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Parastaran: Recovery schools can help teens battling addiction
In 2023, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s annual survey on drug use and health estimated that 2.2 million adolescents aged 12-17 — about 8.5% of this age group — had a substance use disorder. Yet, a staggering 1.8 million received no treatment. Do the math and you’ll find a concerning picture for education: In an average classroom of 30 students, two are likely struggling with an unaddressed addiction. And the future of those students all-too-often includes a spiral leading to academic failures, dropouts and juvenile delinquency. Fortunately, there are initiatives to break this cycle.
Yancey: Rural communities are keeping Va. from becoming an exporter of people. That’s where population growth is.
Virginia lies over top of an earthquake zone, something we’re occasionally reminded of. Some of us felt the 2011 earthquake near Mineral in Louisa County that shook even the Washington Monument and damaged two schools in Louisa so severely they were closed for the rest of the school year. Others felt the much smaller earthquake that originated near Dillwyn in Buckingham County. The strongest Virginia quake in recorded times was in 1897 near Narrows in Giles County; that tremor brought down chimneys as far away as Bedford County and damaged others from Lexington down into North Carolina. We are now living through another seismic event, except this one doesn’t involve geology; it involves demography.
Augusta County Sheriff’s Office gets body, dash cameras
The Augusta County Sheriff's Office has become the third local law enforcement agency to utilize body-worn cameras, nearly a year after the devices were approved. The sheriff's office began using the Axon cameras at the beginning of April and continue to roll out dash cameras for its vehicles. . . . The sheriff's office was a little late to the party as both the Staunton and Waynesboro police departments have had body cam devices in use for about a decade. Calls for the recording devices in the county became amplified in 2021 following two shootings in May of that year.
Norfolk to vote on allowing city attorney to prosecute misdemeanor shoplifting
Norfolk City Council members plan to vote on an ordinance Tuesday that will allow the city attorney’s office to prosecute misdemeanor shoplifting charges. ... The code change was first proposed by Mayor Kenny Alexander at his annual State of the City address in April. Alexander said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi and his office were not doing enough to prosecute misdemeanor shoplifting cases. Fatehi has disputed the claims, saying his office prosecutes every felony shoplifting case. He said the issue is his office doesn’t receive enough funding from the city or state to prosecute misdemeanor shoplifting cases.
Prince William School Board ratifies ‘historic’ collective bargaining wage agreement
The Prince William County School Board on May 7 approved the school division’s collective bargaining agreement with the local teachers' union, bringing the addition of a wage agreement. The School Board ratified the school division’s inaugural collective bargaining agreement in March 2024, but wages — a sticking point between the two sides — were not included in those negotiations or the agreement. The union — the Prince William Education Association — and the division ultimately went back to the negotiating table to nail down a wage agreement.
Sea levels in Hampton Roads continue to rise, but at a steady pace
Hampton Roads continues to see rising tides linked to climate change and sinking land. But the rate of change in recent years has stayed in line with past forecasts, according to the latest “sea level rise report card” from William & Mary’s Batten School and Virginia Institute of Marine Science. “We are accelerating at a high rate compared to a lot of the rest of the country, but that rate hasn't been changing, really,” said Molly Mitchell, an assistant research professor. “It's been a pretty consistent rate.”
Virginia Commonwealth University using Siegel Center rentals to raise funds to pay student athletes
Virginia Commonwealth University will start renting out the Siegel Center for concerts and events in an effort to generate revenue for athletes. VCU has partnered with a California-based event management company, ASM Global to manage the facility. The university expects to spend $5 million compensating its athletes beginning next year. For the first time, colleges will be able to directly and legally pay their players, pending final approval of a lawsuit against the NCAA.
Maryland, Virginia try to boost blue catfish harvest, with mixed success
Maryland recently has taken a few tentative steps aimed at boosting commercial harvest of blue catfish(Ictalurus furcatus), the voracious nonnative predator devouring blue crabs and many native fish in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Efforts to do likewise in Virginia, though, have been at least partially thwarted by resistance from recreational anglers and fishing guides who want to maintain them as lucrative trophy fish.
Trump-China tariff reductions welcomed by Va. businesses
Virginia business welcomed President Donald Trump’s reduction on tariffs with China announced Monday morning. They hope it could lead to more industry changes. Don Bright with the lumber company Meherrin River Forest Products in Lacrosse said he had containers of logs on the water, headed for China, when the tariffs kicked in a few weeks ago. He had to work with shipping companies to find new ports, sometimes diverting to further-out stops and transporting product over land to meet the tariff deadline. Other shipments weren’t as lucky.
In sales, fast-food and some medical fields, 33% of Virginia workers struggle financially
One of every three workers in the Fredericksburg region and beyond — who hold down 20 of the most common occupations in the state — doesn’t earn enough money to make ends meet. That’s according to new research from United Ways across Virginia and their research partner, United for ALICE. . . . “The crux of the struggle,” as the United Way puts it, is the gap between wages and expenses. The report looked at costs in 2023 and noted that a family of four in Virginia needed, on average, more than $99,000 a year, just to cover the essentials.