The VLW Blog

Gov. Robert F. McDonnell vetoed the General Assembly’s redistricting plan this afternoon, citing concerns about several elements of the realignment of Senate districts.
The districts in the Senate plan are not compact and do not preserve locality lines and communities of interest, McDonnell said in a letter to the House of Delegates.
The districts in the Senate [...]

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Gov. Bob McDonnell appointed today an 11-member bipartisan advisory commission on redistricting that includes a retired state judge and at least five attorneys, one of them a former federal district judge.
The panel will have an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, and Bob Holsworth, a former political science professor and founder of the nonpartisan website, [...]

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Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax County, says the Virginia State Bar overstepped its mission in lobbying the legislature for more judicial spending.
Albo, chairman of the House Courts of Justice Committee, views the plan by Gov. Bob McDonnell to use the VSB’s $5-million cash reserves for general spending as a rebuff to the VSB’s advocacy for restoring [...]

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Gov. Bob McDonnell has declined to intervene in the scheduled execution of Teresa Lewis.
In 2003, Lewis plead guilty to two counts of capital murder for hire of her husband and step-son. She was sentenced to death on both counts, with an execution date set for this Thursday, Sept. 23.
Yesterday, the governor released a statement [...]

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Gov. Bob McDonnell has named two deputy counselors.
J. Randall Minchew, a prominent Loudoun County land use lawyer, will be deputy counselor and advisor to the governor. Minchew has been managing partner at the Leesburg office of Walsh, Colucci, Lubely, Emrich & Walsh PC since 1998. He is a 1984 Washington & Lee law grad.
Jeffrey S. [...]

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Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has announced sweeping changes in the process for restoring civil rights to former felons.
The governor pledges a 60-day turnaround period on all completed applications, compared to a previous standard of six months or more. Those convicted of non-violent felonies may now apply after only two years, instead of three.
“When someone commits [...]

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The life of a Virginia governor is one of unending public appearances, with a little excitement thrown in from time to time. That’s the impression, anyway, from the hundreds of photographs of Gov. Bob McDonnell, now available on his own Flickr page.
As evidence of the excitement part, here’s a shot of the governor airborne over [...]

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Gov. Bob McDonnell appointed Chesterfield Republican Del. Sam Nixon today as chief information officer of the Virginia Information Technology Agency.
Nixon, a delegate since 1994, is a senior consultant for CapTech Ventures, and long has been regarded as among the savviest legislators on technological matters.
Rumors that he would be named to head the agency circulated immediately [...]

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While standing by his contention that he lacks the authority to ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation as a matter of overall state policy, Gov. Bob McDonnell made it clear this afternoon that he will not tolerate such discrimination in the state’s executive branch.
“Discrimination based on factors such as one’s sexual orientation [...]

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Gov. Bob McDonnell named two lawyers to senior-level positions today: Matt Cobb, who will be deputy secretary of Health and Human Resources, and Rick Holcomb, who returns to the position of commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Cobb joined the Attorney General’s office in 2003 as an assistant AG, serving under four different attorneys [...]

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