What's important at the
Capitol: House bills & C. Bills
Looking back on her high
school years, Carmela Bills says her least favorite subject was government.
She hated everything to do with it -- history, geography, politics.
So, years later, what
does she do? Get a job with the government.
Bills, the information
and public relations officer for the House of Delegates, began working
at the Virginia Capitol in 1982.
>>> Read the full
story by Holly Clark.
Legislators are always
headed back to school on SOLs
It is an issue that will
not disappear.
Every year, it seems, the
General Assembly struggles with the state's Standards of Learning
-- the basic skills tests that determine whether students may graduate
and whether schools are accredited.
This year turned out to
be no exception. And the legislators have already insured that the
SOLs will be on their agenda for the 2003 session.
>>> Read the full
story by Geoffrey Rowland.
Senate panel's action
may doom parental consent legislation
Minors might not have
to get consent from their parents to have an abortion after a bill
that passed the House of Delegates Saturday was sent to a Senate committee
believed to be more in favor of abortion rights.
Sen. Richard L. Saslaw,
D-Fairfax, a member of the Senate Courts of Justice Committee, made
the motion yesterday to send the parental consent bill to the Senate
Health and Education Committee, where abortion bills have often been
defeated.
“It’s been aborted,”
said the bill’s sponsor Sen. Charles J. Colgan, R-Prince William
told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Colgan said that he is so certain of the bill’s defeat that he
might ask the committee not to consider the bill when it comes up
today.
Bill would let police
take violent-crime suspects' DNA
Police may soon be able
to take DNA samples from those arrested for violent crimes, but not
yet convicted, The Virginian-Pilot
reported.
A Senate committee endorsed
the bill Sunday that now goes to the full Senate for approval.
"We can move forward
light years from where we are today,'' said Sen. William C. Mims,
R-Leesburg, the bill's sponsor.
Opponents said that they
fear innocent people could be later be hurt by such information.
"It's
important to limit the government's opportunities to get your DNA,
not expand them,'' said Laura LaFay, associate director of the American
Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.
If the bill becomes law,
it would make Virginia the first state with such legislation. Currently,
the state can collect samples from only convicted felons.
Legislature endorses land
transfer, trail development
The General Assembly overwhelmingly
approved a bill that would transfer a section of the Dahlgren Railroad
in King George County from the Conservation Fund to the state.
The 16-mile length of an
old rail bed in Northern Virginia will be converted into a trail and
would be managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation,
reported the Fredericksburg Free
Lance-Star.
Delegate Albert Pollard
Jr., D-White Stone, sponsored the legislation.
The issue was hotly contested
during a spring Board of Supervisors meeting when homeowners, whose
property backs up to the area, were mostly against redeveloping the
land.
