Senate approves juvenile-reporting change, authorizes parkway enforcement and approves appraiser and short-term rental measures

The Virginia Senate on Jan. 29 passed several bills affecting school reporting, traffic enforcement on federal parkland, real estate appraisal training and short-term rental tax reporting.

Senate Bill 1331, approved 30-8, adds carjacking and extortion involving threats to release intimate images to the list of juvenile offenses that must be reported from juvenile intake to local school superintendents. "These are offenses of great harm," Sen. Marsden, the senator from Fairfax, said while explaining that the change recognizes crimes that were uncommon when the reportable-offense list was first written.

Senate Bill 776, passed 25-13, allows Virginia State Police or the Fairfax County Police Department to enforce federal traffic rules on about 22 miles of the George Washington Memorial Parkway by applying state law to federal regulations and authorizes installation of photo speed monitoring devices on that roadway with National Park Service approval. "This is a very local piece of home cooking," the sponsor said, arguing state or local police can fill an enforcement gap on a heavily used…