ThomasDenton 79 Report Share Posted February 25, 2013 http://www.tricities.com/news/article_66d819f8-7ea1-11e2-87f9-0019bb30f31a.html RICHMOND, Va. — The outcome of key legislation at the 2013 General Assembly: PASSED •Revisions to the two-year, $88 billion budget, which includes creation of a commission to oversee Medicaid reform and possible expansion. •A five-year, $3.5 billion transportation funding plan based on a blend of tax increases, fees and general fund revenue diversions. •Require voters to produce photo identification at the polls. •Allow the state to take over chronically failing public schools. •Establish a system for grading public schools on an A-to-F scale. •Revamp teacher evaluation and grievance procedures. •Require public schools to establish threat assessment teams similar to those used by colleges. •Provide civil immunity to anyone who in good faith reports a campus threat. •Require several state agencies to develop emergency response training programs for public school personnel. •Require every public school to conduct at least two lockdown drills per year. •Increase the penalty for "straw purchases" of firearms. •Exempt concealed weapons permit information from public disclosure under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. •Allow the attorney general to investigate suspected election law violations without being asked by the Board of Elections. •Increase penalties for texting while driving. •Make it illegal to secretly use an electronic device to track a person's movements. •An enhanced penalty for assaulting an employee of the state facility that treats sexually violent predators who are civilly committed. •Relax the standard for a wrongfully convicted inmate to win exoneration. •Exempt from the Freedom of Information Act information about minors participating in parks and recreation programs. •Allow public college student organizations to exclude anyone who does not agree with their mission. •State that parents have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing, education and care of their children. •Repeal the law against "lewd and lascivious cohabitation." •Increase penalty for possession of contraband cigarettes with intent to distribute. •A two-year moratorium on use of drones by police and state agencies. •Require school boards to adopt anti-bullying policies. •Require doctors who test patients for Lyme disease to provide information that tests can produce false negative results. •Mandate cardiopulmonary resuscitation training for public school teachers and high school students. •Establish a two-year provisional license for Teach for America participants. •Eliminate bonuses electric utilities receive for using sources of renewable energy or building new power plants that use fossil fuels. •Create a new law against financial exploitation of incapacitated adults. •Toughen the law governing decertification of police officers convicted of certain crimes. FAILED •Lift the state's ban on uranium mining. •Redraw Virginia Senate district boundaries to strengthen Republican districts and create another black-majority district. •Require background checks on private sales at gun shows. •Require background checks on all gun sales. •Ban military-style assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines. •Require at least one armed employee or volunteer in every school. •Automatically restore the voting rights of nonviolent felons who have served their sentences. •Allow home-schooled students to participate in public school sports. •Repeal the 2012 law requiring women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound. •Repeal the state's new regulations requiring abortion clinics to meet the same strict building standards as newly constructed hospitals. •Confer all the rights of "personhood" on fetuses. •Make it a felony to perform an abortion because of the gender of the fetus. •Bar state-funded abortions for poor women carrying mortally deformed fetuses. •Require drug screening of state welfare recipients. •Prohibit circuit courts from making interim appointments of lower-court judges previously rejected by the General Assembly. •Establish a panel to study creating an alternative state currency in case the Federal Reserve system collapses. •Allow no-excuse absentee voting. •Require school boards to minimize the number of bus stops within 500 feet of a sex offender's home. •Make it illegal to smoke with a child in the car. •Allow early, in-person voting. •Authorize localities to ban guns in public libraries. •Amend the "Right to Farm Act" to allow farmers to sell products incidental to their farming operation without government interference. •Allow hunting of coyotes on Sundays. •Allow hunting on private land on Sundays with the landowner's permission. •A constitutional amendment allowing the governor to seek a second term. •Require drivers and passengers to make sure it's safe before opening vehicle doors on the side adjacent to moving traffic. •Create a new offense, punishable by up to life in prison, for entering a school while armed or while carrying an explosive device with the intent to commit a violent felony. •Require youth sports programs using public school property to adopt procedures to deal with concussions. •Increase the mandatory retirement age for judges from 70 to 73. •Prohibit possession of unopened container of alcohol in the passenger area of a vehicle. 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swvacsas2 15 Report Share Posted February 25, 2013 Mark Twain- "No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session." This is the most accurate summation of your average General Assembly or Congress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted Account 5,203 Report Share Posted February 25, 2013 This further strengthens my belief that there's no rhyme or reason to what passes and what doesn't. Put more bluntly, the officials we elect to the GA will wine and dine our regions for 10 months, then go to Richmond in January and run around like headless chickens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lance 228 Report Share Posted February 25, 2013 •Provide civil immunity to anyone who in good faith reports a campus threat. -can of worms, opened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted Account 5,203 Report Share Posted February 25, 2013 •Provide civil immunity to anyone who in good faith reports a campus threat. -can of worms, opened. I, too, love laws with subjective language that will undoubtedly cause a crapflood of butthurt the first time it's violated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hacker 82 Report Share Posted February 25, 2013 I love the fact that our conservative legislature finds more ways to intrude into our lives, and then turns around and says that a parent has a fundamental right to direct the upbringing, education and care of their children. (Except when the state deems otherwise.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lance 228 Report Share Posted February 25, 2013 this is another one i don't get: •Allow hunting of coyotes on Sundays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasDenton 79 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2013 this is another one i don't get: •Allow hunting of coyotes on Sundays. Coyotes are becoming more and more of a problem in certain areas in VA, so it makes sense that someone would bring something like this up, but isn't hunting on Sunday in VA illegal anyway? If so, then only allowing coyote hunting on Sunday would bring up a bunch of problems, such as "Well officer, I was trying to shoot this coyote, but then this big buck just ran out in front of my bullet." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lance 228 Report Share Posted February 26, 2013 Coyotes are becoming more and more of a problem in certain areas in VA, so it makes sense that someone would bring something like this up, but isn't hunting on Sunday in VA illegal anyway? If so, then only allowing coyote hunting on Sunday would bring up a bunch of problems, such as "Well officer, I was trying to shoot this coyote, but then this big buck just ran out in front of my bullet." anything you ban for one day of the week for any particular reason that you can do the other 6 days of the week doesn't make any sense to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasDenton 79 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2013 anything you ban for one day of the week for any particular reason that you can do the other 6 days of the week doesn't make any sense to me. Who knows? There could be a million reasons. Could be an old law based on religion (no working on Sundays....and in the old days, hunting was work to put food on the table, not recreation), could be an environmental thing (maybe the environmentalists decided that the hunted animals need a day's break to keep from being overhunted), or maybe it's so no one get's shot while hiking in the woods since Sunday is usually a good day to do recreational outdoor stuff (because of the no work thing). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lance 228 Report Share Posted February 26, 2013 whatever the reason, it's stupid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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