Legislation requiring Amazon.com Inc. to collect and remit sales taxes in Virginia passed a Senate committee Tuesday.

It would extend probation periods, change contracts for those who switch school systems.

Smoking would be banned in all state government buildings and in the buildings and grounds of all K-12 public schools in the commonwealth under two measures passed Tuesday by the Senate Local Government Committee. The sponsor of both proposals Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, said he was following up on an executive order issued by Gov. Tim Kaine to ban smoking in all of the state's executive offices and trying to keep children from "taking that first puff." Under the measure to prohibit smoking in state-owned buildings, local governments would have the option of banning smoking in their offices and buildings. The ban in goverment buldings passed the committee on a vote of 11-4; the ban on school grounds passed 12-3. While Northam scored a victory...

Gov. Bob McDonnell neither confirmed nor denied whether he will sign either version of the voter ID bills passed by the House of Delegates and Senate, but did say he felt protecting the integrity of the voting process was important. McDonnell said Tuesday that before he signed a bill requiring voters to present valid identifications at the polls or cast a provisional ballot he would vet it to make sure it was "legally sound" and would pass muster under the federal 1965 Voting Rights Act. The Senate passed a voter ID bill Monday and the House passed one last week that would differ over how provisional ballots cast by voters without ID would be counted. The Senate measure would give the voter six days to...

Virginia's oyster harvest has increased 10-fold over the past decade, Gov. Bob McDonnell said today.

A measure intended to make it easier for homeschooled students to play sports at public schools was given preliminary approval in the House of Delegates.

The Virginia Senate today passed a bill that would allow police officers to pull over motorists observed to be texting while driving.

Some Virginia officials are hoping a fund set up to help catch child sexual predators can be used to help other abused children.

Legislation that would have eliminated the state commission that oversees the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program and transferred its oversight authority to the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services was killed Monday in committee.

Democrats invoked the shame of the state's former Jim Crow laws, criticizing the measure as a thinly veiled attempt to suppress voter turnout among.