logo
Youngkin praises Virginia's economy, dismissing Democrats' concerns over Medicaid and job cuts

Youngkin praises Virginia's economy, dismissing Democrats' concerns over Medicaid and job cuts

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Thursday that Virginia's economy is thriving after ending its fiscal year with high revenues, a characterization Democrats criticized as rose-colored in light of budgetary decisions in neighboring Washington, D.C.
In a presentation to the state's money committees, Youngkin and Virginia's secretary of finance said revenues for the fiscal year resulted in a $572 million surplus and a $4.7 billion rainy-day fund. Economic output in the state grew by about 1 percent higher than initially forecast, officials said.
'The strength and success we see today is no accident. It is the result of very intentional decisions made by all of us — intentional decisions to lift up opportunity in the Commonwealth of Virginia,' Youngkin said in his speech to lawmakers. 'And these decisions are yielding dividends. They're enabling us to compete and to win.'
Democratic lawmakers were quick to push back, particularly in light of looming Medicaid work requirements for some adults after Congress passed a reconciliation bill last month. Youngkin repeatedly said Medicaid will not be taken away from Virginians, and Secretary of Finance Stephen Cummings added that hospitals will be able to absorb any additional costs from federal cuts to Medicaid.
Senate Democratic Majority Leader Scott Surovell cited an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office this year estimating that roughly 11 million Americans will lose access to Medicaid.
'The governor stood up here and said a million times, repeatedly, that nobody is coming to throw out Medicaid,' Surovell said. He added that the CBO, which 'America relies upon to tell us the answers to these things, tells us that millions of Americans are going to lose their Medicaid.'
Monday Mornings
The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week.
Democrats also said the governor is not fully acknowledging that the White House's reshaping of the federal workforce will continue to impact the state's economy. The job losses that factored into Youngkin's assessment did not include federal workers who took buyouts and are still receiving payments until later this year, Cummings said.
But Republican House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore praised Youngkin's presentation, calling it 'the kind of news every Virginian should cheer.'
'It happened because Republicans have kept a steady hand on the wheel,' Kilgore said.
___
Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

HANSON: Who has been busy destroying democracy?
HANSON: Who has been busy destroying democracy?

Toronto Sun

time3 hours ago

  • Toronto Sun

HANSON: Who has been busy destroying democracy?

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, US President Donald Trump listens to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a joint press conference after participating in a US-Russia summit on Ukraine at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, 2025. Photo by Gavriil GRIGOROV/POOL / AFP via Getty Images 'Destroying democracy' — the latest theme of the left — can be defined in many ways. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account How about attempting to destroy constitutional, ancient and hallowed institutions simply to suit short-term political gains? So, who in 2020, and now once again, has boasted about packing the 156-year-old, nine-justice Supreme Court? Who talks frequently about destroying the 187-year-old Senate filibuster, though only when they hold a Senate majority? Who wants to bring in an insolvent left-wing Puerto Rico and redefine the 235-year-old District of Columbia, by altering the Constitution, as two new states solely to obtain four additional liberal senators? Who is trying to destroy the constitutionally mandated 235-year Electoral College by circumventing it with the surrogate 'The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact?' Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Does destroying democracy also entail weaponizing federal bureaucracies, turning them into rogue partisan arms of a president? So who ordered the CIA to concoct bogus charges of 'collusion' to sabotage Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, the 2016-2017 transition and the first 22 months of Trump's first term? Who prompted a cabal of '51 former intelligence officials' to lie to the American people on the eve of the last debate of the 2020 election that the FBI-authenticated Hunter Biden laptop was instead the work of a 'Russian intelligence operation?' Who ordered the FBI to connive and partner with social media conglomerates to censor accurate news deemed unhelpful to the 2020 Biden campaign? Who pulled off the greatest presidential coup in history by using surrogates in the shadows to run the cognitively debilitated Biden presidency, then by fiat cancelled his re-election effort and finally anointed as his replacement the new nominee Kamala Harris, who had never won a single primary delegate? This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Who ordered FBI SWAT teams to invade the home of a former president because of a classification dispute over 102 files out of some 13,000 stored there? Who tried to remove an ex-president and leader of his party from at least 25 state ballots to deprive millions of Americans of the opportunity to vote for or against him? Who coordinated four local, state, and federal prosecutors to destroy a former and future president by charging him with fantasy crimes that were never before, and will never again be lodged against anyone else? Who appointed a federal prosecutor to go after the ex-president, who arranged for a high-ranking Justice Department official to step down to join a New York prosecutor's efforts to destroy an ex-president, and who met in the White House with a Georgia county prosecutor seeking to destroy an ex-president — all on the same day — a mere 72 hours after Trump announced his 2024 re-election bid? This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Who but the current Democrats ever impeached a president twice? Has any party ever tried an ex-president in the Senate when he was out of office and a mere private citizen? When have there ever been two near-miss assassination attempts on a major party presidential candidate during a single presidential campaign? Who destroyed the southern border and broke federal law to allow in, without criminal or health background audits, some 10-12 million illegal aliens? Who created 600 'sanctuary jurisdictions' for the sole purpose of nullifying federal immigration law, in the eerie spirit of the renegade old Confederacy? Who allowed tens of thousands of rioters, arsonists and violent protesters over four months in 2020 to destroy over $2 billion in property, kill some 35 people, injure 1,500 police officers, and torch a federal courthouse, a police precinct and a historic church — all with de facto legal impunity? This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. How do the purported destroyers of democracy find themselves winning 60-70% approval on most of the key issues of our times, while the supposed saviours of democracy are on the losing side of popular opinion? How does a president 'destroy democracy' by his party winning the White House by both the popular and Electoral College vote, winning majorities in both the Senate and House by popular votes and enjoying a 6-3 edge in the Supreme Court through judges appointed by popularly elected presidents? So what is behind these absurd charges? Three catalysts: One, the new anguished elitist Democratic Party alienated the middle class through its Jacobin agenda and therefore lost the Congress, the presidency and the Supreme Court, and now has no federal political power. Two, the Democratic Party is polling at record lows and yet remains hell-bent on alienating the traditional sources of its power — minorities, youth and Independents. Three, Democrats cannot find any issues that the people support, nor any leaders to convince the people to embrace them. So, it is no surprise that the panicked Democrats bark at the shadows, given that they know their revolutionary, neo-socialist agenda is destroying them. And yet, like all addicts, they choose destruction over abandoning their self-destructive fixations. Toronto & GTA Columnists Money News Canada CFL

Residents protest Trump's takeover of Washington law enforcement
Residents protest Trump's takeover of Washington law enforcement

Globe and Mail

time3 hours ago

  • Globe and Mail

Residents protest Trump's takeover of Washington law enforcement

Members of the United States National Guard stood near the Washington Monument on Saturday amid escalating tensions in the U.S. capital as President Donald Trump ramped up the presence of law enforcement in the mostly Democratic city. Tourists walking by the uniformed troops in Washington's blistering weekend heat were confused about their presence, with a group from Kentucky asking why the troops were even there. Some families requested photos with the troops and the National Guard members obliged. The sight of army-fatigued National Guard members and face-covered police agents has increased in Washington throughout the week after Trump signed an executive order declaring a crime emergency in the nation's capital. Many residents of Washington are outraged by Trump's overreach, with scores taking to the streets on Saturday to protest the president's takeover. People held signs that read 'Hands off DC' and 'Dump Trump' while chanting 'Trump must go' as they walked toward the White House. As Trump takes over Washington, the city watches for potential fallout Autumn Tustin, holding a sign that said 'No ICE! No National Guard!' said it was important to show up for the demonstration outside the White House because other people don't feel safe coming out to push against Trump's agenda to take over the capital. 'Being part of a movement feels like the best thing we can do at this point,' she told The Canadian Press. Tustin said sometimes it feels like 'frogs in a boiling pot of water,' where there are a lot of ongoing changes that have huge consequences down the road. She has seen several National Guard members in tourist areas, describing it as 'bizarre' and a 'waste of talent and money.' On Saturday, West Virginia, Ohio and South Carolina authorized hundreds of additional National Guard members to head to Washington. 'West Virginia is proud to stand with President Trump in his effort to restore pride and beauty to our nation's capital,' West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said. Hundreds of federal law enforcement officers from agencies such as the Secret Service and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement have also fanned across the city. Social media platforms have since filled with videos and pictures of federal agents descending on neighbourhoods – apprehending delivery drivers, dismantling homeless camps and approaching people on the city's public transportation system and in local parks. One viral video showed a man hurling a sandwich at a federal law-enforcement official. Following the incident, sandwich-thrower Sean Charles Dunn was fired from his job in the U.S. Justice Department and charged with a felony. Trump's takeover has caused outrage from Washington residents but there's little city leaders are able to do to stop it. The District of Columbia is uniquely controlled by the federal government and local leaders are obliged to co-operate with Trump's order. Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser, in a letter to residents, said the city's 'limited self-government has never faced the type of test we are facing right now.' Opinion: Trump's D.C. police takeover shows his knack for pushing the Washington elite's buttons Trump on Monday claimed he had to take the action because crime 'is getting worse, not getting better,' even as police data shows that violence in the capital city is falling. Washington has been plagued by violent crime, particularly during drug epidemics of the 1980s and early 1990s. There was a spike in violent crime again in 2023 but it plummeted the following year and has declined again so far in 2025. Much of the National Guard presence in Washington appears symbolic, with members roasting in the summer heat near national monuments and museums. Other law enforcement agencies, however, have descended throughout the city, evoking anger and fear in many local residents. There's been a clear increase in police presence in neighbourhoods like the dense and diverse Columbia Heights, and on Friday night in entertainment districts like U Street, 14th Street and 16th Street, north of the White House. It's less clear how much, if any, policing has increased in areas in the southeast that have higher crime rates. Trump was at his Virginia golf club Saturday. With files from the Associated Press

Iraq starts excavation of large mass grave left by Islamic State
Iraq starts excavation of large mass grave left by Islamic State

Winnipeg Free Press

time4 hours ago

  • Winnipeg Free Press

Iraq starts excavation of large mass grave left by Islamic State

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi officials have begun the excavation of what is believed to be a mass grave left behind by the Islamic State extremist group during its rampage across the country a decade ago. Local authorities are working with the judiciary, forensic investigations, Iraq's Martyrs' Foundation, and the directorate of mass graves to carry out the excavation of the site of a sink hole in al-Khafsa, south of the northern city of Mosul, the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported Sunday. Ahmad Qusay al-Asady, head of the Martyrs Foundation's mass graves excavation department, told The Associated Press that his team began work at Khasfa on Aug. 9 at the request of Nineveh province's Gov. Abdulqadir al-Dakhil. The operation is initially limited to gathering visible human remains and surface evidence while preparing for a full exhumation that officials say will require international support. After an initial 15 days of work, the foundation's Mosul teams will build a database and start collecting DNA samples from families of suspected victims. Al-Asady explained that laboratory processing and a DNA database must come first to ensure proper identification. Full exhumations can only proceed once specialized assistance is secured to navigate the site's hazards, including sulfur water and unexploded ordnance. Khasfa is 'a very complicated site,' he said. Based on unverified accounts from witnesses and families and other unofficial testimonies, authorities estimate that thousands of bodies could be buried there, he said. Scores of mass graves containing thousands of bodies of people believed to have been killed by the extremist group have been found in Iraq and Syria. At its peak, IS ruled an area half the size of the United Kingdom in Iraq and Syria and was notorious for its brutality. It beheaded civilians and enslaved and raped thousands of women from the Yazidi community, one of Iraq's oldest religious minorities. The group was defeated in Iraq in July 2017, when Iraqi forces captured the northern city of Mosul. Three months later, it suffered a major blow when Kurdish forces captured the Syrian northern city of Raqqa, which was the group's de-facto capital. The war against IS officially ended in March 2019, when U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces captured the eastern Syrian town of Baghouz, which was the last sliver of land the extremists controlled. Rabah Nouri Attiyah, a lawyer who has worked on more than 70 cases of missing people in Nineveh, told the AP that information he obtained from the foundation and different Iraqi courts during his investigations points to Khasfa as 'the largest mass grave in modern Iraqi history.' Al-Asady, however, said investigators 'cannot confirm yet if it is the largest mass grave' to be found in Iraq, 'but according to the size of the space, we estimate it to be one of the largest.' Attiyah said roughly 70% of the human remains at Khasfa are believed to belong to Iraqi army and police personnel, with other victims including Yazidis. He said he has interviewed numerous eyewitnesses from the area who saw IS fighters bring people there by bus and kill them. 'Many of them were decapitated,' he said. Attiyah's own uncle and cousin were police officers killed by IS, and he is among those hoping to identify and recover the remains of loved ones. Testimonies and witness statements, as well as findings from other mass graves in Nineveh, indicate that most of the military, police and other security forces personnel killed by IS are expected to be found at Khasfa, along with Yazidis from Sinjar and Shiite victims from Tal Afar, he said.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store