VA News Break

Mosque Vandalism

Update: (09/17) The FBI has joined the investigation into the vandalism at the mosque in Harrisonburg.

According to WTOP, two Virginia mosques were vandalized over the weekend in what may have been a reaction against violent anti-US protests in several predominately Muslim countries. On Friday, worshipers at a mosque in Harrisonburg discovered that part of their place of worship had been vandalized.  Police believe that the graffiti may be connected to a similar incident at a Christian school.

On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that the windows of some 30 cars surrounding a Falls Church mosque had been smashed.   However, according to the Fairfax County Police department, the damage did not appear to be connected to the mosque as cars in a wide ranging area had also suffered damage. 

VA Supreme Court Weighs In On Guns For Felons

The Supreme Court of Virginia ruled Friday that only the courts have the right to restore firearms rights to felons who have finished serving their time in prison.  While lower courts in Virginia had argued that a decision by the Virginia Governor to restore the political rights of convicted felons precluded them from deciding on whether their right to possess firearms could be restored.   The Supreme Court didn’t agree with that argument. So now the courts have to go back and decide on their own whether convicted felons can have guns.

Virginia Creates More Jobs Than Maryland

According to Stephen Fuller, the director of George Mason University's Center for Regional Analysis, Virginia has been outperforming Maryland in job creation for over last thirty years.

“On a population base they're relatively equal, on a jobs base they're very unequal," Fuller was quoted as saying in a WTOP article.  Fuller backed up his claims with hard numbers, adding that while Virginia created 30,000 jobs last year, Maryland added a meager  1,500.