Your health insurance is renewing, congratulations, and by the way, it’s going to cost a lot more next year. Maybe twice as much, maybe five times, depending on how much you make and how little Congress feels like doing its job. That’s about 400,000 Virginians whose...
In the final weeks of its 2019 session, the General Assembly passed three bills that would help people using cannabis-derived medications. On Saturday, the House and Senate gave final approval to a bill allowing students who have proper documentation to use CBD oil and THC-A oil at school. SB 1632, sponsored by Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Richmond,...
Some want Northam, Fairfax, and Herring to resign. Some want them to stay in office. And almost half of Virginians polled just weren't sure. Virginians have low approval ratings of Gov. Ralph Northam and Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, but most people say no one should resign or be impeached, according to a recent poll by the University of Virginia’s...
They sang songs of resilience, held hands and promised to continue fighting for environmental justice. That was the scene Tuesday night in a middle school gymnasium where more than 700 people gathered to hear former Vice President Al Gore and a prominent civil rights leader, the Rev. William Barber II, draw connections between poverty, racism,...
Delegate Kathy Tran's controversial attempt to ease restrictions on late-term abortions in Virginia was defeated in the General Assembly. But President Trump is still campaigning against it. At one point last month, it seemed like third-trimester abortions, and their legality in Virginia, would be the controversy that dominated the state's...
At issue is the president's declaration of a "state of emergency" in order to acquire funding for his Mexican border wall without gaining Congress's approval. Virginia has joined a coalition of 15 other states to challenge President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency and to block the diversion of congressional funding to build a...
A flurry of bills addressing affordable housing and high eviction rates in Virginia cities moved forward in the House and Senate this week. Three bills on those issues have passed both chambers and have been sent to Gov. Ralph Northam to be signed into law. Several other measures have passed one chamber and are awaiting a floor vote in the other....
The commissioner of the Virginia Department of Health faces backlash after stating that most white people are unconsciously “pro-white” and “anti-black.” Dr. Norman Oliver’s remarks came through a weekly message last week sent to VDH employees. Oliver, who is African-American, was addressing the controversy over the discovery of a racist photo on...
"We have had it with the old Democratic Party. We're here for a new vision," declared activist Rebecca Keel during last week's public funeral vigil, held in front of the Capitol building. Late last week, at the foot of Virginia's Capitol building just before dusk, approximately 50 people gathered around a coffin. Members of the group held their...
The history of Guatemala's secret abductions reminds us how important the principle of universal equality really is -- and points out how far from that principle the United States has gone. On a recent trip to Guatemala with rabbinic colleagues from around the country, I learned the story of a boy named Marco Antonio Molina Theissen. Marco...
