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Yancey: 10 questions that Tuesday’s primaries will answer
I don’t know who’s going to win Tuesday’s Democratic primaries for lieutenant governor and attorney general but I can sure tell you who’s going to lose: Donald Trump. If all you knew was what you saw from the television ads of the six lieutenant governor candidates and two attorney general candidates, you’d think Trump is their opponent, not the others on the ballot. That’s likely good politics in a Democratic primary, but it also highlights just how few policy differences there appear to be between the respective candidates. Some primaries are a battle royale for “the soul of the party.” This year’s Democratic primaries for two of the three statewide offices — Abigail Spanberger is already the party’s nominee for governor — does not appear to be one of those.
From VPAP June Primary: Who’s on Your Ballot?
Enter your address to find out who is on your ballot and where your polling place is for today's primary elections. Statewide primaries are being held to choose the Democratic nominees for lieutenant governor and attorney general, and Republican and Democratic primaries are being held in some areas for the House of Delegates and local offices.
Volunteers keep watch over Smith Mountain Lake’s water quality for nearly four decades
For nearly 40 years, volunteers and environmental experts have made sure Smith Mountain Lake is ready for a season of fishing, swimming, and other recreational use. And while finding help over that time is rarely a problem, concerns about Harmful Algae Blooms are bringing new focus to their work. Ferrum College laboratory supervisor Carol Love has been monitoring Smith Mountain Lake since the late 1990’s.
One Virginia Community Took a Radical Approach to Fighting Addiction. It’s Working.
When Officer Chelsea Johnston came across a wanted felon one evening in May, Johnston jerked her cruiser in front of him, sprinted after him and tackled him to the ground. Still catching her breath, Johnston motioned for someone to step out of the cruiser: Joy Bogese. “Thank God,” the man said. “It’s you.” Bogese, who served time for financial crimes that fed a heroin addiction, now spends many of her evenings in a police cruiser as a recovery specialist helping people with addiction get into treatment. The man asked Bogese to help him get into a drug-treatment program at the local jail, where Bogese occasionally facilitates groups. She is part of a growing effort in Chesterfield County’s fight against addiction.
Spencer: Despite Medicaid pledges, Wittman and Kiggans folded
“We cannot and will not support a final reconciliation bill that includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.” That is what U.S. Reps. Rob Wittman and Jen Kiggans, along with 10 other Republican House members, wrote in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson on April 14. On May 22, Wittman and Kiggans voted for a House budget reconciliation bill that the Congressional Budget Office says could leave 16 million people without health insurance over the next decade. Millions of those people will lose coverage because of $803 billion in cuts to Medicaid ...
What’s ahead for Virginia colleges if Trump targets international students?
Virginia had over 21,000 international students in its colleges in universities last year, but recent actions from President Donald Trump may see that number change. The fight over international students in U.S. colleges started last month when Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his office would move to revoke Chinese student visas from Harvard University over national security concerns. Then, Rubio announced increased vetting of all foreign students' social media accounts. And this week the president's new travel bans from 12 countries went into effect and also applies to would-be students. Some of these issues are winding through the courts, but immigration visa attorney Keith Pabian said it will disrupt US colleges.
New documents show Averett’s finances in dire straits in 2024, but optimism in 2025
Averett University’s financial situation last summer raised serious concerns about its ability to operate, according to a draft audit prepared for the university. But the private university in Danville has had recent fundraising successes that may help pave its path forward. ... The Danville school started cutting costs a year ago, at the tail end of fiscal 2024, in response to its discovery of a budget shortfall caused by what Averett officials have said were unauthorized withdrawals from its endowment. Averett has laid off staff, eliminated academic programs and begun selling property to keep the university afloat.
Environmental groups in Hampton Roads at odds with Army Corps over proposed wetlands mitigation project
For decades in Hampton Roads, officials have used a legal mechanism called mitigation banking to protect local ecosystems. If a developer or locality impacts wetlands or river bottom when building a project, they must compensate by paying to restore it elsewhere. Organizations that conduct restoration work can sell credits to developers to meet those requirements – hence the bank-like system. The goal is for the compensatory work to serve the same river or watershed that is affected by the original development action. But local environmental groups and some federal scientists now worry that an impending decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could upend that system.
3 more Southwest and Southside localities come under state fire ant quarantine
Fire ants stayed in one part of Virginia for almost 30 years. Now, the invasive species is creeping toward Southwest and Southside Virginia, and a state quarantine to contain them has expanded yet again. Danville, Lee County and Pittsylvania County are among the 10 Virginia localities that have recently been added to the state quarantine as the warming climate makes western regions of the state more suitable for these small insects. The ants first appeared in Virginia in 1989 at a golf course in Hampton. Until 2017, they stayed put in Southeast Virginia. That year, they started to appear in Southside localities. The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences extended a fire ant quarantine to some of these localities in response.
2020 red flag laws rarely used by most Va. localities
In 2018, police arrested Brandon Lee Rhodes in Chesterfield and charged him with assault and battery of a family member. In April 2023, he was charged again, this time after lighting the house on fire and assaulting his mother, according to a police report. That report said the attack left fingermarks on her neck. His mother explained that Rhodes suffers from mental illness. He was placed under court-ordered probation in lieu of a jail sentence. This January, Chesterfield police again rushed to the family’s home in Matoaca, where Rhodes was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder. Family said that Rhodes, during a mental health episode, took his brother’s gun from an unlocked gun cabinet and shot his mother’s best friend.