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VaNews

Most Read Articles April 24, 2024

1

Yancey: 20 questions for the next governor

By DWAYNE YANCEY, Cardinal News

Just like that — snaps fingers — Abigail Spanberger is the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor next year. To be fair, she’s had that position for a while now, which is no doubt what led Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney to drop his gubernatorial bid Tuesday and announce instead for lieutenant governor. That instantly led state Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, to announce what had been widely known anyway: that he’s also a candidate for lieutenant governor. So is Babur Lateef, the chair of the Prince William County School Board. Will a three-way race induce others to enter on the theory that the vote will be chopped up and a majority may not be necessary to win?

2

Who in Virginia is running for Congress? Here are the 2024 candidates.

By PRESTON STEGER, WVEC-TV

Virginia is once again gearing up for primary elections, as voters across the Commonwealth will pick who they want to represent them in the U.S. Congress later this year. One of Virginia’s two seats in the Senate, and all 11 House of Representatives seats are on the ballot on Nov. 5, 2024. Primary elections for those seats will be held on June 18. Several races already have party nominees in place, since those candidates didn’t have anyone else running against them. The deadline to become a candidate in the Democratic or Republican primaries was April 4.

3

Speed cameras in Chesapeake, Suffolk have raked in millions in fines as lawsuit challenges use

By NATALIE ANDERSON, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Two cities in Hampton Roads with new speed cameras have raked in around $20 million in revenue since implementing the technology over the last two years. But the legality of the processes used to issue citations and collect fees is now being questioned in a lawsuit filed by a former state legislator who says it’s not exactly what the General Assembly intended when it crafted the legislation allowing municipalities to deploy speed cameras.

4

Richmond Mayor Stoney, state Sen. Rouse announce candidacies for lieutenant governor

By SARAH RANKIN, Associated Press

Democratic Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced Tuesday he is dropping his bid for Virginia governor in 2025, avoiding a nomination contest with U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, and will instead run for lieutenant governor. A former member of ex-Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration and a two-term mayor of the capital city, Stoney said he had wrestled with the decision since he and his wife welcomed their first child in March. While his campaign had sought to make the case in a memo just weeks ago that a Stoney-Spanberger primary would be competitive, he said Tuesday that “while there was a path to victory it was a narrow path.”

5

Youngkin: I have options on contraception bills

By DAVE RESS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Not quite a week after the General Assembly brushed off his amendments to two bills ensuring the right to contraception and two more requiring insurance coverage, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he’s still thinking about what do. They’re among some 50 bills where legislators rejected his amendments or — as in the contraception rights bills — simply let the amendments die without a vote.

6

Williams: Reimagining Monument Avenue is a lost cause. Stoney planted and punted.

By MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

After protesters toppled Confederate statues on Monument Avenue and then-Gov. Ralph Northam announced his intent to remove the Robert E. Lee monument, an NPR reporter asked me for a vision of what could take their place. “They could be monuments to reconciliation. They could be monuments to the African American struggle, which until recent years was not told in statuary,” I replied. ... With the Lee statue’s removal in September 2021, Richmond had a blank canvas to reinvent a historic street long defined by a mythology that recast subjugation and defeat as virtue and triumph. Mayor Levar Stoney had most if not all of his second term to launch a conversation about what that might look like.

7

Youngkin taps Virginia ABC Authority board member to lead struggling agency

By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Gov. Glenn Youngkin didn’t have far to look for a new chief executive officer at the struggling Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority. Youngkin announced on Tuesday that he is appointing Dale Farino, a retired alcoholic beverage distribution executive whom he named to the ABC Board last month, to lead the authority. The governor also announced that he is replacing Farino as vice chairman of the board with Mark Stepanian, the former owner and CEO of Loveland Distributing Co., a beer wholesaler based in Richmond, which is now owned by Premium Distributors of Virginia.

8

Judge nixes lawsuit challenging Virginia law on broadband crossings of railroads

By TAD DICKENS, Cardinal News

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that disputed a Virginia law governing internet service providers’ ability to string fiber across railroad lines. The lawsuit, which the Association of American Railroads filed last year on behalf of Norfolk Southern and CSX, was a response to a new state law that reduced the approval process time and costs to ISPs, particularly the state’s electric cooperatives, that were trying to reach rural customers across railway tracks.

9

Bill Moher moves Republican quest for Congress from 7th District to 4th

By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Bill Moher ended one congressional campaign last month in Northern Virginia and resurfaced this month in Richmond as the Republican nominee in the 4th Congressional District. Moher, a technology and business consultant from Arlington County, will challenge Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, who is seeking her first full term after winning a special election last year to fill the 4th District seat left vacant by the death of Rep. Donald McEachin, D-4th.

10

Bedford County School Board sues parent for $600,000, claiming he harassed school staff with calls

By LISA ROWAN, Cardinal News

The Bedford County School Board is suing a local parent for $600,000 for what it calls harassment of school division employees. The suit follows a complaint the parent made to the state Department of Education in January, in which he claimed that the school had failed to provide services for his son’s learning disability. David Rife, the parent, also has a long history of trying to advocate for his son in the school division, as outlined in documents filed by both parties in the suit.