A Need-To-Know Budget Briefing; School Walkouts After Shootings; More In Va.

Staff Report, Virginia Mercury

- May 27, 2022

• House and Senate negotiators revealed the broad outlines of a budget deal in a private briefing with two media outlets Thursday that will apparently “provide $4 billion in tax cuts, boost salaries for teachers and state workers, and plow hefty sums into affordable housing, school construction, health and water quality.”—Washington Post

• Two of Virginia’s high-level mental health officials — the director of the state’s largest psychiatric hospital and the deputy director of forensic services — have resigned.—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• “Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration is taking a second look at school security after the second deadliest school shooting on record.”—WRIC

• Students in Charlottesville and Arlington held walkouts in response to the Uvalde school shooting.—ARLNow, Daily Progress

• “The abortion debate in Virginia before Roe v. Wade was much more of a debate between religious groups than political parties.”—VPM

• The head of the state’s economic development authority said Southwest Virginia’s jobs market has recovered faster from the pandemic than the rest of the state.—Cardinal News

• Bristol, Tennessee has filed a lawsuit against Bristol, Virginia over its landfill odor problem.—Bristol Herald-Courier

• The Norfolk Police Benevolent Association is worried that the city’s Patriotic Festival over Memorial Day weekend will dampen officer morale and worsen the staffing problem in the force, which is currently short 239 officers.—Virginian-Pilot

• Norfolk planning officials approved plans for a temporary casino.—Virginia Business

• A Spotsylvania committee made up of school division staff, parents and community members has found that eight books challenged by a parent, including Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” “are appropriate for high school readers and can remain in high school libraries.”—Free Lance-Star

• “An environmental organization that monitors the Potomac River is suing Alexandria, charging that the Northern Virginia city has been allowing coal tar and other cancer-causing pollutants to contaminate the waterway for decades.”—Washington Post

• Closing arguments are scheduled for today in the six-week-long Fairfax County trial over Johnny Depp’s libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard.—Associated Press

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