Virginia: The Old Dominion

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/27371042

Virginia does not have to restore the registrations of 1,600 voters, some of whom appear to have been wrongly removed, ahead of next week’s election, the US supreme court said on Wednesday.

The court made the decision on its emergency docket and did not give a rationale for its decision, which is customary for rulings on an expedited basis. All three liberal justices on the court – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson – said they would not have halted a lower-court ruling earlier in October ordering the state to restore the voter registrations.

The legal dispute centers on a 7 August executive order by the Virginia governor, Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, directing the state to run its voter registration rolls against DMV data on a daily basis to check for non-citizens. The justice department and civil rights groups sued, saying that the state was violating a federal law that prohibits systematic removals of voters within 90 days of a federal election.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/44403520

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Hampton Roads’ economy is strong and is poised for a fourth-straight year of growth, according to the 25th annual State of the Region report from Old Dominion University’s Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy, which was released Tuesday.

On average, the region is growing faster than at any time over the past 15 years, with 2023 wages higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic, more people employed that ever before in the civilian workforce and inflation dropping from 9% in 2022 to less than 3% this summer. The report states that trend, along with falling interest rates, will continue into 2025.

“The region’s economic engine has picked up speed,” said Robert M. McNab, director of the Dragas Center and lead author of the report, presented at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott.

The report noted some less-than-ideal economic conditions, however, with residents leaving to seek better job opportunities, and negative consumer perception of the cost of housing, goods and groceries.

“We are poised for growth in 2025,” McNab said. “That is a seismic change in terms of how the economy is performing in Hampton Roads. It’s not a minor change. It’s moving up more than 150 points in terms of the rankings of Hampton Roads relative to other metro areas.”

It’s mostly good news, though, when it comes to the region’s ‘three pillars’ — defense, the Port of Virginia and the hospitality and tourism industry.

Defense spending locally topped $28 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach more than $30 billion by 2030.

But even as the Port of Virginia outperformed most other ports on the East Coast, according to the report, the amount of cargo moving through it wend down due to lower consumer and producer demand for imports. The port, though, has invested in improvements and is primed for future expansion, the report states.

“We were able to compete for cargo with all the other ports,” said Vinod Agarwal, economics professor and deputy director of the Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy. “Investment in the port is paying off and the port has become efficient.”

And while the hospitality and tourism industry outperformed markets in Virginia and the U.S., the report noted the increase in housing costs due to a 15-year construction deficit, with home prices in the region up 56% from 2015. It said many are housing-cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of wages on a mortgage or rent.

The report said, however, that localities could improve the housing market by making changes to regulations to make building them in Hampton Roads easier for developers. It said building any type of housing influences the overall market and puts the responsibility on cities and counties to make needed changes to fix the housing shortage.

The report also discussed public libraries, the aging populations and disability rates.

To view the complete report, see below:

https://www.wavy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/10/ODU-state-of-the-region-report-Oct.-2024.pdf

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18340043

A Virginia man has been charged with making death threats against Vice President Kamala Harris and appeared in federal court on Monday.

According to court records, Frank Lucio Carillo made several threats against Harris, President Joe Biden, FBI Director Christopher Wray, several Arizona officials, and others on the right-wing social media platform Gettr.

In response to a subpoena, the FBI found 4,359 posts from Carillo “targeting various public officials,” including Harris.

In several posts, Carillo allegedly threatened to cut out Harris’ eyes and described various ways he wanted to kill the vice president, court records say.

I have lived in Virginia since birth (a long time ago). I grew up in Hampton Roads where our porches and cars were yellow in the spring to the NRV where I started getting allergies, but nothing major.

This year, I cannot walk outside without my eyes starting to water. I take an OTC allergy med, but it's not touching whatever the hell is in the air. Anyone else experiencing worse than normal allergies rn?

The politically divided Virginia General Assembly approved long-overdue budget legislation Wednesday, voting in an unusually fast-paced special session to both reduce taxes and boost spending on public education and mental health as part of the package.

The free Friday ride program seems to be having the impact the Virginia Railway Express wanted when the commuter rail system decided to offer it earlier this year.

The program started on June 2 and will run through Sept. 1. The aim is to draw new and non-traditional riders to take train trips north and back home.

So far, the program has increased average daily rider trips for those Fridays by around 40%, from about 3,500 to 5,000

I think this is a great idea but I can also see how some may view this as intrusive or a slippery slope with regard to personal medical information.

Any downsides to this I might be overlooking?

WHY??? Had a radar detector in other states I've lived in and think this made me an overall more mindful driver about speeding. There's also evidence that the ban of these devices have no impact on speeding in general. More arguments in the link... What's everyone's thoughts on this? Are Virginia and Mississippi the two states that got it right?

Virginia law provides privacy protections recently enacted to allow "the right to access, correct, and delete their personal information."

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/314486

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Having worked at a company that had a massive influx of GDPR requests we weren’t prepared for, this one could actually cause them some trouble if Reddit don’t have that process properly automated.

If you ever thought your vote couldn't matter, you'd be wrong. So many of these races were called by just a couple hundred votes. In SD29, the democratic and republican primaries were decided by just 46 and 10 votes, respectively.