House approves wetlands
protection bill
The House of Delegates
voted yesterday to give preliminary approval to a wetlands protection
plan.
The bill, which should
receive final approval today, would regulate Virginia's more than
1 million acres of nontidal wetlands. Tidal wetlands are already protected
in the state.
Currently builders can
cut ditches and drain nontidal wetlands without permits, the Richmond
Times-Dispatch reported.
The bill's patron, Delegate
L. Preston Bryant Jr., R-Lynchburg, spoke in favor of the plan. "The
time has come – the time came and went a long time ago – for Virginia
to be in charge of its natural resources," he said. "The state permitting
program helps us strike a balance between economic development and
natural resources."
Lawmakers OK separate
holiday for King
The House also voted yesterday
to approve the governor's plan for a separate state holiday to honor
slain civil rights hero Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Only two delegates, Harry
J. Parish, R-Manassas, and Frank M. Ruff, R-Mecklenburg, voted against
the proposal, according to the Richmond
Times-Dispatch.
Currently, King shares
a holiday with Confederate icons Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
Gov. Jim Gilmore's plan,
which would honor King on the third Monday in January and move Lee-Jackson
Day to the preceeding Friday, will likely be passed by the Senate
as well.
Panel kills bill regulating
abortion sites
A House committee defeated
a bill yesterday that would have placed more stingent guidelines on
abortion sites.
The measure would have
required facilities that perform more than 25 abortions a year to
comply with hospital guidelines, according to The
Virginian-Pilot.
Abortion supporters said
the bill would have virtually eliminated a woman's ability to seek
abortion in this state. "We would create an America where abortion
may be perfectly legal, but no one could get one," said Ben Greenberg,
director of government relations for Planned Parenthood Advocates
of Virginia.
Delegate Robert G. Marshall,
R-Prince William, pitched the bill as a method of ensuring safe treatment
for women seeking abortion.
