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State budget change will deliver bigger gaming tax payday for Dumfries

By EVELYN MEJIA, Prince William Times

The Town of Dumfries is expecting a bigger payoff next year as a result of a change in the way Virginia allocates gaming tax revenues to communities that host facilities such as The Rose and Rosies, which feature off-track betting and slots-like betting machines. . . . The amendment, which goes into effect in July 2026, will boost Dumfries budget by at least $1 million a year. Torian says he led the tax change to help Dumfries and other localities with Rosie’s gaming facilities grow their economies.

VaNews July 10, 2025


Richmond hospital settles with last two families in infant abuse case

By ERIC KOLENICH, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)

Henrico Doctors’ has agreed to pay two more babies who were injured in the hospital’s neonatal intensive-care unit, bringing the total number of settlements to 11. On Wednesday, Judge David Carson approved the agreements in Salem Circuit Court. The financial value of all 11 have been kept private. The Richmond Times-Dispatch is not identifying the victims or their families. Under the agreement, the money will be placed in trusts for the children to access when they are older.

VaNews July 10, 2025


City planner, wife ran permitless Airbnb in violation of city code

By SAMUEL B. PARKER, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)

A city official and his wife for over a year operated an unpermitted Airbnb in violation of city code governing short-term rentals, according to records reviewed by The Times-Dispatch. The property in question is located on West Marshall Street in Jackson Ward. City assessment records show the rowhouse is owned by 17 W Marshall, LLC. State Corporation Commission records show that company is registered to Alexandra Mercer, wife of city planner Brian Mercer.

VaNews July 10, 2025


Cantor: Virginia prison cites unwritten policy when declining press comment

By DAVE CANTOR, published in Poynter

Tomeka Wallace didn’t know her son was being transferred from Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison until she got a call in February from a Maine prison official. Demetrius, her son, was among a group of men at Red Onion who previously harmed themselves and participated in a hunger strike to protest conditions at the super-maximum security facility in the southwest portion of the state. “I just happened to get a call that I almost didn’t answer,” Wallace recalled. “The lady said, ‘Do you know Demetrius Wallace? … Well, your son is in Maine.’ I said, ‘In Maine? You mean the state?’” Wallace is hundreds of miles from where her son’s now being held and said the entire carceral system needs to be changed.

Cantor is a Chicago-based writer and editor, who's been published in The New York Times, JazzTimes and sundry other publications.

VaNews July 10, 2025


Youngkin lauds federal budget bill, plays down Medicaid cuts

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

Gov. Glenn Youngkin fully embraces the massive federal tax-and-spending bill that President Donald Trump signed into law last week, including cuts to Medicaid that Democrats and state hospitals say would cause hundreds of thousands of Virginians to lose health care coverage and potentially threaten the survival of small rural hospitals. Youngkin, speaking after an unrelated news event on Tuesday, said the spending package would deliver tax relief of about $2,800 per family. Most of that relief would come from extending the provisions of the tax cuts that the president signed into law in 2017. The law also eliminates taxes on tips and overtime and creates a $6,000 tax credit for seniors.

VaNews July 10, 2025


City officials will not release spending records for employee under investigation

By SAMUEL B. PARKER, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)

City officials will not release additional records related to spending by Reginald Thomas — a former senior management analyst with the Richmond Fire Department who is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the city’s watchdog office. The Times-Dispatch previously reported that, according to credit card logs and invoices obtained through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, Thomas had spent more than $2 million of public funds at three companies registered to himself and associates.

VaNews July 10, 2025


Trump’s megabill: Newport News leaders applaud more shipbuilding, brace for social services cuts

By DEVLIN EPDING, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Recent presidential executive orders have put significant emphasis on Newport News’ shipbuilding industry. But according to city leaders, who discussed the anticipated effects of federal policy changes during a City Council retreat this week, it’s the only positive of the new federal mandates. President Donald Trump has issued 164 executive orders since taking office in January — the most of any president in his first 100 days. One issued April 9 aims to increase shipbuilding and workforce development with investments into additional military ships and improved port infrastructure.

VaNews July 10, 2025


Historical markers approved for Lucy Addison in Roanoke, small newspaper in Highland County

By STAFF REPORT, Cardinal News

The Virginia Department of Historic Resources has approved nine new historical markers across Virginia, including one for the famed Roanoke educator Lucy Addison, as well as the weekly newspaper in the smallest county in the state. Other notable markers include one in King William County to call attention to the Virginia “racial integrity” act of 1924 that was used to erase the existence of Native American tribes in the state, something that has since been called a “paper genocide.” The department notes that markers aren’t meant to “honor” a particular person or event but rather to recognize history that has happened.

VaNews July 10, 2025


As part of FEMA Review Council, Youngkin to assess state, federal disaster coordination

By SHANNON HECKT, Virginia Mercury

In the wake of deadly flooding in central Texas and New Mexico that claimed over 100 lives with nearly 200 still missing, scrutiny of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which provides disaster recovery services and funding, has mounted. Before the floods, the federal government had announced plans to eliminate or remake the agency and is now reviewing its procedures, funding, and execution of agency missions, a process in which Virginia’s governor is taking an active role.

VaNews July 10, 2025


Virginia politicians look outside the state for political punching bags

By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Republicans running for statewide office in Virginia have a couple of surefire ways to rile up crowds at campaign stops: mention New York City’s mayoral race or Maryland’s budget woes. “New York … has nominated a socialist!” GOP gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears thundered last week at a rally in Vienna, drawing a cascade of boos directed at New York Democrat Zohran Mamdani. . . . Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger has her own guaranteed crowd-riler: Washington, particularly Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid and other social relief programs. “We reject much of what we see coming out of Washington, D.C.,” Spanberger told a crowd last week in Lynchburg, turning the cheers to boos when she mentioned Republicans’ “terrible, terrible MAGA [budget] bill” that she said would lead to Virginia hospitals closing down.

VaNews July 9, 2025