VaNews: Most Clicked Headlines in 2018
FROM VPAP
The Virginia Public Access Project
VPAP has result of yesterday's elections for U.S. Senate and Virginia's 11 congressional districts -- complete with maps, charts and analysis.
November 7, 2018
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Roger Fairfax Sr. had something he needed to show his son. It was Inauguration Day earlier this month, and in just 20 minutes Justin Fairfax (D) would be sworn in as Virginia’s lieutenant governor. In a room in the state Capitol, steps from where Robert E. Lee accepted command of Confederate troops in 1861, Roger Fairfax handed his son a piece of paper.
January 29, 2018
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Sure, Virginia may be a high-tech, politically evolving flag-bearer of the New South. But a recent tiff between lawmakers and one of the state’s top lobbying firms shows the old ways will go down fighting in Mr. Jefferson’s Capitol. Last month, someone representing a Democrat in the House of Delegates approached the law firm of Hunton Andrews Kurth about getting a campaign contribution. And the firm, a 1,000-lawyer outfit based in Richmond with offices all over the world, had an unexpected reply: It said no. The company’s top lobbyist said it was defending the honor of one of its clients.
July 27, 2018
STATE ELECTIONS
By ALAN SUDERMAN, Associated Press
With the midterms over, Virginia Democrats are looking to keep riding a wave of voter discontent with President Donald Trump and take control of the state legislature next year. Virginia is set to return to the national political spotlight in 2019 when all 140 state House and Senate seats will be up for grabs.
Nov 8, 2018
FEDERAL ELECTIONS
By ALEX ISENSTADT, Politico
Rep. Tom Garrett (R-Va.) has abruptly parted ways with his chief of staff and is considering not seeking reelection in November, according to three people familiar with the matter. Garrett, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, split with his chief of staff Jimmy Keady on Tuesday evening, according to the sources.
May 24, 2018
STATE GOVERNMENT
By KATIE O'CONNOR, Virginia Mercury
In August, Sherry Flanagan stood before Virginia’s Board of Social Services and made a plea. “I encourage you all to help Pittsylvania County,” said Flanagan, then-director of the county’s Department of Social Services. “We are outside of the realm of what we can do.”
October 29, 2018
CONGRESS
By BRENT D. GRIFFITHS, Politico
President Donald Trump on Monday night questioned whether Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) was in a “near drunken state” when the Virginia Democrat joked to friends about the Russia investigation, as quoted in POLITICO’s Playbook on Sunday.
June 26,2018
ECONOMY/BUSINESS
By JACK PITCHER, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Virginia lost 59.5 percent of its honeybee colonies last winter, nearly double the average rate for the past decade, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. That rate is the highest since the state began tracking honeybee loss in 2000, state apiarist Keith Tignor said. No one cause is apparent, though habitat loss, environmental conditions, pests, diseases and pesticides are factors.
July 5, 2018
TRANSPORTATION
By MELISSA TOPEY, Winchester Star (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
The public had its first look at possible improvements to Interstate 81 during a meeting Wednesday at Lord Fairfax Community College. ... The suggested improvements for the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Staunton District, which includes the Winchester region, would cost an estimated $1.2 billion.
August 24, 2018
HIGHER EDUCATION
By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press
Virginia’s largest public university granted the conservative Charles Koch Foundation a say in the hiring and firing of professors in exchange for millions of dollars in donations, according to newly released documents. The release of donor agreements between George Mason University and the foundation follows years of denials by university administrators that Koch foundation donations inhibit academic freedom.
May 1, 2018
VIRGINIA OTHER
By DARRYL FEARS, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
For the first time in the 33 years that scientists have assessed the health of the Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary showed improvement in every region, a likely sign that a massive federal cleanup plan is working. The bay’s most important species — blue crabs and striped bass, which support commercial and recreational fisheries, and anchovies, the foundation of its food chain — earned top scores in a report card released Friday.
June 18, 2018
LOCAL
By CHRIS SUAREZ, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Prior to the start of the 2018 General Assembly session in January, Charlottesville officials agreed to pay $50,000 for lobbyist services. Nearly all of the legislation the contracted firm was hired to support failed. According to city officials, proposed legislation would have given the city authority to remove its Confederate monuments and adopt specific firearm restrictions.
April 20, 2018
EDITORIALS
Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
That was the most extraordinary political event we’ve seen in a long time. By “that,” we mean the news conference Thursday where Rep. Tom Garrett, R-Buckingham County, announced that he is — well, we’ll get to that in time. First, let’s rewind how we got here. On Wednesday, a report broke out of Washington that Garrett might not seek re-election to his seat
May 25, 2018
OP-ED
By MARK J. ROZELL, Published in the Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
You don’t have to look back too many years to find leaders who, by all rights, should make modern day Virginia Republicans cringe at how their party has changed. In my lifetime three Virginia Republicans especially exemplified qualities that today are out of political fashion: putting public good before party interests, fighting for social justice, and taking responsibility for their actions.
Rozell is dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.
September 20, 2018
THE FRIDAY READ
By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
The lost colony of Roanoke Island will always be one of the weirdest episodes in American history. It has managed to stay in the news, off and on, for 431 years: the case of 100-plus English settlers vanishing in the woods and marshes of coastal North Carolina. But most Americans who know the basic mystery have no idea of the deep, tantalizing layers of strangeness that underlie almost every aspect of the tale.
July 27, 2018
Dec. 21, 2018