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Va. lawmakers react after Biden announces he won’t participate in debate at VSU
Last November, it was announced that Virginia State University would become the first historically black college and university (HBCU) to host a presidential debate. However, now just six months later, it appears the historic event won’t happen after all. That’s because President Joe Biden’s campaign announced Wednesday that he would not participate in debates hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates, including one scheduled to take place at Virginia State University on Oct. 1.
Complaints spark second review of Prince William Digital Gateway area property values
After weeks of complaints, criticism and landowner appeals, the Prince William County assessor’s office on Monday revised its sky-high assessments of properties inside the planned Prince William Digital Gateway data center corridor. Roughly half the property valuations dropped, but half went up — the result of the county eliminating one discount but replacing it with a new one. But even for those whose assessments are now lower, there is no joy in Mudville. That’s because Digital Gateway-area landowners’ assessments remain in the millions, and their tax bills will be in the tens, or even hundreds, of thousands.
Salem pharmacy fined $75,000 for vaccine, drug violations in 2021, 2022
A CVS in Salem delegated the provision of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 to an untrained nurse who injected a youth with six doses at once, according to state records. One of a dozen violations found in connection with a routine inspection in January 2022, authorities cited the drugstore for posing a danger to the public’s health. The long-pending case was resolved when the Virginia Board of Pharmacy fined the store $75,000 earlier this month for violations of state law including the state Drug Control Act.
Hanover County School Board members discuss possible policy change on student cell phone usage
Hanover County Public School leaders are grappling with what to do when it comes to cell phones usage at schools across the district. At a meeting on Tuesday, May 14, board members had to weigh in on whether to change the district’s current policy to further limit students’ use of the devices in school buildings. The discussion at the May 14 meeting centered around whether to change the policy at elementary and middle schools in the county. The decision to revisit the policy comes as several surrounding districts have recently made changes to their cell phone policies that limit student usage.
Search warrants claim ‘pattern of money laundering’ at some Va. cannabis-related stores
Newly unsealed search warrants in Washington County allege that some of the cannabis-related stores that were targeted in a region-wide raid last fall were involved in money laundering. Dozens of stores across Southwest Virginia were raided in September. While the ownership structure of many of the shops is unclear, the search warrants show that the homes and banking records of two people who owned multiple locations also were searched. Among the items that were seized were a number of guns — pistols, rifles and shotguns — as well as ammunition, computers, cellphones and vehicles, including two Rolls-Royces.
Kempsville High baseball season ended over ‘racism, hate speech, and harassment’ within team
Kempsville High School’s baseball season is over after “a lengthy investigation” found that “racism, hate speech, and harassment” have been prevalent on the team for multiple years, according to a note principal Melissa George sent to parents in recent weeks. “After our lengthy investigation after we received allegations of racism on the baseball team earlier in April, we have found that racism, hate speech, and harassment have been an ongoing issue for multiple years,” George wrote in the message, first reported by WTKR. “Due to additional information we have through our investigation, at this time we are forfeiting (the May 2) game against (Princess Anne).”
MacArthur Center redevelopment still likely several years away, Norfolk official says
While a gleaming vision for the transformation of the city’s struggling downtown shopping mall has been revealed, Norfolk’s economic development director is cautioning anyone who is looking for construction barrels anytime soon. Instead, Sean Washington, who has led the city’s economic development efforts for nearly two years, wants to make clear that the rendering and possibilities shared by Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander at his recent state of the city address are “very much so conceptual” and that there is still “a long road ahead.”
Prince Edward schools that helped usher in Brown v. Board of Education still in disrepair
A small group of Robert Russa Moton High School students in Farmville began gathering in secret months before an April 23, 1951, walkout to protest the unequal conditions of school facilities for Black students. “It was the same type of secrecy that was developed during the Manhattan Project,” said John Stokes, one of the walkout’s organizers. “We had to trust everyone so we could pull this thing off.” Students decided to report a fake disturbance downtown, luring Moton Principal M. Boyd Jones away from school on the day of the protest. … When Jones returned to school, the strike was in full force. About 400 students gathered in the auditorium to hear a speech from 16-year-old student Barbara Johns before walking out of the school in protest.
Black waterman villages in Suffolk among Virginia’s most endangered historic places
For years, Mary Hill has watched her Suffolk community of Hobson slowly disappear. Hill is a seventh-generation descendant of Black freedmen who helped build the community centuries ago. They established a self-sufficient oyster industry that thrived along the Nansemond River until pollution devastated it starting around the 1960s. Since then, historical buildings once crucial to tight-knit community culture have been torn down, Hill said. Many who were alive in the village’s heyday have died, and some other descendants moved away and sold property passed down for generations. In their place, developers are building modern, more expensive homes that edge out historic ones. “You have a slow death” of the area, said Hill, who is in her early 60s. She now hopes a new designation will bring attention and funding to the area.
In hundreds of deadly police encounters, including in Virginia, officers broke multiple safety guidelines
In hundreds of deaths where police used force meant to stop someone without killing them, officers violated well-known guidelines for safely restraining and subduing people — not simply once or twice, but multiple times. Most violations involved pinning people facedown in ways that could restrict their breathing or stunning them repeatedly with Tasers, an Associated Press investigation found. Some officers had little choice but to break policing best practices — safety guidelines that are recommended by government agencies, law enforcement groups and training experts — to save a life or protect someone.