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Sea levels in Hampton Roads continue to rise, but at a steady pace
Hampton Roads continues to see rising tides linked to climate change and sinking land. But the rate of change in recent years has stayed in line with past forecasts, according to the latest “sea level rise report card” from William & Mary’s Batten School and Virginia Institute of Marine Science. “We are accelerating at a high rate compared to a lot of the rest of the country, but that rate hasn't been changing, really,” said Molly Mitchell, an assistant research professor. “It's been a pretty consistent rate.”
John Curran relaunches lieutenant governor bid as write-in, alleging signature sabotage
John Curran, the former Republican candidate for lieutenant governor who said internal sabotage cost him a spot on the primary ballot, announced Monday he is re-entering the race — this time as a GOP-aligned write-in. “Today, I am announcing my WRITE-IN campaign for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia as a Republican,” Curran said in a statement. “My decision is not to split the ticket but to save it.” Curran’s announcement reignites tensions in an already turbulent race following his exit in April, when he failed to qualify for the ballot despite claiming to have far surpassed the 10,000-signature requirement.
New push from Kaine aims to close retirement gap for Virginia’s youngest workers
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is backing bipartisan legislation aimed at helping workers as young as 18 — particularly those who enter the workforce straight out of high school — gain access to employer-sponsored retirement plans, a benefit many currently don’t receive until age 21. On Monday, Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, teamed up with HELP Committee Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., to reintroduce the Helping Young Americans Save for Retirement Act.
Transco plans another natural gas pipeline project for Va.
The natural gas pipeline developer The Williams Companies plans another pipeline expansion in Virginia, this time to run from Pittsylvania County to parts north. The Transco Power Express would supply markets north of the Transco compressor station in Chatham with up to 950 million cubic feet of gas daily, serving “the power-hungry Virginia market,” Williams’ President and CEO Alan Armstrong said last week on a quarterly earnings call.
Virginia signals it’s ready to explore geothermal energy with new legislation
Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin is working with Democrats who control the General Assembly to increase renewable energy. It's the hottest new energy source, literally. Geothermal energy is created by boring deep into the ground to release heat from the earth's crust. And now Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin [signed] a bill that would add geothermal energy to Virginia's renewable energy portfolio standards – essentially encouraging geothermal energy production in Virginia. The bill was introduced by Senator Jeremy McPike, a Democrat from Prince William County.
The UVa shooter asked his mentor to tell his story. But that mentor isn’t talking.
"They not getting off this bus," the killer informed his mentor 100 minutes before unleashing the fusillade that claimed the lives of three fellow University of Virginia students and Cavalier football players, seriously injured two others and left a community searching for answers. ... Today, going on three years after those texts and that life-shattering blast of leaden horror inside a chartered bus returning to Charlottesville from a field trip to Washington, D.C., the full story remains untold. That's because the mentor, who sits on UVa's School of Education and Human Development Foundation, isn't speaking about what he did in those 100 minutes ...
Martinsville administration defends city bank card charges
A city council meeting last week has resulted in the disclosure of bank card expenses from city officials showing thousands of dollars in travel, hotel stays, food, and conferences, including trips to Las Vegas and luxury resorts. Bank card statements, downloaded by the Martinsville Bulletin from a publicly available folder on the city of Martinsville’s OneDrive SharePoint server, contain redacted monthly statements from Bank of America from January 2024 through March of this year. City Councilman Aaron Rawls requested the statements under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and shared them with the Bulletin.
Virginia state lawmakers briefed on potential impacts of federal Medicaid cuts
A bipartisan group of Virginia delegates were briefed Monday on the impact Medicaid cuts could have across the state and local communities. The meeting, the third for the Emergency Committee on the Impacts of Federal Workforce and Funding Reductions, was held one day after congress unveiled legislation that targeted $880 billion in cuts centered around Medicaid. Currently, there are 1.9 million Virginians enrolled in Medicaid across its Base, FAMIS and Expansion programs.
In sales, fast-food and some medical fields, 33% of Virginia workers struggle financially
One of every three workers in the Fredericksburg region and beyond — who hold down 20 of the most common occupations in the state — doesn’t earn enough money to make ends meet. That’s according to new research from United Ways across Virginia and their research partner, United for ALICE. . . . “The crux of the struggle,” as the United Way puts it, is the gap between wages and expenses. The report looked at costs in 2023 and noted that a family of four in Virginia needed, on average, more than $99,000 a year, just to cover the essentials.
Augusta County Sheriff’s Office gets body, dash cameras
The Augusta County Sheriff's Office has become the third local law enforcement agency to utilize body-worn cameras, nearly a year after the devices were approved. The sheriff's office began using the Axon cameras at the beginning of April and continue to roll out dash cameras for its vehicles. . . . The sheriff's office was a little late to the party as both the Staunton and Waynesboro police departments have had body cam devices in use for about a decade. Calls for the recording devices in the county became amplified in 2021 following two shootings in May of that year.