Attorney General Jason Miyares determined in a Friday legal opinion the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) is prohibited by Virginia law from making investments based on controversial environment, social and governance (ESG) scores.
In a statement posted to the Virginia Attorney General website, Miyares said Virginians “spent decades working hard” for their retirement, and the commonwealth’s investments must be driven by financial data and not ESG scores as a result.
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As President Joe Biden’s presidential term comes to a close, the administration is bearing down on its goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy and 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind by 2035.
As of 2021, the administration had approved two commercial-scale offshore wind projects, and seven have been approved within the past year.
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The Freedom of Information Act exists to promote governmental transparency, although it doesn’t always accomplish that end, according to the Executive Director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, Megan Rhyne.
And though Virginia’s not unique in that regard, it’s difficult to compare states’ open records laws because they can differ by many variables, according to Rhyne.
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After an story published Sunday by Just The News accusing Lynchburg Mayor Stephanie Reed of bullying constituents whom she believes have wronged her, well as employing the same tactics against members of the Lynchburg City Council, The Virginia Star has received similar allegations from more Lynchburg residents.
Just The News reported that last November, Reed attempted to have Jacob Landrun, the son of Lynchburg GOP chair Veronica Bratton, fired from his job at Americans for Prosperity (AFP) for posting a meme to his personal Facebook page that was critical of her.
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The Republican mayor of Lynchburg, Va., has allegedly repeatedly attempted to silence her critics during her two-year term, according to residents, which has had a “chilling effect on free speech.”
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The Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission recently approved a pilot workforce housing program to make the region more attractive to new businesses and job seekers.
The commission was founded to foster economic growth and opportunity in 34 counties and six independent cities comprising Southwest and Southern Virginia – a region where tobacco farming was once integral to the economy. It’s funded entirely by proceeds from a major 1990s tobacco lawsuit settlement.
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Republican U.S. Senate candidate Hung Cao, himself a decorated veteran of the U.S. Navy, on Wednesday said the allegations of stolen valor levied at Democratic vice presidential nominee Governor Tim Walz are “disqualifying” and reveal “hypocrisy” on behalf of the media.
Cao first noted the questions he faced over his military experience, apparently referencing a USA Today article that claimed the Republican incorrectly described his time in combat.
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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, R, signed an executive order Wednesday, codifying election security measures and listing procedures to prevent non-citizens from voting in elections.
The executive order directs the Commissioner of the Department of Elections to annually certify that election security measures are in place regarding ballot security, testing and certification of ballot counting machines, triple-checking the accuracy of election results, and daily updating of voter rolls.
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Republican attorneys general from 21 states, led by the attorneys general of Montana and Virginia, submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia defending the federal law banning TikTok in the U.S.
President Joe Biden signed the legislation into law in April due to concerns that through Chinese-owned parent company Bytedance, the Chinese Communist Party might be able to gain access to users’ private data or influence American youth toward communism. The law threatens to prohibit the app in the U.S. if Bytedance does not sell its shares in the social media company by Jan. 19, 2025.
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A frustrated group of Virginia Military Institute alumni, some of whom have previously spoken out against the institution’s growing embrace of DEI, have taken on a new battle.
The disgruntled alumni have filed a civil rights lawsuit against VMI Alumni Agencies, arguing the relationship between the official alma mater organization and the institute itself is inappropriate, that school leaders have too much control over it.
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Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares on Friday sent a letter to ActBlue, the top fundraising platform for Democrats and liberal issues, demanding answers over the money laundering and fraud allegations levied by journalist James O’Keefe and his O’Keefe Media Group.
Miyares posted his letter to the social media platform X, confirming his office questioned ActBlue over allegations of “fraudulent, deceptive, and/or otherwise illegal acts,” including “hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions through individual donors” in Virginia who purportedly donated “in volumes that are facially implausible and appear suspicious.”
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Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus Virginia Rep. Bob Good has been unseated after losing a recount stemming from a close June primary race.
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The chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) confirmed the party considers Virginia “competitive” for former President Donald Trump in his campaign to retake the White House in November, pointing toward the 2021 victory by Governor Glenn Youngkin as evidence conservatives can still win statewide elections in the commonwealth.
RNC Chair Michael Whatley told the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Wednesday that Virginia will be competitive for the Trump campaign after Youngkin showed “how a Republican can win Virginia” with his 2021 victory.
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A county supervisor in Virginia on Monday called for an end to sanctuary laws for illegal migrants after two murder suspects were confirmed to be living in the U.S. illegally, 7News reported.
Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity, the one-and-only Republican supervisor in the deep blue jurisdiction, is demanding county officials put an end to laws that protect illegal migrant criminals in the county, according to 7News. Herrity’s public comments follow a brutal murder earlier this month along a popular hiking trail in Oakton, Virginia, with accusations that at least one of the illegal migrant suspects benefited from sanctuary laws before the murder.
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Virginia school boards are issuing cellphone free mandates in their local communities, after Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin ordered schools to draft plans for cell phone-free education in K-12 public schools.
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Virginia State Police cleared the anti-Israel encampment constructed near the home of Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday after it subsisted for over six months.
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) worked with the Virginia State Police to clear the encampment previously constructed on the shoulder of Chain Bridge Road near Blinken’s home on Saturday, with VDOT stating to WTOP the encampment was “unsafe for motorists, bikers and pedestrians and blocks access to emergency vehicles and personnel.”
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Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares filed an amicus brief Thursday on behalf of the Hanover County School Board, which barred a middle school male student identifying as a transgender girl from playing on the girls’ tennis team.
“Neither the federal Constitution nor any federal statute require Virginia school boards to allow biological males to play on a girls sports team,” Miyares said in a statement. “Rather, civil rights law is meant to protect female equity in athletics. I urge the court to ensure that women’s rights and opportunities remain protected in Virginia.”
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The executive director, chief of staff and chief of surgery at the Hampton VA Medical Center are all leaving after investigations revealed substandard care and potentially willful negligence.
Their exodus stems from congressional investigations and a Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General report. The OIG began its latest probe into the hospital (there have been others) after learning of six instances of substandard care by the hospital’s assistant chief of surgery and spotting implications of a lack of internal reporting, oversight and accountability.
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The Democratic Party of Virginia (DPVA) confirmed on Tuesday that its delegates to the Democratic National Convention voted unanimously on Monday to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee for the president during its convention next month.
In a statement posted to the social media platform X, the Virginia Democrats confirmed the delegates “met virtually” and “unanimously voted to join President Joe Biden in endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for the 2024 Democratic nomination for President of the United States.”
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Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance drew on his Appalachian upbringing to connect with supporters at a rally in Virginia on Monday night, focusing on the region’s depleted manufacturing industry, fentanyl and surging immigration crisis.
Vance, senator from Ohio, stopped earlier in the day in his Ohio hometown. He was announced on the ticket with former President Donald Trump one week to the day earlier.
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Two months after lawmakers passed the commonwealth’s biennial budget containing changes to its tuition assistance program for some military families, legislators reconvened at the Capitol Thursday and passed legislation fully reinstating the program.
Representatives from Veterans of Foreign Wars attended the session and extolled the outcome afterward.
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Ohio GOP Sen. JD Vance will headline a rally in Radford, Va., on Monday as the campaign hopes to flip the Old Dominion into the Republican camp for the first time in 20 years.
Former President Donald Trump announced Vance as his running mate this week amid the Republican National Convention. Though formerly a Trump critic, Vance has emerged as one of his most stalwart supporters in the upper chamber.
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One year after the Virginia Department of Education rolled out new model policies for the treatment of transgender students, the ACLU has undertaken several lawsuits on behalf of students identifying as transgender, saying the policies violate state and federal law.
One lawsuit was dismissed Monday, and the other two will be heard on Aug. 6 and 20, one in federal court and the other in state circuit court.
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Former President Donald Trump has inched ahead of President Joe Biden in Virginia, a state no Republican has won at the presidential level since 2004.
The RealClearPolitics polling average currently shows Trump with 43.8% support to Biden’s 43.4%. The average includes five surveys from Emerson, VCU, NY Times/Siena, Fox News, and Roanoke College.
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The New York Times/Siena College poll just released results from a voter survey taken before the Trump rally shooting, showing President Joe Biden leading former President Donald Trump by just a few percentage points.
The results are causing more chatter about the role Virginia could play in the upcoming election since Biden won Virginia by 10% in 2020. Prior to a May poll by Roanoke College that showed the presidential candidates tied 42%-42%, Virginia was considered reliably blue for Biden – due to his previous performance and to the fact that George W. Bush was the last Republican presidential candidate to win the commonwealth in 2004.
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Gov. Glenn Youngkin, R-Va., ordered the U.S. and state flags to be “flown at half-staff'” on Monday in remembrance of Corey Comperatore, a volunteer fireman, was killed at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pa. where Trump survived an assassination attempt.
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Virginia’s traffic fatalities decreased last year for the first time since the pandemic and after a significant increase from 2020-2021 — but they’re still up by 24 percent since 2013.
These trends generally mirror national traffic trends, with traffic fatalities up 25 percent nationally during that same period, according to TRIP, a national transportation research nonprofit. The U.S. saw a dramatic rise in traffic fatalities in 2021 and a “modest decrease” in 2022 and 2023.
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Virginia has again ranked first in CNBC’s annual America’s Top States for Business index, its sixth time topping the chart since CNBC started the survey in 2007.
States are ranked on 128 metrics in 10 “broad categories of competitiveness” selected through consultation with business and policy specialists and the states.
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A Northern Virginia school district will teach kindergartners about gay parents and middle schoolers about transgenderism in the wake of a unanimous vote late last month—despite significant parental opposition.
The Fairfax County School Board unanimously approved changes to its Family Life Education Curriculum on June 27 that include “broadening examples of family structures to be more inclusive of the many different families in our schools.”
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Shaun Kenney, the senior editor for Virginia-based news outlet The Republican Standard, said Virginia “most certainly” is in play for the 2024 presidential election in November, given President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month and Democrats’ reluctance to address Biden’s apparent decline.
Real Clear Politics’ 2024 RCP Electoral College Map lists Virginia as a toss up state for this year’s election despite Democrats’ wins in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections against former President Donald Trump.
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The House Freedom Caucus reportedly voted to remove Ohio GOP Rep. Warren Davidson after he endorsed a challenger to the caucus’ chairman, Virginia GOP Rep. Bob Good, according to The Hill, citing an unnamed member and a “source familiar.”
The move follows a difficult and as-yet-unresolved primary for Good, who has vowed to request a recount after the Virginia Board of Elections certified the race in favor of challenger John McGuire.
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Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) maintained his support for President Joe Biden on Monday, claiming the first presidential debate on CNN generated “excitement and interest” among Democratic voters despite resulting in a “tough stretch” for Democrats.
After reports surfaced that Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) was organizing senators to convince Biden to step aside, Kaine told members of the press that Biden’s debate performance increased Democratic voters’ energy.
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Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., is trying to gather a cohort of his Democratic Senate colleagues to convince President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, the Washington Post reported Friday.
Last week’s debate has apparently persuaded Warner that a Biden campaign is untenable, and he wants to take a group of Democratic senators to the White House on Monday to speak with the president about exiting the race, according to two Washington Post sources who wished to remain anonymous.
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Monday ended with another disappointment for those unhappy with recent changes to a state education assistance program for military families, but by Tuesday night, things had turned around.
Tuesday evening, the Senate of Virginia issued a press release stating that the House of Delegates and Senate finance chairs had finally reached an agreement on the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program after a month and a half of upheaval surrounding changes made to the program in the latest state budget.
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U.S. Representative Don Beyer (D-VA-08) reportedly compared President Joe Biden to Jesus Christ during a Tuesday fundraising event in McLean, Virginia, drawing similarities between the suffering Jesus experienced when crucified to the various political and personal tragedies of the president’s life.
Beyer apparently “invoked the crucifixion of Jesus” during the fundraising event, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
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A leaked memo published on Tuesday claims internal polling data shows President Joe Biden was down by more than 7 percent in Pennsylvania, and at risk of losing Virginia and other swing states, following his poor debate performance against former President Donald Trump last week.
The memo, which claims to contain the contents of a poll completed within 72-hours of the presidential debate, was leaked to Puck News, which reported it was distributed by OpenLabs, a progressive nonprofit that conducts “polling and message-testing” for Democratic groups including a nonprofit associated with “the preferred Super PAC for Biden’s reelection campaign.”
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Virginia GOP Rep. Bob Good officially lost his primary on Tuesday, after the Virginia Board of Elections certified the election results in the state’s fifth Congressional district in favor of challenger John McGuire.
McGuire, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, defeated Good by approximately 375 votes, according to the final results of last month’s Republican primary, ABC News reported.
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Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) at a campaign stop on Monday defended President Joe Biden after his poor debate performance provoked calls for the 81-year-old president to end his reelection campaign and allow a younger candidate to face former President Donald Trump in November.
Kaine confirmed he continues to support the 81-year-old president after Petersburg Vice Mayor Darrin Hill called for Democrats to “turn down the noise” about Biden’s candidacy, reported USA Today.
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Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares hinted he may announce his run for governor following the conclusion of the 2024 presidential election. Miyares made the remarks while attending former President Donald Trump’s rally in Chesapeake, Virginia on Friday.
Miyares made the comments after National Review asked the attorney general whether he was considering a run to succeed Governor Glenn Youngkin, who is unable to seek another term.
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Former President Donald Trump on Friday seized on his post-debate momentum to bolster his efforts in Virginia, appearing alongside the Old Dominion’s GOP heavyweight Gov. Glenn Youngkin at a rally in Chesapeake.
Formerly regarded as a prospective presidential candidate himself, Youngkin opted against such a campaign and has instead been floated as a potential vice presidential candidate.
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Governor Glenn Youngkin declared in an interview that “Virginia is in play” for former President Donald Trump, following President Joe Biden’s poor debate performance on Thursday.
Youngkin said of the Thursday debate during his Friday morning “Fox & Friends” appearance, “America saw, it was on display, strength versus weakness.”
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Governor Glenn Youngkin on Wednesday night congratulated State Senator John McGuire (R-Goochland) on his apparent victory over Representative Bob Good (R-VA-05) in the close Republican primary race in Virginia’s 5th Congressional district.
Noting the candidates are separated by less than 400 votes, or about 0.6 percent of the more than 62,000 ballots cast, Youngkin stated he will respect Good’s “right tor request a recount,” but concluded his message with a call for Republican unity.
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The Founders built America on a rock, but today, because of the Left, the rock is crumbling, and the country must assert moral clarity on several fronts to fix it, said Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who fired up the crowd at the Road to Majority Conference Saturday.
“They built it on rock. They unleashed a wave of freedom across the world with the prosperity of seeing a shining sea, the greatest nation ever built,” Youngkin said. “Yet today, we can feel the great American house shaking. Across our college campuses, echoes of extermination speech, while chaos roars across our borders.”
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Virginia’s permit-tracking website has expanded from including permits from three state government departments to six.
Virginia residents and businesses can now follow online in real time the permits they’ve submitted to the Virginia Department of Health, Department of Transportation, and Department of Conservation and Recreation, as well as permits from the state Department of Environmental Quality, Virginia Marine Resources Commission and Department of Energy.
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Tuesday’s Republican primary race for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District between state Sen. John McGuire and incumbent U.S. Rep. Bob Good is still too close to call.
McGuire holds a razor-thin lead of 313 votes, according to the latest numbers from the Virginia Department of Elections. Good, chairman of the Freedom Caucus, is holding on to hope that lingering votes will save his seat.
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The latest defense budget passed Friday authorizes over $920 billion in spending and contains significant investments in Virginia.
The commonwealth has one of the biggest military populations in the U.S., and the defense industry comprises a large portion of its economy.
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A former Virginia delegate has filed an injunction against the city of Chesapeake for its prosecutions of speed camera violations in a case that could have implications for the whole state.
Virginia law allows the city to prosecute cases in a way that may violate the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution, according to attorney and former delegate for Hampton Roads District 83 Tim Anderson.
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The first meeting of the task force Preserving Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program was held Monday, with many of its members and those in attendance raising their voices or holding back tears as they spoke.
“I thought VMSDEP was a formal thank you to the families of veterans, the Gold Star families,” said one attendee, the wife of a retired marine. “I am so sorry that we cost you too much,” she said, choking back tears.
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On Wednesday, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.) announced that, as of the end of 2024, the commonwealth will no longer attempt to enforce the vehicle emissions rules demanded by the state of California.
As reported by ABC News, Youngkin’s announcement comes after Attorney General Jason Miyares (R-Va.) released his opinion on Tuesday declaring that Virginia is not legally required to follow the orders of the California Air Resources Board (CARB). The new CARB regulations are set to take effect on January 1st, 2025.
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A study has yielded mostly positive results on the initial phase of Richmond, Virginia’s guaranteed income program.
The University of Pennsylvania Center for Guaranteed Income Research recently released a report on the city’s first cohort of participants in its pilot guaranteed income program.
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