Politics

RICHMOND — School boards must ban any tobacco or other forms of nicotine products from all school property and school-sponsored events under legislation signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Ralph Northam.

Northam signed HB 2384 and SB 1295, which expands existing law to include:

RICHMOND — The General Assembly’s 2019 session was a disappointment for LGBTQ advocates as most legislation on health care, marriage and legal protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity failed. But activists are not giving up.

“I would encourage people not to be discouraged because we are going to be back next year,” said Bill Harrison, president of Diversity Richmond, which supports cultural, health and other programs for the LGBTQ community.

RICHMOND — Landowners fighting to keep their property from being taken by pipeline building companies will continue footing the legal bills after two bills failed in the House.

Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, said he introduced the bills to give landowners who don’t want pipeline construction on their land a fair chance against Dominion, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, Southern Gas and other companies involved in the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

RICHMOND – The Virginia General Assembly passed a bill to expand revenge porn laws to include realistic fake images.

In 2014, Virginia outlawed the dissemination of explicit photos or videos without the consent of the person seen in the images. The images may have been originally shared in agreement between both parties, but in cases of revenge porn, get posted online by people seeking to embarrass the victim.

RICHMOND — While most people go to church to worship, security expert Chernoh Wurie goes to worship and protect. He leads security at Hill City Church in the Richmond area.

A bill to allow weapons, including firearms, within places of worship died in the House last week. SB 1024, introduced by Sen. Richard Black, R-Loudoun, passed the Senate along party lines, 21-19, but died in the House Rules Committee. The bill sought to repeal a law on the books since the 1950s.

RICHMOND — Virginians have low approval ratings of Gov. Ralph Northam and Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, but most people say no one should resign or be impeached, according to a recent poll by the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

The poll found that of the state’s three top officials, Attorney General Mark Herring is the best-positioned to remain in office.