Virginia: The Old Dominion

RICHMOND, Va. (WAVY) — Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an Executive Order to direct local and state law enforcement to assist in immigration enforcement.

Executive Order 47 directs the Virginia State Police and the Department of Corrections to sign Section 287(g) agreements with ICE and directs the Secretary of Public Safety & Homeland Security to request a certification from local and regional jail authorities confirming their full cooperation with ICE and that they will cooperate with the Section 287(g) VSP Task Force.

“As Governor, protecting our citizens is my foremost responsibility and today we are taking action that will make Virginia safer by removing dangerous criminal illegal immigrants from our Commonwealth,” said Youngkin. “This order will allow Virginia State Police and the Department of Corrections to partner with President Trump’s administration on federal immigration enforcement. Dangerous criminal illegal immigrants should not be let back into our communities to assault, rape and murder. They should be sent back where they came from.”

Continue to check WAVY.com for updates.

Virginia law enforcement agencies will no longer be able to withhold the names of their employees from the public.

That’s the result of a ruling issued on Tuesday afternoon by the Virginia Court of Appeals, which found that “the names of law enforcement personnel are not exempted” from public records requests made under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

Instead of worrying about what sign is on the outside of the building, let’s pay attention to the department’s funding. What happens to federal funding for education under the Trump administration, whether there’s a fully functional Department of Education or a vacant building collecting dust while the work gets done elsewhere? We simply don’t know.Trump has said a lot more about shutting down the department than offering policy papers on federal funding for education.

Here’s what we do know, though, with absolute certainty: how much federal funding each school system gets and what percentage that is of its total funding. That’s listed every year in an annual report on the state Department of Education’s website.

The localities most dependent on federal funding are in rural areas — and most cities. The localities least dependent on federal funding tend to be suburbs, particularly those in Northern Virginia.

The Virginia House of Delegates passed three constitutional amendments Tuesday, including one that would strengthen abortion access, advancing the process that could get the amendments on the ballot for Virginians to vote on next year.

The House also passed proposed constitutional amendments on same-sex marriage and restoration of rights to people convicted of felonies who have served their time.

Passage of a proposed constitutional amendment is a multiyear process. A proposed amendment must pass the legislature in two different years with an election for the House of Delegates in between. (The House of Delegates is up for election this fall.) The measure could then go to voters in a statewide referendum.

Where can this be reported ?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/23733520

There Are Three Special Elections in VA on Jan 7th that will Determine Which Party Controls the State Legislature

Those are in:

• VA house of delegates district 26 (in parts of Loudoun County)
• VA senate district 32 (in parts of Loudoun County)
• VA senate district 10 (in parts of many countries around central VA)

You can see the district outlines at the link above or find your state legislature districts at

https://whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov/

Early voting both in-person and by mail has already started in the first two in Loudoun County! Early in-person voting will start in the 10th senate district on December 27th

Those are in:

• VA house of delegates district 26 (in parts of Loudoun County)
• VA senate district 32 (in parts of Loudoun County)
• VA senate district 10 (in parts of many countries around central VA)

You can see the district outlines at the link above or find your state legislature districts at

https://whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov/

Early voting both in-person and by mail has already started in the first two in Loudoun County! Early in-person voting will start in the 10th senate district on December 27th

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/27371042

Virginia does not have to restore the registrations of 1,600 voters, some of whom appear to have been wrongly removed, ahead of next week’s election, the US supreme court said on Wednesday.

The court made the decision on its emergency docket and did not give a rationale for its decision, which is customary for rulings on an expedited basis. All three liberal justices on the court – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson – said they would not have halted a lower-court ruling earlier in October ordering the state to restore the voter registrations.

The legal dispute centers on a 7 August executive order by the Virginia governor, Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, directing the state to run its voter registration rolls against DMV data on a daily basis to check for non-citizens. The justice department and civil rights groups sued, saying that the state was violating a federal law that prohibits systematic removals of voters within 90 days of a federal election.

I have lived in Virginia since birth (a long time ago). I grew up in Hampton Roads where our porches and cars were yellow in the spring to the NRV where I started getting allergies, but nothing major.

This year, I cannot walk outside without my eyes starting to water. I take an OTC allergy med, but it's not touching whatever the hell is in the air. Anyone else experiencing worse than normal allergies rn?

The politically divided Virginia General Assembly approved long-overdue budget legislation Wednesday, voting in an unusually fast-paced special session to both reduce taxes and boost spending on public education and mental health as part of the package.

The free Friday ride program seems to be having the impact the Virginia Railway Express wanted when the commuter rail system decided to offer it earlier this year.

The program started on June 2 and will run through Sept. 1. The aim is to draw new and non-traditional riders to take train trips north and back home.

So far, the program has increased average daily rider trips for those Fridays by around 40%, from about 3,500 to 5,000

I think this is a great idea but I can also see how some may view this as intrusive or a slippery slope with regard to personal medical information.

Any downsides to this I might be overlooking?