Early voting has already started in Virginia. For those who have not voted yet, there are three proposed Amendments to the Virginia State Constitution on the ballot:

• https://www.elections.virginia.gov/election-law/proposed-constitutional-amendment-question-1/
• https://www.elections.virginia.gov/election-law/proposed-constitutional-amendment-question-2/
• https://www.elections.virginia.gov/election-law/proposed-constitutional-amendment-question-3/

I'd highly recommend reading these and knowing how you plan to vote before casting your ballot. There may also be Local Referendums on your ballot and there are obviously House and Senate races which have been dominating the airwaves.

If you are unsure of where to vote, or what issues will be on your ballot, the Virginia Department of Elections has a helpful tool to look that up:

• https://www.elections.virginia.gov/casting-a-ballot/polling-place-lookup/

Go Vote Virginia!

Sarajevo Safari is the name for an alleged war tourism phenomenon during the siege of Sarajevo (1992–1996) involving human hunting. According to the reports, wealthy foreign nationals were enabled, for large monetary fees, to shoot at civilians in the besieged city with sniper rifles for entertainment purposes.

Hackers compromised HBO Max's official Reddit account and used it to push malicious ads that launched ClickFix attacks to infect Windows and macOS devices with information-stealing malware.

Security researchers at Hudson Rock and ADAMnetworks analyzed the campaign and say the verified u/hbomax Reddit account was hijacked and used to launch 108 malicious advertisements over about 48 hours.

The ads used a social engineering technique known as ClickFix, which tricks users into copying and pasting malicious commands into Windows Run, PowerShell, or macOS Terminal while pretending to fix an error, verify a CAPTCHA, or install legitimate software.

Virginia is moving closer to regulating self-driving vehicles, with lawmakers and experts recently agreeing on a plan ahead of the next legislative session as the technology expands and safety concerns grow.

Last year, the General Assembly directed a workgroup to consider rules for autonomous vehicles, or AVs, which have been tested in states including Arizona and Texas and restricted in California. Meanwhile, the federal government announced a national strategy plan to accelerate the development and deployment of self-driving vehicles across the country.

Leaders in the commonwealth are drafting proposals to establish a framework for implementing AV policy and create an ongoing advisory committee after the group concludes its work. The panel held its most recent meeting on Aug. 28.

Virginia’s proposed framework would focus on commercial use rather than personal vehicles, including ride-sharing and delivery services, buses and Class 7 and 8 heavy-duty vehicles.

Six years ago, the City of Richmond removed a statue of Confederate Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson on Monument Avenue. Crowds gathered, the sky opened and cheers erupted in the rain. Over the next two years, dozens of statues came down.

But three statues still remained in Richmonders’ frequent public view, since they were on state property, as they were the responsibility of the General Assembly.

In addition to Jackson’s statue, which was unveiled in 1875, contractors removed two others: Gov. William “Extra Billy” Smith, who served before and during the Civil War, and Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire, Jackson’s surgeon.

State regulators have approved Appalachian Power’s plan to move tons of coal ash created by its now-retired Glen Lyn power plant to a future landfill on the property.

Coal ash, also known as coal combustion residuals, is a byproduct of burning coal and a potentially harmful industrial waste. Appalachian Power has nearly 6.8 million cubic yards of it in an existing landfill and several ponds on the plant property.

The 335-megawatt power plant, in Giles County near the border between Virginia and West Virginia, stopped producing electricity in 2015 after federal regulators enacted stricter emissions standards. A 2020 Virginia law required the company to either recycle the coal ash or put it in a newer, more modern landfill.

Gov. Abigail Spanberger is stepping directly into the regulatory fight over the proposed $67 billion sale of Dominion Energy to Florida-based NextEra Energy, becoming the first Virginia governor to formally intervene in a case before the State Corporation Commission.

Spanberger announced Thursday that she will seek intervenor status in the case, giving her administration the ability to question both companies, review documents and argue for conditions related to customer electric bills, Virginia jobs and the state’s energy future.

The move does not give the governor the authority to approve, reject or rewrite the merger. Those decisions remain with the SCC, the independent regulatory body responsible for determining whether the transaction serves public interest.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/fzQPR

Courts are splintered over whether and how states can censor the messages the plates convey.

The latest decision landed Friday. It involved Curtis Whateley, who paid Virginia $10 in 2023 for a personalized license plate. He had seven characters to work with, and he sought to convey a statement “expressing my opinion on the current state of policing in this country,” as he would later put it in a lawsuit.

He settled on FTP & ATF. No one disputes what those letters stand for. “TP” is the police. “ATF” is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “F” is what you think it is.

The state issued the plate, and he used it for about a year, until authorities received an anonymous complaint that caused them to cancel it. Representing himself, Whateley sued, saying the cancellation violated the First Amendment.

With a deadline looming, a group of hemp businesses have filed a lawsuit to stop new restrictions on CBD products from taking effect in Virginia.

Currently, legal hemp products are those with a total THC concentration of no more than 0.3%. They must also have no more than 2 milligrams of total THC per package, but they can go over that limit if they feature a 25:1 ratio of CBD to THC.

At issue is the pending elimination of the 25:1 ratio rule on Aug. 15.

Hemp business owners say the new restriction would make many hemp-derived CBD products that are being sold today illegal. The Cannabis Small Business Association said the move would upend the industry without a transitional period to adapt to new regulations, which were included in the state budget approved in late June alongside provisions to launch a recreational marijuana retail market beginning next summer.

Loudoun County Supervisor is calling for new laws after an emergency at the Vantage VA2 campus, amid debate over public health impacts of data center pollution.

The Department of War today announces the immediate suspension of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Phase II requirements, which were originally scheduled to come into effect on November 10, 2026. All Phase I self-assessment requirements remain firmly in place.

Lawmakers negotiating the budget have come to an agreement that would establish a retail cannabis market in the state. That could mean Virginians would be able to legally buy and sell recreational cannabis beginning in July 2027.

Previously, Gov. Abigail Spanberger vetoed the legislation creating a retail cannabis market after the General Assembly rejected her substantial amendments to the bill that included harsher penalties for some cannabis offenses and eliminated language about how revenue generated from cannabis sales tax would be allocated. But negotiations continued after the veto.

Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility Dominion Energy has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Fortune 200 Florida energy company NextEra Energy in an all-stock transaction worth approximately $66.8 billion.

NextEra bills itself as the largest electric power and energy infrastructure company in North America. According to a Monday announcement from the two companies, the merged company would be the world’s largest regulated electric utility business. It would serve about 10 million utility customer accounts across Florida, Virginia and the Carolinas and own 110 gigawatts of generation from a mix of energy sources, and it would be more than 80% regulated. As of late 2024, Dominion provided electricity to 2.7 million customers in Virginia.

Gov. Abigail Spanberger traveled to Northern Virginia on Wednesday to sign a slate of bills aimed at reducing healthcare costs, ranging from insurance claims reform to targeted prescription drug affordability.

The governor approved Senate Bill 161 and House Bill 625 by Sen. Russet Perry, D-Loudoun, and Del. Rozia Henson, D-Woodbridge. The bills, endorsed by the American Cancer Society Action Network, will allow Virginians to choose insurance plans with flat rates on copays for prescription drugs.

SB 164 by Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, and HB 484 by Del. Irene Shin, D-Fairfax, will prohibit downcoding insurance claims without a healthcare provider stating why.

HB 328 by Del. Rip Sullivan, D-Fairfax, requires the state’s Bureau of Insurance to select a new essential health benefits benchmark plan for 2028 and outlines different treatments and services covered in state-offered plans. The bill came as a recommendation from the Health Insurance Reform Commission.

HB 736 by outgoing Del. Michelle Maldonado, D-Manassas, amends requirements for health carrier contracts that relate to prior authorizations for prescription drugs.

HB 1214 by Del. Karrie Delaney, D-Fairfax, will lower insulin costs and set caps on costs for diabetes equipment, like glucose monitoring devices.

Gov. Abigail Spanberger is vetoing legislation that would allow public employees to bargain collectively for wages and benefits, according to the bill's patron, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax.

Surovell said the governor, who called him about her actions, is also vetoing his bill to allow class-action lawsuits to be filed in state courts.

He said the Democratic governor vetoed the bills because the Democratic-controlled General Assembly did not accept her proposed amendments to the legislation, instead passing by all of the gubernatorial amendments during the legislature’s veto session on April 22.

Wineries across much of Virginia lost significant portions of their grape crops last week after a destructive freeze, setting back an already struggling industry and resulting in gaps in the availability of some local wines from 2026 starting next spring.

Temperatures dropped to as low as 24 degrees in Charlottesville overnight Monday and Tuesday, resulting in a “hard freeze,” according to Annette Boyd, director of marketing for the Virginia Wine Board, which advocates for the state’s wine industry. In addition to the Northern Virginia and Shenandoah Valley areas, wineries as far south as New Kent County were impacted, with the New Kent Winery reporting a loss of about 90% of its crop.

The grapes affected by last week’s freeze were due to be harvested from August to October and would’ve started to be available commercially about six months later, depending on the type of grape and the winery’s respective aging schedule, Boyd said.

As long as the vines themselves weren’t damaged, they may bud again in time for harvest but these will be smaller and in far fewer number, according to Curt Hartman, part-owner and president of Bluestone Vineyard in Bridgewater, west of Shenandoah National Park.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, last week enacted a new law that voids community-wide prohibitions on solar fields and establishes new siting guidelines for the facilities. Starting July 1, when the law takes effect, local governments can still deny permits to solar developers but must submit their rationale for doing so to state regulators.

“Localities still are in the driver’s seat here. They can still deny every project from now until the end of time if they want,” said Evan Vaughan, executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition, a nonprofit that represents over 50 large-scale solar, storage, and wind developers and manufacturers.

But, he added, given rising prices and pressures on farmers from tariffs and fertilizer shortages, ​“there may be more interest in rural communities to see solar projects and to at least hear them out about the benefits that they can provide.”

A Virginia Beach judge Thursday halted the city’s enforcement of its all ages curfew at the Oceanfront on its final night.

After seven hours of argument and testimony, Judge Tanya Felton agreed with an attorney representing three businesses that the city’s curfew, as written, was too vague and surpassed the authority given by state law to local officials to restrict freedoms for the public’s safety.

Attorney Kevin Martingayle filed the motion on Monday to stop the curfew on behalf of business owners, who claimed the curfew’s first nights this past weekend caused them severe and irreparable harm that went beyond economic losses, violating their constitutional rights.

The Virginia General Assembly convened for a special session Thursday to finalize the state’s $212 billion budget, but recessed after just a few hours without a deal, underscoring deep divisions within the Democratic majorities and leaving the spending plan unresolved.

After a brief floor session, lawmakers left Richmond and returned to their districts, with no clear timeline for when negotiations might produce a compromise on the two-year spending plan.

At the center of the impasse is a dispute within the Democratic majority over whether to scale back a lucrative tax incentive that has helped fuel Virginia’s rise as the world’s largest data center hub.