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In embezzlement sentencing, judge says McDonald ‘betrayed’ community she purported to love
The former director of a local economic development authority in Virginia who was accused of embezzling $5.2 million through an array of bogus transactions was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in federal prison — ending a legal drama that featured the death by suicide of a county sheriff who was also implicated in the crimes. Jennifer R. McDonald wore a blank expression inside the Harrisonburg District Court as a judge chastised her for using her position as director of the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority to siphon the money between 2014 and 2018 to buy properties, pay bills and gambling debts, and enrich relatives and friends.
Prince William school system, local union reach updated bargaining agreement
Prince William County Public Schools and the Prince William Education Association announced Thursday the two sides had solidified negotiations for the 2024-2025 collective bargaining agreement, the school division announced in a news release. The two sides have agreed to the implementation of six weeks paid parental leave, coupled with a new short-term disability leave program that allows for up to 12 weeks of paid leave for the birthing parent. The new leave program will also guarantee the educator’s position remains available upon return to their school following the use of the leave options.
Friday Read Ancient Chesapeake site challenges timeline of humans in the Americas
With the Chesapeake Bay sloshing at his knee-high boots, Darrin Lowery stood back and squinted at a 10-foot-tall bluff rising above a narrow strip of beach. To the untrained eye, this wall of sandy sediment is the unremarkable edge of a modest island southeast of the Bay Bridge. To Lowery, a coastal geologist, its crumbling layers put the island at the center of one of the most contentious battles in archaeology: when and how humans first made their way into the Americas. The story of the first Americans has long been a matter of public and scientific fascination, undergirded at times by vicious disagreements.
UVa reverses course, allows nursing student arrested at protest back on Grounds
After public pressure and the threat of a lawsuit, the University of Virginia has reversed course on its decision to ban a nursing student from Grounds. Mustafa Abdelhamid was one of 27 people arrested when Virginia State Police cracked down on a May 4 anti-war protest at the school. Multiple arrestees, including Abdelhamid, say they were not even participating in the protest or the encampment where people had been voicing their opposition to Israel’s war with Palestinian terror group Hamas that has killed tens of thousands since Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attack on the nation.
Register and Huntington: Foam plastics ban helps Virginia, and restaurants
Next summer, Virginians will witness measurable improvements as they drive along Virginia’s roads, visit beaches, parks or waterways. The improvement? Less litter from polystyrene food and beverage containers. Thanks to a 2021 law passed by the Virginia General Assembly, restaurants are required to phase out their use of containers made of polystyrene. For larger restaurant chains, the change will begin on July 1, 2025. Small restaurants will have an additional year.
Five Years After Virginia Beach Shooting, ’No One Is Getting Better’
The ceremony on Friday afternoon will begin with the naming of the 12 people who were killed on May 31, 2019, when an embittered city employee carried out a shooting spree at the building where he worked. At the end of the event, the site of a future memorial will be dedicated, where, eventually, the 12 names will be etched into the landscape of Virginia Beach. The children of Mary Louise Gayle, whose name will be among them, have no plans to be at the ceremony. Sarah Leonard, her daughter, is taking her children camping. Matthew Gayle, her son, is resuming a sailing trip he cut short exactly five years earlier when he learned of a shooting at his mother’s workplace. They could not bring themselves to join hands with a city that they, and members of some of other victims’ families, say let them down.
Roanoke College hires contractor after ‘cancer cluster’ allegation
Roanoke College will partner with an environmental services contractor to investigate claims that the university has a higher-than-average cancer rate. School President Frank Shushok Jr. issued a statement to students Tuesday in response to the publication of an article in “Air Mail,” a weekly digital newsletter, written by reporter Clara Molot, alleging that the university cancer incidence rates are five times higher than that of 20- to 29-year-olds in the country.
McDonald sentenced to 14 years in prison for EDA scandal
A federal judge sentenced Jennifer McDonald, a former executive director of the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority, to 14 years in prison on Wednesday for committing financial crimes against the agency. McDonald appeared Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Harrisonburg for the second part of her sentencing hearing.
Schapiro: Does Trump’s endorsement trump all?
In the parallel universe that is a Republican primary in Virginia, the outcome these days is supposed to be decided by the company a candidate keeps. That being blessed by Donald Trump ensures victory, reducing the primary to a mere formality. U.S. Rep Bob Good, an uber-conservative Republican in the sprawling, largely rural 5th District, is seeking renomination in less than three weeks to a third two-year term, running this time — as he did the first time in 2020 — without the endorsement of the former president.
Charges downgraded for 3 Otieno defendants
The three remaining defendants in the death of Irvo Otieno have had charges downgraded from second-degree murder to involuntary manslaughter. Court records on Wednesday show the charges were downgraded in the cases of Wavie Jones, Brandon Rodgers and Kaiyell Sanders. Sanders and Rodgers are Henrico County sheriff’s deputies. Jones was an employee at Central State Hospital, the maximum security psychiatric facility in Dinwiddie County where Otieno, 28, died while handcuffed and pinned to the floor.