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Classes end for final time at two Franklin County schools
The classrooms of Burnt Chimney and Henry elementary schools emptied for the final time on Wednesday. Teachers waved goodbye to students as they loaded onto buses and vehicles, marking the end of an era for these communities. The Franklin County School Board voted to close the schools in February due to the financial strain of less state money due to dropping enrollment.
An ACLU lawyer defended racists’ free speech rights. Now she’s running for Congress
After growing up learning about the Civil Rights Movement and the importance of people being free to advocate for their beliefs, Leslie Mehta says providing legal help to the racist organizers of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville was one of the hardest things she’s done as an attorney. Mehta, who’s now running for Congress in Virginia as a Democrat, was serving as legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia seven years ago when the chapter made a controversial decision to represent rally organizer Jason Kessler in litigation against Charlottesville officials.
Chesapeake Bay blue crab population holds strong, harvesters encouraged
The Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources have conducted their 2024 Bay-wide Blue Crab Winter Dredge Survey and found that the population held strong. This news comes after four years of population fluctuations according to Maryland.gov.
Lynnhaven River Now building region’s first living shoreline made of mussels
Jeff Grimshaw’s family has owned a waterfront property in Virginia Beach for more than three decades, jutting out where the Lynnhaven Bay meets the river of the same name. Over that time “we’ve seen tremendous change,” Grimshaw said. “We are losing land at a pretty horrific rate.” Erosion exacerbated by storms and sea level rise has eaten away at the property’s edge, particularly in the last 20 years, he said. Now Grimshaw’s property will serve as a test site for a new kind of shoreline. Using a $15,000 state grant, the nonprofit Lynnhaven River Now is building a living shoreline made of mussels.
Two GOP contenders seek Trump’s nod for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District primary
Republican Congressman Bob Good has faced a primary challenger in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District before, but June’s primary will be different than the contests he’s won in the past. That’s thanks to a state law that was patroned by Democratic Del. Dan Helmer and signed by former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam in March 2021. That law, which went into effect in January, had one unintended consequence: It all but outlawed conventions in any election, including party primaries, in Virginia.
Institutions respond after new state budget stipulates lab school projects need public sponsor
Five of the 12 lab schools planning to open their doors to students this fall have one more hoop to jump through before they can do so. Three of those affected are in Southwest Virginia. College partnership lab schools developed by Roanoke College, Emory & Henry College and Mountain Gateway Community College must find a four-year public institution of higher education to back them if they want to keep the millions in state funding they’ve been granted to launch their concepts, according to details of the state budget signed May 13. The lab schools are intended to foster innovative teaching methods and train new generations of teachers. The adjustment brings the rules for lab school funding back in line with the original plan that was agreed to in the General Assembly in 2022, but a short timeline could create challenges for these projects.
Yancey: Senate candidate blasts ‘podunk local newspaper.’ Umm, Staunton is not ‘podunk.’
A few weeks ago, a journalist in Richmond was writing about the different parts of Virginia and made a snarky, dismissive reference to “whatever the hell is west of Roanoke.” To this journalist whose publication covers “whatever the hell is west of Roanoke,” those were fighting words. I limbered up my typing fingers and wrote a riposte to that description. Then our readers weighed in, offering up suggestions for what visitors to the western part of the state — be it west of Roanoke or not — should see. I considered the matter concluded … Then on Wednesday came news that a candidate for the U.S. Senate had referred to another part of Virginia as “podunk.”
Mapping Arlington’s History of Racially Restrictive Neighborhoods
Northern Virginia’s fraught history of racial discrimination is well-documented. Now, three researchers have mapped out just how prevalent “whites-only” housing was in the early 20th century—and how those exclusionary policies shaped the communities we live in today. Their hope is that their work will inspire current residents to investigate and learn from their property’s past. Covenants preventing non-White people from owning or occupying land were once commonplace in this area. “[The practice] was pretty evenly spread across Arlington,” says Krystyn Moon, a researcher and a professor of history and American studies at the University of Mary Washington (UMW) in Fredericksburg.
Schapiro: VP talk an unnecessary distraction for Va. governor
Trump-a-canoe and Youngkin, too. Having passed on a national candidacy in 2024 — and having endorsed for restoration to the presidency, Donald Trump, the crass Republican disrupter for whom Glenn Youngkin apparently envisioned himself as a well-mannered, less menacing alternative — the Virginian now finds himself mentioned as one of Trump’s prospective vice presidential running mates.
Virginia Tech protesters offered community service in lieu of trial
The 82 people arrested and charged with trespassing at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at Virginia Tech will have the option not to go to trial, in exchange for 25 hours of community service. Montgomery County Commonwealth’s Attorney Mary Pettitt said that a notice has been mailed to those who were charged offering a chance to enter a pre-trial diversion program. The program’s requirements are that, ahead of the person’s assigned court date, they must go in person to the county General District Court with a copy of the diversion letter, pay $99 for court fees, and complete their community service hours within six months.