Is Virginia's flag salute
bound in hate or heritage?
Black Caucus members want
to end the recitation of the daily Salute to the Flag of Virginia,
saying it recalls segregation and slavery.
The salute, adopted by
the General Assembly in 1954, is also the official state flag salute
of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, according to the Richmond
Times-Dispatch.
Caucus members have tried
to reach a compromise with House leaders but were rejected by the
majority Republican caucus.
"I was a little disappointed
because it was a good-faith effort to make a compromise," said
the Black Caucus chairwoman, Delegate Mary T. Christian, D-Hampton.
The issue, Christian said,
will now be brought before the full House.
Children's health care
is a priority to Gov. Warner
Governor Mark R. Warner
has included $2.2 million in his budget proposal to aid children in
the Family Access to Medical Insurance Security Plan, or FAMIS.
The additional funding
will help cover health-care costs for children involved in the program,
which provides health-care insurance to children of low-income families,
the Newport News Daily Press
reported.
"It's important to
keep enough money in the program to support more kids as they come
in and to make program improvements," said Jill Hanken, a staff
attorney with the Virginia Poverty Law Center in Richmond.
The current program enrollment
is roughly 36,000 children with an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 more
still eligible.
Warner's administration
hopes to get the word out to families about FAMIS by creating partnerships
with businesses, nonprofits and health departments.
House members roll up
sleeves and work on tattooing bill
Members of the House want
to pass legislation that would take the job of regulating tattoo and
piercing parlors out of the hands of local authorities and put it
into the hands of the state.
Delegate Jeannemarie Devolites,
R-Vienna, introduced the legislation after learning of the increased
numbers of hepatitis C cases stemming from unsanitary tattooing procedures,
according to The Virginian-Pilot.
"It's really coming
from a public safety, a public health standpoint," Devolites
said. "It's not to have government go in and regulate everything."
The bill could also prohibit
artists from tattooing and piercing the genitals, breasts or buttocks
of someone of the opposite sex.
Devolites said she would
leave that decision to the state regulation board.
