Senator Lucas Announces Latest Agreement on Vets Program; COVID Disparities; Jon Baliles on Alleged Corruption in Richmond; 🧨 #July4
➡️ Republican Convention in Milwaukee: 12 days on July 15
➡️ Democratic Convention in Chicago: 47 days on Aug. 19
➡️ 30 days until the Virginia Black Business Expo on Aug. 2
➡️ 61 days until the Bobby Scott Labor Day Cookout on Sept. 2
➡️ 125 days until Election Day Nov. 5
Chairwoman Lucas Announces Another Agreement on Program That Pays Tuition for Dependents of Veterans
After the Virginia Senate failed on June 1 again to agree and pass legislation related to the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP), another agreement has been announced two days before the July 4th holiday.
At 5:30 p.m. on July 2, State Senator and Senate Finance Chair L. Louise Lucas wrote on social media, “I’m happy to announce a deal between the House and Senate on VMSDEP. See our attached press release for more information.”
The Virginia Senate will return to session on July 18 to consider and vote on final passage. Chairwoman Lucas’ statement is below:
Listen 🎙️ to the latest Black Virginia News podcast on how Gov. Glenn Youngkin went full MAGA in Chesapeake on June 28.
Virginia: COVID-19 Infiltrated Every Socio-Economic Divide. The Next Pandemic Doesn’t Have To
By Michael O’Grady for Virginia Mercury - Just a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic, data began to suggest that disparities, especially disproportionate death rates, were forming on top of all too familiar divisions of race, economics and geography. This prompted Al Sharpton to opine, “I am not saying the pandemic is a conspiracy to kill or target Blacks, but it is illuminating the existing racial disparities in this country that reverberate in everything from health care to jobs, housing and more.” Even in 2024, African American COVID-19 infection rates are approximately 29% higher than the rates of non-Hispanic whites in Virginia.
There is a joke in development economics: it helps to pick your parents. It’s a tongue-in-cheek reference to outcome disparities based on both where a person is born and what their parents do for a living. My mom’s family is from Western Pennsylvania between Pittsburgh and the Ohio border – an area that reminds me a lot of Southwest and Southside Virginia. READ ENTIRE
RVA 5x5: Jon Baliles Recounts Corruption History in Richmond City Hall
WHY RVA 5x5 IS MUST READING. ➡️ SUBSCRIBE HERE. The latest edition of RVA 5x5 by Jon Baliles on alleged ongoing corruption issues at Richmond City Hall is a must read. Reporting in the Richmond Times-Dispatch has cataloged the issues. Here is a small section:
PART #2 — Policies? What Policies?
In recent weeks, Samuel Parker at the Times-Dispatch has thankfully gotten the paper to rediscover bulldog investigative reporting like the old days and delivered a series of stories that remove any doubt that City Hall has returned to where we were 20 years ago (and will need some real professionals to turn it around, but more on that later).
Last month, Parker wrote extensively about credit card abuse by the city’s Voter Registrar, hiring family to work in his office, signing contracts without required reviews, and he also found that a Deputy Registrar had also been abusing credit cards and also hiring relatives. READ ENTIRE
RELATED: FOIA Lawsuit Filed by Richmond City Hall Employee (Mar. 2, 2024)
➡️ Also 🎙️ listen to the latest podcast RVA’s Got Issues on how government blocks the public from seeing government information:
Video: WAVY Interviewed Black Trump Supporter Before Chesapeake Rally
Though he was clearly an outlier, given that the audience at the Trump get-out-the-vote rally in Chesapeake was overwhelming white, WAVY-TV interviewed a Black Trump supporter at the heavily attended June 28 rally. Several of the Black attendees at the Trump rally were merchandise vendors.
In an interview after the Chesapeake rally, former President Trump said he would be campaigning hard in Virginia and there would be several more rallies.
Events
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