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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[...]
Northam commits additional $20M to economic recovery fund
Gov. Ralph Northam has allocated an additional $20 million in federal CARES Act funding to assist more than 300 small businesses and nonprofits through the Rebuild VA economic recovery fund. The new funding will meet demand for the Rebuild VA program and fulfill pending grant applications for small businesses and nonprofits that[...]
Va. COVID-19 rate passes 12% this week
Virginia recorded 25,285 new COVID-19 cases and 207 more deaths last week, according to the Virginia Department of Health’s Dec. 28 update. The current seven-day positivity rate is 12.3%, up .9% from a week ago. The state has reported 336,175 cases and 4,861 deaths since March, and the current seven-day average number of daily new […]
First batch of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine distributed in Va.
Virginia health districts and health care facilities statewide began receiving the newly approved Moderna COVID-19 vaccine this week, Virginia Department of Health announced Tuesday. About 140,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine were expected to arrive by Wednesday, as well as 50,000 more doses of the Pfizer Inc. vaccine, which wil[...]
Northam orders companies held temporarily harmless for pandemic layoffs
Gov. Ralph Northam issued an executive order Tuesday that will hold Virginia businesses harmless for any layoffs made during three months of the pandemic. The end-of-year order protects businesses from having to pay an additional $200 million in payroll taxes to replenish the Virginia Employment Commission’s Unemployment Insurance Trust. Due to the COVID-19 economic fallout, […]
State COVID-19 cases continue to climb
The state saw 25,741 new COVID-19 cases and 240 more deaths last week, according to the Virginia Department of Health’s Dec. 21 update. The current seven-day positivity rate is 11.4%, an increase from 10.9% a week ago. The increase comes as a COVID-19 model developed at the University of Virginia predicts an additional 402[...]
Va. expects about 110,000 fewer doses of COVID-19 vaccine than previously announced
Virginia expects to receive 370,650 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer Inc. and Moderna by the end of the year instead of 480,000 as previously announced, the Virginia Department of Health said Friday. Operation Warp Speed, the federal response for vaccinating millions of Americans, informed VDH late Thursday of the decr[...]
Northam proposes $240M for pandemic response
As COVID-19 cases continue to rise and frontline medical workers receive the first vaccine doses, Gov. Ralph Northam called on the General Assembly to allocate $240 million toward pandemic response in his proposed budget amendments released Wednesday. “The budget I present today preserves our focus on flexibility, targeted investments and help for Virginians. While we […]
Va. COVID-19 rates climbing as vaccines are released
Virginia’s COVID-19 numbers continue to climb, with 26,279 more cases and 206 deaths recorded last week, according to the Virginia Department of Health’s Dec. 14 update. The state has had 285,149 cases and 4,414 deaths in total as of Dec. 14. The seven-day average number of new daily cases is 3,754, with 44.1 new dai[...]
