Del. Kaye Kory

Commending Shane Rossini.

Commending Wolf Trap Foundation for the PerformingArts.

Marijuana; legalization of cultivation, manufacture, sale, possession, and testing; penalties. Establishes a regulatory scheme for the regulation of marijuana cultivation facilities, marijuana manufacturing facilities, marijuana testing facilities, and retail marijuana stores by the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The bill also grants localities the authority to enact ordinances establishing additional licensing requirements for marijuana establishments located within such locality and allows the home cultivation of marijuana for personal use under certain circumstances. The bill imposes a tax on retail marijuana and retail marijuana products sold by a retail marijuana store at a rate of 9.7 percent (for a total sales tax of 15 percent) and provides that 67 percent of the revenues collected from the tax be deposited into the general fund and 33 percent of the revenues be deposited into a "Retail Marijuana Education Support Fund" to be used solely for purposes of public education. Finally, the bill establishes several new criminal penalties related to marijuana, as well as modifies some existing criminal penalties. This bill was incorporated into HB 2312.

Criminal street gang reporting; notice and process for contesting entry of information into databases. Requires any agency that has determined that a person is a member of a criminal street gang to provide written notice, in English and Spanish, to the person, or, if the person is under 18 years of age, to his parent or guardian, of such determination and to describe in such notice the process for contesting the determination prior to entering the person's information into the Organized Criminal Gang File of the Virginia Criminal Information Network (VCIN) established and maintained by the Department of State Police (the Department) or the Violent Criminal Gang File of the National Crime Information Center maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (databases) or into any other systems that contain gang information or affiliation. The bill establishes a process that allows a person to contest the determination that he is a member of a criminal street gang, request information about whether his information has been entered into the databases or other systems, request removal of his information from the databases or other systems, and petition a general district court for review of an agency's decision to enter his information into the databases or other systems. The bill requires the Department to automatically remove the information from the databases or other systems of any person who has not been convicted of any criminal offenses in furtherance of or intended to benefit the criminal street gang within five years of the entry of his information in the databases or other systems and to provide written notification, in English and Spanish, of the removal to such person. The bill also requires that on or before July 1, 2022, and annually thereafter, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Juvenile Justice, and any state or local law-enforcement agency, regional jail, or regional multijurisdictional law-enforcement task force that has submitted information to the shared gang databases within the preceding five years shall submit a report to the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) with certain information regarding its use of the databases or other systems. The bill requires that on or before November 1, 2022, and annually thereafter, the DCJS publish the total number of people included in the Organized Criminal Gang File of VCIN and the information submitted by each such agency on the DCJS website.

Celebrating the life of the Honorable MamyeE. BaCote.

Unemployment compensation; overpayments dueto administrative error. Provides that if an individual receivesan overpayment of unemployment benefits under the state program thatoccurred due to an administrative error, the individual is not requiredto repay the overpayments.

Employment health and safety standards; heatillness prevention. Requires the Safety and Health Codes Boardto adopt regulations establishing standards designed to protect employeesfrom heat illness, defined in the bill. The measure authorizes anemployee to bring an action based on a violation of such standardsin which injunctive relief and monetary damages may be sought.

Criminal proceedings; consideration of mentalcondition and intellectual and developmental disabilities. Permitsthe admission of evidence concerning a defendant's mental conditionat the time of an alleged offense, including expert testimony, ifsuch evidence (i) tends to show the defendant did or did not havethe specific mental state required for the offense charged and (ii)is otherwise admissible pursuant to the general rules of evidence.If a defendant intends to present expert testimony evidence, the bill requires him or his counsel to give notice in writing to theattorney for the Commonwealth. The bill also clarifies that a diagnosisof an intellectual or developmental disability shall be consideredby a judicial officer for the purpose of rebuttal of a presumptionagainst bail and that a court may order that a sentencing reportprepared by a probation officer contain any diagnoses of an intellectualor developmental disability.

Presidential electors; National Popular VoteCompact. Enters Virginia into an interstate compact known asthe Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by NationalPopular Vote. Article II of the Constitution of the United Statesgives the states exclusive and plenary authority to decide the mannerof awarding their electoral votes. Under the compact, Virginia agreesto award its electoral votes to the presidential ticket that receivesthe most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.The compact goes into effect when states cumulatively possessinga majority of the electoral votes have joined the compact. A statemay withdraw from the compact; however, a withdrawal occurring withinsix months of the end of a President's term shall not become effectiveuntil a President or Vice President has qualified to serve the nextterm.

Celebrating the life of Stephen Teel Goodwin.