Search
Training center property near Lynchburg listed for sale
The Central Virginia Training Center campus of 386 acres in Madison Heights is for sale five years after its last remaining resident was relocated and the state-run facility closed. The site at 521 Colony Road at one time was Amherst County’s largest employer and according to its sale listing offers a prime redevelopment opportunity with extensive frontage on the James River and views of downtown Lynchburg. ... Lucas said the Alliance and stakeholders were waiting on the state’s budget to be finalized to roll out the marketing plan for the sale.
Virginia lawmakers prepare for new restrictions on campaign funds
Candidates for state office are about to get some new restrictions about how they can use campaign cash. Paying your home mortgage with a campaign account? That would be prohibited under a new law signed by Governor Glenn Youngkin. So would using campaign cash for clothing, automobiles, vacations, tuition, sporting events, concert tickets or even country club memberships. Senator Jennifer Boysko is a Democrat from Herndon who says she would have liked to have seen an exemption for candidates to use political contributions to buy a wardrobe.
Virginia poll shows public against tariffs, DOGE cuts
A business-sponsored poll of likely Virginia voters shows majorities opposed to President Donald Trump‘s tariffs on imports from foreign countries and the Department of Government Efficiency‘s unilateral cuts to federal government jobs and spending. The Virginia FREE poll, surveying 1,000 likely voters between May 9 and May 13, showed 61% opposed to Trump’s tariff policies on imports from China and other U.S. trading partners, with opposition highest among women and Black voters. Smaller majorities of men and white voters said they oppose the president’s tariffs.
TRADOC ‘isn't going anywhere right now,’ Army officials at Fort Eustis say
Army officials say no final decisions have been made about relocating the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, or TRADOC, to Texas. The officials confirmed that part of the Army Transformation Initiative includes merging TRADOC with the Army Futures Command. Together, they will create the Army Transformation and Training Command. ... However, after conversations with Army leadership, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said the merger would not impact day-to-day operations at Fort Eustis.
Senators including Virginia’s Warner push Trump to release broadband deployment funding
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., has joined a call for the Trump administration to release broadband deployment funds and refrain from changing guidelines about what to do with the money. Warner, a co-author and negotiator of the 2021 law that created the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, says that President Donald Trump has been blocking the so-called BEAD dollars for months. Late last week, he co-signed a letter to Trump, calling on him to follow the law. “This unprecedented move by the NTIA [National Telecommunications and Information Administration] will further delay our communities from having the connectivity they need to grow and thrive,” read the letter, which Warner and 11 other Democratic senators signed and sent on Friday.
Access to mental health, addiction recovery services at risk if Congress reduces Medicaid funding
Robyn Hantelman, director of treatment and recovery at Encompass Community Supports in Culpepper, gets a lump in her throat whenever she thinks about the possible cuts to Medicaid that have been floated at the federal level. “Ten years ago, when I first started thinking about getting into recovery and getting sober and trying to change my life, I would have had to travel 45 minutes to an hour — maybe even an hour and a half — to get medication for substance use,” Hantelman said. Today, however, many clinics have opened and other services expanded, with Medicaid being partially responsible for the improvements, especially in more remote areas. Medicaid can even help with transportation when patients need to travel further for better care, Hantelman explained.
How proposed federal cuts to Medicaid could impact Virginians
The massive tax cut and immigration bill narrowly advanced by House Republicans this week would have sweeping impacts to Medicaid users, including Virginians. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates at least 8.6 million people could become newly uninsured by 2034 as a result of Medicaid spending cuts proposed under President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill.” In Virginia, experts say most people would likely lose Medicaid access by failing to comply with new administrative regulations on enrolling in and maintaining coverage. Virginia Medicaid, called Cardinal Care, and Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, together cover nearly 1 in 4 Virginians.
Williams: Don’t be fooled: Youngkin, et al., are mocking Black history
Barbara Rose Johns, who led a 1951 student boycott that changed the course of American education, did not graduate from her Prince Edward County high school. Johns, in the aftermath of the student strike at Robert Russa Moton High School, was chased out of Prince Edward County by death threats. She was sent to Montgomery, Alabama, to live with her uncle, the Rev. Vernon Johns, a legendary civil rights activist in his own right who preceded the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
Yancey: The U.S. loses its last perfect credit rating. Will there be political fallout? Why the answer is probably ‘no.’
Something important happened last week that ought to become an issue in next year’s midterm congressional races, but probably won’t. The financial services company Moody’s downgraded the United States’ bond rating, becoming the last of the three major credit rating services to take away the nation’s once-perfect AAA rating. Instead, it assigned the U.S. a rating of AA1, still good but not the best. The Trump administration responded the same way the Obama administration did when S&P became the first credit rating service to downgrade the United States’ rating back in 2011: It blamed the rating agency. Between those two events, 14 years apart, and the similar reactions from two very different administrations, we get a glimpse of why all three ratings services — Moody’s, S&P and Fitch’s — don’t think much of U.S. finances.
Preservation of clean-energy laws is essential to Hampton Roads’ growth
State and local officials last month joined with economic development personnel and leaders from LS GreenLink USA to break ground on a project that could transform Chesapeake and create new opportunities for Hampton Roads. Construction of a new subsea cable factory, slated to be the tallest building in Virginia, represents a massive investment in the future of the region’s steadily growing clean energy sector. But its success, as well as that of the larger sector, depends on Congress protecting tax credits that enable companies such as GreenLink to invest in these facilities and create the renewable energy needed to power America’s future.