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Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
As Democrats duke it out in Va. primaries, GOP nominees won't be seen together
"I Voted" stickers are displayed at a Richmond polling place during the 2022 midterm elections. (Photo by Graham Moomaw/Virginia Mercury) In about 10 days, we will know the names of all the candidates who will appear on November's general election ballot for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general in Virginia. What we might not know by then is whether both parties' tickets are unified. The nominees are set in the Republican Party. So there should have been no need there for the acrimony and infighting that tests the bonds of party cohesiveness in the run-up to primary elections and then the strained, awkward rapprochements that follow. Right? The Democrats still have that bridge to cross with a six-way primary for lieutenant governor and a one-to-one showdown in the attorney general primary. Levar Stoney ended his two terms as Richmond's mayor days before a January water treatment plant emergency left residents of the city and some parts of surrounding localities either without water altogether or having to boil it before consumption. Aaron Rouse is a former football star and state senator representing Virginia Beach. Ghazala Hashmi is also a state senator whose district takes in parts of Richmond and Chesterfield County. Three other candidates are newcomers to state-level politics: Victor Salgado, a public corruption prosecutor who resigned from the Justice Department after President Donald Trump's election; ophthalmologist Babur Lateef and lawyer and labor leader Alex Bastani. The winner faces Republican nominee John Reid this fall. Her time has come: Virginia will, after four centuries, have a woman governor Democrats Shannon Taylor, Henrico County's two-term commonwealth's attorney, and Jay Jones, a former Virginia delegate, former District of Columbia assistant attorney general and son of the late judge and legislator Jerrauld Jones are vying to be the state's next AG. The victor faces Jason Miyares, a Republican seeking a second term, in November. The party's gubernatorial nominee, former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, has no intraparty opponent. She and the Republican nominee, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, are already on a general election collision course. We shall see if the Democrats can keep it sufficiently civil to credibly make amends once the ballots are counted and nominees declared on June 17. So far, they've created little drama as each, to varying degrees, claims to be the best prepared to stand against Trump, who is zero-for-lifetime when his name has been on Virginia's ballot and has been an albatross for his party here. Va. statewide GOP nominees refuse to buck Trump in a state where he's a proven albatross Time will tell if the Democrats — who rarely meet an opportunity they can't squander — form a united front and make compelling arguments for voters to trust them, not just assume Trump will sink his ticket again. From job losses mainly in Northern Virginia to varied urban dysfunctions in Richmond to persistent economic atrophy in rural areas, their nominees need to do the research, listen to a broad swath of constituents and bring fresh, resonant answers to the table. As for Republicans, fate seemed to smile on them by obviating the need for primaries. Rather than spending time and money eviscerating one another, they had the chance to marshal their resources, cultivate cohesion as a ticket and fire outward at Democrats quarreling among themselves. That didn't happen. Segments of the GOP trashed President Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment and launched a homophobic, incomprehensibly stupid and ultimately futile effort to blackmail Reid — Virginia's first openly gay statewide nominee — into quitting the race. For more than a week, Virginia Republicans watched their party's elite practice a shocking level of fratricide, particularly for a critical statewide election year. What began as a Machiavellian plot to bully Reid into retreat in the face of ruinous (and specious) accusations, enlisting allied evangelicals behind the putsch, resulted in the governor himself, Glenn Youngkin, playing the heavy. They didn't know Reid. A former conservative talk radio host who inherited a flinty bring-it-on mindset from his dad, the late Del. Jack Reid, the younger Reid responded with the political equivalent of brass knuckles on one hand and a busted long-neck beer bottle in the other. He shot back with blistering social media videos and a sobering cease-and-desist demand from his lawyer that suggested imminent libel litigation. The GOP's disgraceful bid to sandbag its openly gay lieutenant governor nominee Things died down a bit after Matt Moran, a top Youngkin political Svengali, took the fall. After damning disclosures and Republican recriminations dominated each day's news cycle for more than a week, Moran was done as the head of Youngkin's fundraising juggernaut political action committee, Spirit of Virginia. You'd imagine that would be both a teaching moment and/or occasion for healing. Yet through it all, Earle-Sears has made clear her assertion that it's every Republican for himself (or herself). Earle-Sears was a no-show at weekend campaign appearances with Reid in heavily GOP-voting Southwest Virginia the day after the scandal broke in late April. Reid campaigned with U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, and was warmly received, according to on-scene coverage by Laura Vozella of The Washington Post. The following week, a GOP 'unity rally' in which Reid was to appear with Earle-Sears, Miyares and Youngkin was canceled without explanation. A defiant Reid booked the same Henrico County venue for the same hour as the canceled event and packed it with hometown supporters. On April 29, Earle-Sears broke her silence on Reid with a statement posted on social media that reads like a divorce petition, saying the focus on Reid 'distracted' the GOP ticket. 'John Reid is the Republican nominee for Lt. Governor. It is his race and his decision alone to move forward,' she wrote. 'We all have our own race to run.' This isn't the first time members of a statewide ticket have played keep-away from one of its members. In the 2001 election for the top three state executive offices, each party had an odd man out. On the Democratic side, ticket leader Mark Warner had seen his party get pounded in recent —elections in increasingly Republican-voting rural Virginia. He ran for governor as a 'centrist' who sought to rural voters with promises not to impose new gun restrictions. While he didn't win the NRA's endorsement, he kept the organization neutral in the election. Attorney general nominee A. Donald McEachin, however, had watched gun violence turn his home streets in Richmond into killing fields in the 1990s and was a stalwart gun-control advocate. Not only did the candidates coexist uneasily on the 2001 ticket, McEachin and Democratic former Gov. Doug Wilder slammed Warner over his coziness with the NRA in an extraordinary news conference that would have been front-page news if not for its timing: 9 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001. Appreciation: Congressman A. Donald McEachin On the GOP side, gubernatorial candidate Mark Earley and attorney general nominee Jerry Kilgore also avoided getting too close to the party's lieutenant governor nominee, Del. Jay Katzen. McEachin lost to Republican Jerry W. Kilgore. Katzen lost to future Gov. and U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine. The difference is that Earle-Sears, the ticket leader, has said it publicly and repeatedly — including once in writing. Miyares has neither embraced nor distanced himself from Reid and/or Earle-Sears. He has remained silent throughout the tumult. Her position that the GOP candidates were free agents appeared unchanged last week when Radio IQ political correspondent Michael Pope reminded Earle-Sears that she, Miyares and Reid had yet to publicly appear together. 'Actually, as you know, we are all running our campaigns,' she said. Yes, ma'am. We know. By now, so do Virginia voters. We're just waiting for you to explain the reason YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Axios
14-04-2025
- Business
- Axios
Richmond bills set to climb this summer
Locals who live in or visit the city of Richmond should expect to pay a little more for services and fees later this year, The Richmonder's Graham Moomaw reports. Why it matters: If all the proposed increases are approved, coupled with a likely coming-soon increase from Dominion Energy, Richmonders will be paying just over $26 more a month for their regular bills starting this summer. The big picture: Mayor Avula's proposed city budget for the next fiscal year includes fee increases for roughly half a dozen city services or fines, from parking and recycling to trash pickup and water bills, per The Richmonder's review. By the numbers: ♻️ Monthly recycling fees would go from $2.99 ➡️ $4.33. 🗑️ Solid waste charge (aka, trash pickup), from $23.75 a month ➡️ $24.75. ⏱️ On-street parking via meters, from $2 an hour ➡️ $2.50 an hour. 🚗 Parking in a city-owned lot or deck, from $1, $2 or $5 an hour ➡️ $2, $3 or $6 an hour, while monthly parkers who currently pay between $55 and $155 would pay $5 more. 🅿️ Parking tickets, from $25 ➡️ $30. 🧯Tickets if you block a fire hydrant or park on the sidewalk (which can include one tire slightly on the curb, per our lived experience), $40 ➡️ $50. That's in addition to a possible $12.83 monthly utility bill hike for gas, water and wastewater, as Axios previously reported. Meanwhile, Dominion Energy petitioned the SCC this month to approve rate increases that would raise Virginia's power bills by around 15% over the next two years, per VPM. If approved, bills would go up by $10.92 in July and then another $10.51 over the next two years.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
FOIA Friday: Virginia Health Department withheld records on Richmond water crisis
(Photo by Getty Images) One of the less noticed features of the Virginia Way is the long-running tendency of the commonwealth's leaders to conduct their decision-making behind closed doors. While the Virginia Freedom of Information Act presumes all government business is by default public and requires officials to justify why exceptions should be made, too many Virginia leaders in practice take the opposite stance, acting as if records are by default private and the public must prove they should be handled otherwise. In this feature, we aim to highlight the frequency with which officials around Virginia are resisting public access to records on issues large and small — and note instances when the release of information under FOIA gave the public insight into how government bodies are operating. The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) appears to have improperly used a Freedom of Information Act exemption meant for limited, careful use by the governor's office, drawing scrutiny from state officials and journalists alike. The situation began when the Richmond Times-Dispatch received a heavily-redacted FOIA response from VDH regarding communications between state and local officials during Richmond's January water crisis, which left residents without safe drinking water for nearly a extent of the redactions raised concerns about whether the agency was unnecessarily withholding public records. Graham Moomaw, a reporter at The Richmonder and former journalist at The Mercury, followed up on the issue, asking Gov. Glenn Youngkin's office about VDH use of the 'working papers' exemption — a rule meant to shield records prepared specifically for the governor or cabinet secretaries for personal or deliberative use. Moomaw says the governor's office denied any involvement, indicating that VDH had not consulted them before applying the exemption. 'I was reacting to an egregious response they gave to the (Richmond Times-Dispatch),' Moomaw said. 'And then, after the governor's office said, 'We don't agree with what VDH did, and we're reassessing this,' I filed a piggyback FOIA with VDH, saying 'I'd like everything you gave to (the Richmond Times-Dispatch), but with less stuff redacted.'' Moomaw filed his follow-up request on Feb. 28, but as of publication, VDH has not responded. A years-long legal battle over a controversial Hanover County land use decision has reached another turning point, as the Court of Appeals of Virginia ruled that COVID-era restrictions on public comment during the project's approval process did not violate the state's FOIA. The case stems from Hanover County's board of supervisors approval of a Wegmans distribution center near a historically Black neighborhood and a neighboring subdivision — a choice that sparked immediate backlash from residents. Many joined forces in a lawsuit challenging the approval process, arguing that restrictions imposed during the pandemic limited public participation and transparency. Although advance notice of the vote was published in a local newspaper, residents argued that there was no mention of a cap on public comment registrations and restrictions on physical access to the board room for those wishing to observe the proceedings in person. Their lawsuit also challenged the county's classification of the Wegmans project as an 'essential' government function — a designation that allowed it to move forward under a pandemic-era ordinance intended to ensure continuity of governance during the early days of COVID-19. Additionally, by the time the limited public hearing took place, new proffers related to the project were introduced for discussion — documents that residents had not been able to review or comment on beforehand, the lawsuit stated. The case has taken multiple turns in court. The Hanover Circuit Court dismissed the residents' lawsuit, but the Virginia Supreme Court later ruled that they had the right to challenge the supervisors' decision — leading to the latest appeal. Arlington County Public Schools has abandoned its X (formerly Twitter) account, opting instead to post updates on Bluesky, a newer social media platform with far fewer users The shift, which began in late February, has drawn questions from some school board members about the decision to leave a larger audience behind. 'Why not maintain both?' asked school board member Miranda Turner at a recent meeting, according to ARL Now. The school system's Bluesky account, created in December, has significantly fewer followers than its longer-standing X account. But Superintendent Francisco Durán defended the move, explaining that interactions on Bluesky were 'healthier and more constructive' compared to the negativity and harassment often seen on X — much of it from people outside the local community. Beyond concerns over toxicity, school officials also pointed to the cost as a major factor. Unlike X, which now charges for verification, Bluesky offers free account authentication, providing an extra layer of credibility without the financial burden. X once offered free verification for government agencies, businesses, public figures, and journalists to ensure accounts were legitimate. But after Elon Musk's takeover and rebrand, verification became a paid feature, making it harder for institutions like school districts to prove authenticity without added expenses. Have you experienced local or state officials denying or delaying your FOIA request? Tell us about it: info@ SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Proposed anti-gun violence center an asset, should be embraced
Signs are posted around Virginia's Capitol Square saying guns and explosives are banned in the area. (Photo by Graham Moomaw/Virginia Mercury) Efforts to create a state firearm violence intervention and prevention center, given the number of related killings and suicides in Virginia every year, are straightforward and innocuous. The center would be a positive step in getting at the roots of gun crimes around the state. It should help reduce the number of people killed and injured by guns. The legislation, sponsored by Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News, would make the center the primary resource for research, best practices and other strategies to reduce gun violence in communities around Virginia, as the legislator envisions it. The center also would administer money and provide grants to local government agencies and organizations to do prevention. 'This is about research, this is about data, this is about resources so that we can address problems that are killing children, killing older people,' Price said, according to the Capital News Service at Virginia Commonwealth University. Goodness knows there's a huge need for something like this: Some 1,234 firearm deaths occurred in 2023 in the commonwealth, according to the Virginia Department of Health. The bulk of killings were suicides, at 59%, compared to homicides, at 39%. Gun violence costs Virginians more than $14.2 billion each year, according to Johns Hopkins University's Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Among the slayings: Earlier this month, a Chesapeake woman fatally shot herself after fatally shooting her three children. Chesapeake police said they'd been called to a residence for a welfare check. You would think gun-rights groups and most Republican legislators, who usually oppose any whiff of gun-control measures, might get behind this idea since it's designed to reduce shootings and slayings. And you'd be wrong. The House of Delegates passed HB1736 on mostly party lines, 54-45. Three Republicans joined the Democrats, who have a narrow majority in the chamber. The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee has offered substitute legislation. This concept should be an area for common ground. Gun-rights and gun-control supporters alike want fewer shootings, killings and injuries. People who survive shootings may suffer a lifetime of trauma, both physically and emotionally. Some opponents utter hackneyed arguments. They pronounce red herrings that have little to do with the issue. 'Why isn't all violence the problem?' Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, told me during an interview. When you separate violence into the categories of tools, he added, that's a concern. 'They are after gun rights,' Van Cleave contended. 'I know Price. … (Supporters') purpose is to find various avenues to restrict gun rights.' I couldn't reach Price by my deadline. She has tried in previous years to pass similar legislation. She's also spoken emotionally about comments from constituents whose loved ones were killed in gun-related incidents. 'There are certain visuals I will never be able to get out of my head — mothers and fathers weeping at having lost their children,' Price said in 2022. Let me be clear: Guns are the major problem with violence in this country, so much so that crimes not involving guns tend to be the exception. Nor are firearms going away, given the overall culture, the Second Amendment and an industry that stokes fear to drive sales. In 2023, more than 76% of homicides in the United States were committed with firearms. That figure had ballooned in 2021, during the pandemic. Still, the 2023 statistic was significantly higher than in 2014, at 63.6%. In recent years, firearms deaths supplanted other causes in killing more children ages 1 to 17 nationwide. Seventy-five in that age group were killed in Virginia in 2022. Of course the focus should be on guns. They are at the center of much of the death and grief that occur daily in Virginia and elsewhere. This doesn't even capture when firearms are wielded in robberies, or when someone is threatened but uninjured. The number of handguns, rifles and shotguns owned by civilians in America is estimated at roughly 430 million, far outpacing the population of 341 million in the United States. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, just signed an executive order titled, 'Protecting Second Amendment Rights.' It calls, in part, for the U.S. attorney general to 'examine all orders, regulations, guidance, plans, international agreements, and other actions of executive departments and agencies to assess any ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens.' The executive order also demanded a review of reports issued by the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention — as if reducing mayhem deserves scrutiny. Virginia ranked third in registered firearms among the states in 2021, according to Texas and Florida, first and second, respectively, have much larger populations. Obviously, there's no shortage of gun enthusiasts in the state. When my son and I patronized a gun range in Virginia Beach over the Christmas holidays, for example, we faced a roughly 45-minute wait just to use a lane. Against this backdrop, Price's bill would help research ways to lower the bloodshed in Virginia. It has the support of the Center for Gun Violence Solutions, which has backed similar efforts in other states. The Johns Hopkins center views gun violence as a public health emergency. It also does nonpartisan research. The Virginia institution 'would be a hub for best practices and coordinate information-sharing' between community-based groups and others, Lori Haas, advocacy manager at the Johns Hopkins center, told me. Haas formerly was the Virginia organizer for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. 'We need a concerted effort to reduce gun violence specifically,' Haas added. A spokesman for Gov. Glenn Youngkin didn't return my messages about whether the governor would sign the bill if it reached his desk. He should, even though last year Youngkin vetoed 30 bills he said 'would punish law-abiding gun owners.' Price's bill doesn't. The goal is to lower gun-related homicides and injuries, using evidence-based data. Its passage would increase safety around the state. 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Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Three interesting bills: swastikas, free water at restaurants and a cigarette sale loophole
The Virginia Senate chamber. (Photo by Graham Moomaw/Virginia Mercury) More than 1,000 bills are filed for General Assembly consideration each year. In this weekly series, the Mercury takes a look at a few of lawmakers' 2025 proposals that might not otherwise make headlines during the whirlwind legislative session. House Bills 2783 and 2343: Expanding Virginia's anti-swastika law Under current Virginia law, it's a Class 6 felony to intimidate others by placing a swastika on a church, synagogue or other place used for religious worship, as well as any school, educational facility or community center owned or operated by a religious body. Identical bills by Del. Marcus Simon, D-Fairfax, and Del. Chris Obenshain, R-Montgomery, would expand on that law to include placing a swastika on an individual's private property without their permission, a highway or other public place in a manner that could cause someone to fear for their safety. A Class 6 felony can result in one to five years in prison and a fine of $2,500. Or, at the discretion of the court, confinement for not more than 12 months and a fine, either or both. Obenshain told the House floor this week he was inspired to introduce the legislation following an instance at Virginia Tech where students were threatened and intimidated with swastikas drawn on their dorm room floors. He learned that even if the perpetrators had been identified, they couldn't be prosecuted under current law. Several people representing the Jewish community spoke to the House Criminal Subcommittee last month in favor of the bill, including Ira Korshin, whose relatives were killed in Germany during the Holocaust. 'The swastika for us is synonymous with ill-intent to our people, the desire of destruction to our people and certainly to this day a threat of imminent danger,' Korshin said. 'Sadly, antisemitism is on the rise.' Holocaust survivor Halina Zimm, 97, told the subcommittee she still gets scared every time she sees the symbol. 'It should not happen, not in America, not all over the world, but especially in our country and in Virginia,' Zimm said. 'It can only stop if we people… we have to stand against it, we have to speak up and talk and do something about it.' Obenshain told the Mercury he was 'not given any reason' why his version of the bill was not scheduled for a hearing and therefore ultimately failed, but emphasized the issue is important to him and his constituents. Simon's bill passed the House unanimously and now heads to the Senate. House Bill 1994: Free water at restaurants that sell alcohol Restaurants licensed to sell alcoholic beverages would need to provide free water to customers upon request, under legislation from Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, D-Alexandria. Bennett-Parker told the House ABC Gaming Subcommittee last month her bill is inspired by a constituent who was refused free water and told to purchase a bottle of water instead.'Ensuring that customers have access to free potable water is a common sense step to promote health, safety and responsible consumption,' Bennett-Parker said. The delegate said the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association has taken a neutral stance on her legislation, 'recognizing this simply codifies a practice already followed by most restaurants.' Hotels and clubs licensed and authorized to sell alcoholic beverages would also be required to provide free water under the bill. Del. Paul Krizek, D-Fairfax, emphasized, 'this water is not spiked, it's regular H2O.' The legislation passed the House on a party-line vote, with Republicans in opposition, and will be heard by the Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services Friday morning. Senate Bill 1067 and House Bill 2370: Closing a cigarette sale loophole Identical bills from Sen. Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg, and Del. Tony Wilt, R-Harrisonburg, would close a loophole in state law that currently allows home-delivery companies to deliver cigarettes with little oversight. Peake told the Senate Courts of Justice Subcommittee last month his bill focuses on 'retail tobacco deliverers,' who are, 'kind of like Grubhub or whatever — the people who take food to your house are now taking cigarettes to your house.' Sean Thornton, chief of the Attorney General's Tobacco Enforcement Section, told the panel the bill is trying to 'level the playing field,' by ensuring these companies follow the same legal requirements as in-store retailers, like registering to sell tobacco products, reporting monthly cigarette sales and accurately verifying the age of customers. 'We need to know the ages have been verified by the numbers in order to ensure kids aren't finding a way around the system to buy cigarettes from the convenience of their homes via their computer or app on their computer,' Thornton said. Shaun Kenney, Director of Communications for the AG's office, told the Mercury the exploitation of the current loophole could also jeopardize payments Virginia receives from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement — anywhere between $120 million to $150 million a year — if the office is held in noncompliance. Both bills passed their respective chambers GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
