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COVID-19 vaccinations for Va. essential workers start Monday
On Monday, 11 Virginia health districts will begin COVID-19 vaccinations of “frontline essential workers,” including police, teachers and grocery store workers, the Virginia Department of Health announced Friday afternoon. Some regions will continue vaccinations of priority group 1a, which includes frontline health care providers and employees and residents of long-term care facilities. But the following […][...]
General Assembly will see limited in-person gatherings, higher security for 2021 Lobby Day
A federal judge said Friday that a dispute over the scheduled closing of the Pocahontas Building, the temporary offices for delegates and state senators during the General Assembly session, has been settled. In December, Virginia state Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-Virginia Beach, sued Senate Rules Committee Chair Sen. Mamie E. Locke, D-[...]
Del. Torian elected chair of Virginia Minority Business Commission
Del. Luke Torian has been elected chair of the newly organized Virginia Minority Business Commission at its inaugural meeting on Thursday. The commission was created by the 2020-2022 biennial state budget to promote growth and competitiveness of minority-owned businesses in Virginia and evaluate best practices to expand minority[...]
Liberty University sues state over tuition assistance cut for online students
Liberty University, the large, private nonprofit Christian school in Lynchburg, has filed a lawsuit against Gov. Ralph Northam and the director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), alleging that amendments to the 2020 state budget “wrongly exclude Virginia students who access higher education through [...]
Sen. Amanda Chase ‘will absolutely not resign’
UPDATED 4:40 P.M., JAN. 8 Virginia Senate Democrats called Friday for the resignation of Republican state Sen. Amanda Chase, who spoke at the pro-Trump demonstration in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday that turned violent and led to a breach of the U.S. Capitol, but Chase says she “absolutely” will not leave her office. Facebo[...]
Va. National Guard to be deployed in D.C. through at least Jan. 20
The Virginia National Guard and Virginia State Police troopers will be deployed in Washington, D.C., at least through Jan. 20, inauguration day for President-elect Joe Biden, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday afternoon. In a tweet, Northam said, “I’m extending Virginia’s National Guard deployment at least t[...]
Northam sets accelerated goals for vaccinations
In his first COVID-19 news conference of the year, Gov. Ralph Northam said the state is aiming to administer 25,000 COVID vaccine shots per day to Virginians, up from the current 14,000 shots per day. He hopes to get to 50,000 daily vaccinations as soon as possible, although the state is waiting for more doses […]
500K Virginians enrolled in Medicaid since 2019 expansion
The Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) has announced that more than 500,000 Virginians have enrolled in health coverage since expanded Medicaid eligibility rules took effect in January 2019. Virginia was the only state in nation to experience a reduction in its uninsured rate between 2018 and 2019, the first year of the expanded […]
Off and running
Updated Jan. 29, 2021 Conventional wisdom used to hold that all politics is local, but that’s not really the case anymore. The extreme polarization on display during the recent presidential and U.S. Senate and House races has infected state and local politics, and Virginia’s November 2021 gubernatorial election promi[...]
Representing the underdogs
Although it’s hard to think way back to January 2020, a time before a year of social unrest, pandemic and economic peril, that’s when Virginia’s legislature and executive branch became majority-Democrat for the first time since 1993. However, even if some Virginians forgot about this significant shift, Republic[...]
2020 Political Roundtable: Trump vs. Biden
The pandemic brought record early voter turnout, stretching official election outcomes for days — but a panel of five statewide political experts resoundingly predicted the day after the election that now-President-elect Biden would be the 46th president of the United States. On Nov. 4, 2020, Virginia Business held its 14th an[...]
Short and … sweet?
Even before the pandemic and ensuing recession took hold in Virginia, 2020 already had the makings for a novel year in the General Assembly. Having won majorities in both houses in the November 2019 elections, Democrats took back full control of the legislature for the first time in a generation. With Gov. Ralph Northam in [&hel[...]
