Committee won't delay
power deregulation
The House Corporations,
Insurance and Banking Committee met yesterday to discuss the removal
of state control of electric power plants.
The committee approved
amendments to the 1999 deregulation by a 20-5 vote after more than
two and a half hours of discussion.
However, a proposal to
delay deregulation was defeated, the Richmond
Times-Dispatch reported.
Sen. Thomas K. Norment
Jr., R-James City, a supporter of deregulation and the original patron
of this legislation, fought the delay with support from Dominion Virginia
Power representatives.
Doctors seek vision tests
to renew driver's licenses
Local eye doctors are seeking
to do away with remote driver's license renewals by requiring vision
tests each time you renew your license.
House bill 2518, sponsored
by Delegate John S. Reid, R-Henrico, is a response to more than 130,000
Virginians who avoided the long lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles
by renewed their license through the Internet, fax machines, telephones
and the mail, The Virginian-Pilot
reported.
According to the DMV, three
of 1,000 Virginians fail the vision test. That fact has the state's
optometrists and ophthalmologists very disturbed.
"I feel like we're going
backward," said Delegate John A. Rollison, R-Prince Williams, who
introduced the 1997 legislation that allowed drivers to skip vision
tests and renew by remote means every other renewal cycle.
The bill passed in the
House and has been sent to the Senate Transportation Committee, which
may hear the issue on Thursday.
Senate considers expressing
'regret' for eugenics
The Senate Privileges and
Elections Committee yesterday defeated a bill that would allow for
random audits of legislators' campaign finance reports.
Sponsored by Delegate S.
Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, the bill sought for review finance reports
of 14 randomly selected legislatures, as well as candidates for governor,
lieutenant governor and attorney general, the Richmond
Times-Dispatch reported.
The bill was killed by
a 9-4 vote after little discussion. Supporters of the bill said some
legislators were found supplementing their lifestyles with their campaign
funds.
