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By DWAYNE YANCEY,
Cardinal News
Roanoke, a seven-time winner of the All-America City designation, recently won another title.
The Star City was named a “Certified Welcoming” city by Welcoming America, a nonprofit dedicated to welcoming immigrants.
Roanoke is the first locality in Virginia to earn this distinction and one of just 24 across the country. It’s also the fifth smallest community on that list, which is otherwise dominated by major metros.
Given the tenor of the national conversation about immigration, you would not expect to find a small city on the edge of Appalachia to be an officially “welcoming” city for immigrants, yet there Roanoke is. This is just one of many data points about Roanoke that show how it’s different.
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
(Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
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 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 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 EVAN GOODENOW,
Loudoun Times
(Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Training mandated by the Virginia Literacy Act, passed by the General Assembly in 2022, will keep Loudoun County Public Schools teachers busy over the next year. Jeff Rounsley, the LCPS director of teaching and learning, outlined the professional development requirements from the Virginia Department of Education to the School Board at its April 23 meeting. … For reading specialists for kindergarten through third grade, that means 27 to 54 hours of new training, Rounsley said. All elementary school teachers and all middle school English teachers must complete 18 to 27 hours. And other middle school teachers will be required to have nine to 18 hours of training in math, science and social studies.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By MARK J. ROZELL,
published in
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
A drumbeat among many Democrats is to galvanize persuadable voters in a righteous movement to “save democracy” from a Republican Party now wholly ruled by former president Donald Trump. It’s an appeal to the founding tenet of our nation and one that has resonance for many voters, especially in light of the violent assault by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Rozell is the dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University where he holds the Ruth D. and John T. Hazel Chair in Public Policy.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By BILL ATKINSON,
Progress Index
(Metered paywall - 10 articles a month)
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 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
