Gene Marrano
Gov. Ralph Northam
RICHMOND (from Governor’s office release) —Governor Ralph Northam has signed the Virginia Clean Economy Act and amended the Clean Energy and Community Flood Preparedness Act that requires Virginia to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. It requires new measures to promote energy efficiency, sets a schedule for closing old fossil fuel power plants, and requires electricity to come from 100 percent renewable sources such as solar or wind. Energy companies must pay penalties for not meeting their targets, and part of that revenue would fund job training and renewable energy programs in historically disadvantaged communities.
Governor Northam has also signed nearly two dozen new laws to support working Virginians, including legislation to combat worker misclassification and wage theft, ban workplace discrimination, and prohibit non-compete covenants for low-wage workers. The Governor proposes to increase the minimum wage starting May 1, 2021, and to advance prevailing wage, collective bargaining, and project labor agreement legislation then as well.
House Republican Leader Todd Gilbert commented on the minimum wage hike and the clean energy bill: the following statement: The actions taken by the Governor fail to provide long-term certainty for Virginia’s businesses and their employees. A thirty-one percent increase to operating costs — plus a 25 percent hike in power bills — would be tough in a great economy, they will be potentially devastating as Virginia looks to rebuild.”
Northam also signed new laws to repeal Virginia’s voter ID law, make Election Day a state holiday in Virginia, and expand access to early voting. Also signed: criminal justice reform legislation includes measures raising the felony larceny threshold; permanently eliminating driver’s license suspensions for unpaid fines, fees, and court costs; raising the age of juvenile transfer to adult court; and reforming parole. It includes decriminalizing simple possession of marijuana and sealing the records of prior convictions. The Governor proposed that a study be completed by to assess the impact of fully legalizing marijuana in the Commonwealth.
Gov. Ralph Northam
RICHMOND—Governor Ralph Northam today signed new laws that repeal racist and discriminatory language from Virginia’s Acts of Assembly, give localities the ability to remove or alter Confederate monuments in their communities, and begin the process of replacing Virginia’s statue of Confederal General Robert E. Lee in the United States Capitol.
Northam also signed new laws to strike discriminatory language from Virginia’s Acts of Assembly. In June 2019, Governor Northam established the Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in Virginia Law, which subsequently identified 98 instances of overtly discriminatory language still on the Commonwealth’s books. This includes laws that banned interracial marriage, blocked school integration, and prohibited black and white Virginians from living in the same neighborhoods. While many of these Acts of Assembly have been overturned by court decisions or subsequent legislation, they had remained enshrined in law.
Northam has also signed the Virginia Values Act, making Virginia the first state in the South to enact comprehensive protections for the LGBTQ community against discrimination in housing, employment, public spaces, and credit applications. The new law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, public and private employment, public accommodations, and access to credit. The legislation also extends important protections to Virginians on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, disability, and status as a veteran.
(Roanoke County Fire and Rescue release) Roanoke County Fire and Rescue responded at about 11:15am today to the 6600 block of Sugar Ridge Drive in the Cave Spring area for the report of a residential structure fire. First arriving crews found heavy smoke coming from the roof and attic of a two story wood frame structure. There was no one home at the time of the fire and there were no injuries. The displaced family will be staying with neighbors.
The Roanoke County Fire Marshal’s Office has ruled that this fire was accidental in nature and was caused by combustible material to close to a heat source. Two adults are displaced. Damage estimates are $40,000.
(CHRISTIANSBURG, Virginia from Virginia Department of Health) – The New River Health District has confirmed a case of COVID-19 in a resident of Floyd County. This is the county’s first case of the illness. The patient is self-isolating at home. Health department staff are conducting a contact investigation, to identify those who had contact with the patient, assess their risk of potential exposure and provide medical and public health measures to protect individuals and the community. To protect privacy, no other patient information will be disclosed.
“Now that we are a month into this public health emergency, COVID-19 has spread to every health district, and nearly every corner of Virginia,” said Noelle Bissell, M.D., director of the New River Health District, “Each one of us must do everything we can to limit the further spread of illness. We know the most effective way to do this is to stay home as much as possible, and practice effective individual precautions, especially for hygiene and distance.”
MGN
(from Governor’s office) RICHMOND—Governor Ralph Northam today announced he has signed the Reproductive Health Protection Act, which repeals medically-unnecessary restrictions on women’s healthcare. Two bills sponsored by Senator Jennifer McClellan and House Majority Leader Charniele Herring, respectively, repeal Virginia’s mandatory ultrasound law and 24-hour waiting period prior to abortion. The legislation also rolls back politically motivated “TRAP” restrictions on women’s health centers, which are designed to force their closure and make it more difficult for Virginians to get access to the healthcare services.
After assessing all scenarios, the Ironman Group now says inaugural Carilion Clinic IRONMAN 70.3 Virginia’s Blue Ridge triathlon that was originally scheduled for June 7 this year has been rescheduled to June 6, 2021. Coronavirus concerns and the stay at home order forced this years postponement. All registered athletes for the 2020 IRONMAN swim-bike-run event will receive an email with further information.
The Salem Red Sox have posted entire games with video on their Facebook page. Every Friday morning by the way at 11 members of the Sox front office staff are reading children’s books; those videos are also posted on Facebook. And Sox Business manager Kris North on a return to normalcy and the delayed baseball season:
Nancy Agee-Carilion
On a conference call yesterday that also included US Senator Mark Warner, Roanoke Mayor Sherman Lea and several others, Carilion Clinic President and CEO Nancy Agee sounded an alarm about the financial state of hospitals – including the one she runs in Roanoke. More from WFIR’s Gene Marrano:
