general assembly


Bell-wether: Will Rob be our next AG? Published on Feb 21st, 2013 15 comments Rob Bell is drinking a Slim-fast in his corner seventh-floor office in Richmond. It's 10:40am and the delegate has already been to two committee meetings. The Slimfast isn't a weight-loss solution...
Dead or alive: The Hook's legislative watch Published on Feb 20th, 2013 0 comments Week 6 of the 2013 General Assembly session and the end is in sight, with February 23 the scheduled adjournment. The governor's top priority, to pass a transportation plan, is still alive, albeit...
Dead or alive: The Hook's legislative watch Published on Feb 14th, 2013 0 comments Week 5 of the 2013 General Assembly was crossover week, in which each house sends its legislation to the other house to see if it passed muster. The governor's transportation package dominates...
Not germane: House speaker kills MLK Day redistricting bill Published on Feb 13th, 2013 3 comments After recent actions of Republicans in the General Assembly have put that institution in the national spotlight– and on Comedy Central's Colbert Report– it's almost quaint to hear House...
Dead or alive: The Hook's legislative watch Published on Feb 6th, 2013 2 comments During Week 4 of the General Assembly, crossover day looms and both houses work to get their bills passed– or not– while Supreme Court Justice Harry Lee Carrico lies in state in the...
Surprise redistricting: Local GOP delegates mum about controversy Published on Jan 31st, 2013 19 comments Business for the day had already concluded in Richmond on January 21– Martin Luther King, Jr. Day– when Republican senators took advantage of the absence of a Democratic civil rights...
The session: What local legislators are up to in Richmond Published on Jan 24th, 2013 4 comments The 2013 Session of the Virginia State Legislature kicked off on January 9, and if last year's focus was all about probing lady parts, this year's legislators will tangle over a variety of no less...
Dead or alive: The Hook's legislative watch Published on Jan 24th, 2013 1 comments Week 2 of the session and the number of bills the legislature considers has swollen to 2,462, according to Richmond Sunlight, while the body count of dead bills piles up. DeadReversal of last year's...
Dead or alive: The Hook's legislative watch Published on Jan 15th, 2013 1 comments 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. DeadAutomatic...
Controversial bills: How your legislators voted Published on Mar 14th, 2012 20 comments The General Assembly adjourned March 10— without a budget, which some might consider the most important reason communities send legislators to Richmond. Nonetheless, legislators got a lot of bills...
Bloody Sunday? Repeal of hunting ban thrills-- and chills Published on Jan 31st, 2012 55 comments When Karen Wood was shot to death in her own backyard in 1988 while wearing white mittens, some suggested the Maine woman's death was her own fault. After all, those mittens might resemble a deer's...
Local legislators: Tebow, triggermen among their bills Published on Jan 24th, 2012 22 comments Every January, the six men representing the gerrymandered chunks of Albemarle and Charlottesville (and Rustburg!) head east on I-64 to participate in Virginia's part-time legislature. For 60 days,...
You can still serve your kids booze, but barely Published on Mar 12th, 2010 35 comments The Virginia General Assembly has sent the governor a bill that clarifies the law that allows parents to serve alcohol to minors. The law already requires that the parent or guardian of any drinking...
Smoking gun: Bell a callous enforcer, say pot reformers Published on Feb 23rd, 2010 46 comments Delegate Rob Bell, right, votes against marijuana reform bills in committee and becomes the subject of a YouTube video. PHOTO FROM YOUTUBE Supporters of two bills on marijuana–- one to...