Virginia
Rep. Kiggans, Virginia Beach leaders want Navy to send F-35's to NAS Oceana
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Virginia Beach City Council could soon back a push to bring new jets to Naval Air Station Oceana.
Mayor Bobby Dyer and Vice Mayor Rosemary Wilson are putting forward a resolution that will formalize the city’s support and openness for having the U.S. Navy locate new F-35C Lightning II joint strike-fighter aircraft to the East Coast Master Jet Base.
Currently, the jets, described as “the most lethal, survivable and connected fighter aircraft in the world,” are all headed mostly to the West Coast.
Rep. Jen Kiggans, (R-Virginia Beach), herself a former Naval aviator, said it’s time to start taking a look at East Coast locations as well.
The thought is, if Navy leadership sees the city support, they may not only consider basing the F-35’s here, but they will likely also spend the money to make improvements the base desperately needs.
“I believe that it is time to look to the future of NAS Oceana’s strategic mission and start the conversation about bringing the military’s newest aircraft to Hampton Roads,” Kiggans said in a statement. “Starting the process early allows for the numerous studies and regulatory tasks to be completed by the time additional F-35 are assigned to a home base.”
NAS Oceana, which spans more than 5,000 acres in the heart of Virginia’s largest city, is home to 330 aircraft, including the F/A-18F Super Hornet, and provides an estimated $1.5 billion in economic impact annually, per the Navy.
First opened in 1943, prior commanding officers have said the funding from the federal government isn’t nearly enough to keep up with the base’s aging infrastructure. As of 2021, roughly 60% of the base’s barracks were uninhabitable because of a variety of problems, including mold.
The Navy struck a deal with Virginia Beach that same year to try and come up with solutions to reduce the base’s overall cost. Those potential solutions included possible partnerships with private operators to take over management and upkeep of some of the facilities, as well as land leases.
However, so far, Wilson said that has proven to be more difficult than initially expected.
It’s one of the reasons Kiggans is now pursuing this path.
“We all know that with new platforms and technology comes a new mission and additional resources to support that mission,” Kiggans said. “This is a critical part of my advocacy, as I would like to see NAS Oceana receive long overdue funding support to upgrade and revitalize the base.’
Wilson represents District 5 on Virginia Beach City Council, which includes the entirety of Oceana. She remembers well when the base’s future was up in the air back in 2005.
At that time, the base realignment and closure commission was concerned enough to nearly close Oceana due to encroachment of development and the complaints from community members about jet noise.
She wants to prevent that from ever happening again.
“I talked to our congresswoman about it, and she thought it would be very helpful to her job in Washington,” Wilson said regarding the resolution. “We want to make sure that they know that they’re welcome and we have a large military community. … We want to make sure that everyone in Washington, the decision makers, know that we love our jets and our Navy and whatever they have coming forward, we would love to have them right here.”
The vote on the resolution is tentatively scheduled for July 2.
SOUTH BOSTON, Va. (WSET) — A manufacturing company in South Boston is now in contact with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality after an oil spill this week.
A Hitachi Energy spokesperson says that because of heavy rainfall and a pump failure, a small amount of transformer mineral oil spilled.
The manufacturing company makes power transformers. The spokesperson told ABC 13 that an employee noticed oil in a secondary containment area.
SEE ALSO: Virginia measles cases climb as outbreak hits Buckingham County, officials say
The company says the material was tested and found to be non-toxic. They say the oil stayed on company property with no harm to the community or environment.
ABC 13 reached out to the Department of Environmental Quality, and we are waiting to hear back.
New Virginia laws banning the sale and transfer of assault weapons go into effect in about five weeks. But at least five conservative prosecutors say they won’t enforce them.
Spotsylvania County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ryan Mehaffey said he believes the laws violate the Constitution.
“The Second Amendment is alive and well in Spotsylvania County,” he told News4.
The commonwealth will ban the sale and manufacture of certain semi-automatic weapons, shifting gun laws to more closely align with states such as California and Illinois. But as Virginia teeters from purple to blue and back again, some elected officials are making clear that the new laws won’t be enforced in their counties.
Attorney General Jay Jones said in a statement: “Commonwealth’s Attorneys are elected to enforce our laws, which is what we expect them to do when these laws take effect on July 1.”
The law will make it a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine for people to buy, sell, transfer, import, or manufacture an assault firearm.
Mehaffey said the law is in direct conflict with the Second Amendment.
“It’s fundamentally opposed to a free society, a society where liberty reigns. And this is the moment in time where the Second Amendment was drafted and enacted, where the government couldn’t take the right of the people to defend themselves away,” he said.
Eleven other states and D.C. already have versions of their own assault weapons ban. The details and laws vary and they’ve been challenged in the courts. In fact, several lawsuits have already been filed against Virginia’s new ban.
“Every assault weapons ban that has gone before a federal court in this country has been upheld, including, most importantly, Maryland’s,” said Mary Kenah of Everytown for Gun Safety.
She said Maryland’s ban is considered more restrictive than Virginia’s and was upheld by the same court that presides over Virginia. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up this case, so Maryland’s assault weapon ban remains in place.
“The people of Virginia showed that their priority is gun-violence prevention. They elected a former Moms Demand Action volunteer as their governor,” Kenah said.
In places such a Spotsylvania County, they’ve elected Mehaffey as their prosecutor. It’s a county that surprised a lot of people in November when it voted blue, in favor of Gov. Abigail Spanberger.
Despite that shift, Mehaffey said he’s confident that his position against the new assault weapons ban is what his constituents want.
Other prosecutors who have said they won’t enforce Virginia’s assault weapons ban are from Powhatan, Pulaski, Scott and Smyth counties.
-
Technology5 minutes agoYouTube will let you ask AI to make a custom video feed
-
World11 minutes agoCrash involving speeding train, minibus in Belgium leaves 4 dead including 2 children
-
Politics17 minutes agoRFK Jr. responds to snake-handling critics with new video showing him wrangling a venomous rattlesnake
-
Health23 minutes agoDoctors push new blood tests for colon cancer as cases surge in younger adults
-
Sports29 minutes agoCaitlin Clark listed as probable for Fever-Valkyries rematch following early season back issues
-
Technology35 minutes agoAre bank text codes enough to protect you?
-
Business41 minutes agoDark Horse Comics to close all Things From Another World storefronts
-
Entertainment47 minutes agoGrizz Chapman, ‘30 Rock’ actor who received kidney transplant from a fan, dies at 52
