Senate passes 24-hour
waiting period for abortions
The Virginia Senate on
Friday passed a bill that would require women to wait 24 hours to
have an abortion. Gov. Jim Gilmore said he intends to sign the bill
into law, making an abortion a multiday process effective July 1.
The bill passed on a 24-15
vote. It requires a woman seeking an abortion to be given information
about her options, wait 24 hours and then have the procedure.
[Story
by Tara Stubblefield]
Legislation would encourage
telecommuting
It sounds too good to be true: an employment system
that would help rural areas attract a larger work force and urban
areas reduce traffic congestion.
But that's the goal of a telecommuting bill approved
by the House Committee on Science and Technology. It would encourage
state agencies to allow eligible employees to work from satellite
locations - creating a model for the private sector.
[Story by Olympia Meola]
Internet filtering, human
cloning and contraception
During a session that lasted
more than three hours, the Senate Committee on Education and Health
endorsed legislation that would filter the Internet in public schools,
prohibit human cloning and increase access to emergency contraception.
[Story by Jay-Anne Casuga]
Schools would get to see
students' criminal records
Young criminals may no
longer be able to keep their secrets from school officials.
Juveniles suspected in
arson, bomb or weapon-related crimes would have to share their criminal
record with school officials under a bill that passed the House of
Delegates by an 86-12 vote. [Story by Olympia
Meola]
The budget debate, with
an eye toward higher office
How does a politician,
running for statewide office this year, balance campaign strategy
and the legislative budget battle over the car tax cut?
Vote for both the House
and Senate's plans.
Delegate Alan A. Diamonstein,
D-Newport News, a lieutenant governor hopeful, voted for both the
House of Delegates and Senate version of the budget. He said that
there were good points in both, according to the Richmond
Times-Dispatch.
He was one of a few legislators
who may have campaign on the brain and voted for both budgets, citing
different reasons.
No one said anything negative
about the car tax, but the difference in teacher's raises in one plan
from the other made a couple of legislators switch their votes. Without
the statewide nomination, all hopefuls will most likely run for their
same seat again.
Senate committee, on 9-6
vote, kills feticide bill
The Senate Courts of Justice
Committee killed a bill that would allow prosecutors to sue someone
who killed a woman's unborn fetus while injuring the mother.
The feticide bill, rejected
by a 9-6 vote in committee, was too vague for many legislators, and
they questioned what constituted reasonable causes of death, reported
The Washington Post.
For example, Sen. Richard
L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, raised this hypothetical situation: If a pregnant
woman, addicted to crack, bought drugs from someone and the fetus
died, would the drug dealer be sued for second-degree murder?
The bill's opponents thought
the bill would be difficult to enforce.
Nonprofits upset with
new sales tax exemption
A sales tax exemption program
slated to end July 1, 2002, would be extended under a bill moving
through the General Assembly. But other changes in the law have dismayed
nonprofit organizations.
Currently, nonprofit organizations
show a certificate at the time of any purchase and are exempt from
the sales tax, according to The
Washington Post.
Under the bill sponsored
by Sen. Kevin G. Miller, R-Harrisonburg, the organization would pay
the usual 4.5 percent tax and apply for a refund at the end of the
year. The state would subtract 3 percent of the reimbursement to pay
for vendors' costs.
Miller said his bill would
introduce accountability into the system and eliminate abuse of the
exemption. Nonprofits argue that the state plans to make money off
them.
Due to disagreement between
the House and Senate, a conference committee will configure the language
of the new method of reimbursement.
