Briefs

Local & VCU

Agency proposes $363.5 million budget for Va. colleges

A state agency is recommending that $363.5 million be spent over the next budget cycle to fund public colleges and universities as they phase in the Virginia Higher Education Opportunity Act.

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia also said Tuesday that the state would need $164.1 million in non-general fund revenue over the 2012-14 biennium, in the form of tuition increases of 3 to 5 percent annually.

The act includes efforts to increase enrollment; the number of degrees earned; and the pursuit of science, technology and health-related fields to prepare Virginians for high-demand jobs and boost the state’s economy. The push was part of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s higher-education legislative agenda this year.

SCHEV recommends that the governor and the General Assembly appropriate $51.2 million from the general fund and $41 million from non-general funds in the 2013 fiscal year to cover the baseline cost of operations, enrollment growth, hiring faculty and other needs. The amounts would increase in the following fiscal year to $102.5 million in general funds and $82.1 million in tuition-generated funds.

The recommendation includes $18 million for undergraduate financial aid in the 2013 fiscal year and $35.9 million in 2014, which would keep up with the increases in tuition and the number of students SCHEV anticipates will need help.

SCHEV will forward its recommendations to Gov. Bob McDonnell and the General Assembly.

Brief by The Associated Press

Mayor: Stadium will require regional financial commitment

Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones said the city is preparing a site along North Boulevard for a new baseball stadium, but he emphasized that construction would depend on a financial commitment from the region.

“All partners have to be ready to make the investment in the new stadium. The city cannot do it alone,” he said Tuesday in a statement.

Jones was responding to the revelation that the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels had contacted Minor League Baseball to discuss a potential relocation after two seasons because of the team’s unhappiness playing at The Diamond and the lack of progress toward a new stadium.

The same concerns prompted the Atlanta Braves to move their Triple-A franchise from Richmond after the 2008 season.

Brief by The Richmond Times-Dispatch

Powell sworn in as justice on Virginia Supreme Court

Cleo Elaine Powell broke new ground last Friday when she was formally sworn in as the first African-American woman on the 232-year-old Virginia Supreme Court.

A native of Brunswick County, Powell, 54, graduated from the University of Virginia in 1979 and the University of Virginia School of Law in 1982.

In 2008 she became the first African-American woman to join the Virginia Court of Appeals. She was a circuit court judge for Chesterfield and Colonial Heights from 2000 to 2008 and a general district court judge there from 1993 to 2000.

Before serving as a judge or justice, she was in private practice with Hunton & Williams, a senior assistant Virginia attorney general and corporate counsel for Dominion Virginia Power.

Powell is the second justice to recently join the court. Last month Elizabeth A. McClanahan, 52, a native of Buchanan County, took the oath, the fourth female to do so in the court’s long history.

Brief by The Richmond Times-Dispatch

National & International

Cantor cancels Pennsylvania speech opened to public

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-7th, scrapped a speech on income inequality scheduled for Friday afternoon at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School after his office learned the event would be open to the public.

Several liberal groups had coordinated a rally outside the prestigious business school. Occupy Philadelphia, a local offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement, was calling the rally the “Occupy Eric Cantor March,” and Virginia Organizing was coordinating a carpool to the event.

Cantor’s office said they understood that the Wharton event was only open to the media and an audience of about 250 members of the school community. But in a statement Friday afternoon, the school said that was not the case.

“The Wharton speaker series is typically open to the general public, and that is how the event with Majority Leader Cantor was billed,” the university said. “We very much regret if there was any misunderstanding with the majority leader’s office on the staging of his presentation.”

Cantor spokeswoman Megan Whittemore said that Cantor’s office had been informed that “the University of Pennsylvania was unable to ensure that the attendance policy previously agreed to could be met.”

Brief by The Richmond Times-Dispatch

Obama to announce plan for student loan relief

Millions of student loan borrowers will be eligible to lower their payments and consolidate their loans under a plan President Barack Obama intends to announce today, the White House said.

Obama will accelerate a measure passed by Congress that reduces the maximum repayment on student loans from 15 percent of discretionary income annually to 10 percent. The White House wants it to go into effect in 2012, instead of 2014. In addition, the White House says the remaining debt would be forgiven after 20 years, instead of 25. About 1.6 million borrowers could be affected.

He will also allow borrowers who have loans from both the Family Education Loan Program and a direct loan from the government to consolidate into one loan. The consolidated loan would be up to a half percentage point less. This could affect 5.8 million more borrowers.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that the changes could save some borrowers hundreds of dollars a month.

White House said the changes will carry no additional costs to taxpayers.

Brief by The Associated Press

Ultrasound viewing part of NC abortion law blocked

A federal judge blocked part of North Carolina’s new abortion law Tuesday, ruling providers do not have to place an ultrasound image next to a pregnant woman so she can view it, nor do they have to describe its features and offer her the chance to listen to the heartbeat.

The law was set to take effect Wednesday, but U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles’ decision puts a key section of it on hold until she can hear more arguments.

North Carolina legislators and officials have argued that by offering the image to a woman seeking an abortion and other information they would promote childbirth and protect patients from emotional distress associated with the procedure and possible coercion. The judge said she received no evidence supporting those arguments.

North Carolina officials “have not articulated how the speech-and-display requirements address the stated concern in reducing compelled abortions, and none is immediately apparent,” the judge wrote in a preliminary injunction.

The judge, nominated by President Obama last year, allowed other parts of the law to be enforced, including a 24-hour waiting period to make information about abortion risks and alternatives available. The abortion providers who sued didn’t specifically challenge the waiting period.

Brief by The Associated Press