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Six Republicans joined Senate Democrats in effectively voting down legislation that would define “personhood” at conception and could in turn outlaw all abortions and some forms of FDA-approved birth control. A 24-14 Senate vote returned the bill to a Senate committee for consideration in the 2013 General Assembly session. The vote was another defeat for…
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The State Senate on Tuesday passed House Bill 189, which Virginia Democrats say will set the Commonwealth backwards by codifying and expanding the ability of state-funded child-placing agencies to discriminate against gay and lesbian Virginians seeking to adopt. “We have been talking about conscience. But whose conscience are we talking about? My conscience is offended whenever the…
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Gov. Bob McDonnell is recommending a series of amendments to the controversial legislation that would require women seeking to abort a pregnancy to undergo an invasive ultrasound procedure beforehand. “Having looked at the current proposal, I believe there is no need to direct by statute that further invasive ultrasound procedures be done,” McDonnell said in…
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Around 1:45 pm on February 10, the governor of Virginia addressed W&L’s Mock Convention. Thirty minutes later, the governor concluded his remarks and headed to inspect the new Devils Backbone Brewing Company on US 11. As he descended the stage steps, the attorney general of Virginia was preparing his climb to address the convention –…
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The Virginia House of Delegates voted Monday to advance HB1, a bill that confers legal “personhood” at the moment of conception. Without a subcommittee hearing, the bill emerged from the full Courts of Justice Committee late Friday night – the last possible time for new legislation to be considered during the current session. “Yet another…
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At a press conference in Richmond on Thursday, members of the House and Senate Democratic caucuses stood together to denounce the dozens of extreme, divisive bills passed over the first month of session. Republican leaders then responded with a press event aimed at highlighting what they termed their “positive reform agenda.” “Republicans are so focused…
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The buzz in conservative media is that former Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper, a Democrat, now regrets that she voted for Obamacare. Dahlkemper is Roman Catholic, and she says she didn’t realize that Obamacare would force “all private insurers, including Catholic charities and hospitals, to provide free coverage of contraception, sterilization procedures, and the “week-after” pill.” Sixth…
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Members of the House Democratic Caucus are vowing to protect school funding in the budget prior to next month’s vote. Education remains a point of contention in Gov. McDonnell’s 2012 biennium, with the overwhelming majority of new money going into Virginia’s retirement system instead of into the classroom. Del. Ken Plum (D-Fairfax) spoke on Monday…
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The jobs situation seems to continue to be getting better, with Friday’s announcement that unemployment fell two-tenths of a percent in January, to 8.3 percent. But it’s not getting better fast enough, says Fifth District Republican Congressman Robert Hurt. “A drop in the national unemployment average is always good news. However, the jobless rate remains…
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Ron Paul finished second in the New Hampshire primary. To be more precise, he finished second in both of that state’s primaries – Republican and Democrat, the latter as a write-in vote. Though President Obama is running virtually unopposed in the primaries, 2,289 New Hampshire voters felt that Ron Paul would be a more suitable…
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