You soon will face state fines and criminal charges if you buy large quantities of cigarettes in Virginia intending to resell them in a state with a higher tobacco tax. Beginning July 1, a new state law targets people “who possesses, with intent to distribute, more than 5,000 (25 cartons) tax-paid cigarettes.”

Gov. Bob McDonnell ventured to Quebec, Canada, this week to promote Virginia’s wine, tourism and film industries. The governor and first lady Maureen McDonnell held a reception for journalists and Canadian business leaders Thursday night in Montreal to showcase wines and foods produced in Virginia, including pork, oysters and cookies.

Gov. Bob McDonnell’s goal to install America’s first offshore wind energy turbine got a jolt of momentum this week from the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. The commission voted unanimously Tuesday to approve construction of a 479-foot-tall, five-megawatt wind turbine generator in the lower Chesapeake Bay, three miles off the Eastern Shore town of Cape Charles.

While campaigning for the House of Delegates, Randy Minchew heard about problems getting “Children at Play” signs installed near a school in Loudoun County. Two months after Minchew took office, Virginia has a new law authorizing towns and counties to erect such signs as long as VDOT agrees and local governments pay for them.

The Virginia Department of Transportation has awarded 18 communities a total of $5.9 million this year through the Safe Routes to School program. Funds awarded in the 2012 grant cycle are slated for projects designed to make bicycling and walking to school safer and more appealing for students at 28 elementary and middle schools.

Home-schooled students in Virginia will have to wait until next year to see if they can participate in sports and other extracurricular activities at their local high school. That’s because the Senate Education and Health Committee killed the so-called “Tebow Bill.”

The Virginia Senate has rejected a House-approved bill to repeal a law requiring girls to get a dose of the human papillomavirus vaccine before entering sixth grade. The Senate voted 22-17 to send House Bill 1112 back to the Senate Education and Health Committee, effectively killing it for this legislative session.

While Virginia is moving to repeal its requirement that girls get vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, the federal government and a major medical association are urging just the opposite: that boys as well as girls receive the vaccine.

For the second consecutive year, Delegate Thomas “Tag” Greason, R-Lansdowne, is proposing a constitutional amendment that would allow the state to provide tuition assistance to chaplains for religious training or theological education. And for the second year in a row, Greason’s proposal is languishing in a committee.

The Virginia House of Delegates has voted to repeal the law requiring girls to receive the human papillomavirus vaccine before entering the sixth grade. On a 62-34 vote Friday, delegates passed House Bill 1112, which would rescind the state law mandating the HPV vaccine.

In recent years, Loudoun County has faced public controversies over water protection and hospital construction, arguments over school funding and economic development, and budget cuts and tax increases in local government. Delegate J. Randall “Randy” Minchew of Leesburg, who was sworn in Sunday, hopes to address those issues as a member of the Virginia General Assembly.