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Deren: In Shenandoah, honoring slave owners is OK?
As a retired Virginia educator, it is disheartening to read about the Shenandoah County School Board’s decision to rename two of the schools within their district after certain Confederate Civil War generals. At a time when our nation needs to turn the corner on divisiveness and begin the arduous work of healing, some still strive to maintain outdated and hurtful policies that persist in dividing us. The Civil War was absolutely fought over the issue of slavery.
Yancey: A convicted felon once drew nearly a million votes for president. In Virginia, he did best in Clifton Forge.
Former President Donald Trump is now a convicted felon, 34 times over. Among the many questions that this raises is a very practical one: Will Americans vote for a convicted felon for president? They have before. Eugene Debs ran for president five times: in 1900 as a Social Democrat and in 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1920 as the nominee of the Socialist Party of America. That last time he ran from a prison cell in Atlanta, having been sentenced to 10 years in prison for sedition after criticizing U.S. involvement in World War I. Despite his conviction and incarceration — or perhaps because of it — he received more votes in 1920 than he ever had before, just under one million nationwide. He also made it to the White House later, albeit as a guest of President Warren Harding.
Register and Huntington: Foam plastics ban helps Virginia, and restaurants
Next summer, Virginians will witness measurable improvements as they drive along Virginia’s roads, visit beaches, parks or waterways. The improvement? Less litter from polystyrene food and beverage containers. Thanks to a 2021 law passed by the Virginia General Assembly, restaurants are required to phase out their use of containers made of polystyrene. For larger restaurant chains, the change will begin on July 1, 2025. Small restaurants will have an additional year.
University of Lynchburg cuts 17 programs, eliminates 40 staff member positions
The University of Lynchburg announced Thursday they are taking dramatic steps at the school as they enter a new era. But for some prospective students and current staff, those changes could be detrimental; 17 programs at the school are being cut, and 40 staff members’ positions have been “reduced.” Over the next three years, the school said another 40 faculty will be headed out the door for good as well.
Five Years After Virginia Beach Shooting, ’No One Is Getting Better’
The ceremony on Friday afternoon will begin with the naming of the 12 people who were killed on May 31, 2019, when an embittered city employee carried out a shooting spree at the building where he worked. At the end of the event, the site of a future memorial will be dedicated, where, eventually, the 12 names will be etched into the landscape of Virginia Beach. The children of Mary Louise Gayle, whose name will be among them, have no plans to be at the ceremony. Sarah Leonard, her daughter, is taking her children camping. Matthew Gayle, her son, is resuming a sailing trip he cut short exactly five years earlier when he learned of a shooting at his mother’s workplace. They could not bring themselves to join hands with a city that they, and members of some of other victims’ families, say let them down.
Friday Read Ancient Chesapeake site challenges timeline of humans in the Americas
With the Chesapeake Bay sloshing at his knee-high boots, Darrin Lowery stood back and squinted at a 10-foot-tall bluff rising above a narrow strip of beach. To the untrained eye, this wall of sandy sediment is the unremarkable edge of a modest island southeast of the Bay Bridge. To Lowery, a coastal geologist, its crumbling layers put the island at the center of one of the most contentious battles in archaeology: when and how humans first made their way into the Americas. The story of the first Americans has long been a matter of public and scientific fascination, undergirded at times by vicious disagreements.
Richmond vending machines to dispense Narcan
Richmond has been awarded $148,000 for three vending machines that will be stocked with the opioid antidote Narcan and test strips. The funding is part of four grants aimed at curbing the ongoing opioid epidemic, according to the state agency that is stewarding much of the money for Virginia. “These vending machines will help people who are not connected to harm reduction services or who are likely to witness or experience an opioid overdose and to reduce stigma by integrating harm reduction into public spaces,” reads a proposal submitted by city grant specialist Dominic Barrett.
McDonald sentenced to 14 years in prison for EDA scandal
A federal judge sentenced Jennifer McDonald, a former executive director of the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority, to 14 years in prison on Wednesday for committing financial crimes against the agency. McDonald appeared Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Harrisonburg for the second part of her sentencing hearing.
Schapiro: Does Trump’s endorsement trump all?
In the parallel universe that is a Republican primary in Virginia, the outcome these days is supposed to be decided by the company a candidate keeps. That being blessed by Donald Trump ensures victory, reducing the primary to a mere formality. U.S. Rep Bob Good, an uber-conservative Republican in the sprawling, largely rural 5th District, is seeking renomination in less than three weeks to a third two-year term, running this time — as he did the first time in 2020 — without the endorsement of the former president.
Charges downgraded for 3 Otieno defendants
The three remaining defendants in the death of Irvo Otieno have had charges downgraded from second-degree murder to involuntary manslaughter. Court records on Wednesday show the charges were downgraded in the cases of Wavie Jones, Brandon Rodgers and Kaiyell Sanders. Sanders and Rodgers are Henrico County sheriff’s deputies. Jones was an employee at Central State Hospital, the maximum security psychiatric facility in Dinwiddie County where Otieno, 28, died while handcuffed and pinned to the floor.