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Youngkin calls out Pentagon’s plan for rooftop solar panels, questions link to China
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin penned a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to question the wisdom of the Pentagon’s plan to use $104 million in taxpayer funds to add solar panels to the rooftop of the Pentagon. The Virginia Republican told Austin that he has “serious concerns” about the plan to secure solar panels to the rooftop of the Pentagon and other military installations, most notably that there has been no “stated requirement that such panels be made in America using American technology.”
Mountain Valley Pipeline is ready to go, developers say
After a decade of planning, construction and controversy, developers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline say it’s ready to begin operations. The company asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday to grant authorization by Tuesday that would allow the natural gas pipeline to start service in the coming days.
With a week to primaries, money keeps flooding campaigns
If money talks, the volume is getting loud a week before Virginia primaries for the U.S. Senate and a handful of competitive House districts. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., has raised more than $14.6 million for his reelection campaign and had $8.6 million in the bank on May 29. Kaine has more money on hand than all five Republicans vying in the June 18 primary have collected.
At task force meeting, military families rip ‘ugly side of Virginia’s government’
Kristen Fenty of Virginia Beach says her daughter Lauren only got one moment of physical proximity to the father she never got a chance to know. It happened when she was a baby, still small enough to be lifted onto her father’s casket. As a room full of government officials listened Monday, Fenty told the group that her daughter — who was 28 days old in 2006 when her dad, Lt. Col. Joe Fenty, was killed in a helicopter crash — is now 18, preparing to go to college and hoping to eventually go to medical school. But a tuition waiver program Fenty assumed would help pay for her daughter’s education, the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program, has been thrown into limbo due to state leaders’ controversial efforts to cut the program’s growing costs.
Richmond City Council members vote to nearly double their salaries
Richmond City Council members will see a significant pay raise next year. On Monday night, council members voted 8-1 to increase their compensation rates by 80%. Currently, council members make $25,000 each year, or $12.02 an hour, and the council president makes $27,000, or $12.98 an hour. Beginning July 1, 2025, council members will make $45,000, or $21.63 an hour, and the council president will make $47,000, or $22.60 an hour, an increase of 74%.
School systems consider adding human trafficking component to curriculum per state’s updated standards
With updates in the family life portion of the Virginia Standards of Learning, the Augusta County School Board adopted an addition to the middle school curriculum at its meeting Thursday, June 6. In a recent update to Virginia's Standards of Learning, a section on human trafficking was added. ... Human trafficking is defined by the Virginia Department of Education as the act of people profiting from the control and exploitation of others, both in the form of sex trafficking and labor trafficking.
Roanoke woman convicted in Jan. 6 riots at U.S. Capitol
A Roanoke woman was convicted Monday of taking part in the Jan. 6 uprising at the nation’s capital. Casey Tryon-Castro was found guilty by a federal jury of all six charges she faced: obstructing police during a civil disorder, robbing an officer of his riot shield, entering a restricted area, disorderly conduct, engaging in physical violence and impeding passage through the Capitol building. Tryon-Castro, 34, was allowed to remain free on bond pending sentencing.
Former Trump cabinet secretary campaigns for John McGuire in Lynchburg
State Sen. John McGuire’s campaign for the Republican nomination in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District received a boost Saturday when former U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke visited Lynchburg to offer his support. With a week left in campaigning in the Republican primary on June 18, incumbent Rep. Bob Good and challenger McGuire, who represents Goochland, Appomattox, Buckingham, Fluvanna and other counties in the state Senate, are each getting help from high-profile national Republicans.
Yancey: Why Virginia belongs in the Big Ten and Virginia Tech belongs in the SEC
Clemson and Florida State are suing the Atlantic Coast Conference over the league’s media rights contract — and, more tellingly, the cost of exiting the ACC. “Severe,” Clemson calls it. “Draconian,” Florida State says. The exact figure is in dispute — $130 million, the league says, although Florida State says it could cost that school up to $572 million. Either way, a lot of money for what we used to consider amateur sports. Meanwhile, the University of North Carolina has made it clear that it’s unhappy with the amount of money it receives from the ACC. The college sports world is rife with chatter about where those three schools would wind up if they figure out an inexpensive way to leave the ACC.
Richmond Schools receives letter seeking millions in damages over deadly graduation day shooting
The mother of the teen who was killed in a shooting outside a Richmond Public Schools graduation last year has started the process of taking legal action against the school district, CBS 6 has confirmed. Graduate Shawn Jackson, 18, was one of seven people shot in Monroe Park on June 6, 2023, when gunfire erupted shortly following Huguenot High School’s commencement ceremony at the Altria Theater.