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As U-Va. president leaves, faculty say board failed to protect university
University of Virginia faculty passed a vote of no confidence Friday in the school’s governing body, saying it failed to protect against “outside interference” by the Trump administration that led to the eventual resignation of President James E. Ryan. The vote by the U-Va. faculty senate — which came on Ryan’s last day in office — called on the board to provide faculty with an “immediate and complete accounting” of its response to inquiries by the Justice Department in recent months.
Earle-Sears reaches out to Black churchgoers in GOP bid for governor
It wasn’t the stereotypical political event: no buses, no signs, no impassioned speeches. Instead, there was Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears at the door of Antioch Baptist Church, greeting congregants as they came for the 10 a.m. service at the Fairfax County church. . . . On the campaign trail bidding to be Virginia’s next governor, Earle-Sears, a devout evangelical Christian who on Monday held an online prayer call for the flood victims in Texas, pauses regularly to worship with fellow believers.
Republican group dumps $2 million into Virginia attorney general race
The Republican Attorneys General Association is pouring $2 million into the Virginia Attorney General race between Republican incumbent Jason Miyares and Democrat Jay Jones. The RAGA says the investment is more than any GOP committee in a statewide Virginia race in 2025. The race between Miyares and Jones is one of the top ones to watch in Virginia as the state elects a new governor, Lt. governor, and members of the House of Delegates.
Youngkin appoints longtime power lobbyist to citizen board that regulates power plants
Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed Ron Jefferson, a longtime lobbyist for Appalachian Power, to the State Air Pollution Control Board on Friday. Jefferson worked for Appalachian Power for at least 17 years, according to the lobbying records maintained by the Virginia Public Access Project. Appalachian Power provides electrical power to most of southwest Virginia. Power plants, particularly those powered by fossil fuels, make up a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions.
Youngkin turns to AI to cut more red tape across Virginia Government
Days after declaring victory in his administration’s push to cut regulatory red tape by 25%, Gov. Glenn Youngkin is now looking to artificial intelligence to help push that number even higher. In an executive order issued Friday, Youngkin announced Virginia will launch the nation’s first “agentic AI” pilot program designed to streamline state regulations and guidance documents. The initiative will scan thousands of pages of agency rules using generative AI to identify redundancies, contradictions and overly complex language — all in the name of efficiency.
Bearinger: What, exactly, are we pledging allegiance to?
It’s a few minutes before 10 a.m. on July 4, and I’m sitting in the Robins Family Forum at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond, feeling the anticipation. Every seat in the auditorium is filled; and the museum staff are busy outside, directing visitors into a second room across the lobby where they can watch the event on livestream. We’ve all come to witness and be part of a “Ceremony to Honor New Citizens,” otherwise known as “naturalization.” Most of us in the room are citizens by right, having been born in the United States. But in the center of the auditorium are 82 men and women from 39 countries who are here to become citizens by choice.
Report identifies major gaps in regional response to homelessness
The Fredericksburg Regional Continuum of Care’s Homeless Helpline is the primary access point for housing assistance in Planning District 16, which includes Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford counties as well as the City of Fredericksburg. But from July through December of 2024, the helpline was only able to refer one in 10 households to shelter out of the 1,256 who called seeking assistance, . . . The helpline’s limitations were just one troublesome aspect of the report, which also noted that housing in the region is becoming increasingly unaffordable, eviction rates are on the rise and racial disparities are disproportionately affecting Black households.
Coming in first, fourth or last? The ballad of Glenn Youngkin
As rankings go, is No. 4 really that bad? On its face, the political reaction to Virginia’s precipitous drop in CNBC’s all-important “Top States for Business“ rankings — we got the news that our long-time rival, North Carolina, supplanted the Old Dominion as No. 1 on Thursday morning — somehow feels both alarmist and apropos. “It’s terrible,” Democratic House Speaker and Portsmouth Del. Don Scott told the RTD’s Michael Martz on Thursday, pointing out CNBC’s emphasis on federal job cuts and tariffs in this year’s rankings: ... Gov. Glenn Youngkin, of course, dismissed the drop on X. “CNBC’s new methodology this year is thrown off by a new subjective metric that mistakenly ascribes substantial risk to Virginia from the federal government’s presence in the Commonwealth,” Youngkin wrote.
Fredericksburg Planning Commission unanimously recommends disapproval of Gateway data center
Thomas Johnson spent some time working at Hugh Mercer Elementary School, which means he was already familiar with a couple of the proposed transmission line routes for a data center project discussed at Wednesday’s Fredericksburg Planning Commission meeting. “With what I see, one goes through the car [rider] line and one goes through the play area,” said Johnson, a planning commissioner. “So, both would be very difficult obstacles for that entity.” Ultimately, concerns surrounding the transmission lines that would be required to feed power to the proposed 2.1 million square foot campus led to the project’s undoing.
'People are scared': N.Va. Korean community faces tariffs
Steve Lee hasn’t seen costs increase yet for the products he imports from South Korea for the specialty chicken franchise he runs here in the heart of Fairfax County’s thriving Korean community. But Lee, a former Democratic candidate for the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, knows it’s coming if President Donald Trump carries through on his latest threat to impose a 25% tariff on most goods coming from one of the United States’ most reliable trading partners. . . . “Eventually (the cost of) products from Korea coming over will change, and our consumers will have to pay for it. And it hurts.”