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Moss clinic supporters rally in Fredericksburg

By CATHY DYSON, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

People who’ve gotten free medical care at the Moss Free Clinic, as well as those who volunteer and work there, joined members of the community Sunday to show their support for the services the clinic provides. Jim Eagan told the crowd of about 80 people that he went to the clinic when he had an abscessed tooth and couldn’t find help anywhere else. ... The rally came about as the partnership between Mary Washington Healthcare and the clinic, named after the late co-founder, Dr. Lloyd Moss, has deteriorated in recent months.

VaNews April 22, 2024


Commuter train system eyes expansion, part of Virginia’s evolving rail trends

By NATHANIEL CLINE, Virginia Mercury

While 2050 is more than a quarter century away, The Virginia Railway Express wants to start transforming its commuter rail operations much sooner by offering Saturday services as it considers its System Plan 2050, part of holistic, multi-agency efforts to transform rail services in the commonwealth. Last year, the VRE Operations Board — which is represented by the nine jurisdictions that fund the commuter rail service — backed the agency’s budget that included a 5% fare hike, or 50 cents more, due to the increase in services since 2020. The budget also included a plan to, for the first time, operate Saturday train service on tracks shared with Amtrak, CSX and Norfolk Southern.

VaNews April 22, 2024


Hopewell ex-city attorney raises delinquent-tax issue concerning treasurer

By BILL ATKINSON, Progress Index (Metered paywall - 10 articles a month)

Hopewell’s outgoing city attorney has recommended that the Virginia attorney general’s office look into claims by an alleged department employee that the city’s treasurer improperly removed herself from a state agency’s list of delinquent taxpayers without attempting to settle her own tax debts. The allegations against Shannon Foskey were brought up in a letter sent last week to Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Newman and cited in an April 18 memo from now-former city attorney Danielle Smith to City Manager Dr. Concetta Manker.

VaNews April 22, 2024


Yancey: 5 ways the battery plant planned for Lynchburg is significant

By DWAYNE YANCEY, Cardinal News

The news that broke late last week about the U.S. government loaning $100 million to a California company to open a lithium-ion battery plant in Lynchburg is much bigger than the 100 or so jobs it will involve. Let’s count the ways. 1. This helps put Virginia in the “battery belt.” Dixie is the new Detroit: The Southeast has been quietly building a hub of auto-related plants for decades. The Roanoke and New River valleys are part of that, with truck-building operations at Mack Truck in Roanoke County, Volvo in Pulaski County and lots of suppliers in between.

VaNews April 22, 2024


Biden Earth Day Event Will Try to Reach Young Voters, a Crucial Bloc

By ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS AND BRAD PLUMER, New York Times (Metered Paywall - 1 to 2 articles a month)

President Biden will travel to a national park in Virginia on Monday, Earth Day, to spotlight his clean energy investments, with an eye on bolstering support among young voters disillusioned with their choices for the 2024 election. Against the backdrop of the park, Prince William Forest, Mr. Biden will announce $7 billion in grants to fund solar power for hundreds of thousands of homes in primarily disadvantaged communities, according to the White House. He will be joined by future members of the American Climate Corps, a new work force for young people hoping to combat climate change.

VaNews April 22, 2024


Roanoke Valley landfill readying for natural gas production

By LUKE WEIR, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Your trash becomes gas. It happens gradually, as mountains of our garbage decompose at Smith Gap Regional Landfill in Roanoke County. That’s where the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority hauls all the waste — more than 500 million pounds per year — from Roanoke, Salem, Roanoke County and Vinton. Among rotten banana peels and other decaying organic material sealed inside the landfill, methane-rich fumes are captured by a system of buried vacuum tubes ...

VaNews April 22, 2024


Roanoke-based Luna Innovations says more financial statements are unreliable

By MATT BUSSE, Cardinal News

The Roanoke-based fiber-optic technology company Luna Innovations Inc. on Friday added more than a year’s worth of previous financial statements to the list of those that it says are no longer reliable. Luna said in a news release that a committee formed by its board of directors has determined that the company’s financial statements from 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 “cannot be relied upon and need to be restated due to identified accounting errors relating to revenue recognition.”

VaNews April 22, 2024


Town of Blacksburg launches new public information system

Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The town of Blacksburg is streamlining the process of making and responding to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. It launched a new records management software called JustFOIA, according to a town news release. JustFOIA is designed for state and local government entities to modernize public records management and accessibility, according to the release.

VaNews April 22, 2024


DOJ: Richmond man, a Patriot Front member, arrested in connection to Jan. 6 insurrection

By RYAN NADEAU, WRIC-TV

A Richmond man and member of the white nationalist group Patriot Front was arrested Friday and hit with several charges relating to his alleged conduct during the Jan. 6 insurrection, including impeding and physically assaulting officers. According to the Department of Justice, 26-year-old Nathaniel Noyce was arrested on Friday, April 19, in connection to his alleged participation and disorderly, disruptive conduct during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

VaNews April 22, 2024


Richmond housing authority pauses evictions for at least 30 days

By PATRICK LARSEN, VPM

The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority announced a new approach to lease enforcement amid public outcry over eviction cases it recently filed against residents. CEO Steven Nesmith said the “Compassion Action Initiative” will focus on re-establishing relationships with residents, adhering to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development regulations, strengthening data collection and sharing with stakeholders, and addressing a $3 million backlog of unpaid rent. At least 14 pending cases were dismissed from Richmond General District Court on Wednesday in a pause that Nesmith said would extend for a minimum of 30 days.

VaNews April 22, 2024