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Fare-free bus service coming to Loudoun Co. in 2025; commuter bus fares to D.C. to rise

By NEAL AUGENSTEIN, WTOP

Local bus services in Loudoun County, Virginia will be free starting in 2025, as the county tries to harness the power of Metro’s Silver Line, and ensure low income, elderly and disabled residents have options for navigating the fast-growing county. However, fares will go up on the county’s commuter bus service to downtown D.C., the Pentagon, Rosslyn and Crystal City.

VaNews June 3, 2024


Dozens rally in Reston against Virginia’s ‘unchecked’ expansion of data centers

By REBECCA TURCO, WJLA-TV

More than 70 people rallied outside a data center in Reston on Sunday against data center expansion demonstrators are calling “harmful” and “unchecked.” “The data center industry is tricky and well-funded,” Alexandria resident Tyler Ray said into a megaphone during the afternoon rally. A data center and electrical substation are set to be built less than 250 feet from some residences in Ray’s housing development, he told 7News. Because the project proposal is permitted “by right,” it can be built without a public hearing if the developer follows county regulations and doesn’t request any special exceptions.

VaNews June 3, 2024


’Not one life lost in vain’: Families of Bedford Boys who fought at D-Day remember soldiers’ sacrifices

By JUSTIN FAULCONER, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)

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.

VaNews June 3, 2024


Understand the scope of region’s gun violence to pursue effective action

Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

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.

VaNews June 3, 2024


Orange County claims Virginia School Boards Association has leftist leanings as it severs ties with group

By EMILY HEMPHILL, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

During a divisive meeting on May 20, the Orange County School Board voted 3-2 to not recertify its membership with the Virginia School Boards Association, claiming the nonpartisan statewide organization was a drain on resources and leaned too far to the political left. “I’ve seen recordings where they mock our governor and anyone with a conservative viewpoint,” said Board Member Darlene Dawson, who referred to the organization as a “monopoly.” “They lobby for many things that I, on principle, stand against, and I’m not interested in supporting them. If you try to disagree with them, they will shut you down. I’ve seen it happen.”

VaNews June 3, 2024


Records show Virginia mail carriers caught dumping mail

By LUCA POWELL, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

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 ...

VaNews June 3, 2024


Shots Fired: Nearly 3,000 killed in homicides and suicides in Hampton Roads in past 10 years

By PETER DUJARDIN, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

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.

VaNews June 3, 2024


Nelson: How unchecked illiberalism is infecting our college campuses

By SOPHIA A. NELSON, published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

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.

Nelson is a former CNU adjunct faculty member and scholar in residence. She is the distinguished 2024 Varner Vitality Lecturer at Oakland University in Michigan.

VaNews June 3, 2024


Dems weigh local ties, anti-Trump fame in primary for Spanberger seat

By TEO ARMUS, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

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 ...

VaNews June 3, 2024


Clark: Fight for competitive teacher pay continues in Virginia

By NADARIUS CLARK, published in Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

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.

Del. Clark of Norfolk represents the 84th District, which includes parts of Chesapeake, Norfolk and Portsmouth.

VaNews June 3, 2024