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By TRENT ENGLAND,
published in
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Virginia voters can have confidence in November that the election process will be simple and their votes will count. That’s because of the defeat of two radical election proposals pushed by well-financed lobbying groups. Each would have made voting less transparent and more confusing. Voters were spared the latest mess only by gubernatorial veto on April 8. That bill, Senate Bill 428, would have required the commonwealth to assist local implementation of an election system known as ranked choice voting, or RCV.
England is founder and executive director of Save Our States and co-chairman of the Stop Ranked-Choice Voting Coalition.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By BEN PETERS,
Inside NOVA
President Joe Biden on Monday during an Earth Day stop at Prince William Forest Park made a series of announcements aimed at fighting climate change, including $7 billion to expand access to residential solar installations through the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Solar for All” program.
The president, speaking alongside Democratic members of Congress in the Prince William wilderness, also announced that people can now apply to join the American Climate Corps. The initiative is modeled after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps and aims to put more than 20,000 young Americans to work fighting the impacts of climate change while gaining skills to join the clean energy workforce.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By MICHAEL MARTZ,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
President Joe Biden on Monday celebrated the 54th anniversary of Earth Day with a return trip to Prince William County, announcing a $7 billion investment to help low- and middle-income families buy solar panels for their homes. The investment includes more than $156 million in grants for Virginia. A trio of progressive Democratic leaders — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. — joined Biden in a ringing commitment for the U.S. to lead the fight against climate change.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By ADELE UPHAUS,
FXBG Advance
After several years of remaining flat, in-state tuition at the University of Mary Washington will increase by 2% next year.
“A small increase, still below the rate of inflation, is needed to support state-mandated compensation actions for faculty and staff and the continued success of academic programs and the campus experience,” the university wrote in a press release Monday afternoon.
VaNews April 23, 2024
ArlNow
Arlington’s Congressman split his votes on security funding bills for U.S. allies over the weekend.
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) voted for bills to aid the defense of Ukraine, which is under Russian invasion, and Taiwan, which is under the threat of Chinese military action. He voted against defense aid for Israel, which is battling Hamas in a bloody conflict that has killed scores of civilians on both sides.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By LAURA VOZZELLA,
Washington Post
(Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney is telling fellow Democrats that he intends to drop out of next year’s race for Virginia governor and is weighing a run for lieutenant governor instead, according to four people familiar with his plans.
Stoney, who has faced a tough contest against Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) for their party’s gubernatorial nomination, has been calling donors, supporters and others in recent days to say that he will bow out of that race, according to the four people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private conversations.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By LAURENCE HAMMACK,
Roanoke Times
(Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
The Mountain Valley Pipeline is largely completed, the company said Monday in requesting federal approval for it to be placed in service. Although some work remains, the company asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue an order by May 23 that would allow it to begin operations. “Mountain Valley has completed all waterbody and wetland crossings project-wide,” Matthew Eggerding, deputy general counsel for the joint venture building the natural gas pipeline, wrote in a letter filed late Monday to the FERC docket.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By DWAYNE YANCEY,
Cardinal News
Craig County was home to just 4,892 people in the most recent census and is getting smaller in each subsequent estimate. The third least-populated county in the state, Craig is a beautiful land of mountains and valleys with virtually no industry — 78% of the workers leave the county every day to work.
The state of Virginia also says it’s almost as capable of paying for its own school as Prince William County in Northern Virginia is, with one key difference.
In the state’s funding formula known as the Local Composite Index, Prince William County, the land of more than 40 data centers where payrolls are calculated in the billions, saw its ability to pay for schools drop — while Craig County saw its supposed ability rise.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By JILL PALERMO,
Prince William Times
In the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created a Civilian Conservation Corps, and about 2,000 of its members worked from 1935 to 1942 to build what is now Prince William Forest Park.
On Monday, President Joe Biden made an Earth Day stop at that park, one of Prince William County’s two national parks, to announce what he called “two major steps forward” in his proposals for fighting climate change — including that the new “American Climate Corps” is now open for applications for the first time.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By MICHAEL HEMPHILL,
Cardinal News
Outside his hometown of Roanoke, Edward R. Dudley lived a life of a civil rights hero.
Special assistant counsel to Thurgood Marshall at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
First African American to run for statewide office in New York on the ticket of a major party.
First African American to serve as an administrative judge in New York State.
And most prominent: first African American U.S. ambassador. But within Roanoke? “He’s such a brilliant guy, my dad,” lamented his 81-year-old son, Edward Dudley Jr. “But nobody knows about him.”
Until now.
VaNews April 23, 2024
