The VLW Blog

For the first time, a Virginia gas station has refused to settle a claim by the state that it overcharged customers during a hurricane emergency. The attorney general’s office today announced it has filed suit against Main Street Citgo in Salem, claiming prices as high as $5.349 for regular in September 2008 were unconscionable.  At [...]

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An allegation of an ethical violation by the director of the capital litigation unit for the Virginia attorney general’s office has been dismissed at the request of the lawyer appointed to prosecute the case. The charge against Katherine Baldwin Burnett stemmed from a letter drafted more than a decade ago that the AG’s office suggested [...]

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A gasoline retailer in the New River Valley has agreed to cough up $4,000 to settle a complaint that it engaged in price gouging as Hurricane Ike drove up gas prices last summer. Bucko’s Pantry stores in Radford and Dublin charged as much as $5.799 for regular on Sept. 12, according to a news release [...]

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At a Roanoke forum last evening, each of the three candidates for the Republican nomination for attorney general sought to show why he was the most likely to triumph in the November election.  Ken Cuccinelli, John Brownlee, and Dave Foster spent an equal amount of time establishing their conservative credentials before a crowd of about [...]

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Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell will resign that job to concentrate on his campaign for governor, reports say.  The Virginian-Pilot says McDonnell announced his plan in an e-mail to staffers this morning.  He reportedly expects chief deputy Bill Mims to be appointed to serve the remainder of his term as AG. Because the General Assembly [...]

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Some of the $19 million in settlement money from the maker of the painkiller OxyContin is going to drug treatment and education programs in Southwest Virginia. As reported by the Associated Press, more than $650,000 is being distributed, most of it for treatment of residents dependent on opiate-based drugs such as OxyContin. The money comes [...]

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Roanoke attorney John P. Fishwick Jr. today announced he will not run for the Democratic nomination for Virginia Attorney General. In a news release, Fishwick said “I have concluded that for now my role should remain in the aggressive private practice of law, fighting against injustice and for people whose lives and livelihood depend on [...]

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One of the candidates for next year’s state attorney general election says it’s time for Virginia to adopt early voting. Roanoke lawyer John P. Fishwick Jr. says Virginia should join the 30 or more states that currently allow unfettered early voting.  (Virginia does allow early voting by absentee ballot, but absentee voters must swear under [...]

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Some high level state employees are already feeling the pinch of the unexpected decline in state revenues announced this week.  A spokesman for Attorney General Bob McDonnell confirms a report that each of the top ten lawyers at the AG’s office has taken a voluntary 2-percent salary cut.  The reductions amount to $25,000.  Other office [...]

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From the governor’s office: Governor Timothy M. Kaine dec*lared a state of emergency today, directing state agencies to take all reasonable actions necessary to protect the health and safety of Virginians from the potentially damaging effects of Tropical Storm Hanna. “Current forecasts predict Hanna will bring tropical storm force winds to Virginia, causing coastal flooding [...]

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