Search
Shields, Deane, Redican, Broening, Quach and Miller: How that ‘big, beautiful bill’ discards RVA’s children
On May 21, the House of Representatives passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which made deep cuts to the country’s social safety net. The list of programs that would be changed and/or reduced is steep and significant: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and many others. If the bill passes the Senate, the impact would be enormous and fall mainly on low income families, caregivers and children. The “one big beautiful bill” would significantly cost-shift the funding of these programs to the states.
Williams: Stoney's ambitions ran aground in Richmond
Richmond was going to be a problem for former mayor Levar Stoney even before the city’s water system ran dry in early January. Stoney, a former secretary of the commonwealth and protege of former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, once appeared destined for big things as an energetic millennial mayor riding the wave of a resurgent capital city. He seldom bothered to camouflage his ambition.
Hating on Stoney won’t help Spanberger
If this week felt good to you — Richmond’s long-clueless ex-mayor got his comeuppance, didn’t he? — I have some bad news. Sure, the city probably averted becoming a political punching bag. Levar Stoney, if he’d won the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, would have given current Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and the MAGA boys fresh meat — a once-great racist city, built on the backs of the enslaved, driven into the ground by another liberal, woke mayor.
Vital sites in Williamsburg’s Black history take steps forward on Juneteenth
Two important sites in Williamsburg’s Black history took the spotlight on Thursday as the region observed the holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States. Dozens of people gathered on Nassau Street on Juneteenth for a groundbreaking ceremony that will kick off the rebuilding of one of the nation’s oldest Black churches. Nearby, visitors were welcomed inside the Bray School, one of the oldest surviving schools for Black children that has been recreated to look as it did in the 18th century.
Youngkin orders assessment of federal sexual assault prevention programs in Virginia National Guard
Hoping to provide oversight for existing federal sexual assault prevention programs in the military, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order Friday that would establish a commonwealth work group. Youngkin said he hoped the order would provide an assessment the Sexual Assault Prevention Response (SAPR,) a federal program introduced in the 2000s to respond to sexual violence claims in all branches of the military, as well as the National Guard.
Sen. Tim Kaine says President Trump is waging ‘unconstitutional’ war against Iran
Sen. Tim Kaine said Sunday that it was “unconstitutional” for President Trump to launch a military strike against Iran without congressional approval. Mr. Kaine, Virginia Democrat and a member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, said Mr. Trump cannot rely on the 2001 Authorization of Military Force, which was enacted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and he expects Congress to vote on a new AUMF this week. “We will have all members of the Senate have to declare whether or not the U.S. should be at war with Iran,” Mr. Kaine said on “Fox News Sunday.” “It is unconstitutional for a president to initiate a war like this without Congress. Every member of Congress needs to vote on this.”
From the classroom to the campaign trail: Ghazala Hashmi’s rise
Before she was a state senator from Chesterfield County, and long before she became Virginia's Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, Ghazala Hashmi was known by colleagues as a calm, soft-spoken English professor who led meetings with precision and brought her deep love of early American literature to the classroom. After nearly 30 years in the classroom, Hashmi has made a swift rise in politics and is now the first Muslim woman in the U.S. to be nominated to a statewide ticket, according to her campaign.
Richmond’s 4th Circuit upholds federal ban on handgun sales to young adults
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a federal law barring gun shops from selling handguns to individuals under the age of 21. The ruling is another flashpoint in a yearslong saga by Second Amendment advocates to allow young adults to buy handguns — an issue that has divided Virginia’s federal judiciary since 2018, when a young Republican political organizer first alleged an infringement of his rights. ... Wednesday’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought in June 2022 by Palmyra resident John Corey Fraser.
After Va. elections, governor’s race begins a new phase
Virginia’s election season kicked into high gear Saturday as the newly formed Democratic lineup for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general launched a statewide bus tour on a blistering hot afternoon while their Republican rivals kept to a far more low-key campaign approach. “Everywhere we travel, people get to hear from us about the things we are for,” gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger said at an afternoon rally at Richmond’s Abner Clay Park with her ticket mates, state Sen. Ghazala F. Hashmi (Richmond) for lieutenant governor, and former Norfolk delegate Jerrauld C. “Jay” Jones for attorney general.
Virginia’s cellphone ban will return students’ focus to education
Mark July 1 on your calendar (which is probably in your cellphone). That’s the day a state law goes into effect mandating that public school students not use cellphones during the school day. When the new 2025-26 school year starts toward summer’s end, that new reality may take a little getting used to, but before long it should promote learning and student engagement. It should make teachers’ jobs a bit easier. The ban also should reduce the emotional and mental stress that constant attention to the world as presented by mobile phones can inflict on adolescents.