Virginia legislature

The Virginia House of Delegates has approved a budget that includes funding for a host of criminal justice and police reforms amid national unrest over racial injustice and police brutality

Virginia lawmakers have killed legislation that called for eliminating mandatory jail time for assaulting a police officer

Virginia lawmakers will hold a legislative session on Wednesday unlike any other in the state’s 400-year history.  As they grapple with how to handle fallout from the coronavirus, House Delegates plan to meet under a canopy outside the Capitol, while the Senate will meet in an event space at the Virginia Science Museum a couple of miles away.  Lawmakers...

Virginia lawmakers have given final passage to a comprehensive anti-discrimination bill intended to protect LGBTQ people

The Virginia Senate has blocked one of Gov. Ralph Northam’s top gun-control bills, making it another measure the Democratic governor supports that may not pass the legislature

Nearly five years ago, a group of advocacy organizations called on the Virginia legislature to increase its transparency. Lawmakers have made changes but now the coalition is asking for more. The group, Transparency Virginia, sent a letter in December to leaders of both parties in the state House and state Senate, Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Beginning in 2015, Virginia lawmakers faced…

One of the busiest days on the Virginia legislature’s calendar began under a cloud of suspense Tuesday as Gov. Ralph Northam weighed whether he can continue in the job amid the fallout over a racist photo on his 1984 medical school yearbook page.

Virginia’s embattled lieutenant governor has urged authorities to investigate sexual assault allegations made against him, but hasn’t heeded calls to resign and it is unclear what comes next for the once-rising star of the state Democratic Party.

Virginia’s attorney general is the latest of the top elected officials in the state to face a scandal. He said Wednesday that he once wore blackface. News4’s Julie Carey has the latest details from Richmond on Gov. Ralph Northam, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and Attorney General Mark Herring.

Virginia’s Democrats struggled to find their way out of three interlocking political crises Thursday that could bring down the party’s top elected officials and put a Republican in the governor’s chair.

Confronted with a triple threat to the party’s top ranks, Virginia Democrats are trying to thread the needle, demanding anew that Gov. Ralph Northam resign but giving the benefit of the doubt — for the time being — to the lieutenant governor and attorney general.

Questions continue to swirl around Richmond as the state’s top three elected leaders face scandals putting their careers in question. Rev. Al Sharpton called on Gov. Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring to resign after both said they have used blackface. He also said sex assault allegations against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax should be investigated.

With Virginia’s top three elected officials engulfed in scandal, fellow Democrats were rendered practically speechless, uncertain of how to thread their way through the racial and sexual allegations and the tangled political implications.

Embattled Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam met with some of his top administration officials Monday amid calls for him to resign over a racist photo in his 1984 medical school yearbook. The image shows one person in blackface and another in a KKK hood and robe. On Friday, Northam said he was in the image but then denied it a day later.

Defendants in more misdemeanor cases would have to give DNA samples under two bills advancing through the Virginia legislature.

Weeks before the Virginia Legislature convenes for 2018, a key committee formally approved plans for new legislation to better protect children following a series of News4 I-Team reports about teachers accused of abusing students. Scott MacFarlane reports.