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Yancey: 25 places in Southwest Virginia that statewide candidates should see for policy lessons
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.
Supervisors mull regional water strategies in joint Hanover-Henrico board meeting
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.
Virginia Vulnerable to Trump’s Proposed Cuts in Emergency Management and Disaster Relief
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.
Reports of imminent ICE raids in Northern Virginia amid military parade, nationwide protests
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.
ICE agents detain people outside Va. immigration court, strong-arm activists filming
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.
Pa. reaches reciprocity agreement with Virginia for concealed carry permit holders
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.
Virginia attorney general, top Democrat spar over fate of Youngkin university picks
A dispute over Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s picks for eight university board seats escalated Wednesday as the Virginia attorney general and the Senate majority leader sent dueling letters over whether the appointees can still serve. Senate Majority Leader Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax) told university rectors on Monday that the members could no longer be on the boards, effective immediately, after a Senate committee rejected the eight appointments. But in a letter Wednesday to the rectors, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) claimed that Senate Democrats had misled them.
Nivar, Schear compete for Democratic nomination in 57th Virginia House District
Democrats Andrew Schear and May Nivar are campaigning to win their party’s nomination in Virginia’s 57th House of Delegates District in a race that will be decided June 17. Schear plans to tackle childcare and housing affordability if ultimately elected, while Nivar is focusing her campaign on public safety and improving public school education and infrastructure. The seat currently is held by first-term Republican David Owen, who is seeking re-election.
Miyares breaks with Trump over pardon of convicted ex-Culpeper sheriff
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is pushing back against President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins, saying the ex-lawman’s federal bribery conviction was well-founded and the pardon misguided. “I have to authorize any state investigation into any elected official. And so I was aware of a lot of the facts at that time,” Miyares told The Mercury in an interview Tuesday. “Given what I know, I would not have pardoned him.” The rare public break from Miyares, a Republican and rising star in Virginia politics who is seeking a second term this year, comes just weeks after Trump issued the controversial pardon in late May.
New report: 302,608 Virginians could lose health insurance
More than 302,000 Virginians could lose their health benefits under pending and proposed changes to Medicaid and health insurance purchased under the Affordable Care Act, according to a new report by Democrats on a joint congressional committee. The minority members of the Joint Economic Committee issued the report on Tuesday. It is based on estimates by the Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, of the potential effect of a budget reconciliation bill passed by the House of Representatives and now pending in the Senate, as well as the likely loss of enhanced federal subsidies for monthly insurance premiums and other proposed changes for people who depend on health benefit exchanges for coverage.