I’m in Richmond reporting on this afternoon’s labor protest against Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s veto of the public-sector collective bargaining legislation.

Below, I report on this week’s slew of vetoes issued by Spanberger.

And I share the American Impressionist I wished I’d learned about sooner.

Want to get in touch, or have stories you want me to cover? Reply to this email or reach out to me directly at michaeloconnor@couriernewsroom.com.

Michael O’Connor

Reporter, Dogwood

Then-candidate Abigail Spanberger at a campaign event at the Mechanicsville Drug Store in Hanover County on May 21, 2025. (Michael O’Connor/Dogwood).

The talk of Virginia politics this week is Spanberger and her vetoes of policy goals her party has been fighting to achieve for years.

Following last week’s veto of the collective bargaining legislation, Spanberger this week killed bills that would have created a retail cannabis market in Virginia, allowed the state to negotiate lower drug prices, and put limits on federal immigration actions in places like schools and hospitals.

Supporters of these policies have not held back in expressing their disappointment with the governor. For her part, Spanberger has said she broadly supports these policy goals, but had issues with how the General Assembly wanted to implement them.

“These vetoes send a troubling message: that at a moment demanding urgency and action, progress is being stalled by allowing perfect to be the enemy of the good,” state Del. Adele McClure (D-Arlington) said in a statement on Instagram.

These vetoes also have implications for the state budget, which still needs to be finalized.

Virginia Senate President Louise Lucas took to X yesterday with a thread on how “vetoes create deficits in our budget and require cuts” to core services like education, transportation, and healthcare.

Lucas said that since the General Assembly is still in special session, Spanberger “can send us bills at anytime to correct vetoes and restore the money to the budget.”

Read more about Spanberger’s vetoes

Check out what State Del. Katrina Callsen (D-Charlottesville) had to say about Spanberger’s veto of her bill that would have required ICE agents to have judicial warrants and identify themselves when making arrests in protected places: “We certainly need something more than speeches.”

James Cullum at ALXnow reports on the Education Association of Alexandria and allegations of internal campaign violations.

Watch Virginia Congressman James Walkinshaw criticize the Trump administration’s self-dealing: “The insider trading, the digital schemes, the $1.8 billion slush fund they’re trying to create. Hardworking Americans are out there just busting their ass.”

(Diana Polekhina/Unsplash)

Spanberger on Wednesday signed into law the legislation to create a statewide paid sick leave program.

The new law requires employers to give full-time and part-time workers one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work. The amount of paid sick days is capped at five days per year.

Spanberger’s office said the new program would help the one million workers in Virginia who don’t get paid sick days take care of themselves and their families without having to sacrifice their wages.

“This law will protect workers, strengthen Virginia businesses, and make our Commonwealth a place where people can build the kind of stable, secure lives they deserve,” Spanberger said in a statement.

Mary Cassatt paintings on view at the National Gallery of Art. (Michael O’Connor/Dogwood)

I recently had the good fortune to see the Mary Cassatt exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Cassatt was a Pennsylvania-born painter who bucked the social expectations of her affluent family in the 19th Century to run off to Europe to help the Impressionists revolutionize the art world.

She’s most well-known for her frank depictions of mothers and children. In her later years, she was an ardent suffragette.

Cassatt’s Woman with a Sunflower combines both these strands of her work. A woman wears a sunflower, a symbol of the women’s suffrage movement, and on her lap sits a little girl who, as the exhibit notes, is “discovering her sense of self” in a mirror.

“Cassatt’s recognition of this girl’s potential and the crucial role of female intergenerational support was essential to her feminism,” a placard at the exhibit explains of the 1905 painting. “Women would not secure the vote in the United States until 1920.”