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Va. unemployment rate sees longest rise since ’08 crisis
Virginia's unemployment rate is on a steady five-month increase — the longest streak since the 2008 Great Recession. The Trump administration's federal job slashing and freezing of grants, contracts and medical research may be to blame. Virginia's unemployment rate climbed to 3.4% in May, per new U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. While still below the national average (4.2%), the uptick marks the state's highest unemployment level since August 2021. The state's total labor force decreased by more than 11,500 compared with last May, according to new Virginia Works household survey data.
Legislators call for revisiting Clean Economy Act as rural Virginia rejects large solar farms
Five years after the General Assembly enacted the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which mandates Dominion Energy transition to 100% carbon-free power sources by 2045, two Republican legislators who represent Isle of Wight and Surry counties say the goal is easier said than done. It’s a position two of the state’s top Democrats, who voted to enact the 2020 law when their party held both legislative chambers and the governor’s office, say they’ve come to share.
Spanberger, Hashmi advocate in Charlottesville for abortion access
Three years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a crowd of about 300 people gathered Tuesday in Charlottesville to hear Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger discuss the future of reproductive health care in Virginia. Spanberger was joined on her “Span Virginia Bus Tour” by her running mates, state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D–Chesterfield) and former Del. Jay Jones, to say that a potential Democratic trifecta in state government would work to codify reproductive rights in Virginia’s Constitution.
Candidates for Virginia governor respond to the words of an immigrant mother with U.S.-born children
President Donald Trump is removing people without legal status from the United States, and Virginia, at a breakneck pace. It’s brought federal agents into communities across the Commonwealth, including Chesterfield County where more than a dozen people have been removed in recent days. They’re targeting folks like the one mother of three U.S. born children who lives outside of D.C. We’re only referring to her as “the mother” because she fears deportation. Her husband, and the father of two of her children, who we’re not naming for similar reasons, was deported in front of those kids last month.
Charles City County defers data center decision amid public outcry
Charles City County has again deferred a decision on a planned 500-acre data center campus. The county Board of Supervisors unanimously decided Tuesday to delay voting on the proposed Roxbury Technology Park, after previously postponing the decision in May. Kansas-based Diode Ventures first submitted plans for the park last November and is seeking to rezone around 515 acres about 20 miles due east of Richmond to allow for the campus.
Jones, Miyares trade blows in Virginia attorney general race
As November's election draws closer, the race for Virginia's attorney general is heating up, with incumbent Republican Jason Miyares and Democratic challenger Jay Jones, a former State House Delegate, engaged in a tough race. Both candidates are holding little back, exchanging critiques on qualifications, public safety, and political loyalties. "Look at his record in the General Assembly; he's one of the most left-wing legislators ever in the history of the Virginia legislature," Miyares said of his opponent.
National Democrats pour $1M into Jay Jones’ bid to flip Virginia AG seat
The Democratic Attorneys General Association is putting big money behind Jay Jones, announcing Thursday a $1 million investment in his campaign to flip Virginia’s attorney general seat and restore Democratic control of the office. “Jones is a committed public servant who has always put his constituents and their rights first, which is why DAGA is excited to make this early investment to flip the seat back to blue,” the group said in a statement.
GOP ticket to hold rally amid differences
After two months of running separate campaigns, all three members of the Republican statewide ticket are scheduled to appear together next week. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, Attorney General Jason Miyares and conservative radio host John Reid will appear alongside Gov. Glenn Youngkin at a July 1 rally in Vienna. “We are ready to win this in November — up and down the ballot,” Earle-Sears, the party’s nominee for governor, wrote on social media in a post announcing the event. In another post, Reid, the nominee for lieutenant governor, said he was eager to campaign with Earle-Sears and Miyares, but alluded to at least some conflict among the candidates.
Williams: Trump’s phony Confederate name game is child’s play
In 1964, singer-songwriter Shirley Ellis penned a hit song of nonsensical rhymes called “The Name Game,” whose second verse went like this: Lincoln! Lincoln, Lincoln, bo-bin-coln Bo-na-na fanna, fo-fin-coln ... Her song came to mind as the Trump administration does its bit to restore Confederate surnames to Army bases, with a puerile twist. In the process, it’s reversing changes made several years ago through an act of Congress.
Yancey: Earle-Sears and Spanberger ditch a Virginia tradition. Will they even debate at all?
Virginia, like the seasons, once had four great political traditions. All now seem to be discarded, trampled over by changing times. The great springtime rite of passage once was the Shad Planking, a fish roast (shad cooked on wooden planks over an open fire) in Sussex County that was more remembered for the political speeches than the cuisine.