Hillary Live! Monday, February 25

Join Hillary Clinton at George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium this Monday, February 25. The event starts at 6:30pm and the doors open at 5:45pm. Tickets start at $25. For more information and to RSVP, go here.

Norfolk Drinking Liberally tonight

Join the folks gathered upstairs at The New Belmont from 5pm to 7pm tonight for the Norfolk chapter of Drinking Liberally. As always, drinking is optional. And bring a friend. Hope you guys have fun! Some of us have to work 😦

Thursday update (02/21): Real estate tax relief

Weekly update of my legislative agenda issue. Only a few bills on real estate tax relief survived crossover. The Virginian Pilot this morning had a blurb about Ralph Northam's SB496, which would have laid out how the homestead exemption was to be implemented. So while we are likely to get to vote on the homestead … Continue reading Thursday update (02/21): Real estate tax relief

ALERT: Whipple’s SB51

When I see bills like SB51, I am reminded once again why I so dislike the Dillon Rule. In this case, we have self-insured localities who want to be able to extend health insurance benefits to whomever the locality and the policyholder agree. Instead of simply being able to do so - after all, there … Continue reading ALERT: Whipple’s SB51

DMV to collect titling fee

According to The Virginian Pilot, HB649 passed the Senate yesterday on a 39-0 vote. The bill would shift the burden of collecting the new 1% car titling tax fee, imposed by the last year's transportation bill, from the car dealers to the DMV. The change required by HB649 would increase collection costs for the DMV … Continue reading DMV to collect titling fee

Oh, no they didn’t!

Last Friday, the House P&E committee killed HB38, the bipartisan redistricting bill. I understood that Del. Jim Scott planned to try to revive the bill this coming Friday at the next regularly scheduled meeting. Rather than wait until Friday, I'm told that the committee called a meeting Monday afternoon with 15 minutes notice to hear … Continue reading Oh, no they didn’t!

A Rotten Way to Pick a President

The Washington Post had article in the Sunday edition with the above title. In it, the authors give a bit of history on how we came to choose presidential nominees by the system of caucuses and primaries: The old ways [of allowing party bosses to chose the nominees] were unfair and autocratic, of course. But … Continue reading A Rotten Way to Pick a President

Survey says: only one Norfolk council member gets passing grade

The Norfolk Tea Party 2 provided the results of its recent survey at Saturday morning's meeting, according to this article by the Virginian Pilot. The group sent out 10,000 surveys (the survey form is here (doc)) and approximately 1,000 of them were returned. Seems the only person the respondents felt was doing a good job … Continue reading Survey says: only one Norfolk council member gets passing grade

Bill highlight: SJ23 – celebrating the life of Herbert M. Collins Sr.

WHEREAS, Herbert M. Collins, Sr., of Norfolk, revered citizen, former city council member, and noted voting rights activist who helped bring about the ward system in Norfolk, died on June 17, 2007; and WHEREAS, a lifelong resident of Norfolk, Herbert Collins grew up in the city, attended Norfolk Public Schools, and was a graduate of … Continue reading Bill highlight: SJ23 – celebrating the life of Herbert M. Collins Sr.