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U-Va. officials defend arrests at protest as faculty seek review of decision
University of Virginia faculty on Friday called for an independent review of the use of police to clear a pro-Palestinian demonstration, but stopped short of condemning the decision to bring in state law enforcement officers. More than 25 people were arrested. University President James E. Ryan said he was sorry for the way things escalated as police moved in on demonstrators, and some faculty members said they were concerned the response was too heavy-handed. Ryan, though, did not say outright he would have acted differently, and the university’s police chief said officials felt compelled to disperse a group that included people with no connection to U-Va.
New budget agreement shows state officials aren’t serious about flooding
How will Virginia defend vulnerable communities, including those in Hampton Roads, from rising seas and recurrent flooding? That question, asked time and time again in recent years, will have more urgency in the wake of the budget agreement brokered between lawmakers and Gov. Glenn Youngkin this week. Democratic negotiators agreed to remove language from the budget they approved in March that would return Virginia to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multistate, market-based emissions reduction compact that has generated more than $800 million for flooding projects and energy-efficiency programs.
More than 100 VCU graduates walk out during Youngkin’s graduation speech
As Gov. Glenn Youngkin began his commencement speech Saturday morning, more than 100 graduates of Virginia Commonwealth University staged a walkout. They held signs, wore Middle Eastern keffiyehs around their shoulders in support of Palestine and marched down Richmond’s streets. About 50 demonstrators walked from the Greater Richmond Convention Center to Abner Clay Park, chanting “One, two, three, four, tell Youngkin no more. Five, six, seven, eight, Richmond we will liberate.” Youngkin did not pause his remarks as students departed, proceeding with a 15-minute speech that celebrated VCU graduates and steered clear of controversy.
22 Guatemalan teens missing from Culpeper
Nearly two dozen unaccompanied migrant children from Guatemala who lived for a short time in Culpeper remain missing, considered runaways. It’s an eye-opening issue, happening nationwide, that’s tied to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). The federal agency, part of U.S. Health and Human Services, places migrant teens crossing at the southern border with sponsors in communities across America, including Culpeper. But this small-town has seen a disproportionate number of Guatemalan teens go missing — 38 altogether since 2019, mostly males with an average age of 15-17, according to Culpeper Police Sgt. Detective Norma McGuckin.
DuVal: New K-12 accountability standards must also address disparities
Virginia’s business community is keenly aware of the vital role that education plays in driving economic development and preparing a well-trained, qualified workforce. Our students of today are our workforce of tomorrow. The Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the largest business advocacy organization in the commonwealth with more than 30,000 members, has long supported policies that strengthen our education-workforce system to bolster Virginia’s economic growth and business climate. Simply put, to be the best state for business, Virginia must be the best state for talent.
Legislators slash funding for Health Wagon amid reports CEO’s compensation package nearly doubled in 2 years
Legislators have pulled more than $800,000 from the state budget that had been earmarked for St. Mary’s Health Wagon, a free clinic in Southwest Virginia whose top executive was recently compensated more than $520,000, a sum that nearly doubled over two years and places her compensation far beyond the salaries of comparable executives in wealthier regions of Virginia. The Health Wagon has received state funding consistently since 2006, and an earlier version of this year’s budget included another allocation for it. However, state budget negotiators removed this allocation after reports surfaced that leadership, including CEO Teresa Tyson and clinical director Paula Hill-Collins, as well as other Health Wagon employees, earned outsized compensation packages in recent years.
Schapiro: Where were friends when Jews needed them?
A Colonial-era farm in Virginia’s tobacco belt is an emblem of Jewish survival at a time when much of the world — now gripped by an Israel-Hamas war in Gaza that, depending on one’s perspective, was caused by, or is causing, antisemitism — was clueless that a huge swath of the Jewish world was doomed. Hyde Park Farm — in Nottoway County, about an hour’s drive south of Richmond — was for several years immediately preceding World War II a peaceful sanctuary for about two dozen German-Jewish teenagers and several adults who fled there as Adolf Hitler’s murderous persecution of European Jews was beginning in earnest.
New ballpark? Unless poverty becomes our top priority, RVA will keep losing
In a city that’s so accustomed to losing, even the wins feel like defeat. After more than 20 years of handwringing and public debate, the Richmond City Council finally approved a massive, $170 million financing plan on Wednesday to build a new ballpark to replace the nearly obsolete, 40-year-old Diamond on Arthur Ashe Boulevard. ... It would also be paid for with city tax dollars, the same tax dollars that council members struggled to scrounge up just two weeks ago.
After Spanberger: 7th District Dems run local race in national spotlight
National Republicans are taking a keen interest in the Democratic primary in Northern Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, but their primary focus has been on one candidate — Eugene Vindman. He is a political newcomer with a familiar face because of the public role that he and his twin brother, Alexander, played in the first impeachment of then-President Donald Trump.
Williams: Irvo Otieno’s family needs the Justice Department, without delay
When Ann Cabell Baskervill announced she was resigning as Dinwiddie County commonwealth’s attorney to attend graduate school in France, it wasn’t hard to foresee her dream becoming an American nightmare for Kenyan immigrant Caroline Ouko. Ouko is the mother of Irvo Otieno, 28, who died of asphyxiation on March 6, 2023, after he was pinned on the floor while shackled and handcuffed for about 11 minutes by Henrico County sheriff’s deputies and hospital personnel during his intake at Central State Hospital.