It’s the 68th birthday of US Sen. Tim Kaine, aka the Barbie to US Sen. Mark Warner’s Oppenheimer. 

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones joined other states in challenging President Donald Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship. 

Below, I report on legislation to give overtime pay to live-in domestic workers. 

And I share the results of a new survey of Virginia consumers. 

The Virginia House of Delegates on February 19, 2026. (Michael O’Connor/Dogwood)

I started doing more reporting on Virginia’s labor landscape back in July and a big takeaway so far is how few rights workers have—and that the few they do have were only won after years of fighting. 

Take domestic workers, like nannies or house cleaners. 

They weren’t even entitled to the state minimum wage until legislation passed in 2021 made it so. That legislation also won domestic workers overtime pay. 

Well, some domestic workers because live-in domestic workers were excluded. But they might not be for much longer. 

Live-in domestic workers are poised to finally win the right to overtime pay. Legislation in the General Assembly to give them that right has passed both chambers and will soon head to Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s desk. 

Jewel Gatling with the National Domestic Workers Alliance told me that today’s fight for domestic workers’ rights is rooted in America’s long history with slavery. 

• The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis published its widely anticipated report on proposed changes to the state budget.  

• Watch what state Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) told WRIC reporter Tyler Englander about the fight to make data centers pay their fair share in taxes. 

• All six US House Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation backed their party’s proposed redistricting plan ahead of an April 21 referendum, Punchbowl News reports.  

Lucrezia Carnelos/Unsplash

Virginia consumers are feeling good and expect things to get better. 

That’s the topline results of Roanoke College’s most recent Virginia Consumer Sentiment and Inflation Expectations Report.

Consumer sentiment in Virginia has been steadily rising since late 2024 to levels above the rest of the country. 

“Close to one-third of Virginians believe their household finances will improve over the year, and 41% believe that the next five years will bear strong economic growth,” the report says. 

Roanoke College’s report notes that Virginia is dealing with a tight labor market, with 1.3 job openings for every unemployed person and an unemployment rate of 3.6%.

That’s me recording an interview with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. 

I found myself at the National Press Club on Tuesday night helping out Courier’s national correspondent, Camaron Stevenson, interview political bigwigs about the state of the union. 

While Cam was interviewing Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, I was behind the camera, doing my best work as a human tripod. 

My ears perked up when Frey compared Trump’s fear mongering to living under the eye of Sauron. 

After the interview was over, I couldn’t help myself and asked if Frey was a big Lord of the Rings fan like my wife is. He said he was and he’s also been enjoying HBO’s much-hyped show Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. 

Fun fact about Mayor Frey: he was born and raised in Virginia. 

He was born in Arlington, went to a public high school in Vienna, and went to William and Mary on a track and field scholarship. 

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