Bettors have responded enthusiastically to Virginia’s foray into expanded gambling, wagering $70.8 million last month at two new casinos opened by Colonial Downs.
Researchers studying Virginia’s highest-in-the-nation eviction rates have found that as the percentage of black residents in a neighborhood increases, so do the percentage of evictions.
Finding state money to address the issues, remained a tough sell in the General Assembly, where Gov. Ralph Northam had proposed a $20 million increase in funding but ended up barely eking out a $4 million boost.
Residents whose driving privileges will be restored later this year under legislation passed by the General Assembly won’t have to do anything to start driving legally again.
Defying calls for his resignation in the wake of his blackface scandal, Gov. Ralph Northam pledged to dedicate the remainder of his term to issues of racial equity.
A state board has been discussing high-dollar investments in the state’s rail infrastructure, including a $1.3 billion bridge between Virginia and Washington.
The legislation requires the Department of Corrections to submit an annual report detailing the age, sex, race, ethnicity, mental health status, medical status and security level of each inmate held in solitary confinement.
Legislation passed the General Assembly as communities agreed to pay a higher fee for the cards, which the DMV estimates will entirely cover the $275,000 cost of producing them.
A Richmond store was just among the first to begin carrying a new line of products that look and taste like liquor but are made from (and technically qualify as) wine.
Under the compromise agreed to by the small group, drivers would still be able to hold a phone to their ear to carry on a phone call, a concession to skeptics.
Republicans “went nuclear” Friday, as one Democratic delegate put it, announcing that they’ll hold legislative hearings on sexual assault allegations against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax with or without support from their colleagues across the aisle.
The General Assembly adopted it as the state song in 1940 at the urging of the Lions’ Clubs of Virginia, whose chapters regularly put on minstrel shows featuring blackface performances.
While some staffers privately voiced skepticism at the business-as-usual posture, committees and floor sessions have indeed continued with an air of absolute normalcy.
Lawmakers who opposed tightening restrictions said their views have changed as they’ve encountered more and more dangerous drivers on highways and roads.
Every week, Virginia Mercury will bring you a sampling of the legislation left on the cutting room floor, either failing to report or done in by other genteel euphemisms of the legislature: “gently laid on the table” or “passed by indefinitely.”
The law, which is a recommendation of Trump’s post-Parkland school safety commission, would allow police to temporarily confiscate someone’s guns if a judge or magistrate rules they present an extreme risk to themselves or others.
Virginia prison officials say they’re on the leading edge of corrections reform for "operating without the use of solitary confinement," but inmates say otherwise.
A push to make Virginia the final state needed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment passed out of committee in the Senate with enough bi-partisan support to nearly guarantee passage when it hits the floor.
An unprecedented study released last year by researchers at Princeton University put Virginia on blast: The state’s cities have among the highest eviction rates in the country.
