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New flights are coming to Reagan National Airport. Where will they go?
An aviation law signed by President Biden this month will add five new round-trip flights to Reagan National Airport. The move followed a year of political struggle, with backers citing the benefits of adding nonstop destinations and boosting competition and critics warning of new delays and safety risks on the airport’s already overused primary runway in Arlington, Va.
How Florida’s abortion law is affecting East Coast abortion clinics
Clinics up the East Coast have seen a surge in patient traffic since a law banning most abortions in Florida went into effect on May 1 — but so far they have not experienced the collapse in care that many providers had feared before the new restrictions began in the country’s third most populous state, according to new data collected by a research team at Middlebury College. Wait times for abortion appointments have increased at approximately 30 percent of clinics across North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., the areas closest to Florida where abortion remains legal after six weeks of pregnancy, according to the data, which is based on a survey of clinics before and after the law went into effect.
New Va. budget allocates $3.75M toward cleaning up contaminated ‘Money Point’ section of Elizabeth River
With the newly signed Virginia state budget, $3.75 million will now go toward cleaning up a historically contaminated and polluted section of the Elizabeth River watershed. In the southern branch of the Elizabeth River, sitting below the waters just above the Gilmerton Bridge, lies a layer of tar runoff and creosote leftover from an industrial lumber yard in the early 1900s.
‘Your quiet community could be destroyed’: Gum Springs residents in Fairfax fight to preserve local history
In 1833, West Ford — a freed slave — bought 214 acres of land in Northern Virginia and founded the oldest free-sustained African American community in Fairfax County known as Gum Springs. “A Black man in Northern Virginia, buying property in 1833? That just didn’t happen,” said Ronald L. Chase, president of the Gum Springs Historical Society and Museum.
Opposition mounts to revived Catlett data center plan in Fauquier
More than 90 people who packed the old rescue squad hall in Catlett [last] week for a meeting about a data center complex proposed for just north of town had a resounding message for developers and county officials: Not here. First pitched in 2020, the project was recently revived with a new application to Fauquier County officials. Developer Headwaters is seeking a rezoning to allow up to four two-story buildings with 1.2 million square feet of floor space at the junction of Catlett Road and Gaskins Lane.
What’s to become of the keepsakes left at Arlington Cemetery?
During one of their winter visits to Arlington National Cemetery, Mark and Nancy Umbrell placed a colorful patchwork quilt beside their son Colby’s grave. It had arrived in the mail years earlier from a sender they did not know after the 26-year-old’s 2007 death in Iraq. They had observed other visitors leaving mementos, a gesture that felt to them like a fitting way to both honor the fallen Army officer and thank the quilt maker whose kindness meant so much in their moment of grief, Nancy Umbrell said.
VPAP Visual Congressional Primaries by Year
While the overall number of congressional primaries remains steady, this year has the fewest contested Republican primaries since VPAP began tracking them in 2012, with only three districts holding Republican contests this year.
For the first time, all of these nomination contests will be state-run primaries. In past years, many districts used party-run conventions or firehouse primaries to choose their nominees. But a new law effectively requires a state-run primary by mandating that the method of nomination allows all eligible voters to participate, including active-duty service members and students attending out-of-state universities.
Shucet: HRBT tunnel ‘breakthrough’ and a Hidden Figure’s legacy
Bryan Jackson passed the island every day when he lived in Hampton and worked at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard as a sandblaster. The island looked small to him. “I always wanted to be on that little island,” he said. On April 17, Jackson gave up a day’s pay, $400, to be on the island — the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel’s north island. … Being on the island that day was a bonus for Jackson. He was invited there to see Mary the Tunnel Boring Machine complete the first leg of her journey. … Decades earlier, another Jackson made a breakthrough not far from this island. Jackson’s grandmother was Mary Jackson, the first Black female engineer at NASA. The tunnel boring machine is named for her.
Grand Contraband Camp in Hampton listed among the state’s most endangered historic sites
The Grand Contraband Camp — a place that provided a sanctuary for thousands of enslaved individuals seeking refuge behind Union lines during the Civil War — is listed this year among the state’s most endangered historic places. … In May 1861, shortly after Virginia seceded from the Union, three enslaved men working on a Confederate fortification in Norfolk — Frank Baker, James Townsend and Sheppard Mallory — appeared at the gates of Fort Monroe and asked for sanctuary. When a Southern officer demanded their return under the Fugitive Slave Act, which declared all citizens must turn in runaway slaves even if they lived in free states, Union Gen. Benjamin Butler refused, calling them “contrabands of war.”
100 years after Charlottesville’s Lee statue went up, work starts to find a replacement
A hundred years ago, a bronze statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee astride his horse Traveller was erected in what was then known as Lee Park in downtown Charlottesville, where it stood until … eight years ago, when Zyahna Bryant, a Black student at Charlottesville High School, wrote a petition to City Council calling on the city’s leaders to remove the “offensive” statue … The statue would remain up throughout this until … three years ago, when Lee was removed and the park renamed.