Governor Glenn Youngkin declared a State of Emergency in advance of Hurricane Ian, which is expected to impact portions of Virginia starting on Friday, September 30, 2022.

“Hurricane Ian is a large, powerful storm, and current predictions indicate that it may impact parts of Virginia later this week into early next week,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “We want to ensure that our communities have the resources to respond to and recover from any potential effects from the storm. While we recognize that the storm track is still uncertain, I nevertheless encourage all Virginians and visitors to make a plan, have supplies on hand, and follow official sources for the latest forecast information and guidance. Suzanne and I will pray for those in Florida in the storm’s path.”

This State of Emergency allows the Commonwealth to mobilize resources and equipment for response and recovery efforts. Virginians should be prepared for the potential of severe rainfall, flooding, wind damage, tornadoes, and other storm-related impacts.

The Virginia Emergency Support Team (VEST) actively monitors the situation and coordinates resources and information to prepare for this storm. The Virginia Emergency Operations Center (VEOC) will coordinate preparedness, response, and recovery efforts with local, state, and federal officials.

The full text of Executive Order 22 is available here.

Recommendations for Virginians

Make a plan. Plan in advance a route to a safe place, how you will stay in contact with family and friends, and what you will do in different situations. Additional planning resources are available at https://www.vaemergency.gov/prepare/make-a-plan/.

Prepare an emergency kit. For a list of recommended emergency supplies to sustain your household before, during, and after the storm, visit VAemergency.gov/emergency-kit.

Stay informed. Virginians should follow the Virginia Department of Emergency Management on Twitter and Facebook for preparedness updates and their local National Weather Service office for the latest weather forecast, advisories, watches, or warnings. Download the FEMA app on your smartphone to receive mobile alerts from the National Weather Service. Power outages are always a concern during weather events—make sure you have a battery-operated radio available to still receive life-saving alerts.

For more information about preparing your business, family, and property against hurricane threats, visit VAemergency.gov/hurricanes and ready.gov/hurricanes.

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Governor Glenn Youngkin invites Virginia wine lovers across the Commonwealth and the U.S. to celebrate Virginia Wine Month. October signals the peak of harvest for over 300 wineries, and vineyards as the next vintage of Virginia wine is underway.

“Our local Virginia wine industry continues to flourish and is an integral part of the Commonwealth’s rich agricultural and tourism sectors,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “Virginia Wine Month is a chance for Virginians and visitors to celebrate and show support for the hard-working farmers and winemakers responsible for bringing world-class wines into your glass.”

Virginia Wine Month is the nation’s oldest consecutive wine month and attracts millions of tourists to the region. Consistently ranked within the top ten wine regions in the U.S, Virginia Wine generates an estimated $1.73 billion in economic impact and over 10,400 jobs for the Commonwealth, according to a recent study.

This Virginia Wine Month features a limited edition wine release of Cornus Virginicus, a special collaboration between the First Lady of Virginia, Suzanne S. Youngkin, and Barboursville Vineyards. The wine was crafted to celebrate Virginia agriculture and will include a donation to Virginia 4-H and Virginia Future Farmers of America. To learn more, visit virginiawine.org/pages/cv.

From month-long events to local bundles featuring Virginia wines and artisanal foods, Virginia Wine Month celebrates the partnerships and local support critical to the success of Virginia Wine. Specifically, Harvest Party (October 15) is a day where people in the city, the country, and on the shore gather to toast the region’s richness and celebrate the bounty of Virginia-grown food and wine. Visit virginiawine.org/pages/hp-2022 for a list of events and offerings.

Featured restaurant and retail partners are bringing local favorites to Virginia wine lovers at a location near you. Stock up and plan your own Harvest Party at home with recipes, wine, and food pairings, and more here.

For interviews and more information about Virginia Wine Month, please contact Annette Boyd at 804-402-1896 or annette.boyd@virginiawine.org.

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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin held a get-out-the-vote rally for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in Alpharetta Tuesday. Youngkin has been campaigning for Republican candidates in battleground states like Georgia. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin joined Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in the Atlanta suburbs Tuesday in hopes of firing up conservative voters in an area that has been moving toward Democrats in recent elections.

Kemp took the stage in Alpharetta’s City Center with Youngkin, whose narrow win last year and success in suburban areas made him a rising star in GOP politics. Youngkin has been campaigning for Republican candidates in other battleground states, like Michigan and Nevada, stirring speculation about his own political aspirations.

“Every state in America deserves a Republican governor,” Youngkin told reporters when asked whether the 2024 election speculation has become a distraction for him.

Youngkin advised down-ballot Georgia Republican candidates to follow Kemp’s lead and focus on inflation, education policies, and crime. Both governors promoted their states’ decision to issue a one-time special refund to taxpayers this year.

Kemp and his opponent, Democrat Stacey Abrams, have both said they would support issuing another refund next year, though they have differing visions for what to do with the rest of the state’s budget surplus.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin stumped for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in Alpharetta, a northern Atlanta suburb. (Jill Nolin / Georgia Recorder)

“Elections are about the future, and we’ve got to be standing for something,” Kemp said to the crowd Tuesday. “We’ve got to give people a reason to vote for us, and we’re gonna do that. Because when we get back in January after we win this election, we’re gonna send another billion dollars back to the taxpayer because we have excess revenue to do that.”

Kemp has been leading Abrams slightly in the polls, but the last day of voting is still six weeks away. When asked Tuesday if the Democrats’ ground game was still a concern of his, Kemp quickly responded “damn right it is.”

“I will tell all those people out there, don’t believe any of these polls. You cannot underestimate their ground game,” he said. “We cannot get overconfident. We have to work like we’ve never worked before, and we have to have a ground game quite honestly that can compete with theirs. And I believe this year we’re going to do that. We’re never going out to outspend them, but I do believe we’re going to outwork them.”

Kemp pushed for and signed into law several controversial education bills earlier this year, including one measure setting the stage for the Georgia High School Association to require transgender athletes to play on the team aligned with the gender identified on their birth certificate. And he was cheered Tuesday after saying, “we’re going to make sure that we have fairness in girls’ sports,” when rattling off a list of education-related policies.

On the same day Youngkin stumped for Kemp in Georgia, students from more than 90 Virginia schools participated in a planned walkout to protest Youngkin’s proposed rollback of transgender-inclusive K-12 policies.

“Glenn Youngkin is just the latest out-of-touch wannabe 2024 contender headed to Georgia who — just like Brian Kemp — cares more about protecting his political career than fighting for hardworking families,” said Alex Floyd, spokesman for the Abrams campaign.

Keeping Trump at arm’s length

Youngkin’s narrow win last fall over Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a former Virginia governor, was seen as an encouraging sign for Republicans just one year after President Joe Biden won the swing state.

Kemp was among those watching the Virginia governor’s race closely from afar. Abrams was more directly involved: She traveled to Virginia to campaign for McAuliffe.

Youngkin’s win was also notable at the time because he received Trump’s endorsement but still managed to maintain distance from the polarizing figure.

Like Youngkin, Kemp is trying to appeal to the state’s pro-Trump base while targeting more moderate suburban Republicans who may have been turned off by the former president. But unlike his Virginian counterpart, Kemp has been a favorite target of Trump’s ire ever since he refused to help overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

“Kemp essentially is hoping to replicate what Youngkin was able to achieve in Virginia, and that is hold on to the bulk of the Trump vote but then also bring into the fold those anti-Trump Republicans who voted for Joe Biden or voted for Raphael Warnock,” said University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock.

“The other part is that Youngkin, like Kemp, never trashed Trump, but on the other hand, he always kept Trump well at arm’s length. Now, Brian doesn’t have to worry about keeping Trump at arm’s length. Trump is at least that far away and maybe further. But Kemp would like to be able to run again without Trump having an influence.”

With limited effect, Trump backed a slate of GOP candidates in the state’s primaries. Kemp easily defeated Trump’s pick for governor, former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, but two of the former president’s other favored candidates, Herschel Walker and Burt Jones, will appear on the ballot this November.

Trump is said to be considering a Georgia rally next month, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reported. That’s not good news for Kemp, Bullock said. Even if Trump doesn’t directly attack Kemp, any continued talk about a stolen election in Georgia could stir up the anti-Trump vote and hurt Republicans on the ballot, he said.

This story first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, a sister publication of the Virginia Mercury within the States Newsroom network. 

by Jill Nolin, Virginia Mercury

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sarah Vogelsong for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on Facebook and Twitter.

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Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles has issued approximately 5,600 driver’s licenses and other forms of ID with a nonbinary gender designation since a 2020 law that allowed people to choose that option rather than male or female.

The number includes “driver’s licenses, identification cards, driver privilege cards, and identification privilege cards,” said Jessica Cowardin, a spokesperson for the DMV.

The bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, said he was surprised to hear so many people had taken advantage of the option since the law went into effect July 1, 2020, but said the number indicated “how important it is to so many people.”

“There’s thousands of Virginians that have a very strong and sincere belief that they ought to be able to express their gender identity that way in government records,” he said. “There’s probably other government records we ought to be thinking about as well.”

Virginia isn’t alone in offering a nonbinary designation on driver’s licenses. According to the nonprofit Movement Advancement Project, which tracks LGBTQ+ legislation nationwide, 22 states and Washington, D.C. now allow residents to list themselves as “X,” or nonbinary, on the identification. The U.S. Department of State also began allowing people to use X as a gender marker on U.S. passports in April.

Surovell said it was “important that the government meet people where they are and recognize who they are.”

“For decades, the government put lots of people in boxes in lots of ways,” he said. “And going forward, I don’t think a lot of young people see themselves that way.”

by Sarah Vogelsong, Virginia Mercury

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sarah Vogelsong for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on Facebook and Twitter.

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The state Capitol. (Ned Oliver/ Virginia Mercury)

• It remains unclear how the Virginia High School League, which currently allows transgender students to play on sports teams that match their gender identity under certain conditions, will react to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposal to overturn that rule.—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• Students at more than 90 Virginia schools walked out in protest of Youngkin’s proposed policies on transgender teens.—Washington Post, Associated Press

• Body camera footage shows a Wytheville police officer muttering “this is teenage stuff” after interviewing two Republican lawmakers about an alleged shove that happened at a GOP fundraiser. The footage also reveals Del. Wren Williams was initially uncooperative when police asked him about Del. Marie March’s claim he had pushed her.—Cardinal News

• Youngkin is hosting a two-day “red vest retreat” with big GOP donors at a luxury resort near Charlottesville. The event will feature a speech by former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who called the governor “a national star with a great future.”—Washington Post

• Newly revealed video shows the two suspects who vandalized a Richmond mural dedicated to Black tennis legend Arthur Ashe with white supremacist graffiti.—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• A new project from VPM explores how Richmond is trying to handle a wave of gun violence that’s been particularly harmful to young people.—VPM

• Hurricane Ian could bring heavy rain to parts of Virginia this weekend.—13News Now

• Prosecutors decided not to charge Joshua Yabut, the former National Guard soldier who famously commandeered an armored vehicle in 2018 and drove it to Richmond, after he was accused of interfering with first responders in an unrelated incident earlier this year.—WTVR

by Staff Report, Virginia Mercury

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WASHINGTON — A permitting reform proposal by West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin that would have required completion of the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline was halted Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer removed the measure from a catchall spending package late in the afternoon after Manchin released a statement calling on him to do so.

The U.S. Senate then voted 72-23 to advance the spending bill, which would provide billions to aid Ukraine’s war effort, help communities throughout the country recover from natural disasters and keep the federal government funded through mid-December.

The Manchin plan had drawn a widespread rebuke from most Republicans, a few Senate Democrats, including Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, and a large group of progressive U.S. House members, all of which could have put passage of the government funding package at risk before the current law expires on Friday at midnight.

Federal climate deal could force completion of Mountain Valley Pipeline

Schumer said in his floor speech that he’d work with Manchin and others “to have conversations about the best way to ensure responsible permitting reform is passed before the end of the year.” West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said language could be attached to the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual policy bill for the Pentagon.

Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley said in a statement removing Manchin’s permitting reform bill from the government spending package was the “right move” and urged leaders to keep it off “any future ‘must-pass’ legislation.”

“Many would agree that our permitting system could be improved,” Merkley said. “If the Senate is going to take up these questions in the future, it must be with a deliberative committee process and a robust, stand-alone floor debate that gives the American people, and especially those most impacted by this legislation, a full opportunity to weigh in.”

Kaine issued a statement shortly after the vote saying that “like so many Virginians, I’m relieved we defeated the attempt to greenlight the Mountain Valley Pipeline without normal administrative and judicial review. Now we can move on and fulfill our responsibility to fund the government.”

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said in a statement that the U.S. “still need(s) to take sensible steps to reduce European dependence on Russian energy while maintaining an affordable and resilient supply here at home” and said he intends to continue work on reforms “that protect our national and economic security, but also respect concerns voiced by those communities most impacted by these projects.”

Kaine pipeline objections

Many lawmakers had urged the removal of Manchin’s permitting reform bill from the must-pass government funding package for weeks. Earlier this month, more than 70 progressive Democrats signed onto a letter that asked party leaders to keep Manchin’s bill out of the funding package that must become law before Oct. 1.

Kaine has repeatedly rebuked the bill, saying its requirement of approval for the Mountain Valley Pipeline “could open the door to serious abuse and even corruption.”

The 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline, which is intended to carry natural gas from the Marcellus shale fields of West Virginia to southern Virginia, has been a major point of contention in Virginia for years. Facing numerous court challenges from opponents, Mountain Valley has repeatedly lost federal approvals and remains unfinished, with most of the incomplete portions of the line lying in Virginia’s Giles, Craig and Montgomery counties.

“The pipeline runs through Virginia for 100 miles and takes property from landowners, but I was not consulted as a deal was struck to approve it and thus not given an opportunity to share my constituents’ deep concerns,” Kaine said in a statement earlier in the day announcing he’d vote against the package.

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine speaks on the U.S. Senate floor about legislation from West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin that would force completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Kaine then urged Senate leaders to pass a funding package “free of the unprecedented and dangerous MVP deal.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, also rejected the permitting reform part of the package, saying from the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon before Schumer removed the bill that it was a “poison pill.”

“What our Democratic colleagues have produced is a phony fig leaf that would actually set back the cause of real permitting reform,” McConnell said.

Meanwhile, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and 17 other Republican attorneys general including Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares sent a letter to U.S. Senate leaders Tuesday opposing Manchin’s energy permitting bill on the grounds that it “would effectively create a backdoor Clean Power Plan,” overrule “states’ traditional authority to set their own resource and utility policies, and upset the careful balance of state and federal authority that has been a cornerstone of the Federal Power Act for nearly a century.”

Government funding

The overall spending package, if approved by the U.S. Senate and U.S. House this week, would fund the government through Dec. 16. The measure must become law before Friday at midnight, when current federal spending authority expires, to avoid a funding lapse or a partial government shutdown.

That is a scenario Democratic leaders wanted to avoid, especially with just weeks to go before the November midterm elections.

The spending package, released just before midnight Monday night, would provide billions in funding to ease home heating and cooling costs for low-income households, pay for community block disaster grants, and continue recovery efforts related to the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire that damaged much of New Mexico this spring.

It includes $12 billion in Ukraine aid, the third installment this year, bringing the total U.S. investment in the country’s war effort to about $66 billion.

Congress approved a $13.6 billion relief package in March, just weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, and another $40 billion package in May with broad bipartisan support.

The Biden administration requested this tranche of Ukraine assistance, funding a total of $11.7 billion.

U.S. lawmakers also opted to include $35 million “to respond to potential nuclear and radiological incidents in Ukraine, assist Ukrainian partners with the security of nuclear and radiological materials, and prevent the illicit smuggling of nuclear and radiological material.”

The package does not include $22.4 billion in COVID-19 funding or $4.5 billion for the monkeypox outbreak, both of which were requested by the White House and broadly rejected by Republicans.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said Tuesday he believes leaving out that public health funding is “shortsighted.”

Leahy said he would “revisit” the issue in December, when Congress is supposed to agree on a full-year funding package.

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, March 26, 2022 (Photo by Marisa Demarco / Source New Mexico)

Avoiding a shutdown

The short-term spending bill, sometimes referred to as a continuing resolution, or CR is needed to prevent a government shutdown when the current spending law expires at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

The stopgap is intended to give lawmakers and the Biden administration more time to agree on how much the federal government should spend during the fiscal year 2023, which begins on October 1, and where any increases in funding should be directed.

Bipartisan agreement on total discretionary spending levels, $1.512 trillion for the current fiscal year, would allow the 12 panels in charge of an annual government spending bill to begin drafting legislation to fund dozens of departments and agencies.

President Joe Biden’s budget request for the upcoming fiscal year asked Congress to approve $795 billion for defense programs and $915 billion for nondefense programs, which includes spending on the Homeland Security, Justice, and Veterans Affairs departments.

Current law provides for $782 billion for defense spending and $730 billion for nondefense funding.

If Congress and the White House cannot agree on the bills before their new December deadline, they can pass another short-term spending bill extending into 2023.

However, that type of funding strategy poses problems for many federal departments, including the Pentagon. Since the short-term stopgap spending bills continue current spending levels and policies into the new fiscal year, federal departments typically can’t start new programs or boost spending in areas they targeted for additional funding in the budget request.

by Jennifer Shutt, Virginia Mercury

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sarah Vogelsong for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on Facebook and Twitter.

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