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U.Va. Faculty Senate overwhelmingly adopts a no confidence vote in Board of Visitors

By XANDER TILOCK, Cavalier Daily

The Faculty Senate held an emergency meeting Friday as part of ongoing discussions surrounding the University’s next steps towards choosing a new president. In the meeting, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution for a vote of no-confidence in the Board. The resolution passed 46 to 6, with eight senators abstaining.

VaNews July 14, 2025


University Of Virginia Faculty Vote No Confidence In Governing Board

By MICHAEL T. NIETZEL, Forbes

The University of Virginia Faculty Senate has voted that it has no confidence in the school’s Board of Visitors. The resolution of no-confidence in the Board passed 46 to 6, with eight senators abstaining. The vote occurred on Friday, July 11, the same day that UVA President Jim Ryan officially stepped down from his post and released a video of farewell and gratitude to the campus community.

VaNews July 14, 2025


UVa faculty deliver overwhelming vote of no confidence in board

By CAROLINE KING, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

After more than an hour of debate at an emergency meeting Friday, the University of Virginia Faculty Senate held a vote of no confidence in the school's governing Board of Visitors for “not protecting the University and its president from outside interference, and for not consulting with the Faculty Senate in a time of crisis." That crisis, referred to in the resolution the vote approved, refers to President Jim Ryan's resignation under pressure from the Trump administration Department of Justice.

VaNews July 14, 2025


Certain Aetna health insurance plans leaving the Affordable Care Act marketplace next year

By CHARLOTTE RENE WOODS, Virginia Mercury

Starting next year, Aetna clients in Virginia and other states will no longer be able to purchase individual or family health insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. The ACA is a 15-year-old federal law that allows people who don’t have employer-provided insurance to purchase their own through the ACA marketplace. Congress also created associated tax credits that have helped some offset those costs even further. Over 261,000 people in Virginia have Aetna healthcare, according to the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services.

VaNews July 14, 2025


Virginia Democrat on possible shutdown: ‘It’s time to stand up for the American people’

By SARAH FORTINSKY, The Hill

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) said he supports Democrats’ threats to shut down the government if Republicans proceed with a planned rescissions package, saying his party should use all the leverage they can to prevent cuts to previously approved funding. “I say it’s time to stand up for the American people,” Subramanyam said in an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday,” when asked what he thinks about a potential shutdown. . . . Republicans are ramping up efforts to pass a rescissions package that President Trump requested last month, which includes more than $9 billion in funding cuts for foreign aid and public broadcasting programs.

VaNews July 14, 2025


Virginia Intermont campus owners pay off Bristol taxes

By DAVID MCGEE, Bristol Herald Courier (Subscription Required)

The owners of the former Virginia Intermont College property, on Friday, paid off its current and delinquent Bristol, Virginia, tax bills — effectively negating a city lawsuit filed Thursday. John Kieffer, a local attorney representing U.S. Magis International Education Center, delivered cashier’s checks totaling $353,484 to city Treasurer Angel Britt’s office at noon Friday. ... The funds arrived at TACS on Thursday, the same day Bristol Virginia filed action in Circuit Court seeking control of the property due to non-payment of taxes under provisions of a new state law designed to address vacant, blighted properties.

VaNews July 14, 2025


Following shoplifting charge, bond revoked for ex-Middletown treasurer accused of embezzlement

By C. MAX BACHMANN, Winchester Star (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Middletown’s former treasurer and town manager had her bond revoked Thursday after she was arrested last week for shoplifting from a Martin’s grocery store in Frederick County. Rebecca Louise Layman, 52, is set to stand trial in November on 12 felony counts of embezzling from Middletown. Authorities have not disclosed how much she allegedly took from the town, but Frederick County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Heather Enloe said Thursday that the amount is “in the six figures.”

VaNews July 14, 2025


Coming in first, fourth or last? The ballad of Glenn Youngkin

Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial (Subscription Required)

As rankings go, is No. 4 really that bad? On its face, the political reaction to Virginia’s precipitous drop in CNBC’s all-important “Top States for Business“ rankings — we got the news that our long-time rival, North Carolina, supplanted the Old Dominion as No. 1 on Thursday morning — somehow feels both alarmist and apropos. “It’s terrible,” Democratic House Speaker and Portsmouth Del. Don Scott told the RTD’s Michael Martz on Thursday, pointing out CNBC’s emphasis on federal job cuts and tariffs in this year’s rankings: ... Gov. Glenn Youngkin, of course, dismissed the drop on X. “CNBC’s new methodology this year is thrown off by a new subjective metric that mistakenly ascribes substantial risk to Virginia from the federal government’s presence in the Commonwealth,” Youngkin wrote.

VaNews July 14, 2025


Holbrook and Williams: Sentara should invest more to improve regional health

By BRUCE HOLBROOK AND ARMISTEAD WILLIAMS, published in Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking real money,” said the late Sen.Everett Dirksen. Now comes the shocking news that Sentara Health System lost $1.5 billion on health insurance ventures according to its 2024 publicly available audited financials. One of these was Sentara Holdings Florida, an HMO bought for $225 million in December 2022 which lost $290 million over the next two years. All that “real money” would have made a profound impact if it had been invested back into Hampton Roads where it came from. Yes, we are thankful for Sentara’s pledge to give $35 million annually for 10 years to the Macon and Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University, but it should have been much more and should have been given much earlier.

Holbrook of Norfolk is president of Bruce Holbrook Consulting, Inc. Williams of Norfolk is a neurologist and a former board member of Sentara Hospitals, Norfolk, and of Old Dominion University.

VaNews July 14, 2025


Atkinson: Halt menhaden harvest until studies determine its effects

By STEVE ATKINSON, published in Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

With summer in full swing, Chesapeake Bay fishermen, birders and environmentalists are once again faced with the harsh reality that menhaden, the most important fish in the sea, are scarce. Even Omega Protein, the Canadian-owned menhaden reduction fishery (i.e. reduces the fish to animal feed), and its partner Ocean Harvesters, with its spotter planes and huge purse seine nets, is having trouble finding them.

Atkinson is chairman of the Virginia Saltwater Sportfishing Association in Virginia Beach.

VaNews July 14, 2025