponds at Dominion Virginia Power in Chester. A report from Duke U tested the water outflow into the James River as having carcinogens. Dominion has responded with a lawsuit stating the claim is unfounded.
By Diana DiGangi and Margaret Carmel – Capital News Service TANGIER ISLAND – A teenager wanders at dusk, playing pop hits from 2010 on his phone at top volume. Old men speak a dialect similar to Cornish. The mayor has an office in town, but spends his days crabbing on the Chesapeake Bay. In the center of the island stands a massive water tank, a cross on one side and a crab on the other, with the community’s name in the middle: TANGIER. Tangier Island is home to a way of life that otherwise has all but disappeared. Twelve miles off…
By Editorial Board House Majority Leader Kirk Cox used a few minutes of Wednesday’s veto session to offer his critique of Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s job performance. He heaped his indignation on the chief executive’s eagerness to exercise veto power in recent weeks. Cox decried not just the substance of the bills rejected by the governor, but the style in which McAuliffe issued those vetoes. He maligned the governor for taking “pride” in undoing all the work done by the legislature, especially the social agenda advanced by a few House members this session. http://pilotonline.com/opinion/editorial/virginian-pilot-editorial-be-grateful-for-that-veto-pen/article_c84b1b9a-aace-51bc-b0e2-b605755267fe.html Perhaps the most fascinating revelation of the…
By Grant Smith – Capital News Service Virginia legislators will return to the state Capitol on Wednesday to consider whether to uphold or override Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s vetoes and recommendations of legislation passed during their 2016 session. The Democratic governor vetoed 32 bills approved by the Republican-controlled General Assembly. That is the most vetoes since 1998, when Jim Gilmore, a Republican, was governor and most legislators were Democrats. McAuliffe objected to a slew of hot-button bills – from a measure that would allow some school security officers to carry guns on the job, to the so-called “Tebow Bills” that would allow…
By Kyle Taylor and Brian Williams – Capital News Service In a show of solidarity, fast-food, health-care and child-care workers protested Thursday outside two McDonald’s restaurants in Richmond demanding a wage increase. The local demonstrators stood united with other low-wage workers across the country for the “Fight for $15” initiative. The campaign, which organizers call “the biggest-ever day of strikes,” has gained momentum recently as more than a dozen state and local governments approved legislation that will pay fast-food workers $15 per hour. “This is an effort to ensure that anyone who works full-time doesn’t have to raise a family in…
By Kyle Taylor and Brian Williams – Capital News Service Officials from McDonald’s defended their company’s practices after criticism Thursday from workers demanding a higher minimum wage. “We proudly invest in the future of those who work in McDonald’s restaurants,” said Lisa McComb, a spokesperson for McDonald’s. “In addition to raising the minimum wage for employees at our company-owned restaurants, we also offer employees access to Archways to Opportunity, a set of programs McDonald’s pays for which helps them earn a high school diploma and get needed tuition assistance so they can work toward earning a college degree.” Her statement came…