Dead or alive: The Hook's legislative watch
Week 1 of the 46-day General Assembly 2013 session has begun, with legislators filing 2,208 bills. While most will die quietly in subcommittee, some will slip through and become law.
Dead
Automatic restoration of voting rights for non-violent felons, despite support by Governor Bob McDonnell– Del. Herring (D-Alexandria).
Alive (at press time)
Armed security guards in schools and day care centers– Del. Cole (R-Fredericksburg).
Limitations on use of drones– Del. Gilbert (R-Woodstock).
Privately owned drones willfully impeding hunting will be a Class 3 misdemeanor– Sen. Ruff (R-Clarksville).
Abdominal ultrasound not required before an abortion– Del. Kory (D-Falls Church).
Health insurers must offer policies without contraception coverage– Del. Marshall (R-Manassas).
Richmond General District Court Judge Tracy Thorne-Begland, whose appointment to the bench last year was torpedoed because he's gay and outspoken about gay rights, needs his temporary court appointment certified.
1 comment
We gotta show all those Yankees and Liberals we're tough on crime. If you've EVER been convicted of a felony of any sort, be it ever so trivial, if you want to vote you should make another plan...move to another state. Cases in point known to me: 46 year old woman convicted on small change plea bargain for Cocaine possession at 21 years of age. Now a stable middle class professional and permanently disenfranchised. She took a shot at restoration, but the process was a kafkaesque joke designed to simulate an application process just so the state could claim there was a process (sort of like the "peace process"). Another case a man in his sixties convicted of Marijuana cultivation as a college student who finally got to vote for the first time in his life thanks to having moved to another state. Both of these people are white and victims of old laws dating to Jim Crow times originally targeting blacks. I read recently that 700,000 Virginia residents (heavily weighted towards blacks) cannot vote because of this.
If you are white and have a low level drug conviction, have been a good boy afterwards, and "Yo Daddy" is well connected,ie: a sack rider to the governor or someone close to him, then that person can carry your water for you, go to the governor and "splain" how he knows yo daddy and you're a good boy who made a mistake and deserves a second chance. Otherwise, go pound sand or move...