Winsome Sears is Closing the Gap

With less than five weeks before Virginia’s statewide elections, a new poll finds the Republican gubernatorial nominee, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, [pictured right] trending upward and closing the gap with her opponent, Democrat Abigail Spanberger.

The poll conducted by A2 Insights found Earle-Sears trailing Spanberger, a former three-term member of Congress, by 3.1 points—marking the closest margin Virginians have seen in the race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

When asked who they would vote for if the election were held today, 44.6% said Earle-Sears, while 47.7% said Spanberger. Some 6.4% said they were undecided, and 1.3% said they would vote for another candidate.

A2 Insights, a nonpartisan public opinion polling firm, surveyed 771 likely voters through an online panel between Sept. 26 and Sept. 28. It didn’t give a margin of error.

Polls continue to show Earle-Sears gaining ground. In less than a month, she has gained 9 points.

School District Lets Male Leer in Girls' Locker Room

The U.S. Department of Education cut off Fairfax County Public Schools from the Magnet School Assistance Program over its refusal to block males from girls' restrooms, fulfilling Secretary Linda McMahon's threat a week earlier to cut it off along with resistance school districts in New York City and Chicago.

FCPS's funding is even more precarious following new allegations it repeatedly affirmed the right of a male student with "facial hair," wearing pants so tight "they clearly outlined his genitalia," to leer at girls in their locker room as they changed into gym clothes, telling girls who object to either change faster or use a single-occupancy restroom.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin also launched a probe last month following allegations FCPS officials facilitated abortions for students without parental consent and used public money for it.

The latest skirmish could strengthen GOP gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears' [pictured above] position against frontrunning Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger, having already narrowed the gap by several percentage points on the strength of parental revolts against northern Virginia school districts' gender identity policies.

Virginia Assisted Suicide Bill Failed to Move, Will Carry Over to 2025, Other Bills Dead

Dear Advocates,

More good news from the east coast! Virginia bill SB 280, which had passed in the Senate, failed to move forward in the House – despite last ditch efforts – and will carry over to 2025. Many thanks to the Virginia coalition which did outstanding work to prevent passage.

In the meantime, the following bills are now declared dead for 2024 and will NOT carry over to the new year. 

Euthanasia Bill Fails

Senator John Edwards, D-Roanake, broke with party lines in a Democrat-controlled panel by voting against Senate Bill 390. 

Per his vote, the bill was defeated in a Senate subcommittee with a 5-4 vote.

Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia Bill Continued Forward to Next Session

Neptune, Virginia Beach

On January 16, 2020, HB 1649 was introduced in the Virginia Legislature and referred to the Committee for Courts of Justice.

On February 7, 2020, on a voice vote it was continued forward to the next session in 2021. This was at the request of the bill's sponsor, essentially kicking the can down the road.

This is good news.

Patient-Directed Suicide Has Morphed into Family-Determined Suicide

To view original article, click here.

Recently the effort to legalize physician-assisted suicide has ramped up in Virginia. For 2,500 years, medicine has claimed the role of healer, but this dangerous public policy would change that by requiring a doctor’s participation in a patient’s demise .

Patients should never be conflicted about which role their physician plays.

Legislative Panel Punts on Assisted Suicide-Euthanasia Proposal

Del. Scott Garrett, MD

To view the original article, click here.

By Katie O' Connor, Virginia Mercury

A group of lawmakers shot down proposals to allow medical-aid-in-dying, also known as physician-assisted suicide [and euthanasia], in Virginia on Wednesday in a review of a series of legislative recommendations on health care.

Del. Kaye Kory, D-Fairfax, requested that the Joint Commission on Health Care study the medical-aid-in-dying debate, in which a patient with less than six months to live obtains lethal drugs through a physician to end his or her life.

Man admits killing mother as part of an assisted suicide pact

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140912/NEWS/140919922

MONTICELLO - Andrew Moore broke down in tears Thursday in Sullivan County Court as he pleaded guilty to fatally strangling his mother as part of an assisted suicide pact.

Moore will face a maximum sentence of five to 15 years behind bars in the plea bargain agreement. In return, he pleaded guilty to a second-degree manslaughter charge for assisting his mother, Margaret "Peggy" Regalia of Bloomingburg, in committing suicide in January.

Judge Frank LaBuda posed one last question before Moore was taken away in handcuffs.

"So, you strangled the last breath out of your mother with your hands?"

"Yes," Moore said as he began to cry.

Regalia was found dead in a house on Nashopa Road in Bloomingburg after her daughter Jennifer and Mike Panet, Jennifer's husband, asked police to check the house when the ShopRite in Montgomery, where Regalia worked, notified them she had missed two days of work.

District Attorney James Farrell said Moore and his mother had a "suicide agreement," to which Moore had confessed when he was initially arrested. Farrell said the investigation confirmed that.

Farrell said Moore, 29 when he strangled his mother, was "very troubled," but his remorse did not appear to be fake.

"The fact he has remorse is a good thing," Farrell said. "But he still has to held accountable for his actions and for taking her life. And he'll have to live with what he did for the rest of his days."

Moore is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 18.

abeam@th-record.com

Ex-Navy sailor from Willits convicted in assisted suicide

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20120808/ARTICLES/120809558?tc=ar

By GLENDA ANDERSON, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT, Published: Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 7:31 p.m; Last Modified: Thursday, August 9, 2012 at 7:36 a.m.

A former Navy enlisted sailor who graduated from Willits High School has been sentenced to five years in prison for helping a senior non-commissioned officer commit suicide in Virginia, according to the Virginian-Pilot newspaper.

Paul Stephen Bricker, 27, had pleaded guilty April 4 to voluntary manslaughter in the July 2009 death of Gerard Curran in Virginia Beach. Bricker, a petty officer second class at the time, testified that Curran said he was ill and asked him to help him commit suicide and make it appear to be a homicide so his family would receive Navy death benefits, the newspaper reported.

Curran, 45, who was having marital and alcohol-related problems, previously had attempted to stab himself in the chest, the Virginian-Pilot reported.

On the day of his death, he choked himself with a yellow physical therapy band. When he passed out, Bricker stabbed him in the chest.

Bricker was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison, but the judge suspended five, according to the Virginian-Pilot.

The Cavlier Daily: "Law, not choice"

http://www.cavalierdaily.com/2011/10/14/law-not-choice/

By Margaret Dore on October 14, 2011

I am an attorney in Washington state, where assisted suicide is legal. I am also president of Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation opposed to assisted suicide. Contrary to Alex Yahanda’s article, “The grateful dead” (Oct. 13), assisted suicide is only legal in two states: Oregon and Washington. He also leaves off its multiple problems such as elder abuse.

Last March, I did a legal analysis of two assisted suicide bills that were pending in the Vermont legislature. I had previously analyzed two similar bills introduced in 2009. None of these bills assured patient choice.

To view my most recent analysis, go to http://www.choiceillusionvermont.org/p/2011-bills.html. To view my prior analysis, see “Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Recipe for Elder Abuse and the Illusion of Personal Choice,” in the Winter 2011 edition of the Vermont Bar Journal, which is available at http://www.vtbar.org/Images/Journal/journalarticles/winter2011/PhysicianAssistedSuicide.pdf .
Margaret Dore
President, Choice is an Illusion