It’s been a whirlwind day as people digest Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s various changes to different bills, so let’s get right to it.

Below, I’ve got the details on what she wants changed in the collective bargaining bill.

And I share a clip of the streamer dividing Democrats where he mentions Virginia.

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Michael O’Connor

Reporter, Dogwood

Gov. Abigail Spanberger signing legislation in a photo provided by her office.

I stayed up until about 1 a.m. last night hoping to see what Spanberger actually wanted to change about the collective bargaining bill.

This morning, I joined in with others to dig into the lengthy changes she proposed and was lucky to catch Democratic Senate Majority Leader Surovell by phone.

“I’m very disappointed,” he told me about Spanberger’s changes.

The Virginia Education Association (VEA) put out a statement Tuesday calling on lawmakers to reject Spanberger’s substitute, saying the governor’s proposed changes undermine “both the spirit and the intent” of the legislation passed by the General Assembly.

So, what don’t they like about Spanberger’s proposed changes? Two key points came up in my conversation with Surovell and in the VEA’s statement.

Spanberger wants to delay when local governments and school boards have to comply with the law, pushing the proposed deadline from 2028 to 2030.

She also wants to give the governor’s office more leeway in determining how public employers comply with the law. That might be fine for workers under governors who support collective bargaining rights. But what happens if an anti-union governor comes to office?

“Her bill would give the Public Employee Relations Board, which is appointed by the governor, a lot more power to define bargaining units and all kinds of relationships between management and employees in ways that a future governor could use to make it very difficult to collectively bargain,” Surovell told me.

As for the campus workers who got excluded from the bill sent to Spanberger: she didn’t add them back in like they had hoped.

Instead, Spanberger wants to exclude more workers from the bill: her version of the bill would cut out Virginia Port Authority workers.

A company investing in Pittsylvania County says it will create fewer jobs than previously announced because it’s planning to use more automated equipment, Grace Mamon at Cardinal News reports.

Brad Kutner at Radio IQ reports on this morning’s Senate finance committee discussion of missing revenue in the state’s budget.

The General Assembly patrons of retail cannabis legislation are also not happy with Spanberger’s proposed changes to their bills.

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The state and U.S. flags fly over the Virginia State Capitol at the start of the 2024 session of the Virginia General Assembly in Richmond, Va., on Jan. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

I tuned into that Senate committee meeting that Kutner reported on.

For some perspective on the state finances, I reached out to Ryan O’Toole, co-executive director of Freedom Virginia and someone who’s been in and around state politics here for a while.

He said he was encouraged to see state lawmakers are still focused on the human impact of budget talks, which will be taken up in a special session next Thursday.

“The story here on the state budget talks is less, ‘When will there be a budget? Why is there disagreement between three entities that are controlled by Democrats in a new trifecta?’” O’Toole told me. “It’s more that people have an affordability crisis, and how are we going to make life more affordable for them?”

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Streamer Hasan Piker hands his energy drink to producer Mauricio Miranda before going on stage to speak at a campaign event for Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Twitch streamer Hasan Piker has been in the news and at the center of a roiling debate about who is welcome in the Democratic Party’s “big tent.”

Watch his mention of Virginia in a recent podcast interview where he defended his stances on Palestine and Israel and his history of making provocative statements to make his points.

“You look at like some of the most conservative places in like Virginia … and you poll them on things like, what do you think about the DSA? What do you think about Israel? And it’s like, they’re a lot closer to me than they are to an establishment Democrat,” Piker said.