By the second week of classes at James Madison University, sophomore Dylan Kellum of Burke tested positive for COVID-19. “I did everything I was supposed to,” Kellum, 20, said outside JMU’s D-Hall dining facility Monday. “I wore a mask everywhere, I tried not to eat inside and I still got it,” the recovered COVID-19 patient said. “I don’t think there’s anything JMU can do in-person to stop [the virus] from spreading.”
Beginning in April, child welfare calls from Virginia schools — usually the state’s top reporter for cases of suspected abuse or neglect — dropped by about 98 percent. The Virginia Department of Social Services traced the sudden decline to statewide school closures in late March, which limited face-to-face interactions between students and teachers. Since then, calls have increased incrementally, but still haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to Kristin Zagar, director of the agency’s Division of Family Services.
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Public opinion polls suggest a comfortable advantage for Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in his bid for re-election this fall, but after a close call in 2014 that saw the incumbent barely eke out a victory, his GOP challenger this time, Daniel Gade, is confident he can prevail. Gade, a U.S. Army veteran and public policy professor, is seeking to deny the former governor a third Senate term.
A new grant program to help struggling small Virginia businesses is expanding its criteria in an effort to help more small businesses. Virginia launched the program called Rebuild VA last month to provide grants to small businesses that may not have had access to money from previous federal coronavirus relief programs.
Dominion Energy wants to put a solar array on top of the parking garage at its Tredegar Street office complex along the north bank of the James River in downtown Richmond. Plans call for adding 1,400 solar panels on top of the five-story, 400-vehicle parking garage that is part of a complex of three office buildings at 120 Tredegar St. that the company has used as its corporate headquarters for the past 21 years.
The Virginia Department of Health reported 6,567 new COVID-19 cases last week and an increase of 278 deaths from the virus — a larger number than most weeks because of a backlog of death data that was entered since last Tuesday, VDH said. The state now has 141,138 cases and 3,021 fatalities, as of Sept. 21. The state’s positivity rate is 5.7%, a significant decrease since Sept. 14, when it was 7.2%.
Republican 1st District Rep. Rob Wittman and Democratic challenger Qasim Rashid exchanged barbs on numerous occasions Monday night during an hourlong virtual debate, hosted and organized by the University of Mary Washington. Because of COVID-19 concerns, the two candidates, each vying for Virginia’s 1st Congressional District seat, participated remotely and addressed questions submitted online.
It was pre-pandemic and Neal Sadler, a broker with S.L. Nusbaum, knew that the Save A Lot grocery store in the Norfolk shopping center he leased was on its way out, taking with it the only fresh food market option for many residents nearby. Sadler said he was close — this close — to having a new grocer move in when COVID-19 upended the world earlier this year.
William & Mary’s announcement on Sept. 3 that it was cutting seven of its 23 sports is being criticized for its similar, and in places verbatim, wording to a July letter from Stanford University announcing it was cutting 11 sports. W&M Director of Athletic Samantha K. Huge acknowledged in a statement on Friday that the Sept. 3 communication from her, W&M President Katherine Rowe and W&M Provost Peggy Agouris “clearly fell short of William & Mary’s community standards” because it did not meet the goal to “emulate best practices, not imitate.”