While some say different circumstances call for different outcomes, a bill now moving through the General Assembly would create a mandatory prison sentence for certain kinds of threats made against schools in Virginia. Though the law is a response to the increase in threats made against schools in parts of Virginia, local school administrators say they have not seen an increase in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.
Dan Myers steps out of his white Ford F-350 and onto the muddy ground just as the morning light begins to illuminate his family’s dairy farm, Walkup Holsteins. In the partially-covered pavilion in front of him, more than 30 pregnant dry cows lay on beds of straw and wood shavings. At the milking parlor on the other side of the farm, Dan’s wife Charlotte, 77, and their daughter Teresa Callender, 53, are around halfway through milking the cows, a process that they started just after 5 a.m.
Now that valley-area legislators introduced companion bills calling for tolls to fund $2.2 billion upgrades to I-81, the plan’s supporters will face staunch opposition led by truckers, who say the proposal will unfairly target them and will cause a ripple effect in the economy.
As the General Assembly gets down to business, Del. Tony Wilt has introduced a bill to undo an inadvertent hassle that one of his bills from 2018 has imposed on Virginia public college campuses.
On Tuesday, surrounded by prominent fellow Republicans on the courthouse steps, Del. Tony Wilt announced his intent to seek a fifth term representing the 26th District in the Virginia House of Delegates. His announcement follows recent campaign launches by two Democrats hoping to face him in next year’s general election. In his remarks on Tuesday, Wilt emphasized a grassroots approach to the upcoming campaign.