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By CHARLIE PAULLIN,
Virginia Mercury
One of the 200-plus amendments Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin proposed for the state budget would delay a ban on single use plastics beyond a timeframe set as part of a compromise the legislature made a few years ago.
Amendment 148 “shifts the effective date of the prohibition on use of polystyrene containers from 2025 to 2028” for retail food establishments with 20 or more locations around the state, and from “2026 to 2030 for smaller restaurants.”
VaNews April 15, 2024
By DWAYNE YANCEY,
Cardinal News
When Gov. Glenn Youngkin sent the bill legalizing so-called electronic skill games back to the General Assembly with amendments, one of those amendments directed that 5% of the tax revenue from the games go toward improving Interstate 81 — a wonderful talking point on the western side of the state, where complaining about I-81 is more common than complaining about the weather.
However, other amendments that the governor added would effectively ban the games from almost everywhere in Virginia, rendering that dedicated I-81 revenue stream almost meaningless.
VaNews April 15, 2024
By MICHAEL MARTZ AND DAVE RESS,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
When the General Assembly comes back to town Wednesday, the big question is about compromise – whether one is possible on Gov. Glenn Youngkin‘s proposal to reject the legislature’s $1 billion sales tax on digital services or whether his record 153 vetoes means finding accord on a state budget is out of reach.
Legislators are unlikely to overturn any vetoes – most were on legislation that passed on essentially partisan lines in a nearly evenly divided House of Delegates and state Senate. It takes a two-thirds vote to override a veto.
VaNews April 15, 2024
By EMMA COLEMAN,
Roanoke Times
(Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google and Meta regarding the continued presence of a video depicting the murders of two Roanoke journalists. In August 2015, Alison Parker and Adam Ward with Roanoke’s WDBJ news channel were shot and killed by a former colleague during a live broadcast. A third person, Vicki Gardner, was seriously wounded during the attack, which the gunman recorded on video.
VaNews April 15, 2024
By LAURENCE HAMMACK,
Roanoke Times
(Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Customers of Appalachian Power Co. will be able to purchase solar power directly from independent providers, but it may not save them as much money as some had hoped. Nor will it happen anytime soon, following Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s approval this week of a law that sets the framework for the so-called shared solar program. Shared solar allows people who are unable to install solar panels because they live in apartments or homes that don’t get adequate sunlight – or who can’t afford such projects – to purchase some of their electricity from a solar farm operated by a private company.
VaNews April 15, 2024
By CHARLOTTE MATHERLY,
Cardinal News
Roanoke College is launching a cannabis studies program this fall. The University of Lynchburg has joined the bandwagon, too, recently unveiling a professional certification in cannabis health care and medicine. But neither of these schools was the first to do it in Virginia. Nate Miller, an adjunct professor of horticulture at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, claims his was the first higher-education cannabis certification in the commonwealth. He launched it in the fall of 2022.
VaNews April 15, 2024
By TAD DICKENS,
Cardinal News
Sen. Tim Kaine, in a Friday letter to the Federal Trade Commission’s chairwoman, called on the agency to investigate the failure of Google and Meta to remove videos showing the 2015 murders of two Roanoke television journalists and the wounding of a third person.
WDBJ-TV reporter Alison Parker and photographer Adam Ward died in August 2015 during a report from Smith Mountain Lake, after a former co-worker attacked them. Vicki Gardner, whom the two were interviewing at Bridgewater Plaza, was seriously wounded.
VaNews April 15, 2024
By CONNOR WORLEY,
WHRO
Day after day of the same back-breaking, laborious routine: Load. Lift. Secure. Seal.
Monotonous, but little-by-little the progress on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was visible.
It’s formally known as the Lucius J. Kellam Jr. Bridge Tunnel; named after the man who spearheaded the project. It opened 60 years ago on April 15, 1964.
Prior to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, travelers had two options to navigate between Tidewater Virginia and the Eastern Shore: take a ferry across the Chesapeake Bay or take a circuitous seven-hour drive up, over and down.
VaNews April 15, 2024
By ELIZABETH BEYER,
News Leader
(Metered Paywall - 3 to 4 articles a month)
Robert Landrum thought he was supporting Republicans in Virginia’s statehouse elections that year, when he donated $500 to a federal super PAC in April 2023. The super PAC, Unleash America, had one stated goal: To get Republicans elected during Virginia’s 2023 statehouse contests to support Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s agenda. “That’s how he represented the PAC. That’s what he said,” Landrum said in a phone interview with USA Today. He was referring to the PAC’s then “honorary chairman,” Hung Cao, a failed 2022 Congressional candidate from northern Virginia.
VaNews April 15, 2024
By EVAN VISCONTI,
Virginia Mercury
Throughout Virginia, scientists are documenting significant warming of water temperatures, from inland freshwater streams and rivers to the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, which experts say has “huge cascading effects on ecosystems.”
“Even though it might not seem like a big deal, sustained higher temperatures can really damage the intricate balance of species that call those water bodies home,” said Jeremy Hoffman, director of Climate Justice and Impact at Groundwork USA and affiliate faculty in the Department of Geography, Environment and Sustainability at the University of Richmond.
VaNews April 15, 2024
