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By JOSH JANNEY,
Virginian-Pilot
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A proposal to rename Fort Monroe has been resurrected by board of trustees members who are concerned the current name ignores centuries of the site’s history and could be stifling fundraising efforts.
The Fort Monroe Authority Board of Trustees considered the question of whether the site should be renamed Thursday morning as members met during a retreat. Some alternative suggestions floated for the 565-acre property and its affiliated organizations included “Old Point Comfort,” “Point Comfort,” and “Point Comfort at Fort Monroe.”
VaNews April 19, 2024
By JAMI FRANKENBERRY,
Virginian-Pilot
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As Gov. Glenn Youngkin prepared to sign an unprecedented name, image and likeness bill Thursday in Richmond, he harkened to his playing days. “I want to be very clear that had the NIL rules been in place when I was in college, I would not have had an NIL deal,” joked Youngkin, who averaged just 1.4 points game in four years as a basketball player at Rice University. Youngkin signed into law a bill that grants Virginia colleges unprecedented freedom to administer name, image and likeness benefits to athletes.
VaNews April 19, 2024
By ANDIE VIGLIOTTI,
WDVM-TV
U.S. Senators for Virginia, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, introduced federal gun legislation Tuesday on the 17th anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting.
The bill’s provisions are modeled from Virginia’s statewide gun legislation passed in 2020 that a release from Kaine’s office called “commonsense gun violence prevention measures.”
VaNews April 19, 2024
By MATT BUSSE AND MARKUS SCHMIDT,
Cardinal News
A California-based manufacturer is looking at opening a lithium-ion battery plant in Lynchburg, backed by a $100 million federal award. State Sen. Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg, confirmed that a state commission approved an additional economic incentive package for the company, Applied Materials, on Thursday. Peake, who is not a member of the commission, said it’s anticipated the company will add about 100 jobs to the city. “I’m happy any time we get a major employment investment in Lynchburg,” Peake said.
VaNews April 19, 2024
By DAVID TEEL,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
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As state politicians and university administrators led the drive for pioneering compensation opportunities for college athletes in Virginia, coaches anxiously awaited the final legislation. Ryan Odom, Tony Elliott and Brent Pry were not disappointed. They joined dozens of others Thursday morning at the Patrick Henry Building in Richmond, where Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed House Bill 1505, giving in-state schools virtual autonomy in providing name, image and likeness compensation to athletes.
VaNews April 19, 2024
By LAURENCE HAMMACK,
Roanoke Times
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Federal authorities arrested a Pulaski man Thursday on charges of participating in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. Carson Lionel Rees is accused of entering restricted grounds, demonstrating in the Capitol building and two counts of disorderly conduct, according to documents filed in Roanoke’s federal court. Rees, whose age was not available, is the 11th person from Western Virginia to be charged with joining thousands of rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, at the urging of then President Donald Trump.
VaNews April 19, 2024
By ASHLYN CAMPBELL,
Daily News Record
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A little more than $1 million in federal funding that Congress approved this March will go toward creating Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math hubs across Virginia — but the effort that got the Commonwealth there came from an educator in the Shenandoah Valley’s backyard. Amy Sabarre, the Harrisonburg City Public Schools STEM director and the president of the Virginia STEM Education Advisory Board, helped secure that $1,028,000 for STEM education, an accomplishment that took the teacher 10 years of persistence.
VaNews April 19, 2024
By KELLY ROSKAM,
published in
Richmond Times-Dispatch
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With the conclusion of Virginia’s veto session, Gov. Glenn Youngkin refused to do more to protect individuals, most of whom are women, experiencing domestic violence. Violence against partners and family members is a public health epidemic. The danger is amplified for victims of domestic violence when combined with the prevalence and accessibility of firearms. To protect victims, survivors and the public, domestic abusers are often prohibited from possessing firearms; yet enforcement of those prohibitions are lacking. By vetoing bills aimed at strengthening our domestic violence and firearms laws, Gov. Youngkin chose to protect abusers and their firearms rather than victims and public health.
Roskam is director of law and policy at the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
VaNews April 19, 2024
By EVAN GOODENOW,
Loudoun Times
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Former Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler is scheduled to stand trial from Feb. 3 to Feb. 7, 2025. It will be his second trial on the same misdemeanor charge after a judge last month set aside the September 2023 guilty verdict on one count of illegally retaliating against a special education teacher in 2022. The same jury acquitted Ziegler on a separate misdemeanor retaliation charge.
VaNews April 19, 2024
By NATHANIEL CLINE,
Virginia Mercury
Two Virginia school divisions are slated to launch a pilot program intended to help reduce youth involvement in gangs and violent behaviors with guns but it’s unclear if the initiative will be fully funded, as lawmakers go back to the drawing board to work up a new state spending plan.
On April 2, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed legislation to create the Community Builders Pilot Program that will start with Roanoke and Petersburg City Public Schools students entering the eighth grade. Pupils in both districts face high rates of gun violence and cases of students bringing firearms to school.
VaNews April 19, 2024
