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Real estate developer cites Faraldi’s prediction in lawsuit against city council
The developer of a residential community on Wards Ferry Road, in a lawsuit filed against the Lynchburg City Council, is calling the council’s decision to deny the company a rezoning permit “invalid” and “devoid of any reasoned basis.” City council’s 4-3 vote to reject Timberlake Investments LLC’s application to build 18 townhouses and a duplex on Wards Ferry Road, near Timberlake Road, came on the same night in March that the council voted to approve a 750-unit housing development on Wiggington Road proposed by Langley Land and Jam 89. . . . At the March 11 council meeting, Ward IV Councilman Chris Faraldi criticized council’s decision to approve the Wiggington Road development but reject the Wards Ferry Road rezoning application to build the 18 townhouses and duplex.
Yancey: Republican House primary in Danville draws more opening day voters than any other GOP races in the state
Republican voters in Danville are showing more interest in the House of Delegates primary in their area than voters in any of the other eight Republican primaries in the state. That’s based on the numbers from the first day totals on Friday. While just one day, those first-day totals are often a good indicator of overall interest in a race. There are 17 primaries — eight Republican, nine Democratic — to settle House of Delegates nominations this year.
Right-to-contraception bills highlight key reproductive health care debate in this year’s elections
Contraception access is an issue resonating loudly within Virginia’s public and political spheres this year and last week, it manifested through state lawmakers contrasting Virginia’s twice-failed attempt to protect access to birth control medications against a similar measure that recently sailed through neighboring Tennessee’s legislature. For the second year in a row, Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a right-to-contraception bill carried by Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News, who took to social media over the weekend to highlight how, unlike in the commonwealth, Tennessee lawmakers were able to come together and pass a bipartisan bill on the issue.
VMI’s Board of Visitors selects new leadership, as Wins’ tenure closes
After several days of meetings that began Friday, the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors selected new leadership. It also voted in an acting superintendent to replace Major General Cedric Wins whose contract was not renewed earlier this year after criticism of DEI initiatives he supported. The meetings were Wins’ last. Brigadier General Dallas Clark was selected to replace him on an interim basis as the board continues its search for a permanent superintendent. James Inman, a Younkin appointee, was also voted in as the new Board of Visitor's president.
Bon Secours opens Harbour View hospital in Suffolk
Bon Secours on Tuesday will officially open its new $80 million, 100,000 square-foot Harbour View Medical Center in Suffolk. The three-story addition adjoins the existing Bon Secours Health Center at Harbour View campus. Bon Secours broke ground on the hospital in October 2022, and construction wrapped up on March 31. On Monday, hospital leaders and Suffolk officials gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the center’s opening. . . . The new medical center includes 18 private inpatient rooms and four new operating rooms, a freestanding emergency department and on-site laboratory and imaging services including CT, MRI and X-ray capabilities. Spicknall noted that area patients would no longer have to travel long distances or travel to another city to receive care.
State investigating potential cancer cluster in Scott County amid cases of pediatric cancer
After 14 rounds of chemotherapy, six weeks of radiation and two major surgeries — including a jaw reconstruction — Oliver Hensley is finally in remission from an aggressive type of cancer. He was just 5 years old and in kindergarten when he was diagnosed. His treatments spanned the course of a year. “You would never think that you have to worry that your child is going to have cancer,” Kayla Hensley, Oliver’s mom, said during a phone interview.
Youngkin keeps bar high for weight loss drugs under Medicaid
A year ago, after Gov. Glenn Youngkin persuaded the General Assembly to limit access to weight loss drugs for people in Virginia’s Medicaid program, Dr. Susan Wolver saw immediate consequences for her patients struggling with obesity. People who had lost 100 pounds with help from medication suddenly lost access to the drug because they had shed so much weight they fell beneath the state’s new threshold for body mass index. They regained weight and other medical conditions returned, such as high blood pressure and pre-diabetes. . . . The General Assembly tried to intervene this year, adopting a lower body mass index threshold to quality for the drugs under Medicaid, but Youngkin had the last word by vetoing the new provision of the revised budget that he signed on Friday.
Yancey: Jobless workers in Emporia are paying the price for nation’s inability to deal with high housing costs
Emporia took a hard blow last week when the Georgia-Pacific plywood mill announced it’s closing, leaving 550 people out of work. That follows another hard blow last year, when the Boar’s Head Provision Co. meat plant in nearby Jarratt in Greensville County closed. No community wants to lose a major employer; between them, Emporia and Greensville County have now lost two in less than a year’s time. These two plant closings are unrelated — Boar’s Head was linked to a listeria outbreak that led to 10 deaths across the country. That’s a tragedy, but it may not directly stem from a public policy choice. However, Georgia-Pacific cited national declines in homebuilding and homebuying, and those are very much connected to public policy.
Save Local Pharmacies Act signed by governor
It went down to the wire, so to speak, with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin not announcing his decision until minutes before the deadline. But in the end, Youngkin did respond on Friday, May 2, signing the Save Local Pharmacies Act into law. The goal of the new law is to streamline the Medicaid process for local pharmacies, especially independent ones. It will create one single, state-contracted Pharmacy Benefits Manager (PBM) for Medicaid. Rather than seeing pharmacies deal with multiple departments or contacts in an attempt to get reimbursed for Medicaid patients, there will just be one central hub they work with.
Virginia saw 73% voter turnout in 2024
About 73% of voting-age Virginians cast a ballot last November, per new U.S. Census Bureau estimates. That's the fourth-highest voter turnout share in the nation — and a much higher percentage than the country at large, which saw 65% of voting-age Americans voting last year.