Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) When the Minnesota Legislature convenes for its 2021 regular session Tuesday, it won’t look like a normal session. The House will meet entirely via Zoom until further notice because of the pandemic. The Senate will try a hybrid approach. And the Capitol will remain surrounded by riot fencing.
That’s going to make it a challenge for lawmakers to interact with each other, their constituents and the advocates for a myriad of causes who normally would rally under the Capitol rotunda or fan out through the halls and hearing rooms. With the Capitol complex mostly closed to the public, phone calls, emails and online meetings will replace most of the traditional face-to-face work. And that’s going to make it harder for citizens and even well-connected lobbyists to be heard.
Virus forces changes as Minnesota Legislature opens Tuesday elpasoinc.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from elpasoinc.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Virginia state Sen. Ben Chafin dies of COVID-19 complications
By (0)
Jan. 2 (UPI) Virginia state Sen. Ben Chafin Jr. has died after complications from COVID-19, his office announced. He was 60.
Representatives said he died Friday after undergoing treatment for two weeks at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond.
Advertisement
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said the state lost a strong advocate and a good man with Chafin s death. I knew Ben as a lawmaker, an attorney, a banker, and a farmer raising beef cattle in Moccasin Valley, working the land just as generations of his family had done before him, he said. He loved the outdoors, and he loved serving people even more. He pushed hard to bring jobs and investment to his district, and I will always be grateful for his courageous vote to expand health care for people who need it.
GOP Virginia state senator dies with COVID-19 Print this article
Virginia state Sen. Ben Chafin died at age 60 after becoming infected with COVID-19, the first Virginia lawmaker to die from the contagion.
Chafin, a Republican, had represented part of Southwest Virginia in the state Senate since 2014 and spent a year in the House of Delegates prior to that, according to the
Associated Press.
“State Senator Augustus Benton (Ben) Chafin, Jr., a native son of Russell County located in Southwest Virginia, passed away on January 1, 2021 from Covid-19 complications,” a statement from his office read.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam praised Chafin in a Friday statement.