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Kelly: Safe kids equal strong families
May is Foster Care Awareness Month. Virginia is fortunate to have a vast community of advocates, child welfare workers, foster youth and families who keep foster care front of mind every day. Each year, 2,200 children enter foster care in Virginia, and around 5,400 kids are in foster care on any given day. Children who are removed from their homes, primarily due to abuse or neglect, often tell trusted adults about the confusion that occurs, waking up disoriented the next morning to deal with the mistakes and choices that others made.
Dominion’s power line plan for data centers sparks opposition
Chris Colvin spent two years fighting a data center proposed near her family’s historic farm in Fauquier County. Now, she’s having nightmares about another threat to their land: Dominion Energy’s new, high-power transmission line needed to feed data centers outside the county. Since learning Dominion is considering a route alongside the rear of their 268-year-old farm — about “20 yards from where I put my head on my pillow,” she says — she’s woken her husband with shouts of “No! Stop! Help!” “My husband and I founded Protect Catlett two years ago and now it’s become extremely personal,” Colvin said of the group that stopped a planned data center in Catlett last year.
Community Pushback Is Stalling $64 Billion in Data Center Development Nationwide, Report Shows
As Elena Schlossberg of Prince William County, Virginia, sees it, the community effort to fight the richest companies in the world seeking to build data centers began about a decade ago when opposition coalesced in the early days of the industry’s development. Then, a couple of years ago, when people began to learn much more about the warehouse-like server farms proliferating at double the earlier rate, the fight strengthened with a meeting in Warrenton. ... Such community opposition is the focal point of a recent report by Data Center Watch, a research organization tracking data center opposition. A key finding: “$64 billion in U.S. data center projects have been blocked or delayed by a growing wave of local, bipartisan opposition.”
VCU hires outside firm to oversee federal anti-DEI compliance
Virginia Commonwealth University has hired an outside firm to review its compliance with a federal mandate to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. That’s in addition to the university’s own review, which has resulted in the shuttering and changing of multiple programs and some job reassignments or layoffs. Provost Fotis Sotiropoulos said the university hired Cozen O’Connor because federal guidance isn’t clear about which programs are allowed — and said the firm will assist in identifying programs “that either illegally discriminate or are perceived to be illegally discriminating.”
Fort Eustis is set to lose a major command as part of an Army shakeup
The headquarters for the Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) is expected to leave Fort Eustis as part of a large reorganization. The command has been headquartered at Fort Eustis since 2011. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George recently told the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee that the headquarters at Fort Eustis will be combined with Army Futures Command in Austin, Tx. to form the new Army Transformation and Training Command.
A veterans’ reunion sits at the center of an online storm in Norfolk
An online flyer promoting a trio of controversial speakers at an upcoming reunion of the survivors of the 1967 bombing of the USS Liberty is fake, organizers say — but one of the speakers named in the flyer is scheduled to speak. The Liberty Veteran’s Association will hold its 58th anniversary reunion from June 6-9 at the Sheraton Waterside in Norfolk. This year, the small, private event and the hotel became the focus of days of criticism as pictures of the flyer circulated online. . . . The flyer has ricocheted around social media for at least the past two weeks, prompting calls for boycotts of the hotel and condemnations of the veterans’ organization.
Virginia panel aims to put court actions in clear language
In a state where many still live by the adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” the idea of replacing ancient terms of legal procedures in state law feels more than a little daunting, the Virginia Code Commission says. But the commission is going to try, accepting Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell's request to make sure the language that tells non-lawyers how to navigate courts is clear to people who haven’t gone through three years of law school. It could get hairy.
Jay Jones, running for attorney general, launches ad featuring former Gov. Ralph Northam
Jay Jones, one of two Democratic candidates for attorney general, is launching a new campaign ad featuring former Gov. Ralph Northam on Tuesday. Backed by a six-figure ad buy, the commercial will air on TV in the Richmond, Norfolk and Roanoke broadcast markets, as well as statewide on streaming services.
Jan. 6 rioter who assaulted police charged with burglary near Richmond
A Fairfax County man who assaulted police at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and smashed the glass pane through which Ashli Babbitt climbed before she was fatally shot, has been arrested again outside of Richmond. Zachary J. Alam is accused of breaking into a home this month while the residents were there. He appears to be the first Capitol rioter arrested on new charges after President Donald Trump granted clemency to the roughly 1,600 people charged for their roles in the insurrection.
Poor water quality in Hampton River could soon be improved by oyster reefs
Poor water quality in the Hampton River is a problem, but restoration projects are starting to change that. ... Plastic wrappers, water bottles, cigarette butts and other trash commonly wind up in the river. Polluted runoff from densely populated streets, parking lots and buildings also is one of the city’s biggest threats to clean water. For years, researchers at Hampton University have studied the water near campus to understand the existing oyster population and develop strategies for restoring the river. As a result of this decade of work, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and university researchers are turning to oysters to help improve the river’s water quality.