For a second year in a row, the Virginia Senate will consider legislation that could pave the way for a casino in Fairfax County.
Senate Bill 756, championed by Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-34), was advanced on a 10-5 vote yesterday (Tuesday) by the chamber’s Finance and Appropriations Committee with a key revision — criteria that limited potential casino sites to Tysons have now been dropped.
Some voters in Fairfax County will head to the polls tomorrow (Tuesday) with a state Senate seat on the ballot.
Though the majority of Virginia’s 39th Senate district is in Alexandria and Arlington, approximately 16,000 registered voters reside in the Fairfax County portion that starts at Seven Corners and continues southeast through Bailey’s Crossroads.
Virginia Democrats released their long-awaited redistricting proposal yesterday (Thursday) in a bid to expand the party’s presence in Congress while countering similar gerrymandering attempts by Republicans.
Party leaders rolled out a map that’s projected to give Democrats an advantage in 10 of Virginia’s 11 Congressional districts, and as expected, much of that comes at the expense of Northern Virginia — the bluest part of the state.
Two bills that would have dramatically changed local governments’ ability to enforce traffic laws have changed course despite bipartisan support in Richmond.
S.B. 297 and S.B. 306, authored by state Sen. Mark J. Peake (R-8), would have repealed the authority of localities to install speed-monitoring and red light cameras, respectively. But as of Monday (Feb. 2), the possibility of a ban has been stripped from both bills.
Fairfax County officials are asking the Spanberger administration to make the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) more responsive to housing developments it must review.
In a letter to three new Virginia cabinet secretaries, Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay expressed concern that current VDOT review process for new housing has placed roadblocks in the way of adding both market-rate and committed-affordable units:
A lengthy approval process for an affordable townhouse development motivated Fairfax City Mayor Catherine Read to testify in support of state legislation eliminating a key hurdle to affordable housing on church-owned properties.
State Sen. Jeremy McPike’s (D-29) Senate Bill 388 would let religious organizations develop housing on their land by right, without needing to go through a special exception, special use or conditional use permit or rezoning process that requires public hearings and votes.
Legislation allowing local governments to regulate or ban the use of gas-powered leaf blowers is facing an uphill climb in the Virginia General Assembly.
A measure by Del. Rip Sullivan (D-6) was deferred until the 2027 session by a vote on Friday (Jan. 30) in the House Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns.
With the nation’s eyes on Minneapolis after residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti were fatally shot by federal agents this month, Democratic lawmakers have become increasingly critical of the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to immigration enforcement, with some calling for Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s impeachment.
In Richmond, state Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim is pushing three pieces of legislation that he says will keep “the chaos, lawlessness, and violence that we have seen perpetrated against Minnesotans from coming to Virginia.”
A Virginia judge ruled Tuesday that a proposed constitutional amendment letting Democrats redraw the state’s Congressional maps was illegal, potentially foiling their efforts to pick up seats in the U.S. House in November.
Tazewell Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. struck down the legislature’s actions on three grounds, ruling that lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session; failed to approve the amendment before the public began voting in last year’s general election; and failed to publish the amendment three months before the election, as required by law.
Democratic lawmakers on Monday advanced a sweeping slate of gun safety proposals — many of them previously vetoed by former Gov. Glenn Youngkin — as they test whether Virginia’s new Democratic governor, Abigail Spanberger, will take a more favorable view of firearm restrictions.
Over nearly four hours, the Democratic-led Senate Courts of Justice Committee approved more than half a dozen bills tightening rules on assault-style firearms, gun storage, concealed carry reciprocity, ghost guns and weapons in public spaces, while rejecting the lone Republican proposal that would have increased mandatory minimum sentences for repeat firearm offenses.
