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’Not one life lost in vain’: Families of Bedford Boys who fought at D-Day remember soldiers’ sacrifices
When John Boggess was growing up in Bedford County, his uncles Bedford and Raymond Hoback were pictures on the mantle. “We knew they died on D-Day and that was kind of it, because no one talked about it,” said Boggess, whose mother Lucille was the Hoback brothers’ younger sister. “The survivors didn’t talk about it, the family members of those who died didn’t talk about it.” The knowledge of the town of Bedford suffering massive casualties during the D-Day invasion was commonly known in the county, but it didn’t draw conversation, Boggess said.
Most U.S. students are recovering from pandemic-era setbacks, but millions are making up little ground
On one side of the classroom, students circled teacher Maria Fletcher and practiced vowel sounds. In another corner, children read together from a book. Scattered elsewhere, students sat at laptop computers and got reading help from online tutors. For the third graders at Mount Vernon Community School in Virginia, it was an ordinary school day. But educators were racing to get students learning more, faster, and to overcome setbacks that have persisted since schools closed for the COVID-19 pandemic four years ago.
Records show Virginia mail carriers caught dumping mail
It’s the U.S. Postal Service’s informal motto that “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night“ will interfere with the work of its mail carriers. Turns out that sometimes the problem can be the postal workers themselves. Internal investigations from the watchdog agency that oversees the agency shows that three carriers in the Richmond area ditched the mail rather than deliver it last year, adding to examples of unreliable service that residents reported to the Richmond Times-Dispatch in the past several months. The dumping incidents appear to be unrelated to the overhaul that Richmond’s postal system underwent in July 2023 ...
Shots Fired: Nearly 3,000 killed in homicides and suicides in Hampton Roads in past 10 years
On a Friday evening in late April, 10-year-old Keontre Thornhill was in his bedroom in Portsmouth, relaxing with his favorite video game, Fortnite. Teenage girls were arguing outside. Drawn to the commotion, Keontre looked out his window of the home on Farragut Street in Cradock. And then the shooting began. A bullet sailed through Keontre’s open window, striking him in the torso. He died in the ambulance.
Clark: Fight for competitive teacher pay continues in Virginia
Every student in Virginia deserves a fully qualified and trained teacher. Why? Not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because research consistently shows that teacher quality has the largest impact on student outcomes. Yet, as another school year ends, thousands more students in the Tidewater region spent this year with a permanent substitute or provisionally licensed teacher, at a time when teacher vacancy rates are at historic highs in Virginia and competitive pay for these positions at unprecedented lows. Help was on the way.
Understand the scope of region’s gun violence to pursue effective action
Ten-year-old Keontre “Tre” Thornhill loved action movies and was preparing to spend the summer doing lawn care services with his stepfather. James R. Carter, 84, owned the Triple C Convenience store and was called the “grandfather of Norfolk.” Ty’jonte Terry was a 14-year-old who loved basketball and was well liked among the other kids who frequented the Aqueduct Boys and Girls Club in Newport News. These are a few of the lives, along with so many others, taken from Hampton Roads by gun violence in recent months.
Two Virginia colleges face backlash after backtracking on plans to require diversity courses
When the police killings of Black people, including George Floyd set off racial unrest across the country in 2020, Marie Vergamini decided she wanted to do her part to help address systemic racism. So, Vergamini, a doctoral student and adjunct instructor at Virginia Commonwealth University, joined a committee of faculty and students who were creating a racial literacy curriculum. Vergamini said they created lessons that covered the history of slavery in the United States, the Jim Crow era, racism against Asian Americans, and the nationwide movement to remove Confederate statues, including those in the state’s capital, Richmond, which was once the seat of the Confederacy.
Dems weigh local ties, anti-Trump fame in primary for Spanberger seat
Craig Barrett was a little star-struck, he confessed, when he answered the door at his Northern Virginia townhouse to find a Trump whistleblower standing outside. “It’s an honor to meet you, sir,” he said as former Army colonel Yevgeny “Eugene” Vindman handed him a campaign brochure. “Hold on, hold on — I’ve got to get a picture, if you don’t mind.” Vindman, who made his pitch for Congress while they posed for a photo, is no stranger to this kind of fame ...
Nelson: How unchecked illiberalism is infecting our college campuses
As we end the 2023-2024 academic year, many Americans are wondering what has happened on our nation’s college campuses. It is one word: illiberalism. To be illiberal is to limit freedom of expression, free thought, free exercise of religious ideology and civil libertarian practices. With the coup de grace being the suppression of “free and fair” elections, which is the pillar that sustains all liberty.
Otieno’s mother criticizes decision to downgrade charges in son’s death
An attorney for the family of Irvo Otieno is questioning the decision of Dinwiddie County authorities to downgrade the charges against three remaining defendants in Otieno’s death from second-degree murder to involuntary manslaughter. In a statement on behalf of Otieno’s mother, Caroline Ouko, high-profile attorney Ben Crump argued the “circumstances indeed support murder charges” and said Ouko fears that Otieno’s death will “become one of many instances where justice was denied for Black men whose lives are stolen through law enforcement actions.”