By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
A Republican-dominated House subcommittee has again killed efforts to allow no-excuse absentee voting in Virginia and join 34 states that allow more early voting.
What’s wrong with this picture: Democrats leaping to their feet to give Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell a standing ovation. The ACLU praising him. Tough-on-crime GOP legislators denouncing perhaps the most significant criminal justice initiative of the final year of his term.
Advocates of tougher laws against financial exploitation of the elderly and mentally incapacitated will press their case in the General Assembly again in 2013, this time with the imprimatur of the Virginia State Crime Commission.
Virginia's State Crime Commission is considering a proposal that would strengthen the state's texting-while-driving laws to be in line with those across the country, a move applauded by lawmakers who have backed similar legislation but seen by some as a gesture that is too little too late.
A push by home-schoolers to get their children onto Virginia's public school playing fields died in the General Assembly on Thursday, with Democrats leading the charge against the so-called "Tebow bill."
Poll: Virginians still divided on uranium mining; Census: D.C. has fastest-growing population; Frey enters race for Va. attorney general; Marylanders react to proposed redistricting map; Pepco will pay $1M fine for outage delays; Audit: Fired Md. workers rehired by other agencies; Four overnight shootings in D.C.
"I don't agree with that approach," Delegate Robert B. Bell, Albemarle Republican and a candidate for the GOP nomination for attorney general, said minutes after Mr. McDonnell made his surprise announcement in his annual State of the Commonwealth speech. "The current system allows an individual review. If someone has gone straight and gotten their life in order, they can get their rights restored."
Va. Gov. McDonnell springs surprise in pushing ex-felons’ civil rights →
Mr. Bell said he has concerns about restoring rights to people convicted of those crimes without individually reviewing the cases.
Va. Gov. McDonnell springs surprise in pushing ex-felons’ civil rights →
