IN THE NEWS:

1. The secretive plan to bring a sports arena to Alexandria is over--and the folks involved seem to be blaming everybody but themselves.

2. Back in December, Governor Glenn Youngkin proposed a new digital tax for consumers. If you bought a digital book, for example, you would have to pay the same sales tax as a hard copy book you got at the bookstore. Now the General Assembly is agreeing with the governor about consumers and adding businesses to the governor's proposal. 

3. "Cocktails-to-go" was one of the innovations of the pandemic. Now the governor is agreeing with lawmakers to allow the temporary fix to become permanent-- although the jury is still out on third-party vendors like DoorDash and Uber Eats.

At the Watercooler:

• Why is Governor Youngkin reviewing race-related education content at VCU and GMU?

• The Governor also vetoed a bill that would give the minimum wage to farm worker--which started as an explicitly racist Jim Crow-ear policy.

Episode Transcript

Michael Pope  

I'm Michael Pope.

Lauren Burke  

I'm Lauren Burke.

Michael Pope  

And this is Pod Virginia—the number one podcast in the world.

Lauren Burke  

April Fool's.

Michael Pope  

That's your first April Fool's for today. All right, let's get to the news. Monumental failure. So it's official, stick a fork in it; the secret plan to bring a sports arena to Alexandria is over. The arena had city officials lying to cover up their tracks because they failed to disclose information to the public. The one that had Richmond buzzing about strategies to go around the chairwoman of the Senate Finance Committee. Well, you can write the obituary for it because last week, Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson announced the city had ceased negotiations. 

Justin Wilson  

We are disappointed that this proposal was not able to be thoughtfully considered on its merits by legislators, stakeholders, and ultimately now by our community, and instead got caught up in partisan warfare in Richmond.

Lauren Burke  

Shortly after, the city of Alexandria posted a YouTube video of the mayor making those comments millionaire. Ted Leonsis appeared at a press conference with the DC mayor to announce he had struck a deal to keep the Capitals and Wizards in DC. Speaking to ABC 7, Leonsis said the most appealing aspect of the Potomac Yard site was its size.

Ted Leonsis  

I think we can be creative, but I can't manufacture seven more acres. That's why the Virginia space was one of a kind; it was the largest undeveloped piece of property near an airport, on a metro stop, or the water in the country. And now we're staying here. And it'll be abandoned, or it'll become a parking lot. So I think that our mayor made the right business decision. I'm not going to worry about what happens there. But that is a beautiful, important piece of land, but they don't have anything to put there.

Michael Pope  

Will it be abandoned? Will it become a parking lot? Does the city of Alexandria have anything to put there? Well, let's consult the owner of that property, JBG Smith. I'm going to read a sentence from their press release about this last week. This is an actual quote from the JBG Smith press release: We are disgusted with the backroom dealing and opaque scheming that took place as this played out, unquote. So that's pretty rich for people who refuse to provide any details about the 30,000 jobs they expected us to believe. And so they're outraged about opaque scheming in Richmond.

Lauren Burke  

I think I can top it. Ted Leonsis is quoted in Axios as saying this about Virginia politics, "It just doesn't feel world class. You don't treat big important companies that way".

Michael Pope  

You don't treat big, important companies that way. Wow. I don't even know what to make of that.

Lauren Burke  

I cannot get over this situation at this moment. It's really absurd. We had several things confirmed this week; well, not necessarily confirmed, you couldn't completely tell. But Ted Leonsis confirmed many of those things. One of the confirmed bubbles is arrogance. Absolute arrogance. You had several political players involved in this: leader Surovell, Speaker Scott, Senate Finance Chair Louise Lucas, and the House Finance Chair Luke Torian. Leader Surovell confirmed once again on social media that there were no meetings with these principal people. The Governor, Monumental CEO Ted Leonsis, and JBG Smith. Matt Kelly, who put out the release you just read and added into that release language about pay to play in that way too long, unnecessary press release. It is as if the people in the Virginia General Assembly are working for Ted Leonsis and Monumental or orJBG Smith. The voters of Virginia did not send them to Richmond to work for Ted Leonsis. That's not how this works. When they take their official portrait, there's an American flag back there. And then there's a flag of the Commonwealth of Virginia, not a flag of Monumental. So, it is absurd on its face that there was no meeting. If they think this project is great and important, then try to convince people. They had no public buy-in whatsoever. We couldn't find anyone responsible for this project. There was no group in the streets with signs and T-shirts for this project. There was a group in the streets with signs and T-shirts against this project the day after it was announced. There were no town halls, no media tour explaining anything, nothing. There was no inside-game promotion. Now, sometimes, with these projects, it's understandable that not everything can be public. Maybe you have an inside game. Maybe you're talking to people on the inside. But they weren't doing that. They had no deal with labor. And they had no meeting of the principals. And now they're out here criticizing everybody else. They are Governor Youngkin, Ted Leonsis, and the JBG Smith CEO, Matt Kelly. It's everybody else's fault. Except they're blaming everybody except the man in the mirror. And I don't know about you, but the jobs that I've had on my business card have said Managing Editor or Director of Communications. If I have a director on there, what happens is it's my responsibility when something goes wrong. Those are smaller projects that I've been involved in. I haven't been involved in a $1.5 billion project. But when you're the director, Governor, or a person who got up on December 13th and said, this was a great idea. I've got to take some responsibility for the outcome. 

Michael Pope  

Now we're in the phase where we find out what happens next. So everybody might have ideas about what to do with this property. But let's remember that JBG Smith owns this property. And it's up to them what happens with this property. Assuming they can get approval from the Alexandria city government for whatever it is they want to do or not do. There was language in their statement that said this quote: the existing surface parking lot single-story shopping center on the site would remain through the remaining 20-year term of the Target lease. Development on any remaining land will likely be far less dense and unquote. People might have all kinds of ideas about putting an entertainment district there or whatever. But JBG Smith seems to have hurt feelings right now. They're saying that since you rejected this deal that we wanted to happen, we're just going to let this 20-year lease play out. So get ready, Alexandria, because you have 20 more years of a huge surface parking lot and a very old-fashioned strip mall.

Lauren Burke  

Well, it depends on whether or not they want to work with people. They seem to be working under some sort of assumption: They just get to declare stuff.

Michael Pope  

But to an extent, they do get to declare what happens because they are the owners of the land. It's kind of up to them what happens with this property.

Lauren Burke  

Oh, no, it's not. We just watched it, and that's actually a no. They wanted to declare an arena was going to be there. But you have to work with the elected officials in the area. You've got the zoning question. There are traffic questions and transportation questions. They just learned you can't declare whatever it is you want. Part of their problem is they think they can just declare stuff. Their whole attitude in that press release was, I can't believe we can't do whatever we want without talking to anyone about it. They didn't even do the bare minimum. We watched the casino deal go down in Richmond. Urban One had a tour of Richmond. They went and listened to people's concerns about having a casino in Richmond. That was the bare minimum. So I'm confused as to why they think they can get up on stage on December 13th. Want public money for something and think it's going to happen automatically? Now they've come back and are insulting in writing and the media, as well as all the players that were involved.

Michael Pope  

Yeah. One thing to keep in mind about JBG Smith is that it's a business. They want to make money. And for now, they're saying, Well, this 20-year lease, all of this so hurt our feelings, so we're just going to let this 20-year lease play out. We're not going to do anything with this property for another 20 years. So you get 20 years of a surface parking lot and an old-fashioned single-story strip mall. That's what they're saying today. Next year, they might have a plan to make a gazillion dollars by doing something different with the property.

Lauren Burke  

If you want something, you do have to have public buy-in. These elected officials didn't just drop out of the sky. They're there because the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia voted them in. It's their responsibility to go over these projects, to guard and be good stewards of the public's money. And I'm sure Matt Kelly, the CEO of JBG Smith, is aware of that. I'm sure Ted Leonsis is aware of that. I don't think it was accidental. There were no principal's meetings. Everybody knows in politics, the surest way to delete someone's power is not to give them a seat at the table and not have a meeting. Governor Youngkin seems to think he could just win by inertia. I'm not going to actually have a conversation because everybody gets to have their input in those meetings when we're having conversations. So, how do I not have input? How do I just do what I want to do and declare it? I don't want a meeting. Do we think that's an accident? Leonsis has been around forever. He was the mayor of a small city in Florida. He knows politics. He's been around forever. DC is only a city council and a mayor; that's it. By the way, the mayor of DC just handed him $500 million. What's that? There was apparently no option in Maryland. He was stuck, and DC was it. That's why he's in DC. Even by the standards of corporate arrogance that we are well aware of, their corporate arrogance is high.

Michael Pope  

It's interesting; you can imagine an alternative scenario where they were a tad less arrogant and went through the political process in Richmond with even the smallest sense of how that place actually works.

Lauren Burke  

This is an interesting moment. You probably saw the story in the Washington Post by Greg Schneider, the analysis of Governor Youngkin's management style. I don't think it's a surprise to anybody that if somebody worked at The Carlyle Group, and then all of a sudden their first political job is Governor. He's never worked in politics. I don't think it's surprising there was a dictatorial nature to this entire event. What does surprise me is that you announced something on December 13th; it dies on March 27th. That's 105 days. Around January, I'd actually say before January. Certainly, Chairwoman Lucas was sending signals that she wasn't into it. You could see there was a problem. You can also see there was no public buy. Where were members of the public saying we really want a sports arena? By the way, sports is fun. My mother's side of the family is from Virginia. But my father's side is from New York. I grew up in New York, around six, maybe, eight sports teams. Every sport in New York has two teams, and it's a lot of fun to go to Madison Square Garden, Barclays, or wherever Verizon Center and watch the capitals. It's fun. Why wasn't anybody excited about this project in the public? Why didn't JBG Smith Monumental or the Governor, try and build some excitement? Have a tour of Alexandria and ask people, or tell people this is why it's good. This is why this is going to be exciting. This is why this is going to be cool. There was none of that.

Michael Pope  

Or just, you know, answer telephone calls and respond to emails. The communication strategy was seriously lacking. Well, gosh, it's dead for now. I talked about this for so much on the podcast, but let's read the obituary and move on to our next story—business to business. Back in December, Governor Glenn Youngkin proposed a new digital tax for consumers. If you buy a digital book, for example, you'd have to pay the same sales tax as the hardcopy book that you actually bought in the brick-and-mortar bookstore. Now, the General Assembly is doing something a little different. They're agreeing with the Governor about adding consumers to the tax. But they're also doing something different; they're adding businesses to the Governor's proposal. The Governor's proposal had an exemption for businesses and only charged consumers with this digital tax. Rodrigo Soto at the Commonwealth Institute says what lawmakers are proposing increases fairness. 

Rodrigo Soto  

If a business is purchasing Office 365, make sure they're not exempt from that as well. They should make sure they are paying the sales tax for that digital product as well, which is what the legislature's proposal does. 

Lauren Burke  

However, applying the digital tax to businesses instead of just hitting up consumers is a bad policy, according to Jared Walczak at the Tax Foundation.

Jared Walczak  

The consumer tax is small compared to the business tax. This is why there are now, well, more than a billion dollars in tax increases: because the business side is so much larger for digital products than the consumer side.

Michael Pope  

You have to wonder about Governor Glenn Youngkin. It's almost cartoonish, giving tax breaks to millionaires and giving exemptions to businesses. What if you're going to create this digital tax? Why wouldn't you hit a business? You're only going to hit up consumers? Are you going to give businesses an exemption?

Lauren Burke  

Exactly. This is another moment where I have to sit and say that this session, Democrats have done an effective job at exposing Governor Glenn Youngkin. Getting what his views are in detail on a myriad of issues and taxation is one of them. I'm sure the Governor is certainly trying to look business-friendly. But there's a pattern we see with regard to things like this. Siding with the gun manufacturers in the NRA and not caring about that bill on fees. Certain decisions make you say that you don't care about individuals. You're always against individual concerns and the rights of average, everyday Virginians. This is a great example because you would think that the idea would be to tax everybody or tax nobody. The argument if you're against excessive taxes, which is what he said on the campaign trail in 2021; the argument would be, let's tax nobody. But actually, he's saying, let's tax a little guy and let the big guy off. It's a political reveal. 

Michael Pope  

We're not done with the reveal yet. Because the Governor has another bite at this apple, he gets to make his budget amendments. We're currently waiting for that sometime next week. It's going to be really interesting to see how this plays out. When the Governor proposed this new digital sales tax, it was part of a package deal where you also gave tax breaks to millionaires. The Democrats in the General Assembly said, well, we don't like this part about tax breaks for millionaires, so we're going to pull it out. But then you're creating this new digital tax. So clearly, the Governor has to figure out some kind of way to save face for himself. He's giving tax breaks to people instead of adding a new tax. He's going to try to figure out a way to balance that. Of course, the General Assembly has its say in the reconvened session on April 17th. We don't really know how this is going to play out. Lauren, what's your suspicion? People have been talking about the possibility of him vetoing the budget, and that seems pretty extreme. But even if he doesn't, veto the entire budget. From his perspective, especially politically, he's got to figure out some kind of way that when you add up all the taxes together, it reads as a tax cut instead of a tax increase. 

Lauren Burke  

I don't know how he's going to do that. The theme of the minimum wage vetoes and now this digital tax is the average Virginian; it doesn't matter; the middle-class person doesn't matter. The big entities do matter. I don't think he would veto the entire budget. But I find it to be the same old, boring routine from this version of the Republican Party that doesn't really think outside the box, either. And it is just doing the same old thing; there's nothing unique here. We'll see what happens; I couldn't venture to guess what he will do. I doubt he would veto the entire budget. We'll see next week.

Michael Pope  

We will see next week. Let's move on to our next story. Cocktails-to-go was an innovation of the pandemic. The idea was that customers could help their favorite restaurant stay in business by ordering margaritas or old fashions as a takeout item. Now, the Governor is agreeing with lawmakers to allow the temporary fix to become a permanent solution. Here's Tommy Herbert at the Virginia Restaurant Lodging and Travel Association 

Tommy Herbert  

In Virginia's restaurants, we have really fostered a culture of mixology, experimentation, and high-level bartending. I would recommend for all the listeners to go out there and try something new from one of our great restaurants here in the Commonwealth. You might be very impressed with the mixology skills that you encounter.

Lauren Burke  

The new law allows restaurants to sell cocktails and go, although the jury's still out on third-party vendors like DoorDash and Uber Eats; here's Delegate Holly Seibold, a Democrat from Vienna.

Holly Seibold  

So I keep hearing that we're working to become compliant, but what is the plan? Because I just have a hard time visualizing that we can regulate a delivery service of alcohol.

Michael Pope  

This new law that Governor Younkin has signed will go into effect this summer. It's permanent for restaurants, but it's not permanent for DoorDash or Uber Eats because they've got a sunset clause. So far, their compliance has not been great. There are actually two different stories here. For restaurants, it's totally cool; you can continue doing this. For delivery services, they don't have a good track record. Lawmakers, if they don't like the performance of Uber Eats and DoorDash, might shut down that side of the whole program. 

Lauren Burke  

I had no idea they were doing that. That's interesting because I'm a big DoorDash fan, and I use DoorDash all the time. But I've never ordered alcohol; I find that really interesting. It's going to be interesting and hard to unpack that. It's such a great example of how the pandemic, once again, reordered how businesses deal with certain things. I do think these delivery businesses are definitely the wave of the future in a huge way—a huge way to save so much time for delivery. But man, that's a hard one to unpack. 

Michael Pope  

You heard Holly Seibold

, when I talked to her about it, she said, Look, I'm a white lady who lives in the suburbs. I'm the ideal customer here for the to-go margaritas. However, she also has children. And she worries about her children getting alcohol. That is a concern, and members of the General Assembly are going to need to figure out a way to either make sure that Uber Eats and DoorDash are compliant or just shut down the whole program. 

Lauren Burke  

I doubt they would shut down the whole program, but that is a tough question; it's going to be interesting to see who comes up with a solution.

Michael Pope  

I actually want to shout out to my favorite cocktail to go in the Del Rey neighborhood of Alexandria. There is a great restaurant called Taqueria Poblano, and you can get a margarita to go. It comes in a nice little bottle, and man, they make good cocktails. Have I ever been to Taqueria Poblano in Del Rey?

Lauren Burke  

I have been there. Yes. 

Michael Pope  

It's right on Mount Vernon Avenue. They make great cocktails, including great margaritas, and they taste even better if you get one to go. 

Lauren Burke  

Wow. I have to try that. That's very cool. 

Michael Pope  

Enough of my commercial for one of my favorite restaurants. Let's take a break. When we come back, we will play a round of trivia and read your comments.

Let's play a round of trivia. Last week, we asked you which former mayor worked with James Comey on Project Exile in the 1990s. Project Exile shifted gun crimes from state courts to federal courts, where defendants faced much harsher sentences.

Lauren Burke  

The answer is Tim Kaine, and we have a winner.

Michael Pope  

Shawn Weneta got the right answer. He added that he'll be accepting Bitcoin and all other forms of cryptocurrency. Well, Shawn, perhaps we need to mine a new Pod Virginia cryptocurrency.

Lauren Burke  

So, what's our trivia question for next week?

Michael Pope  

everybody knows the state bird of Virginia. Lauren, do you know the state bird of Virginia? 

Lauren Burke  

The cardinal.

Michael Pope  

The cardinal, yes. Okay. What year did the cardinal become the state bird of Virginia? That's our trivia question for this week.

Lauren Burke  

I love it. If you think you know the answer, reach out to us on social media. You might even win a prize. 

Michael Pope  

Let's head to the water cooler. Lauren, what's the latest you have for it? 

Lauren Burke  

I want to talk about a story in the Virginia Mercury by Nathaniel Cline about political influence in academia. Specifically, the Youngkin administration looking into the syllabus of Virginia Commonwealth University and George Mason University as it pertains to courses related to race. It sounds like the Youngkin administration is taking a page out of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's playbook and looking into what's being taught at these two universities with regard to race. It's interesting because why are we doing that? What's interesting, too, is we don't have too many opportunities in our society to discuss race. We certainly don't want to do it in the media, which has been a disaster. I think an educational facility would be the best place. But I think the broader question is, why is the Youngkin administration looking at course curriculum around race? It makes me laugh because part of the conversation with regard to the arena was, as always, some dumb Twitter back-and-forth. But conservatives love to throw out the folks on the left who are, quote, playing the race card. It's funny to think about that when you think about Governor Youngkin. Because he was actually elected campaigning on critical race theory and CRT. When I would go to his rallies, the biggest applause line in 2021 was his words about critical race theory. It seems to me the Republican Party that invented the Southern strategy is always talking about race, DEI, or immigration at the southern border or something having to do with race. Now, the Youngkin administration is looking at the course curriculum at two universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It's interesting. Why is that happening? 

Michael Pope  

It's interesting because that's related to what I wanted to talk about in the water cooler, which is the Governor's veto of a bill that would have given the minimum wage to farm workers. It's a topic I've talked about on this podcast many times. This is Jim Crow; if you veto this bill, your veto is in support of Jim Crow. This is a bipartisan problem because Democrats did not fix the problem when they were in power. The Democrats are just as guilty of holding up this Jim Crow relic. You have to go back to the 1930s when Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, and in order to secure the votes from the South, they had to add this exemption where you wouldn't pay Black people the minimum wage. I'm going to quote one of the Southern congressmen who was behind this, Texas Congressman Martin Dies. He's quoted as saying this quote: you cannot prescribe the same wages for the Black man as the white man, unquote. This was explicit. They explained what they were doing when they created this racist Jim Crow exemption in the 1930s for the Fair Labor Standards Act. Now, in 2024, it's still around, and people don't want to get rid of it. The Republican Governor doesn't want to get rid of it. Even the democratically controlled General Assembly, when Governor Northam was in office, didn't want to get rid of it either. This is a problem; why don't we pay farmworkers the minimum wage? Don't they deserve the minimum wage? It actually makes no sense that in today's world, in 2024, we still have this racist Jim Crow exemption for farm workers, and nobody seems to care about it. 

Lauren Burke  

It's funny you bring up some of the things that the Democrats didn't fix when they had who had a Democratic governor and Democratic General Assembly. It kind of makes me think about the cannabis issue, which, for some reason, didn't get fixed when the Democrats controlled everything. Also, abortion wasn't fixed. The right to choose was not protected when the Democrats were in charge of everything. This is another thing that comes up. I actually think some of the points were expressed by the folks actually farming in Virginia. I have a great respect for history. I was a history major. I hear what you're saying about the origins of this particular issue when it comes to the minimum wage and farming. But I think legislators do have to legislate on the facts as presented right now. We had a thousand-year pandemic, and a bunch of small farms went out of business. The farming industry in Virginia is not small farms. I think people think about corporate farming, typically big corporations; we're talking about Walmart and Target, the big guys. But you're requiring all farmers, most of whom are making under $50,000. That's a different proposition. I do think we have to be specific about who we're talking about. We're talking about Virginia's farmers at this moment in 2024. Some of the arguments expressed against the minimum wage are not without logic, given that constituency, how tough it is, and how tough the margins are on that business. For anybody who's a legislator in the General Assembly who's never actually run a business, you need to think about the things that you haven't done in your life. Other people have done very difficult things. And running a business is very difficult. I think it's a great talking point to say we want the minimum wage all over the place. I think big labor loves it, and certainly, the Democratic Party has good reason to want to, you know, submit bills on the side of big labor, no doubt about it. But you do have to talk to the people actually out there trying to run a farm and a business, which is really difficult after COVID. That whole thing just turned everything upside down, not just with the farmers but with everybody else. Certainly, the restaurant industry is another one. It's not as easy as using the talking point; it's Jim Crow racism. Because it was born from that. We've got to look at the details of these things. 

Michael Pope  

It's true that businesses were against it. And are clearly very successful in lobbying for their interests. It's also true the farm workers don't really have lobbyists. This is part of the problem; this is why the farm workers totally get screwed because there's nobody in Richmond lobbying on their behalf. Some organizations take positions in support of the farm workers. But they don't have an army of lobbyists like the big businesses do. The big businesses tend to get what they want. That's why you get the Governor vetoing this bill. Don't farm workers deserve the minimum wage like everybody else? It's hard to make the case that farm workers don't deserve the minimum wage. That's kind of where we are. Alright, let's head over to the Pod Virginia mailbag. Lauren, what are our listeners talking about?

Lauren Burke  

They're talking about you, Michael. One of our listeners heard several of your angry rants and asked if he was okay.

Michael Pope  

I have to admit, the lack of transparency in Alexandria, I kind of probably took a little too personally. This is not a personal thing. But when you have people you've known and worked with for many years, I've covered Alexandria politics for many years before I started covering state politics. When you have people who are not only not answering your questions but also not returning phone calls and emails, You have someone with the title of a communications director who promises to get you information and then stops responding to your calls and stops responding to your emails. What is that about? It is the same thing with the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership. I'm sure Monumental was telling you don't talk to the press. Don't talk to Michael Pope, don't release documents. That doesn't call the shots in Alexandria. Well, I guess they do call the shots in Alexandria. But I will admit to having several angry rants; I'm going to take some time this summer to go to the beach and chill out a little bit. Maybe I won't be quite so angry in the next few episodes of Pod Virginia. Maybe, I don't know.

Lauren Burke  

 I think it was an unusual situation. You do have these people, one of whom is a multibillionaire, telling you, and you have the Governor of Virginia telling you how important this plan is, how vital it is, how it's going to do all of these things. Yet, I'm not doing the bare minimum to show you that. I think there is a responsibility there to do that. I do think, a lot of times, there is sometimes a good reason not to be public with certain information. But to me, when you announced something so publicly on December 13th...

Michael Pope  

You better be able to back it up. If you're going to use a number, you better be able to show people why you're using that number.

Lauren Burke  

The bigger problem becomes when your elected officials don't know the answers. Part of their moment of arrogance is they're all mad at all these elected officials. But they didn't tell those elected officials the details of the plan. Of course, their constituents are asking them questions that they can't answer. What about that? I'm over this idea that you announce something, and then you have no specific answers. And it's everybody else's fault but mine, come on. Just to top it all off here, that group of elected officials has almost 100 years of experience in the General Assembly. The youngster of the group is Leader Surovell, who is 14 years old. The one that just came along is the Speaker, five years. But still, he's a trial attorney who handles cases and big numbers. I don't know who they thought they were talking to. But there is a high degree of arrogance, and I'm not sure why they think this is the way to do business. To put on paper that there was a pay-to-play thing going on. I mean, come on. It's interesting to me, so anyway, I think some ranting is required on this.

Michael Pope  

Some ranting is in order. In the past few episodes of Pod Virginia, there have been a lot of rants. Actually, that's kind of why I put cocktails to go on the rundown today. There's so much bad news in the world, but at least you can get it to go margarita from Taqueria Poblano

. Alright, let's celebrate some birthdays. 

Lauren Burke  

Tuesday, April 2nd, is the birthday of Delegate Alex Askew.

Michael Pope  

Tuesday, April 2nd, is also the birthday of Delegate Adele McClure. 

Lauren Burke  

Friday, April 5th, is the birthday of Senator Dave Marsden.

Michael Pope  

Saturday, April 6th, is the birthday of Delegate Joe McNamara.

Lauren Burke  

Sunday, April 7th, is National Beer Day.

Michael Pope  

Now that's a holiday I can celebrate. A toast to National Beer Day. Huzzah. 

Lauren Burke  

I Love it. That's it for this episode of Pod Virginia.