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By GRAHAM MOOMAW,
Virginia Mercury
A week before the Petersburg City Council voted unanimously to pick Cordish Companies to potentially build a casino, City Manager John Altman Jr. signed a letter saying the city council intended to pick a competing company, according to a copy of the document obtained by The Virginia Mercury.
The April 17 letter of intent addressed to Bally’s, a national casino company that was one of five finalists for the Petersburg project, said the pending deal would still depend on outside factors. However, the letter clearly indicated Bally’s was the city’s initial choice … The city claims the letter was signed under duress as the General Assembly pressured local officials to pick a certain casino company or risk losing the project entirely.
VaNews April 26, 2024
Virginian-Pilot
Editorial
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With help from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Hampton and Newport News are embarking on an ambitious strategy to use newly available federal funds to tackle the related problems of climate change and wealth inequality. The neighboring Peninsula communities are the only two in Virginia among 25 cities nationwide selected for the $200 million Bloomberg American Sustainable Cities initiative. The initiative, to last three years, aims to help cities make the most of federal funds to develop projects that combat climate change, increase resilience and improve economic conditions in disadvantaged neighborhoods ...
VaNews April 26, 2024
By ALEXANDER ZACCARDELLI,
published in
Virginian-Pilot
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Virginia is facing a worsening teacher shortage. However, the focus on pure numbers has directed attention away from another problem: a shortage of diverse teachers. Troops-to-Teachers (TTT), a program that helps veterans obtain teaching licenses, offers solutions to both crises, bringing demographic and life experience diversity into our classrooms.
Zaccardelli is an elementary education undergraduate at William & Mary and an ALL-IN tutor at J. Blaine Blayton Elementary in Williamsburg.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By DHARMENDRA PATEL,
published in
Roanoke Times
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As one of the leaders of the Asian American Business Owners Association (AABOA), I know firsthand how skill games have not only benefited Virginia small businesses but also helped them survive the onslaught of COVID, skyrocketing inflation, and higher-than-expected wages. AABOA represents more than 300 convenience stores, gas stations, and restaurants in Southwest Virginia. The survival of many of our locations depended on supplemental income from skill games before they were abruptly banned in October.
Patel lives in Salem.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By CHER MUZYK,
Prince William Times
The path to control the U.S. House of Representatives runs through Northern Virginia this fall with two open seats and competitive races in the 7th and 10th Congressional Districts, both of which include parts of Fauquier and Prince William counties.
Recent campaign filings show that in the 10th District race, the Democrats are outraising their Republican candidates.
Collectively, the 12 Democrats in the race have raised more than $4.5 million, while the four Republicans have pulled in about $583,000, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By BILL ATKINSON,
Progress Index
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With Wednesday’s approval of The Cordish Companies and Bruce Smith Enterprises as Petersburg’s casino vendor of choice, city officials say the next step in the process is getting the Virginia Lottery Board and a Circuit Court judge on its side in approving the November referendum that ultimately decides the future of legalized gambling here. In an email Thursday afternoon, city spokesperson Joanne Williams said Petersburg and Cordish/BSE will draw up the paperwork to submit to the lottery board, the state agency that governs Virginia’s casino operations.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By GHAZALA HASHMI AND MARK SICKLES,
published in
Richmond Times-Dispatch
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This March, we celebrated the 14th anniversary of one of the most landmark health care laws passed in our lifetimes, the Affordable Care Act. As the chairs of our respective health committees in the General Assembly, we are tasked with considering every bill impacting health policy in Virginia. This year, our Democratic majorities passed bills that build on the progress of the ACA by lowering health care costs, including for prescription drugs (although a bill to create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board was unfortunately vetoed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin).
Sen. Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, chairs the Senate Education and Health Committee. Del. Sickles, D-Fairfax, chairs the House Health and Human Services Committee.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By BRAD KUTNER,
WVTF-FM
Governor Glenn Youngkin is still looking to spend $100 million on new lab schools across Virginia, and a handful of applications were approved Thursday. But there were concerns about the viability of at least one of the programs.
Lab schools were authorized by the legislature in 2022. They aim to partner with colleges to provide real world experience to students so they can enter the job field more quickly upon graduation. And while the spirit of the program is supported by many, the funding— directly from the state and given to public and private colleges— has been a source of budget fights.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By ELIZABETH MCGOWAN,
Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism
The red brick apartment building Zenobia Wilson called home for a dozen years was a ringside seat to a noisy, polluting, 14-lane jumble of Interstate-264 overpasses, cloverleaf interchanges and ramps whizzing around the majority-Black St. Paul’s neighborhood.
But when the mother of three moved out of Tidewater Gardens in August 2022, it wasn’t by choice.
Norfolk was advancing another long-simmering initiative to “deconcentrate poverty,” christened the St. Paul’s Transformation Project. Its initial $400 million phase called for demolishing all 618 units of the deteriorating, barracks style public housing. Everybody had to relocate.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By ANNA BRYSON,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
The Virginia Board of Education approved $25.4 million for six new lab schools Thursday as state officials find ways to accelerate the approval process to use the existing lab school funding before the current budget cycle ends. Some education officials worry that the expedited approval process might affect the quality of lab school plans, but proponents say officials thoroughly vet the applications.
VaNews April 26, 2024
