Slightly more than two months after taking office, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe is responding to questions about ethics reform …as former Governor Bob McDonnell awaits a trial this summer involving gift-giving.  The scandal prompted the General Assembly to pass and send to the Governor new ethics reform legislation, which now awaits his signature, amendments, or veto.  Tommie McNeil reports.

Facing a national transportation budget crisis, some elected leaders are using a Virginia transportation-funding compromise as an example for Congress to take action. And as Virginia Public Radio’s Tommie McNeil reports, it’s the Commonwealth’s Lieutenant Governor who’s leading the charge.

The House of Delegates was hard at work Tuesday night…and following lengthy debate, approved a new state budget for the 2015 and 2016 fiscal years. It’s the only budget bill that’s moved forward so far during the Special Session that began on Monday. And as Virginia Public Radio’s Anne Marie Morgan reports, House conferees incorporated some of the items they discussed during initial budget negotiations with their Senate counterparts.

Virginia’s new voter ID law that limits access to the ballot without the proper photo ID will soon go into effect, and the State Board of Elections is tasked with informing the public about the new change before the November elections. As Virginia Public Radio’s Tommie McNeil reports, the Board’s strategy includes launching a voter outreach, marketing, and public awareness campaign well before then.

Agencies relying on state funding are hoping that when Virginia lawmakers reconvene next week for a Special Session, they’ll be able to set aside their differences and pass a budget.   As Virginia Public Radio’s Tommie McNeil reports, while Medicaid expansion is a huge sticking point, it’s not the only issue where lawmakers have some philosophical differences.

Critics are attacking Governor Terry McAuliffe today for selling access to his office – offering opportunities to meet with him and other leaders in exchange for payments of up to $100,000.  Sandy Hausman has details.

A federal judge has denied a request by former Governor Bob McDonnell’s defense attorneys to limit the prosecution’s involvement in a separate, CIVIL case filed by shareholders of Star Scientific.  McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, have pleaded “not guilty” to federal charges of improperly promoting the company’s dietary supplement in exchange for gifts from its former CEO, Jonnie Williams … and they maintain that the civil case IS relevant.  Virginia Public Radio’s Anne Marie Morgan has more details from the federal courthouse in Richmond. 

The judge later granted a defense request for subpoenas of documents pertaining to investigations of Star Scientific by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Over the last several weeks, Governor McAuliffe has had the daunting task of reviewing 834 bills that were passed and sent to him by the General Assembly. As Virginia Public Radio’s Anne Marie Morgan reports, one stack of legislation on his desk addresses public safety concerns, including creating a new crime for a vindictive act that’s peculiar to the digital age: “revenge porn.”

It appears that while state lawmakers have lots of work to do in hashing out a compromise over Medicaid, they have made some progress with education reforms that relate to the budget.  As Virginia Public Radio’s Tommie McNeil reports, the General Assembly revised the Standards of Learning assessments, charter school enrollment policy, and the process to measure schools using an A through F grading system.

In less than two weeks, state lawmakers return to Richmond to craft a two-year budget that some hope will include a compromise on Medicaid expansion. But Virginia Education Association leaders say while they’re at it, that will also be the best opportunity to re-evaluate how to fund education. As Virginia Public Radio’s Tommie McNeil reports, the VEA says that while Medicaid expansion seems to be the theme of this year’s session, next year it ought to be education, and now’s the time to get a head start on it.

Virginia will have new rules for managing people in a psychiatric crisis under final legislation approved on the last day of the General Assembly session.  The bills extend the length of time that a person in a dangerous state of mind can be held in an emergency and ensure that a secure psychiatric bed will be found. And as Virginia Public Radio’s Anne Marie Morgan reports, this is only the first step for an initiative that will also evaluate how well the new system works.

While Virginia’s former Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife fight a host of charges that they contend broke no ethics laws, Virginia lawmakers have advanced a series of bills that give elected officials and lobbyists a clearer picture of what’s legal and what isn’t.  As Virginia Public Radio’s Tommie McNeil reports, state lawmakers sought to close some loopholes in existing law, while not making the requirements so burdensome that honest mistakes would be severely punished.

A Virginia Senate bill that would limit the use of—and eventually phase out—the controversial practice of fox-penning has cleared another legislative hurdle.  The bill, which is now a compromise version, would allow the state’s 36 pens to remain open for 40 years but ban the creation of new ones. Virginia Public Radio’s Tommie McNeil reports that the measure would also cap the number of penned foxes statewide to 900—down from an average of 1,200.

The probability that the Virginia General Assembly will not complete its work by its scheduled Saturday adjournment has grown to a near-certainty.  House of Delegates GOP leaders on Tuesday called on the Senate to set aside its version of Medicaid expansion—known as Marketplace Virginia—to speed up passage of what Republicans are calling a “clean budget” without it.  As Virginia Public Radio’s Anne Marie Morgan reports, they also proposed a special session just to consider expanding the Medicaid program.

Boyd Marcus

Board has survived in the state Senate by a single vote.  Republican Boyd Marcus stunned the political establishment when he endorsed McAuliffe for Governor and began paid work for his Democratic gubernatorial campaign two months before the November election.  And as Virginia Public Radio’s Anne Marie Morgan reports, following a final Senate vote on the full legislation, the nomination must undergo more scrutiny in the House of Delegates.