Virginia
Virginia House’s legal pot bill heads for final floor vote
Northern Virginia Delegate Paul Krizek brought his chamber’s legal weed market bill to the House floor for its second reading Friday.
It would create a framework for a legal marketplace, with marijuana retail and small business licenses being issued starting in 2025. It requires testing and regulation by the Virginia Cannabis Authority, all while being taxed at 9%, one of the lowest tax rates in the nation. Krizek said that would help compete with the illegal market.
In 2020 the Virginia legislature, with Democrats in control of both chambers and the governor’s mansion, decriminalized marijuana.
But the second step in that process, creating a legal market, failed to pass when Republicans took control of the House in 2021. With Dems back in control of both chambers, and anxiety as the state’s current system has few controls on the market currently in place, efforts to regulate are starting to materialize.
“We only get one shot at a retail market, and we have to get it right,” Krizek said.
While Republicans have gotten softer on legal weed, they still voiced concerns Friday. Eastern Shore Delegate Robert Bloxom was worried that the plan requires localities to opt-out of sales, not opt in. And in rural parts of the state, where towns and counties blend over large areas, it could make a complicated patchwork of laws.
“I don’t need two towns on the Eastern shore to become distributors of marijuana to the rest of the county that doesn’t want it,” Bloxom said on the floor.
The Democratic majority all but guarantees passage of the effort in the House, same as in the Senate. Governor Glenn Youngkin said after his State of the Commonwealth speech earlier this year that he has no interest in supporting a legal market, but those close to the issue told Radio IQ good conversations were happening between legislators, lobbyists and the executive branch.
The House bill will likely be voted out of the chamber Monday. It’ll head to the Senate in the coming weeks.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
Virginia
Gov. Spanberger leads Virginia public safety readiness briefing
RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger met with public safety leaders from across the commonwealth Monday as part of a “unified readiness” coordination effort.
The governor met with police and fire chiefs, sheriffs, emergency managers and private sector members — including Dominion Energy — to discuss Virginia’s commitment to public safety, intelligence sharing and interagency collaboration.
“As global tensions continue to evolve, I want to be very clear: there are no known threats specific to Virginia at this time,” Spanberger said. “Today’s briefing was about making sure that information can be shared quickly and we remain at the ready.”
The meeting relates to Spanberger’s Executive Order 12, which she says reaffirms Virginia’s commitment to public safety, community trust, and readiness.
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Virginia
Opinion | Virginia Giuffre’s brothers join protest outside Epstein’s former New Mexico ranch
The brothers of the late Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre joined demonstrators outside Epstein’s former ranch in New Mexico on Sunday to demand more transparency.
The protest, pegged to International Women’s Day, was attended by what the Santa Fe New Mexican estimated to be hundreds of demonstrators, including activists and lawmakers, outside the estate formerly known as Zorro Ranch.
Sky Roberts said it was the first time he had visited the ranch, and demonstrators’ presence was important as a show of “force” that they’re not “going away,” as some people, including the president, try to direct attention away from the Epstein scandal. During his remarks, he rebuked the government for what he called a cover-up and demanded the Justice Department release documents that show who visited the ranch, among other things.
“All those names are in the files, and right now the government is covering those up,” he said, according to Reuters.
Epstein reportedly talked about using the ranch (now owned by Don Huffines, the GOP candidate for Texas state comptroller) for a eugenics-inspired plan to impregnate several women to “seed” the human race with his DNA (there’s no evidence he carried out such a plan). Giuffre’s posthumously released memoir includes allegations about meeting politicians and CEOs at Zorro Ranch, which was also recently linked to an unverified claim in the Epstein files alleging the deceased sex criminal had the bodies of two women buried near the property. After that allegation surfaced among the recently released Epstein files, New Mexico’s state legislature formed a truth commission to investigate Epstein’s activities at the ranch; the state DOJ has opened a probe of its own.
Virginia
Brothers of Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre visit New Mexico ranch, demand unredacted documents
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