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National seashore lacks lifeguards as Chincoteague fumes
Visitors are flocking to Assateague Island National Seashore in record numbers. The annual Chincoteague pony swim and auction — and the peak of the summer tourism season — is three weeks away. But Chincoteague Mayor Denise Bowden is worried, as the Eastern Shore town faces new responsibilities because President Donald Trump‘s administration never hired lifeguards to protect people thronging the 37-mile-long barrier island in Virginia and Maryland. As in zero lifeguards, with 13 positions unfilled, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.
White: Ranked choice voting improves democracy. Will Va. embrace it?
This year, Virginia voters have been going to the polls for critical elections across the commonwealth, and in many cases, they've seen a lot of names on their ballots. From the recent Democratic lieutenant governor primary to the 11th Congressional District special election primaries, Virginia has two real-time examples of how ranked choice voting (RCV) could benefit voters in crowded races. Both demonstrate why it's time for Virginia's political parties to further embrace RCV.
Still standing? Virginia Supreme Court to hear HFFI’s lawsuit against Fredericksburg City Council
Back in 2018, when Brian McDermott and his wife, Lori, moved into their new (old) home on Princess Anne Street in Fredericksburg, they were eager to restore the 268-year-old property, also known as the Charles Dick House. . . . A few years later, however, the McDermotts applied for and received a certificate of appropriateness from the city’s Architectural Review Board (ARB) to demolish a small, 1910s-era building nestled in the back corner of their lot at 204 Lewis St. Today, that structure is still standing, and the question of legal standing will go before the Virginia Supreme Court later this year as the final stop in a lawsuit filed by the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc. (HFFI) against the Fredericksburg City Council.
MS-13 are just sliver of gang population in Virginia’s prisons
In May, a group of inmates said to be members of MS-13 assaulted corrections officers at Wallens Ridge, one of Virginia’s two supermax state prisons. In a video leaked to a local TV news outlet, a man surprises a Wallens Ridge prison guard with a haymaker. Then more inmates in the prison pod join in a violent beating of a prone corrections officer, who is rescued by a colleague who aerosolized the pod. . . . Despite the attention that MS-13 commands, data from the Virginia Department of Corrections show that international gang comprises a sliver of total gang members in Virginia’s prison system, which remain filled with American criminal organizations. For every MS-13 member in a Virginia prison, there are dozens from gangs such as the Bloods, Crips, white supremacists and others.