INTERVIEW — DR. STEPHEN FARNSWORTH – Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA  @drsfarnsworth

• Preview what to expect in the Virginia legislature
• Flurry of bills precede legislators as Virginia General Assembly convenes. State lawmakers return to Richmond this week to kick off the 2018 General Assembly session. With Ralph Northam’s inauguration as governor slated for Saturday and a slew of new Democrats shaking up the balance of power in Virginia’s House of Delegates, the legislative session opening Wednesday will be one to watch. Lawmakers will build a biennial budget that will go into effect this summer and debate thousands of bills during the 60-day session. Since Nov. 20, when bill prefiling began, legislators had filed 657 bills as of midday Friday, according to Richmond Sunlight. Lawmakers will continue filing bills until the Jan. 19 deadline. Last session, legislators filed 3,201 pieces of legislation. But that number could be higher this year because delegates and senators are allowed to prefile an unlimited number of bills during long sessions that occur in even-numbered years.
  
• Northam: Gun control, Medicaid among priorities for 2018