Evaluating Youngkin's First Week In Office And More Virginia Headlines

A Staff Report, Virginia Mercury

January 24, 2022

• Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s assertive first week in office pleased some in the GOP and left other allies worried. “He really started with the culture wars.”—Washington Post

• School officials around the state braced for protest today as Youngkin’s executive order to end mask mandates goes into effect. “The governor [is] throwing jet fuel on an already divisive culture clash in Virginia.”—Winchester Star, Washington Post

• Police arrested a parent in Page County who told the local school board she would “bring every single gun loaded and ready” if her kids were required to wear masks.—Daily News-Record

• A GOP delegate filed legislation that would ban abortions after 20 weeks except in medical emergencies. Meanwhile, new Attorney General Jason Miyares announced he had changed the state’s legal position in a lawsuit over Mississippi’s abortion law, saying “Virginia is now of the belief that the Constitution is silent on the question of abortion.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• Miyares fired two state-employed lawyers who represent the University of Virginia and George Mason University, saying he would replace them with lawyers who share his “philosophy and legal approach.” UVA’s lawyer, Tim Heaphy, has been on leave working as the top investigator for the U.S. House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.—Washington Post

• Lawmakers are again debating whether local candidates for offices like treasurer or sheriff should run with a party identification next to their names.—WVTF

• “Leading members of Virginia’s House and Senate on Friday filed legislation sought by the Washington Football Team to build a stadium and vast commercial complex in Northern Virginia, another step in a bipartisan effort to lure the team to the commonwealth.”—Washington Post

• The Virginia Department of Corrections took no disciplinary action in the case of a supervisor accused of choking an inmate, but reopened the case after video of the incident leaked.—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• “Former Sen. Glen Sturtevant, who lost his seat in 2019 after one term, will run for election next year in a new Senate district in Chesterfield County and Colonial Heights, setting up a three-way battle for the Republican nomination with Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, and businesswoman Tina Ramirez.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• Federal authorities took out additional charges against a former Rocky Mount police officer, saying they now believe he was armed when he entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 last year.—Roanoke Times

• A Pittsylvania County family’s genealogical research led them to the discovery they had recently purchased the former plantation where their ancestors had been enslaved. “I just hope that somehow she’s looking down from heaven and finally cracking a beautiful smile.”—Washington Post

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