The Virginia Department of Education is hosting Commonwealth Conversations to gather input from parents, educators, and community members on achieving cell phone-free education in Virginia, addressing youth mental health, and education performance. Following Governor Youngkin’s Executive Order 33, which mandates cell phone-free education, school boards will implement related policies by the end of the year, with the changes taking effect in January 2025.
The Virginia Department of Education is hosting a series of Commonwealth Conversations to give parents, educators, and community members the opportunity to share their thoughts on the best ways to achieve cell phone-free education in Virginia and address the increasing evidence of the impact cell phone and social media usage has on youth mental health and education performance.
On July 9, Governor Glenn Youngkin issued Executive Order 33 to establish cell phone-free education to promote the health and safety of Virginia’s K-12 students. Executive Order 33 directs the VDOE to provide guidance to school boards on cell phone-free education policies and procedures. School boards will establish local cell phone-free education policies and procedures before the end of this year.
Parents, educators, and interested community members are invited to attend a Commonwealth Conversation and discuss their expectations for the upcoming policy changes that will take effect in January 2025. Below is a list of the upcoming conversations being held throughout the Commonwealth:
Manassas – July 18, 2 – 3:30 p.m.
Osbourn High SchoolFredericksburg – July 30, 9 – 10:30 a.m.
James Monroe High School-Virginia Department of Education
It has been over two months since two Jordanian nationals attempted to breach the gates of Marine Corps Base Quantico, and officials still have not released the identity of the two men arrested. They also offered no explanation as to why state and local officials were not notified.
While we were able to obtain a copy of the police report documenting the incident, the report has been heavily redacted. All identifying information about the two men has been concealed, in addition to the license plate and VIN for the truck involved.Â
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On June 25, 2024, Governor Glenn Youngkin signed 18 bipartisan bills aimed at enhancing support for individuals with developmental disabilities. These laws improve accessibility in education, recreation, law enforcement, and transitional services. The governor also signed a biennium budget allocating $247 million for 3,440 priority one waiver slots, increasing the total under his administration to 4,540 slots.
“I’m pleased this legislative package and our?Right Help, Right Now?plan has instituted life-changing impacts that will benefit Virginia families, this community, and transform our level of care for Virginians with developmental disabilities for decades to come,” said Governor Youngkin.
Secretary of Health and Human Resources John Littel said the bills will provide comprehensive support for individuals with developmental disabilities and set “the groundwork for a more inclusive and supportive future. Our goal is to ensure that every Virginian has the opportunity to live a fulfilling and independent life.”
Division Manager Jacqueline Jackson Turner from Prince William County Community Services expressed excitement for “the many people on the Developmental Disability (DD) Waiver waiting list in the priority one category who will benefit from the budgeted waiver slots over the biennium. As a result, they and their families will have access to much-needed support and assistance.” Her office is still determining the criteria and needs to handle the waiver process, which may impact their staffing levels.
The governor’s office provided a complete list of the bills signed on June 25, 2024.
Kelly Sienkowski is a freelance reporter for Potomac Local News. If you’re not getting our FREE email newsletter, you are missing out. Subscribe Now!
Updated June 27: The Fox News Channel will broadcast live from the Juke Box Diner in Manassas on Friday, June 28, 2024, at
6 a.m. 5 o'clock in the morning Gov. Glenn Youngkin will join the broadcast, according to the Manassas GOP.
President Donald Trump will hold a campaign rally in Chesapeake, about 200 miles away, at 3 p.m. on the same day. Youngkin, a potential vice presidential candidate, is expected to join Trump at the rally.
Last year, on July 5, 2024, Youngkin appeared on Fox and Friends at the same diner. During his appearance, he discussed education and hiring more police officers. In an interview with Potomac Local News, Youngkin emphasized the need for departments to support their officers, highlighting a partnership with Petersburg that has reduced police vacancies.
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Gov. Glenn Youngkin and state lawmakers are scrambling after veterans' families lost education benefits following the approval of the state budget.
The topic dominated a recent Town hall meeting attended by multiple local state elected officials from Prince William County. The elected officials unanimously pledged to fix the issues created when state lawmakers passed the 2024 budget.
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Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) came to Prince William County, where farms are moving indoors.
Youngkin, joined by the Prince William Board of County Supervisors members, held a bill signing in Prince William County at Beanstalk, an indoor vertical farming company located on Groveton Road near Manassas.
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(The Center Square) – Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office issued an announcement Wednesday morning that as of next year, Virginia will no longer follow California’s electric vehicle mandates.
“Once again, Virginia is declaring independence – this time from a misguided electric vehicle mandate imposed by unelected leaders nearly 3,000 miles away from the Commonwealth,” Youngkin said in a statement.
Though Youngkin has fought green energy mandates established by the prior administration – most notably, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative – the announcement comes as a surprise, as it was believed that the decision was in the hands of the General Assembly.
Youngkin encouraged state lawmakers at the start of this year’s legislative session to repeal the 2021 law tying Virginia’s vehicle emissions policies to California’s, but the bill never made it out of committee due to the Assembly’s Democratic majority.
But state Attorney General Jason Miyares has issued what is sure to be a highly contested official opinion “confirm[ing] that Virginia is not required to comply with expansive new mandates adopted by the unelected California Air Resources Board (CARB) set to take effect January 1, 2025.”
The governor held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, proudly declaring Virginia’s emancipation from California policy.
“I have the privilege of announcing once and for all the California electric vehicle mandate in Virginia. The idea that governments should be telling Virginians what kind of car they must drive is just simply wrong,” Youngkin said.
Federal law limits state autonomy regarding vehicle emissions: States must adhere to federal vehicle emissions standards, or they can choose to adopt California’s more stringent standards.
In 2021, under a Democratic governor and a Democratic majority in the General Assembly, Virginia passed several bills that dramatically changed the state’s energy and environmental landscape. One was the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which committed to transitioning Virginia’s electric grid entirely to green energy by 2050, and another hitched Virginia’s electric vehicle policies to California’s.
California requires 100% of new car sales to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035 and can fine automakers that fail to comply.
Republicans have bucked against the mandates since they came to Virginia but have been unable to reverse them through the legislative process. But Miyares seems confident that he has found a legal loophole.
In 2012, California adopted its Advanced Clean Car Program I, regulating vehicle emissions standards from 2015 to 2025. In 2022, California adopted the Advanced Clean Cars II.
“Virginia’s air pollution control board has never approved, never adopted these ACCII (Advanced Clean Car Program II) regulations and because there was an explicit sunset provision placed on ACCI, it expires on December 31 of this year,” Miyares said.
Miyares also pointed to “permissive” language in the Virginia law referring to the first program, ACCI, which allowed the commonwealth to abandon California’s clean cars policies in 2025.
“I can reach no other conclusion as the attorney general of Virginia that the provisions tying us to California ACCII are no longer operable and yes, Virginians, yet again, have consumer freedom,” Miyares said.
Republicans are voicing their support for the move, grateful the commonwealth’s environmental policies will no longer be tied to California’s.
“Virginians, not unelected bureaucrats in California, should be able to choose the cars that fit their families needs,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Michael McDougle posted on X.
“Outstanding!! This had to be one of the most ridiculous policy decisions forced on Virginians when the Democrats took complete control of government in 2020/2021,” Del. Nick Freitas, R-Culpeper, posted on X.
Virginia Democrats have yet to issue an official response to the news.
We're getting a clearer picture of the two men inside a box truck used by two illegal immigrants to ram the main gate at Quantico Marine Corps Base.
Sources tell Potomac Local that the box truck that rammed the gate at Quantico Marine Corps Base contained only boxes and miscellaneous items—no weapons.
Federal officials have been tight-lipped about the contents of the truck and the two men, Jordanian nationals, who were turned over to federal immigration authorities shortly after the May 3, 2024, incident.
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Governor Glenn Youngkin joined law enforcement officials from across the region today for the ceremonial signing of three bills to strengthen child protection. The event took place at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, May 22, 2023, at the Stafford County Sheriff's Office.
The first bill, SB 731, expands the definition of child pornography in Virginia to include computer-generated images of children. Before this bill, a child predator caught with child porn could claim that it was computer-generated images, which were not prosecutable under Virginia law. SB 731 now defines obscene pictures of children as child pornography, regardless of whether an actual child is involved. Senator Tara Durant played a key role in building support for this bill.
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By Morgan Sweeney
(The Center Square) — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive directive Thursday to assemble a task force to help address some controversial changes in the state’s latest budget to a decades-old educational assistance program for qualifying military families.
The task force would include veterans, families of service members killed in the line of duty, General Assembly members, and state public colleges and universities, who help fund the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program and approached the General Assembly due to rising program costs.
The program was established in 1996 to make higher education more accessible to spouses and dependents of those killed in military service, missing in action, prisoners of war, or who had sustained service-related injuries that left them 90% or more disabled by waiving tuition and mandatory fees. However, program participation has skyrocketed in recent years after eligibility was broadened, according to Youngkin, to a degree that may be unsustainable.
The just-passed budget narrows eligibility for the waiver component of the program to undergraduate programs, and people domiciled in Virginia, taking advantage of other benefits they might be eligible for and reaching specific academic benchmarks, jilting some military families and resulting in pushback from some lawmakers “on both sides of the aisle,” according to Youngkin.
“I am issuing this executive directive because it is vital that we study this issue and address it in a future budget to avoid any unintended consequences,” Youngkin said in a statement. “It is important that lawmakers review this issue so that we can provide a better path forward.”
The task force is to issue guidance on the changes to the program and make recommendations to the General Assembly on how it might be able to change eligibility language in the future while “balanc[ing] the need for long-term program sustainability with eliminating unreasonable barriers to the VMSDEP waiver or a survivor of dependents’ educational goals.”