www.thecentersquare.com – By Shirleen Guerra | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-05-16 07:30:00
Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced the launch of “Safe Kids, Strong Families,” a statewide initiative aimed at advancing child welfare reforms in Virginia. The plan includes a \$1 million investment to address challenges such as child safety, workforce shortages, and congregate care. The initiative builds on previous efforts, including the Safe and Sound Task Force, and focuses on increasing kinship placements for children. Youngkin also signed three bills to enhance foster care services, ensuring that foster youth aged 12 and up have access to critical resources. The goal is to reduce the number of children in foster care and strengthen family-based solutions.
(The Center Square) – Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced the launch of Safe Kids, Strong Families, a new statewide initiative to “unify and advance” child welfare reforms.
The plan includes a $1 million investment to tackle challenges like child safety, workforce shortages, and congregate carethat aimsto build a stronger system for families across the commonwealth.
“The most amazing gift we have here in the Commonwealth are our children because they are the ones who are going to build our future and realize our collective aspirations,” said Youngkin. “Today, we launched our Safe Kids, Strong Families initiative to build on the progress our Administration has achieved over the last three years on child welfare and tomake sureevery child in Virginia has the love and support they need to fulfill their God-given destiny.”
He thanked Secretary of Health and Human Resources Janet Kelly and “every hero who has stepped up to serve our collective mission-that every child in Virginia is safe and part of a strong family.”
The initiative builds on the administration’s earlier Safe and Sound Task Force, which aimedto reduce the number of foster children sleeping in officesand expand the use of kinship placements. State officials say placements with relatives in Virginia rose to 21.2% in April, up from 13% in 2023,with a goal of reaching35% by the end of Youngkin’s term.
A related program that took effect in July 2024 has helped 661 children stay with kin, with nearly 44% later reuniting with their parents.
As of the most recent federal report,more than 4,000children remained in foster care in Virginia in late 2023, a number state officials say they’re working to reduce by expanding family-based options.
Youngkin also signed three additional bills —House Bill 1777,Senate Bill 1406,andSenate Bill 801— each designed to improve help for children and families in foster care. These new laws expand access to services and ensure foster youth aged 12 and up are informed abouthow to contactthe Office of the Children’s Ombudsman.
“Since Day One, Governor and Mrs. Youngkin have shown their commitment to ensuring that every single child has the opportunity to thrive by making Virginia the best place to live, workandraise a family,” said Kelly. “By working together across the aisle andacrossagencies, Virginia can help children in foster care turn heartbreak into hope and transform adversity from childhood into an adulthood full of resilience.”
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The article primarily reports on Governor Glenn Youngkin’s new child welfare initiative and related legislative efforts in a straightforward, factual manner. It includes direct quotes from the governor and his administration, presents specific data, and references related programs and bills without employing charged or partisan language. While the content highlights a Republican governor’s agenda, it refrains from endorsing or criticizing the policies, maintaining a neutral tone. Thus, it reports on political actions and positions without advancing a discernible ideological stance or bias.
Starting July 1, 2025, Virginia law prohibits the collection, sale, or disclosure of personally identifiable reproductive or sexual health data without consumer consent. In response, Walmart now displays pop-ups warning Virginia shoppers that browsing or purchasing reproductive-related products like condoms or birth control may involve data use for analytics and fraud prevention. Other retailers, like CVS, have broader data collection notices. Virginia legislators, including Sen. Barbara Favola and Sen. Scott Surovell, pushed for these protections amid concerns that private data could be used by law enforcement in prosecuting reproductive healthcare decisions. The law allows consumers to sue for unauthorized data sharing, and ongoing efforts seek to refine protections further.
Disclosure pop-ups about the “cookies,” or other aggregate bits of data websites collect and store aren’t an uncommon experience while shopping online. What’s less common: when a pop-up indicates that your potential purchase of condoms, birth control medication or menstrual hygiene products is being noted digitally, a message Virginians have started seeing when they shop virtually for such products.
Since July 1, a new state law outlines that people’s personally identifiable reproductive or sexual health information cannot be obtained, disclosed, disseminated or sold without consumer consent. As new laws took effect in Virginia on July 1, Walmart has begun alerting customers about certain product or service searches and purchases.
“By viewing, searching for, or buying these products or services on our site, or using related features such as the Baby Registry, you consent to our use of this information to complete your purchase, provide the requested feature, and for general analytics, operations and fraud prevention,” a pop-up disclaimer now notifies people who visit Walmart’s website from within Virginia.
If consumers don’t want their data connected to their sexual or reproductive health to be stored, the disclaimer suggests they “avoid viewing, searching for, using or purchasing these products, services, or features.”
But not all pop-ups are new or specifically focused on reproductive-related information. Other retailers like CVS have more broad disclaimers about data collection. Its site explains that information collected about consumer behaviors is used “to provide our products and services recommendations, understand how you engage with our site, and improve the services we offer you.”
It also warns that it may share data with “trusted third parties” that include marketing, analytics and research “partners.”
This sort of data collection is a common practice in e-commerce and is a catalyst for targeted advertisements that people experience elsewhere on the internet, like their social media feeds or when using search engines.
As the national reproductive health legal landscape shifts, including contraception and abortion access, some state and federal lawmakers have pressed for strengthened consumer protection laws surrounding reproductive health data.
Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax and Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington, have introduced and supported legislation to shore up these protections.
Surovell said the U.S. Congress’ “My Body, My Data Act,” a measure to protect menstrual health data introduced by Democratic lawmakers, inspired him to bring a similar effort to Virginia.
“I don’t think a lot of people realize the information that private industry buys and sells about them,” he said in a recent call.
He then worried about how law enforcement and government officials could use consumer data in the private sector.
“I was concerned that attorneys generals in some other states who want to be more aggressive about prosecuting women or other people for helping women cross state lines to obtain either contraception or abortion services might use information that the private sector has in order to reverse engineer women and other people to prosecute,” Surovell said.
Surrovell and Favola also worked on bills to prevent menstrual data from being subject to search warrants, which Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed into law. Last year, Youngkin was lambasted by many, including former President Joe Biden and talk show host Stephen Colbert, for opposing the same bill in a previous legislative session.
“It should go without saying that when a woman has her period or visits a doctor, it is nobody’s business but her own,” Favola said earlier this year.
As more pregnant people travel to get abortions outside states where the medical procedure is banned or restricted, some states — including Alabama and Texas — have threatened legal repercussions for people who leave the state for an abortion, and for those who aid them.
This year Favola’s Senate Bill 754 passed the Democrat-controlled legislature and Youngkin signed it. The law protects reproductive health data, often collected in period tracking digital apps, and allows consumers to sue if their data is sold or released without their consent.
Walmart’s interpretation of the law prompted the pop-up disclaimer, and other companies will find their own way to follow suit.
“The companies are trying to figure out how to implement the bill,” Favola said in a text message.
Next, Favola wants to explore how to further refine the bill to ensure people’s identifiable information is protected.
“I made it clear that the law is focused on individually-identifiable data — not aggregate data,” she explained. “I expect to make some revisions next session.”
Further details will be discussed in a workgroup later this summer, she said.
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Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
This article primarily reports on a new Virginia law protecting reproductive and sexual health data and the responses from Democratic lawmakers who championed it. The framing highlights privacy concerns related to reproductive rights and critiques opposition from conservative figures like Gov. Glenn Youngkin, which aligns with a Center-Left perspective emphasizing consumer protections and reproductive freedoms. The coverage is sympathetic to Democratic initiatives and concerns about data privacy in a shifting reproductive rights landscape, while presenting opposing views mainly through noted criticism rather than direct advocacy. Overall, it maintains a mostly factual tone but leans toward Center-Left through its focus and sources.
www.youtube.com – 13News Now – 2025-07-07 12:02:28
SUMMARY: The FBI and Justice Department released 11 hours of jail footage confirming Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his Manhattan cell in 2019 while awaiting trial. Investigators found no one entered Epstein’s area overnight before his death. Crucially, no client list or credible evidence of blackmail involving prominent individuals was uncovered. Despite years of conspiracy theories, the investigation found no grounds to pursue uncharged third parties. Attorney General Pam Bondi reviewed the files under a directive from President Trump. Elon Musk once hinted at explosive information in the files but later retracted his statements. President Trump denies ties to Epstein.
The FBI and DOJ say new jail video confirms Epstein died by suicide in 2019 and shows no evidence of a blackmail “client list” or wrongdoing by others.
www.youtube.com – 12 On Your Side – 2025-07-07 11:37:49
SUMMARY: The Glen Allen 12-year-old All-Star team won the Babe Ruth League State Tournament this weekend. Curt Autry congratulated the team and wished them well on his Facebook page. The team’s victory is celebrated as a significant achievement, marking them as state champions in the Babe Ruth League. Community members and supporters expressed excitement and pride for the young players’ success in the tournament. This accomplishment highlights the dedication and talent of the Glen Allen team, bringing positive recognition to their hard work and teamwork throughout the competition.
Congrats to Glen Allen’s 12-year-old All-Star team!
