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Fox News floats VSU as host for vice presidential debate
Is a debate still in the cards for Virginia State University? Fox News hopes so. In a letter Friday to both the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns, Fox News has offered to moderate a debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and the yet-to-be determined running mate of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. Trump immediately accepted the invitation, even calling out VSU by name, but President Joe Biden’s camp does not appear to be as intrigued.
How the Shenandoah County School Board Decided to Restore Confederate School Names
Proud and satisfied, or sad and embarrassed. However citizens of the commonwealth view Shenandoah County School Board’s recent decision, Virginia appears to be the first in the nation to restore Confederate school names, after years of vigorous community engagement, a controversial renaming process, and a change in board priorities related to race, diversity and inclusion.
State budget includes money to study tapping into natural gas pipeline in Tazewell and Russell counties
Studies that will explore the economic development benefits of extending natural gas from a major pipeline in Southwest Virginia to Tazewell and Russell counties were funded in the state budget approved last week. Each county will receive $100,000 from the general fund for fiscal year 2025 for its own study. Originally, the budget amendment filed by state Sen. Travis Hackworth, R-Tazewell County, asked for a total of $250,000 just for Tazewell County, where officials have been working for more than a decade to tap into a pipeline that runs through the county. Tazewell County is the third largest producer of natural gas in the state, but businesses and residents there have little access to it.
Youngkin vetoes bills on contraception access, skill games, Confederate heritage rollbacks
Last week, Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed 48 more bills passed by the Democratic-led General Assembly, blocking legislation aimed at preserving contraception access, ending state perks for Confederate heritage groups and legalizing slot machine lookalikes known as skill games. Friday was the governor’s deadline to act on a final batch of bills the General Assembly had returned to him in April. Most of the vetoes dealt with legislation Youngkin tried to amend in ways the legislature opposed.
Prince William supervisors mull eliminating data center overlay district
A proposal to eliminate Prince William County’s data center overlay district, a 10,000-acre zone south of Manassas where numerous data centers have been built in recent years because they are largely allowed by right, is being debated by the Board of Supervisors. Gainesville Supervisor Bob Weir, whose district includes much of the county’s data centers, introduced a zoning text amendment to undo the district due to the intensity of development in recent years.
Boy Scouts love this scenic Va. river. Locals say they’re ruining it.
Anne McClung was tending horses in her 19th-century barn one day last summer when she noticed a change in the Maury River flowing swiftly nearby. She’s known the river all her 76 years, but it didn’t take a practiced eye to recognize clouds of silt in the normally clear waters. McClung could think of only one cause: The Boy Scouts. The National Capital Area Council of the Scouts, based in Bethesda, has maintained a campground and lake a few miles upstream from McClung’s home for almost six decades. In recent times, the Scouts have drained the lake every fall, causing sediment to pour into one of Virginia’s most iconic and well-loved rivers.
Segregationist history? In RVA, the past is our present
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” — William Faulkner For a city that has spent 150 years attempting to erase its most painful chapters — the most recent effort spurred by conservative backlash to the Black Lives Matter movement and nationwide protests after the brutal police killing of George Floyd — Faulkner’s famous observation in “Requiem for a Nun” is proving more prescient than ever. Friday marked the anniversary of the 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, which ruled legal segregation in public schools unconstitutional. Seventy years later, metro Richmond’s schools remain more segregated than ever.
Youngkin Vetoes Measures to Remove Tax Breaks for Confederate Heritage Group
Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia vetoed on Friday two bills that would have revoked tax exemptions for the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a century-old organization that has often been at the center of debates over the state’s Confederate past and its racial history. In doing so, Mr. Youngkin sided with fellow Republicans in the legislature who almost unanimously opposed the bills and the efforts by the state’s Democrats to curtail the Commonwealth’s relationship with Confederate heritage organizations.
‘How do you get hypothermia in a prison?’ Records show hospitalizations among Virginia inmates
The Virginia State Police investigator seemed puzzled about what the inmate was describing: “unbearable” conditions at a prison so cold that toilet water would freeze over and inmates were repeatedly treated for hypothermia. “How do you get hypothermia in a prison?” the investigator asked. “You shouldn’t.” The exchange, captured on video obtained by The Associated Press, took place during an investigation into the death of Charles Givens, a developmentally disabled inmate at the Marion Correctional Treatment Center, who records show was among those repeatedly hospitalized for hypothermia.
Maizlish: Virginia should reject Confederate symbols and honor worthy figures instead
The Shenandoah County School Board’s vote reverting the names of Honey Run Elementary School and Mountain View High School to names that honor Confederate generals shows an ignorance of American and Virginia history. The decision warrants a review of the history of the Civil War and an examination of how the United States came to honor men who committed treason. Supporters of the school board’s decision claim that these Confederate names honor Virginia’s heritage. They argue that removing the names “erases history.” The truth is Confederate memorials such as these school names were part of an organized propaganda campaign to erase and rewrite Civil War history.