GOVERNMENT + POLITICS
Virginian-Pilot stonewalled on tax information
Virginian-Pilot reporter Ana Ley got an earful from Portsmouth’s elected commissioner of the revenue while she was trying to pry loose neighborhood-specific information on meal, beverage and retail tax revenues for a story published Wednesday. “You’ve taken up a lot of time – taxpayer dollars – trying to respond to your request because you want […]
State board clears local jails of responsibility in 23 deaths but won’t release details of investigations
The Virginia Board of Corrections wrapped up its first batch of inmate death investigations Wednesday, voting unanimously to clear about a dozen jails in 23 deaths that occurred in 2017 and 2018. The new review process was established by the General Assembly last year in a bid to increase oversight of local jails following the […]
With annexation off the table, officials studying ways to prod struggling cities to merge with counties
Residents of Martinsville are slowly coming around to the idea that the best thing for the city might be for it to cease being a city at all. Off-and-on discussions have been ongoing for decades about whether the shrinking, 13,500-population city in southern Virginia should revert to town status and be absorbed by surrounding Henry […]
Follow the money
The Virginia Public Access Project has the breakdown of mid-year campaign finance reports that were due in by midnight Monday. With a whole year to go before the 2019 state Senate and House elections, Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, a Republican from James City County, who has been in the Senate since 1992, had $843,596 […]
Virginia’s health care-acquired infection rates mirror national averages, but is that good enough?
Jimi Suwaiti doesn’t remember much of the first few months of 2017, but her mother, Sharon Blackwell, does. Blackwell watched her 48-year-old daughter shake in her hospital bed in Virginia Beach because the pain from a bacterial infection was so terrible, and hallucinate, in her feverish state, that people were coming into her room. Suwaiti […]
Members of Va. gun rights group call for leader’s resignation after he was tricked into recording training video for toddlers
Philip Van Cleave says he suspected he was being set up just five minutes into a multi-hour interview earlier this year with a supposed Israeli anti-terrorism expert. But the president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, the state’s top gun advocacy group, said he pressed on, ultimately agreeing to record a firearms-training video for toddlers […]
From the state government to the ‘shadow government’
Mega-lobbying firm McGuireWoods Consulting added a major player to their formidable bench Tuesday, signing up former GOP House Speaker Bill Howell. “Since it was founded 20 years ago, McGuireWoods Consulting has earned a well-deserved reputation for consistently delivering successful outcomes for clients. Many of my new colleagues there have been friends for years, and I […]
Southwest Virginia school district is first in state to approve program to arm teachers. Is it legal?
Members of the Lee County School Board voted unanimously last week to buy some teachers guns and have them designated as “conservators of the peace” as part of a new school security program. “We’ve realized we can not afford to put the number of school resource officers in Lee County that we would like to,” […]
Meet the Mercury: A new look at the Virginia Way
You’ve heard of the “Virginia Way.” For those inclined to consider it a cherished asset of the Old Dominion, the term conjures a tradition of restrained, courtly statesmanship and of high-minded legislating that puts principle over party and personality. At its best, they would argue, that approach to governing and lawmaking can produce breakthroughs […]
Could diversion programs be the answer for Virginia’s high eviction rates?
When it comes to addressing high eviction rates in Virginia, early talks indicate there’s limited common ground between tenant advocates and the apartment industry. A proposal to give tenants 14 days instead of five to pay rent before their landlord can sue to evict them? Firmly opposed, said Patrick McCloud, executive director of the Virginia […]
With hepatitis infections rising, Virginia police agencies resist needle exchanges
It’s been more than a year since Virginia’s legislature opened the door for needle-exchange programs to curb rising hepatitis C infection rates and the potential increase in HIV infections that could follow in the wake of the opioid epidemic. While one program has been approved, none have actually opened anywhere in the state. The reason? […]
‘Fraudster preys on the poor:’ an all too familiar story
A recent headline from Lawyers Weekly (referencing a Richmond Times-Dispatch article) reads: Fraudster preyed on the poor. “A self-proclaimed credit consultant has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for ripping off debt-troubled customers in Chesterfield County,” the story says. As any legal-aid attorney will tell you, this is a familiar story. Fraudsters prey […]