Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 4 · column 4 of 5 · from the scan, no model involved
As it ultimately went to the governor for signature, it did nothing more than raise the age for onpremises beer drinking to 19, the same as the legal age for buying beer to go.
It also included a provision that any young person falsifying his age to buy alcoholic beverages could lose his driver’s license for up to a year.
Now while the lawmakers were doing all this breast-beating about drunk drivers and the hazards they pose, what else were they doing?
Well, for one thing, they were defeating a bill which would have made it unlawful to drink while driving, something most people, rather logically, think is against the law now.
It is not, however, and the legislators confirmed that it is perfectly all right to swig away on the contents of your brown bag, or can of foamy, while you whiz along the highways and byways of Virginia.
For another, in spite of all the pontificating about the strong drink and the horror stories about carnage caused by drunken drivers, the lawmakers took action to make sure the Old Dominion keeps its share of the liquor trade.
They enacted a bill allowing ABC stores in Northern Virginia and Tidewater to reduce prices in order not to be undersold by package outlets in Washington and Maryland, or by those on military installations.
Hypocritical?
Perhaps, but there is nothing really new about all this. It’s just the most recent chapter in the on-going saga of the Old Dominion’s love-hate relationship with the Demon Rum.
And it proves once again, as retiring Del. Warren Barry of Fairfax put it, “Alcohol and gasoline may not mix, but alcohol and politics most certainly do!”
96.6%