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Virginia Beach cleared 100 homeless encampments in the past year
Since spring of last year, a team of city departments have cleared 100 encampments where homeless people had set up makeshift shelters. Twenty individuals living in the encampments were connected to shelter and as many as 10 were placed in housing. Not all of the cleared camps were occupied, Ruth Hill, director of Virginia Beach Housing & Neighborhood Preservation, told the City Council last week.
Environmental groups slam federal plan to ship wetlands mitigation out of Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads environmental groups are alarmed over a proposed federal decision that they say could undermine decades of local tidal wetlands restoration and protection. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality are moving toward approval of a new wetland mitigation bank in Prince George County — 50 miles upstream from Hampton Roads — that would allow developers to purchase mitigation credits from outside the region. Wetland mitigation banks are designed to compensate for environmental damage caused by permitted development projects. Developers buy credits from these banks to offset the impacts, typically by funding the creation or restoration of similar wetlands nearby.
Parties set to pick candidates for Connolly seat on June 28
Democrats and Republicans will choose their candidates for a vacant Northern Virginia seat in Congress by party-run processes on June 28 for a special election in the 11th Congressional District on Sept. 9. Democrats will choose from a growing field that now includes nine candidates in a firehouse primary at multiple locations. Republicans plan a daylong canvass at a single site to pick from four announced candidates. A 14th candidate for the seat — opened by the death of Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-11th, on May 21 — has announced his candidacy as an independent.
Virginia Democrats beat early primary voting record
Virginia Democrats beat their previous record for early primary voting over the weekend. According to the Virginia Department of Elections, nearly 134,000 Virginians voted early in statewide Democratic Party primaries for Attorney General and Lt. Governor since early voting opened in early May. The previous record, set in the summer of 2023, saw 129,000 early Democratic primary votes cast, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
Democratic attorney general candidates vow to fight Trump administration
The Virginia primary election is just more than a week away, and the Republican ticket for statewide races is set. However, Democrats must choose a candidate in two races, including attorney general. Shannon Taylor and Jay Jones are vying to take on Republican incumbent Jason Miyares in November. Taylor has served as the Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney for more than a decade and hopes to leverage her experience as a prosecutor statewide. ... Jones, a Norfolk resident, previously served in the House of Delegates and was an assistant attorney general in Washington, D.C.
Wallace: Trump’s DEI mandate is a surrogate for white social grievances
On April 3, President Donald Trump issued an executive order requiring elementary through higher education institutions to certify they have no “illegal DEI practices,” defined as whites being subjected to discrimination while non-whites and marginalized groups benefit. Non-compliant institutions have lost federal non-related research contract funding and private universities may lose tax-free status. Sixty colleges have opposed this interference with higher education legal entitlements. Additionally, Trump utilized various retaliatory schemes against law firms, publishing and broadcast companies, major corporations and tech companies which ignored his expectations.
State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi leans on legislative experience in lieutenant governor run
State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi was an educator and an academic administrator before being elected in 2019 to represent Virginia’s 15th District, which covers much of Chesterfield County. Now, Hashmi is hoping to preside over the Senate as Virginia’s next lieutenant governor. She is the only woman of the six candidates in the June 17 Democratic primary for the statewide position. The winner will face Republican John Reid for the office currently occupied by Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears. VPM News state politics reporter Jahd Khalil recently spoke to Hashmi about her campaign, as part of a series of conversations with all six Democratic candidates for the state’s No. 2 job.
Feds respond to Virginia lawmakers’ privacy concerns about airports’ facial recognition screening
Identification screening technology that launched during the pandemic to reduce airport check-in times has helped improve security and travelers’ experiences, but carries a privacy concern stemming from the capture and storage of passengers’ photos. Virginia lawmakers, privacy advocates and others have questioned how images of citizens are used and stored, and how peoples’ rights are being protected.
NOVA Parks pushes back on Dominion Energy’s tree cutting project along W&OD Trail
A major tree-cutting project along the W&OD Trail in Loudoun County is set to resume this month. But Northern Virginia parks’ officials are pushing back on how Dominion Energy plans to address the root of the problem. Two months after pausing the project, Dominion Energy said it will resume removing specific trees to maintain the safety and reliability of the electric grid. The plans were put on hold in late March in response to complaints from counties and towns along the popular walking and biking path. But Paul Gilbert, head of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, or NOVA Parks, expressed apprehension about what Dominion has planned in a letter to the utility on Friday.
Spanberger unveils plan to make housing more affordable, accessible
Former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger unveiled her plans to make housing more affordable and accessible throughout Virginia while in Henrico County on Friday. “No matter where I travel, whether I’m in the City of Richmond or Richmond County, or Radford, or Roanoke, or Hampton Roads, I hear about the high cost of housing,” Spanberger said. The Democratic nominee for governor said that it starts with investing in ways to increase Virginia’s housing supply.