“[We wanted to allow] those kids who grew up and had a dream to be a police officer,” State Senator Jeremy McPike (D) WFTF Radio. “And what happened was the governor just crushed those kids’ dreams.”
“Peter Newsham, Chief of Police for Prince William County, also advocated for McPike’s bill. He said his jurisdiction is the most diverse part of the state and having Spanish speakers, let alone DACA recipients, on staff can help reach communities that are afraid to speak to cops.”
“As passed, the budget doesn’t just remove Youngkin’s income tax rate reductions while keeping an expanded sales tax on certain digital transactions, it ups the ante. Their budget expands the sales tax to include business-to-business transactions which are typically untaxed because taxing them only results in “pyramiding” — piling on costs at every stage of completing the final consumer product, with those costs passed on to consumers,” writes Chris Braunlich at The Jefferson Journal.
Delegate Ian Lovejoy (R-22, Prince William County) was one of the few Virginia lawmakers who passed any new legislation on fentanyl. This deadly drug kills four to five Virginians a day.
The bill, awaiting Governor Glenn Youngkin’s signature, standardizes how children. “We’re seeing fentanyl dig deeper and earlier and younger into the school system.
More than 1,500 children and teenagers under the age of 20 died from fentanyl in 2021, four times as many as in 2018, reported Science News in April 2023.
Despite that fact, Democrats in Richmond aren’t doing much to combat the deaths, said Lovejoy.
“Democrats are afraid to add new crimes to the books because they don’t want to piss off their base,” said Lovejoy. “No laws got stricter about any crimes. No new crimes were created. We only weakened offenses in the code.”
On Tuesday, Abigail Spanberger (D-Va., 7th. Prince William, Stafford, Fredericksburg) joined Prince William County Police Chief Peter Newsham in Woodbridge to warn about the dangers of smoking fentanyl through a straw, which is an increasing number of people who consume the drug way of using the drug, reports Insidenova.com.
Spanberger used the press conference to which Potomac Local was not invited to talk about her new bill, Dubbed the Targeting Online Sales of Fentanyl Act. The bill would require the U.S. Government Accountability Office to investigate the methods used to enable the online sale of fentanyl and assess efforts by federal law enforcement and online providers to combat the practice.
Lovejoy said Spanberger toured the halls of the Virginia Capital multiple times during the 2024 General Assembly session, which ended March 9, and notes she failed to lobby any Democrats in the House to pass new legislation combating fentanyl.
In addition to curbing fentanyl use, Democrats failed to strengthen the penalties for drug dealers whose fentanyl kills its users. A Senate bill that would have upped the charge to felony homicide died in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee, with local Democrats Scott Surrovell (Fairfax) and Jennifer Carroll Foy (Prince William County) voting to kill it.
“I think that’s when she should have sat down with her democratic colleagues and said, ‘We need to move the ball forward on meaningful fentanyl legislation.’ She could have been very public about it, signaling that she wants and supports more aggressive fentanyl legislation, and she was mute on all those issues,” said Lovejoy.
Lovejoy, a freshman in the House of Delegates and the only Republican Delegate in Northern Virginia agreed to a wide-ranging interview about his first General Assembly session. We’ll bring more of that to you in the coming days.
(The Center Square) — The use of a male pronoun interrupted the Virginia Senate’s proceedings on Monday.
The state’s first senator to openly identify as transgender, Sen. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, addressed Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, who presides over the chamber, with some questions. Sears seemingly offhandedly referred to Roem as “sir” in her second response to the senator.
Roem quietly and immediately left the chamber. After a few moments, several other senators also rose and left. Sears tried to continue with the agenda but obliged when Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, requested a recess. They reconvened minutes later, but the commotion still appeared to be interfering with the Senate’s business, so Sears put the Senate at ease.
“Let it be known, I am not here to upset anyone. I am here to do the job that the people of Virginia have called me to do,” she said.
She softened some as she went on but still demanded that she be shown “respect and dignity,” appearing frustrated with the interruptions from the incident.
“It is never my intention to make anyone offended, and I hope that others would consider that they would try not to offend me, as well.”
She also exhorted the body to show grace to each other in such instances.
The chamber returned to its normal proceedings.
Roem did not make a public statement on Monday and was silent on X, formerly known as Twitter, where legislators sometimes comment on chamber business.
“My district is hurting. This issue has torn apart our community,” Thomas lamented before the committee’s vote.
Kathy Kulick of the HOA Roundtable highlighted the contentious nature of the issue and emphasized the potential conflict between economic interests and environmental concerns. Kulick pointed out the influence and intimidation of the data center industry on localities, highlighting the need for state-level legislation to guide land use change requests.
“Localities are being overwhelmed by the enormous financial influence and intimidation of the industry,” Kulick told Potomac Local.
Chap Petersen, representing residents in a lawsuit against the Prince William Board of County Supervisors over the PW Digital Gateway development, echoed concerns about the data center industry’s overwhelming impact on rural areas. Petersen criticized the General Assembly’s inaction, emphasizing the environmental cost and the need for immediate legislative measures.
“The data center industry is overwhelming the Rural Crescent in Virginia. The environmental cost will be incalculable,” said the lawyer and former Democratic State Senator from Fairfax. “The General Assembly has done nothing for years. To defer the issue for ‘more study’ is a joke.”
The ongoing legal battle over the PW Digital Gateway development, approved by Prince William supervisors in December 2023, underscores the high stakes. Residents, supported by organizations like the American Battlefield Trust, argue that approving massive data centers near historical sites like the Manassas Battlefield National Park would irreversibly alter the region’s character and damage its historical significance, Insidenova.com reports.
The rezoning vote in December cleared the way for two companies, QTS and Compass Datacenters, Inc., to build the nearly 100-foot tall data center buildings on what has been billed as the world’s most significant data center complex, on nearly 900 acres next to the battlefield, a tourist magnet, and the site of the first major Civil War battle in 1861.
“Multiple Democrat-sponsored pieces of gun legislation aimed at strengthening firearm laws advanced in Virginia’s House of Delegates this week,” reports Morgan Sweeney at The Center Square. “A bill to watch this legislative session sponsored by Del. Dan Helmer, D-Fairfax, House bill 2 creates a class 1 misdemeanor for any person who imports, sells, manufactures, purchases, possesses, transports or transfers an assault firearm and prohibits anyone convicted of such violation from purchasing, possessing or transporting a firearm for three years from the date of conviction.”
In an effort to advocate for policies safeguarding national parks, clean water, and combating climate change, the Virginia Conservation Network, in collaboration with the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), is gearing up for the annual 2024 Conservation Lobby Day on Wednesday, January 31.
This significant event aims to unite environmental supporters from across the state, addressing the constant threats faced by Virginia’s national parks, particularly from the proliferation of data centers. The General Assembly is set to consider various bills in 2024 to tackle the impacts of data centers, including rising electricity costs and environmental pressures.
Virginia is home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers, with Northern Virginia hosting over 300 of them. Eastern Loudoun County, known as Data Center Alley, covers approximately 573 acres, while Prince William County is emerging as a hotspot with the recent approval of the PW Digital Gateway campus, featuring 27 centers on 970 acres next to Manassas National Battlefield.
The agenda for the Virginia Conservation Lobby Day is as follows:
– 7:30 am Arrive in Richmond
– 7:45 – 8:30 am Gather at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (815 E Grace St, Richmond, VA 23219) for coffee, light breakfast, and remarks from legislators
– 8:30 – 11:30 am: Lobby your Delegate and Senator with fellow conservation advocates
– 11:30 – 1:30 pm: Lunch at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church with remarks from agency staff members
– 1:30 – 4:00 pm: Lobby key committee members on data center reform
– 4:00 pm: Return home
Environmental enthusiasts are encouraged to RSVP with NPCA to secure their spot at the event. Additionally, a bus departing from Haymarket will facilitate transportation to Richmond.
The Virginia Mercury reports, “As data centers continue to proliferate across Virginia, the General Assembly this winter is poised to take up a host of bills intended to address their impacts, including increased electricity costs and environmental pressures.”
This Conservation Lobby Day allows citizens to engage with legislators, advocate for environmental action, and specifically address the challenges data centers pose. With Virginia being a global hub for data centers, the outcomes of these lobbying efforts could have far-reaching implications for the state’s environmental landscape.
For more information and to RSVP, visit the NPCA website or contact Karen Sheehan with the Coalition to Protect Prince William at [email protected].
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Delegate Ian Lovejoy (R-22, Bristow) updated his legislative priorities at the end of the first week of the 2024 Virginia General Assembly.
Lovejoy emphasized his focus on two key issues: limiting the siting of data centers near certain areas and addressing potential conflicts of interest among local elected officials involved in land use proceedings.
Siting of Data Centers in Residential Areas:
Lovejoy introduced an amendment to the Code of Virginia, specifically adding a new section to address the siting of data centers. According to the proposed amendment:
– Any local government land use application required to build a data center must be approved only for areas one-quarter mile or more from federal, state, or local parks, schools, and property zoned or used for residential purposes.
The amendment came after the Prince William Board of County Supervisors in 2023 approved a data center complex on 990 acres next to Manassas Battlefield National Park and another next to a densely populated neighborhood at Linton Hall and Devlin roads in Bristow.
Disclosures in Land Use Proceedings:
Lovejoy also proposed amendments focusing on disclosures in land use proceedings.
– Members of the board of supervisors, planning commission, and board of zoning appeals involved in land use proceedings must fully disclose any business or financial relationships with the applicant or title owner of the land in question.
– A disclosure includes relationships within the 12 months before the hearing, and any member with a business or financial interest or a specific relationship shall be ineligible to vote or participate in such cases.
– Penalties, as a Class 1 misdemeanor, are outlined for individuals knowingly and willfully violating these disclosure provisions.is the most severe class of misdemeanor offenses and may include up to 12 months in jail and up to a $2,500 fine.
The proposed amendments aim to enhance transparency in land use proceedings by requiring elected officials to disclose relevant relationships, thereby minimizing potential conflicts of interest.
Lovejoy is serving his first term as a House of Delegates member. He previously served on the Manassas City Council.
The 2024 General Assembly session ends on March 10, 2024.
