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After funding cuts, nonprofits for domestic-violence survivors scale back
Organizations that support survivors of domestic violence and child abuse across the country are paring back resources — or preparing to shut down shelters — due to a dramatic drop in federal funds. For fiscal year 2024, Congress set a funding cap of $1.35 billion — about $600 million less than last year for the Crime Victims Fund, as its reserve dwindled. Advocates fear that without a funding fix they may stare down an even bigger hole next year. … In the D.C. region, this year’s cut has translated into a decrease of $200,000 — or 11 percent — for Doorways, Arlington’s sole provider of crisis services for survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
Grant money will help environmental group address carbon storage
The recent announcement that The Nature Conservancy Virginia will receive $47.2 million from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to help it use methods based in nature to reduce carbon emissions is good news for several reasons. The money coming to the organization is part of $421million awarded to a coalition of environmental groups in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Maryland. In a laudable feat of interstate collaboration, the groups worked together to apply for one of the highly competitive awards and was one of 25 winners nationwide from nearly 300 applications.
Yancey: Lynchburg Republicans set meeting to censure (and expel) the city’s GOP mayor and vice mayor
Lynchburg Republicans are at it again. Yes, I realize you’ve probably read that before. This is a different “again.” This time, the Lynchburg Republican City Committee has scheduled a special meeting for Oct. 15 to take up resolutions that would censure the city’s Republican mayor and vice mayor — and expel them. To explain this to outsiders is like trying to explain one of those Biblical passages about who begat whom. There are a lot of “begats” here.
Virginia’s largest natural gas producer moves regional headquarters in Tazewell County
Virginia’s largest producer of natural gas is expanding its regional headquarters in the Southwest region of the state. Natural gas can be derived from coal bed methane, a potent greenhouse gas driving climate change which, in Virginia, is emitted through mining in the state’s coalfields. On Friday, CNX Resources held a ribbon cutting to celebrate moving its regional headquarters from Claypool Hill in Tazewell County a few miles north to the Richlands Professional Building in the town of Richlands within the same county.
Toscano: Gov. Youngkin’s blame game is classic misdirection
“There you go again,” chuckled former President Ronald Reagan as he landed a devastating blow to his opponent’s 1980 debate performance and forever cemented the phrase into our political lexicon. Since then, Reagan’s one-liner has become a powerful way to define politicians dealing in hyperbole and outright lies. ... It is also an apt response to Gov. Glenn Youngkin's recent foray into the politics of immigration and his specific suggestion that our local officials are lax “in holding illegal immigrants accountable … thereby putting our entire commonwealth at risk.”
Our digital lives need massive data centers. What goes on inside them?
The concrete black-paneled building known as DC12 looks like a regular corporate office, its tinted lobby windows reflecting the surrounding suburban landscape in Northern Virginia. But beyond a double-locked entry chamber are the computer servers, fiber-optic cables and other technology that make up the infrastructure of our digital lives. This 114,300-square-foot facility, owned by a company called Equinix, is one of the world’s nearly 7,000 data centers, which serve society’s insatiable addiction to smart technology. Thousands of computer servers here process bank transactions, stream movies, execute retail purchases or run algorithms for artificial intelligence software.
Months after cutting ties with oncology provider, Centra says patient numbers are starting to rebound
Six months after Centra Health and the Lynchburg Hematology and Oncology Clinic ended their decade-long partnership, driving some patients to seek care elsewhere, the hospital said patient volumes at its cancer center are rebounding but haven’t yet returned to earlier levels. Lynchburg Hematology and Oncology provided oncology services at Centra for about a decade through a professional services agreement, but relations between the two entities deteriorated over time, leading to allegations that the clinic overbilled Centra for patient services from 2016 to 2021, according to court documents.
Secretive group recruited far-right third-party candidates for key U.S. House races, including Virginia’s 2nd District
Joe Wiederien was an unlikely candidate to challenge a Republican congressman in one of the nation’s most competitive House districts. A fervent supporter of former President Donald Trump, Wiederien was registered as a Republican until months earlier. A debilitating stroke had left him unable to drive. He had never run for office. For a time, he couldn’t vote because of a felony conviction. But he arrived last month at the Iowa Capitol with well over the 1,726 petition signatures needed to qualify for the ballot as a conservative alternative to first-term Republican Rep. Zach Nunn. After filing the paperwork, he flashed a thumbs up across the room at an operative he knew only as “Johnny.” Several other unorthodox candidates have emerged across the country — all backed by the same shadowy group, the Patriots Run Project.
Virginia legislators look to change K-12 funding formula after 50 years
Virginia has been using the same funding formula for its public schools since it was first adopted back in the ’70s. Now, a bipartisan group of legislators is looking to update that formula, but it won’t be easy … or quick. … According to a 2023 JLARC report, the current model has left school districts underfunded. Mark Gribbin is an analyst with JLARC. He described one of the existing issues again during Monday’s meeting. “School divisions employ 51% more people than the formula thinks are needed,” Gribbin said, noting additional conversations [revealed] an even more contrasting statistic. “The difference between the SOQ calculations and our VA Educator Work Group’s recommended was even larger at 90%.”
New skill game machines don’t violate the state’s ban, two former Virginia attorneys general say
A new version of slots-like machines that one of the biggest skill game companies in Virginia has begun introducing in the commonwealth does not violate the state’s ban on the electronic betting machines, according to a joint legal opinion by two former state attorneys general and two regulatory attorneys with substantial gaming experience. Dubbed Queen of Virginia machines (“QVS2 games”), the new cashless devices manufactured by Pace-O-Matic, a software company from Duluth, Ga., were first spotted in the Richmond region at a sports bar in Henrico, The Richmonder first reported last week. Shaun Kenney, a spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, said in an email Monday that his office is looking at “whether this company is in compliance with the law.”