Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 24, 1991 TAG: 9102240228
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
BOTTLE BILL: Killed a bill requiring deposits on beverage containers.\
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: Passed a bill adding murder during forcible sodomy to the capital murder statute.\ Killed a bill adding serial killings to the capital murder statute.\ Killed a bill prohibiting the death penalty for anyone younger than 17 when the crime is committed.\ Killed a bill changing Virginia's method of capital punishment from electrocution to lethal injection.\
CAR THEFTS: Passed a bill setting up a hotline and reward system for catching car thieves.\
CONTRACTOR INFORMATION: Passed a bill limiting the consumer information the Board of Contractors can require residential contractors to give to customers.
DEPARTMENTS: Passed a bill abolishing the Department for Children, the Department of Volunteerism, the Council on the Status of Women and the Council on Indians.\
DRUNKEN DRIVING: Killed a bill requiring administrative suspension of the driver's license of motorists stopped for drunken driving.\ Killed a bill lowering from 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent the blood alcohol content required to determine legal drunkenness.\
EARLY RETIREMENT: Passed a bill establishing an early retirement program for state employees.\ \ EDUCATION: Passed a bill allowing school boards to require students to wear uniforms.\ Killed a bill allowing six localities to have a referendum on electing school board members.\ Killed a bill allowing private schools to contract with public schools to provide transportation for students.\ Killed a bill establishing a procedure for allowing parents to enroll children in the school of their choice.\ Killed a bill abolishing the job of secretary of education.\
EXPLORE: Passed a bill that says that if the state Explore board is ever dissolved, the land will be turned over to the state park system.\
FLAG BURNING AMENDMENT: Killed a resolution calling on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning.\
GUN BILLS: Killed a bill requiring a three-day waiting period to buy a handgun.\ Killed a bill requiring retail gun dealers to pay a 25 percent tax on each handgun they sell.\ Passed a bill making it illegal to bar possession of firearms in public housing until Feb. 1, 1992.\ Killed a bill that would have increased the penalty for giving guns, switchblades or Bowie knives to children.\ Passed a bill that makes it a crime, subject to a $500 fine, to recklessly leave a loaded firearm in a manner that endangers a child under age 14.\ Passed a bill extending instant criminal background checks to buyers of all handguns.\
HORSE RACING: Passed a bill allowing horse-racing tracks to televise and handle wagers on races from other tracks.\
INAUGURAL FUNDS: Passed a bill requiring disclosure of inaugural fund contributions.\
JET SKIS: Passed a bill prohibiting children under 14 from operating jet skis.
LOTTERY FUNDS: Killed a bill giving $40 million from lottery revenues to localities.\
NURSE PRACTITIONERS: Passed a bill allowing nurse practitioners to prescribe drugs.\
OPEN MEETINGS: Killed a bill removing a requirement that public boards certify that only legally permissible topics were discussed in closed session.\
PARENTAL LEAVE: Killed a bill requiring large employers to provide unpaid parental leave of 10-12 weeks every two years.\
PARENTAL NOTIFICATION:\ Killed a bill requiring parental notification for abortion.\
POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS: Passed a bill requiring political parties to report contributions and expenditures.\ Killed a bill limiting individual and political action committee contributions to $25,000 in statewide elections, $5,000 in state Senate elections and $2,000 in House of Delegates elections and prohibiting contributions from corporations and labor unions.\
PRIVATE PRISONS: Passed a bill allowing the state to contract with private companies for construction and operation of prisons.\
RAILROAD DAMAGE SUITS: Passed a bill that would allow Virginia judges to dismiss lawsuits filed by out-of-state railroad workers injured outside Virginia.\
RAILROAD STOCK: Passed a bill transferring control of the state's stock in the RF&P railroad from the legislature to the Virginia Retirement System.\
SEAT BELTS: Killed a bill that would have made the seat-belt law easier to enforce and made a violation a traffic offense that would go on motorists' driving records.\
STATE INSECT\ Passed a bill making the tiger swallowtail butterfly the official state insect.\
STATE SONG: Killed a bill changing the lyrics of the official state song, "Carry Me Back To Old Virginia."\
SURROGATE MOTHERHOOD: Passed a bill regulating surrogate motherhood contracts.
TAXES: Killed a bill raising the cigarette tax from 2.5 to 20 cents a pack.\ Killed a bill increasing the state sales tax from 4.5 percent to 5 percent.\ Killed a bill raising the state's top income tax rate from 5 3/4 percent to 6 1/4 percent, raising personal exemptions from $800 to $1,100 and providing a partial exemption on food purchased for consumption at home.\
TELEPHONE SOLICITATIONS: Killed a bill that would have set up a registry of consumers who do not want to receive telephone solicitations.\
TOBACCO PRODUCTS: Passed a bill raising the legal age for purchase or possession of tobacco products from 16 to 18.\
VMI AND WOMEN: Killed a bill requiring Virginia Military Institute to admit women.\
VOTER REGISTRATION: Passed a bill allowing voter registration in apartments and condominiums.
by CNB