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Pa. reaches reciprocity agreement with Virginia for concealed carry permit holders

By TIM LAMBERT, Pennsylvania Capital-Star

Virginians who hold a permit to carry a concealed handgun will be able to keep it on their persons or in their cars when visiting Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced a reciprocity agreement with Virginia that allows people with Licenses to Carry Firearms to do so in both states.

VaNews June 12, 2025


ICE agents detain people outside Va. immigration court, strong-arm activists filming

By PAUL WAGNER, WRC-TV

Agents with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained as many as 11 men outside an immigration court in Sterling, Virginia, Wednesday. News4 witnessed eight of the men being taken out of the court in handcuffs and shackles, then loaded into a van. Activists with New Virginia Majority say three others were already detained before News4 arrived. ICE agents on the scene did not say why the men were being detained or where they were taking the men.

VaNews June 12, 2025


Reports of imminent ICE raids in Northern Virginia amid military parade, nationwide protests

Inside NOVA

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is preparing to deploy "special response teams" to five Democratic-led cities and regions across the country, including Northern Virginia, MSNBC reported Wednesday. Sources told the cable news channel that teams have also been ordered to Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York.

VaNews June 12, 2025


Virginia Vulnerable to Trump’s Proposed Cuts in Emergency Management and Disaster Relief

By CHARLES PAULLIN, Inside Climate News

Virginia was one of several states in the Appalachian region slammed by Hurricane Helene’s rainfall last September. The storm caused the New River to crest at 31 feet a day after it battered the region. In one area of Damascus, homes were lifted up and washed away. A separate storm besieged southwest Virginia in February, knocking out power to 203,000 homes and closing 270 roads. Last month, a 1.5-mile stretch of U.S. Route 58, a major thoroughfare in the road-constrained mountainous region, reopened after getting washed out.

VaNews June 12, 2025


Supervisors mull regional water strategies in joint Hanover-Henrico board meeting

By JONATHAN SPIERS, Richmond BizSense

If solutions to this year’s water service problems are going to come through regional collaboration, two of the localities that rely on Richmond’s aging water treatment plant say they need their neighbors to join them at the table. That was one of the messages that came out of a joint meeting of the Hanover and Henrico boards of supervisors, which spent two hours Wednesday discussing potential paths to work with Richmond and Chesterfield on regional solutions to their shared water challenges.

VaNews June 12, 2025


Yancey: 25 places in Southwest Virginia that statewide candidates should see for policy lessons

By DWAYNE YANCEY, Cardinal News

In Tuesday’s column, I listed how few of the statewide candidates have been to Virginia’s westernmost county — Lee County, a tiny piece of which is closer to nine other state capitals than it is to its own in Richmond. ... There’s a political reason for a candidate to visit Lee County, even a Democrat who won’t find many votes there: The candidate can then claim he or she is prepared to represent all of Virginia. However, there are many places in Southwest Virginia that a candidate should visit to learn things that will come up in policy decisions later on. Since this is 2025, here are 25 of them.

VaNews June 12, 2025


$2.5M in unclaimed money heading to Virginians this week thanks to new law

By KARRI PEIFER, Axios

The state is mailing roughly $2.5 million in unclaimed money to Virginians this week. Some of that money could be yours. The Virginia Department of Treasury's Unclaimed Property Division is doling out checks for everything from funds in lost or misplaced bank accounts and unpaid wages to uncashed checks, utility deposits, refunds or insurance policy proceeds. The department has always collected and held this money for residents, but previously, one had to file a claim with the state to get it back. Under a new law, Virginia is automatically returning the money to its "rightful owners."

VaNews June 12, 2025


Norfolk School Board terminates Superintendent Byrdsong’s contract effective immediately

By TAYLOR BROKESH AND TRACY COOPER, WVEC-TV

The Norfolk School Board has voted to terminate the contract of Superintendent Sharon I. Byrdsong, effective immediately. The contract was terminated without cause, according to the motion. The School Board made the decision after emerging from a closed session. Byrdsong was appointed superintendent of Norfolk schools in February 2020. She has worked with the Norfolk Public Schools for over 20 years. ... A large crowd of citizens was on hand for the vote, with many chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, it’s the School Board that must go” as they exited following the vote.

VaNews June 12, 2025


Norfolk School Board fires superintendent in surprise 4-3 vote

By TREVOR METCALFE, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

A closely divided Norfolk School Board voted Wednesday to remove Superintendent Sharon Byrdsong as the school system faces demands from Norfolk City Council to close at least 10 schools. The vote was 4-3 with School Board Chair Sarah DiCalogero, and members Jason Inge, Tiffany Moore-Buffaloe and Tanya Bhasin voting to terminate Byrdsong’s contract without cause. Vice chair Alfreda Thomas, members Adale Martin and Kenneth Paulson voted against the resolution. In remarks before the vote, Paulson said the firing was in direct response to a May memo Byrdsong sent the board criticizing what she said was dysfunction and a loss of trust between the School Board and the public.

VaNews June 12, 2025


Trump and Army plan to restore name of Fort Lee — but not for that Lee

By ANDREW CAIN AND MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)

President Donald Trump and the U.S. Army plan to restore the names of seven bases that had been named for Confederate officers. But the Army says the restored names, such as Virginia’s Fort Lee, Fort Pickett and Fort A.P. Hill, will not honor the Confederate officers, but decorated service members who had the same last names as the Confederates. For instance, the Army plans to rename the former Fort Lee in Prince George County — now Fort Gregg-Adams — for Fitz Lee, a Black Buffalo Soldier who received the Medal of Honor for helping rescue wounded comrades under fire during the Spanish American War.

VaNews June 12, 2025