The Post editorializes in support of Quest’s Books Behind Bars program. #
Dennis Rooker and David Slutzky are the top fundraisers in local elections. Madison Cummings and Duane Snow don’t even seem to be trying. #
The Board of Supervisors has OKd charging for ambulance service, Sean Tubbs reports for Charlottesville Tomorrow. Strictly speaking, the county isn’t charging for ambulance service, they’re simply giving permission to the Hollymead and Monticello fire stations to charge for service if they see fit, as well as the volunteer rescue squads. The county anticipates that the costs will be picked up by people’s health insurance, with Dennis Rooker saying that this allows the county to “obtain some fees for services that are generally picked up by third parties other than our citizens.” About a third of the state’s localities have similar arrangements. The BoS hasn’t specified how much that may be charged. This is only the first of a series of steps necessary to put the fees into place, so there’s no charge right now.
City Council has unanimously agreed to ask the General Assembly to prohibit discrimination against state employees based on sexual orientation, the Progress reports.
Right now state law makes it perfectly legal for state agencies to fire somebody for being gay (or, for that matter, straight), although both Gov. Tim Kaine and his predecessor, Mark Warner, have issued executive orders enacting such prohibitions, though the current executive order will expire with Kaine’s term in January. (Kaine’s executive order was his first action in office, in fact.) The Republican candidate for governor, Bob McDonnell, opposed Kaine’s executive order, and issued an opinion against it in his capacity as attorney general in 2006. Executive orders don’t have the legal strength of a law—in March Martinsville’s Virginia Museum of Natural History fired a man for being gay.
The General Assembly is no stranger to debates over the topic. I sat in on a debate over a bill that would prohibit such discrimination back in February of 2006 and, while it was hilarious, it made it pretty clear to me that a bill like this won’t pass so long as Republicans control the House of Delegates, regardless of what Charlottesville City Council wants Richmond to do.
A 16-year-old took an unloaded .32 to CHS today, found on him after an officer broke up a fight. He’s in jail. #
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