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Levar Stoney goes on TV with six-figure ad buy in lieutenant governor race
Former Richmond mayor Levar Stoney — one of six Democrats seeking the party’s nomination for lieutenant governor June 17 — will appear on TV commercials played across Virginia in a new TV ad blitz starting Thursday. Four different spots will run in the expensive Washington media market as well as in Richmond and Norfolk. The ad buy is “well into the six figures," according to his campaign. Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe appears in two of the four ads.
Earle-Sears: Right to work is still under threat
Virginia’s right-to-work law that says people cannot be required join a union is still under threat despite Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger’s recent promise that she would not sign a full repeal, her Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, said. In a letter to more than 350 Virginia business leaders, Earle-Sears said the law, dating to the 1940s, is critical to Virginia’s economy.
Dominion proposes cuts to credit for homes’ solar panels
Dominion Energy wants to cut the credit that customers with solar panels on their rooftops can get on their monthly power bills, a move that could make installing them less attractive to homeowners and businesses. Dominion currently values electricity flowing from residential rooftop solar panels at about 14 cents per kilowatt hour. The company proposes dropping this credit to 9.553 cents per kilowatt hour, the rate the utility pays for solar power from large-scale facilities. ... The proposal also is likely to spark one of the biggest clashes at the State Corporation Commission this year because it makes the economics of installing solar panels a lot more challenging, said Josephus Allmond, a staff attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit that aims to protect ratepayers and the environment.
Growing tension boils over in Martinsville council meeting
The temperature began to rise Monday at one of many budget work sessions and boiled-over Tuesday night with a disruption by a city employee and a near altercation between two council members. ... The Bulletin published a report on Tuesday showing Martinsville government employees had spent more than $1.4 million on city credit cards over 15 consecutive months ending in March. The statements show thousands of dollars in expenses involving travel, hotel stays, food, and conferences, including trips to Las Vegas and luxury resorts.
Tempers, tensions, racism, lawsuits dot Hopewell City Council agenda
Tensions continue to boil over the firings of Hopewell’s city manager and city clerk, with the most recent City Council meeting erupting in chaos after demands for resignations, a description of some councilors as a “cancer” on Hopewell and the city’s mayor being called a “b***h” by a citizen while being escorted out. The May 13 council meeting was a potpourri of events that often turned up the temperature inside Hopewell’s council chambers.
Virginia Beach board votes to keep suspension of DEI in place
The Virginia Beach School Board voted 6-5 Tuesday to move forward with its initial vote to suspend diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. This is the third vote the board has taken on the matter. “I want to thank the public for coming to the school board meetings repeatedly to voice your overwhelming support for our educational practices that support all students in our division,” District 5 board member Melinda Rogers said in a Facebook post on the vote. “While the board majority voted in favor to remove needed supports, I will continue to work to support ALL staff and students, including listening to my constituents and educating myself in the policies and data that best support our community so I can make informed decisions on the dais.”
These non-traditional candidates say they represent the evolving politics of Virginia
As GOP Lt. Governor candidate John Reid paves the way for Virginia political candidates of different backgrounds, others from both parties are following suit and having their lifestyles thrown into the spotlight. On the western side of the state a Democratic candidate for House of Delegates recently announced she was ethically non-monogamous in a social media post now seen by hundreds of thousands. And in the eastern side, a Republican delegate-hopeful had her background in the fetish community exposed. Both are facing down what might have been campaign ending scandals just a few years ago.
What the six Democratic candidates for Virginia lieutenant governor say on the issues
It’s a big election year in Virginia, with the statewide office of governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general on the ballot, plus all 100 seats in the House of Delegates. With just one candidate declared for each party, neither Democrats nor Republicans in Virginia are holding a primary contest in the commonwealth’s closely-watched governor’s race. And Republicans already have presumptive nominees for lieutenant governor (plus a write-in candidate) and attorney general. That leaves the Democratic primary to pick nominees for lieutenant governor and attorney general as the only competitive statewide races on this year’s June primary ballot — and of those, the lieutenant governor race has by far the largest field, with six candidates running for the party nod.
Virginia’s new dashboards track pregnancy risks. But advocate says data alone won’t fix disparities.
Virginia is taking a closer look at what's putting new and expectant mothers at risk, and what it will take to keep them alive. On April 17, Governor Glenn Youngkin announced the Virginia Department of Health's updated Maternal and Child Health Dashboard and two new dashboards on maternal mortality and pregnancy-associated deaths. The public dashboards track maternal health and infant outcomes across the Commonwealth, monitoring data like preterm births and low birthweight.
Chesterfield School Board OKs weapons scanners at middle and high schools
The Chesterfield School Board approved installing weapons scanners at all middle and high schools prior to the 2025-26 school year. "It's extremely important that our children feel safe and our staff feel safe," Steven Paranto, the Matoaca District representative on the school board, said. "This is not an answer that will cure everything in regards to their safety, but it's definitely a tool that we can use." The board voted 5-0 in favor of the scanners during its monthly meeting Tuesday.