Across Virginia
From Appalachians Against Pipelines
UPDATE: The pipeline protesters have been arrested after halting work on that portion of the pipeline for seven hours.
PREVIOUS: Mountain Valley Pipeline protesters have established a blockade in the Pembroke area of Giles County that is preventing MVP workers from accessing the construction site. According to Appalachians Against Pipelines, the blockade includes a large wooden duck, with three people locked to it and another person on top.
The VDH today is reporting no new coronavirus deaths but 2 new related hospitalizations in the Roanoke Valley in the latest 24-hour reporting period. State officials are reporting 8 new coronavirus cases among Roanoke City, Roanoke County, Salem and Botetourt County. According to the department, there are 2 new cases in Roanoke City, 5 new cases and 2 new hospitalizations in Roanoke County, and 1 new case in Botetourt County.
The VDH today is reporting just 59 new coronavirus cases across the Commonwealth which is smallest single-day increase in cases across the state since late March 2020. State officials say of those 59 news cases, 3 are from Roanoke City. There are no new cases being reported in Roanoke and Botetourt counties or the city of Salem.
Cicadas are making a racket in some parts of Virginia and nearby states. It’s an unmistakable sound that anyone traveling to our north right now is likely to hear. This year, the din can be heard mainly in northern Virginia through much of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. These cicadas have been developing underground for 17 years before briefly emerging, perpetuating their life cycle, then dying. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more:
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrats who have transformed Virginia at whiplash speed over the past two years will be defending their full control of the statehouse this fall. But first, they are trying to get an usually high number of House incumbents past primary challenges.
Fourteen House Democrats are spending and organizing against challenges from their own party this year, compared with only three Republican incumbents.
“Like somebody that drinks too many Red Bulls, too much energy is not always healthy for the party,” said Albert Pollard, a former Democratic House delegate who went on to say he thinks the “vast majority” of incumbents will hold on.
Several factors seem to be driving the surge in primary challengers, which is far higher this year than any other since at least 1999, according to the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.
Some observers say it’s just an appealing time to be a Democratic candidate.
David Toscano, the former Democratic minority leader, said he “toiled in the wilderness for years trying to find good candidates” when the party’s membership was in the 30s out of 100 seats.
People thought they would have a hard time raising money or being competitive, he said. And then, even if they won, they would still be part of what at the time was a fairly powerless minority.
“Now the Democrats are in the majority, everybody wants to run,” he said.
In solidly blue northern Virginia in particular, a number of longtime officeholders – including the longest serving delegate, Ken Plum – are being challenged.
Some Democrats are facing challenges from the ideological left, though two of the chamber’s most progressive members, Del. Lee Carter and Del. Ibraheem Samirah, also have primary opponents.
“They’re learning what it’s like to be in power,” said Matt Moran, formerly the chief of staff for Republican House Speaker Kirk Cox. “No one is ever satisfied.”
A handful of delegates who are running in one of the three statewide races for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general without giving up their House seat have also created potential openings. For instance, Carter, who is making a bid for governor, has two opponents.
At least two Democratic challengers are getting a boost from Clean Virginia, the good governance and environmental advocacy organization founded by wealthy investor Michael Bills as a way to counter the influence of Dominion Energy.
In the Democratic-leaning 79th House District in Hampton Roads, Del. Steve Heretick, one of the caucus’ more centrist members, has two primary opponents, Dante’ Walston and community organizer and activist Nadarius Clark, who is being backed by Clean Virginia.
Clark, 26, wants to bring a more progressive perspective to Richmond. In an interview, he criticized Heretick’s votes against bills allowing localities to remove Confederate monuments, ending qualified immunity and banning assault weapons. The first passed; the others failed.
“This doesn’t sit well with me, and the district deserves a better choice,” Clark said.
Clark’s campaign manager, Sully Peterson-Quinn, said the campaign’s next finance reports will show Clark has raised over $500,000 in the last quarter, an eye-popping amount for a first-time candidate.
Heretick declined an interview request made through Kate Sarna, spokeswoman for the House Democratic Caucus.
Sarna, speaking generally, said the incumbents have “proven themselves” and their opponents haven’t shown an understanding of how they will pass effective legislation.
The state Senate, where Democrats have a more narrow majority, is not up for election this year.
Once the June 8 primary results are in, attention will turn to the November general election, where the stakes are enormous.
Democrats have passed transformative legislation over the past two years that’s made Virginia an outlier in the South. They’ve expanded voting access, loosened abortion restrictions, legalized marijuana, passed a clean energy mandate, repealed the death penalty and raised the minimum wage. Even if a Democrat were to win the race for governor, losing control of the House would make it far more difficult to pass priority legislation in a building where bipartisanship is rare.
In what’s seen as a sign of enthusiasm, both parties are contesting an unusually high number of seats. Democrats will be fielding a candidate in all 100 districts. Republicans say they’re hopeful to get close to that number. They currently have 96.
With only three incumbents to protect in the primary election, and with their slate of statewide candidates already settled in a May convention, Republicans have their eyes on the fall. They are hoping their unusually diverse field of both statewide and House candidates and a backlash against single-party control in Washington will power them to a win.
GOP Del. Emily Brewer, the caucus’ deputy campaign chair, said her recruiting efforts were made easier by the Democrats’ agenda, particularly what she called a soft-on-crime approach to criminal justice, and schools that were virtual for most of the past year.
“Kids not being in schools really put a toll on the family unit and (was) probably the hardest on mothers. So I think that’s why we have a record number of women running,” she said.
Come September, Pollard said, Virginia is going to look like the final scene of “Braveheart,” where two opposing armies line up for battle.
“It’s going to be hand-to-hand combat,” he said. “I give the edge to Democrats.”
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Asking dogs to follow their noses won’t work anymore in states that have legalized marijuana.
As Virginia prepares to legalize adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana on July 1, drug-sniffing police dogs from around the state are being forced into early retirement, following a trend in other states where legalization has led to K-9s being put out to pasture earlier than planned.
In Virginia, the rush to take marijuana-detecting dogs out of service began even before lawmakers voted last month to accelerate the timetable for legalization. A separate law that went into effect in March prohibits police from stopping or searching anyone based solely on the odor of marijuana.
Virginia state police are retiring 13 K-9s, while many smaller police departments and sheriff’s offices are retiring one or two dogs. Most are in the process of purchasing and training new dogs to detect only illicit drugs, including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines. Some departments are unable to afford up to $15,000 to buy and train a new dog, so they are disbanding their K-9 units.
The dogs trained on multiple drugs alert in the same way for all of them, so it’s impossible to tell whether they are indicating the presence of marijuana or an illicit drug. The dogs also cannot distinguish between a small, legal amount of marijuana or a larger, still-illegal amount of the drug. For police, that means they can no longer be used to establish probable cause for a search.
“We won’t use our dogs trained in marijuana because that could be a defense an attorney would raise for a client, to say, ’Which odor did the K-9 alert on — was it marijuana or was it an illegal drug?” said Bedford County Sheriff Mike Miller.
Using a dog that has been trained to detect all drugs except marijuana can help “guarantee he didn’t hit on marijuana, that he found heroin or something else,” Miller said.
Miller’s office retired one dog and is now using a second dog for tracking and apprehension duties only, not for drug detection. His office also bought a new dog not trained on the scent of marijuana; that dog will be used to detect other drugs. Miller said he’d like to purchase a second drug-sniffing dog, but isn’t sure when he will find the money in his budget.
Other states that legalized marijuana earlier have had to make similar adjustments.
“The trend is everywhere,” said Don Slavik, executive director of the United States Police Canine Association.
“Once you train a behavior in a dog, that never goes away. They don’t want any mistakes, so that is why they want to bring in new dogs,” he said.
A 2017 ruling from the Colorado Court of Appeals solidified concerns that using marijuana-trained dogs in places where the drug is legal may not withstand legal challenges.
Kilo, a Moffat County Sheriff’s Office dog trained on multiple drugs, alerted on a man’s truck during a 2015 traffic stop. Officers found a methamphetamine pipe containing white residue. The court found that Kilo’s alert was not a reliable indicator of illegal activity because the dog could not differentiate between marijuana and an illegal drug. The court overturned the man’s drug possession conviction, finding that police did not have legal grounds to search his truck. The ruling was later upheld by the Colorado Supreme Court.
In Massachusetts, where recreational marijuana became legal in 2016, the Quincy Police Department shifted two dogs from drug detection to patrol work, then retired them about 18 months later.
Lt. Bob Gillan, the department’s K-9 Unit Supervisor, said drug traffickers quickly figured out how to raise doubt about the legality of a search by a dog trained to detect marijuana.
“Usually, when they’re delivering their illegal drugs, they will always have marijuana burning in the car. Any defense attorney worth his or her salt will say, ‘Well, your dog hit on a legal substance,’ (not the illegal drugs),” he said.
Sgt. Scott Amos, the canine training coordinator for Virginia State Police, said that with the July 1 legalization date approaching, police are busy training new dogs to detect MDMA, also known as ecstasy; cocaine, heroine and methamphetamines, while also getting 13 dogs ready for retirement. Apollo, Aries, Bandit, Blaze, Jax, Kane, Mater, Nina, Reno, Sarge, Thunder, Zeus and Zoey are being adopted by their handlers, Amos said.
Cumberland County Sheriff Darrell Hodges said his office recently had to retire its drug-detecting K-9, a Belgian Malinois named Mambo. He said his 17-person department doesn’t have the money to purchase and train a new dog.
“You work with them day in and day out, and they become part of you, and to just take it away is kind of tough,” he said.
Hodges said all turned out well for Mambo, who was adopted by his handler.
“The dog is actually living a wonderful life,’” he said. “He has his own bedroom in a house and is getting spoiled rotten.”
MGN
When the Memorial Day holiday weekend kicks off tomorrow, so will the traditional start of the summer travel season. And from all indications, a lot of people are making up for lost vacation time. AAA Mid-Atlantic expects the number of Virginians hitting the highway this weekend to be up 50% over last year — air travelers up six-fold from 2020. Bookings for the coming summer season are surging as well, as WFIR’s Evan Jones reports: