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Youngkin calls Arlington County Board’s ICE policy a ‘dereliction of duty’

By GABBY ALLEN, WDVM-TV

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) condemned the Arlington County Board’s recent move prohibiting local police from cooperating with ICE, calling it a “betrayal.” On Tuesday, the board unanimously voted to take language out of its “Trust Policy,” meaning county law enforcement cannot proactively contact federal immigration authorities about any issue involving undocumented immigrants.

VaNews May 16, 2025


Friday Read ‘There’s no way this is actually what I think it is’: Marine vet finds WWII-era mortar in Virginia backyard

By HOPE HODGE SECK, Military Times

In central Virginia, it’s not uncommon to unearth relics from Civil War battles. But finding a 50mm French mortar dating to World War II hidden in your backyard is something else entirely. That’s what happened to Hunter Vap, a Marine veteran and resident of Orange, Virginia. After a midnight encounter with an ancient piece of unexploded ordnance, he’d enlist county officials — and ultimately explosives specialists from Marine Corps Base Quantico, about 70 miles away — to safely dispose of it.

VaNews May 16, 2025


Charlottesville teachers demand UVa turn down Federal Executive Institute

By EMILY HEMPHILL, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

It's town versus gown. Things got off to a rocky start when the University of Virginia was founded in 1819. But for the better part of the past century, UVa and the city of Charlottesville have enjoyed a civil relationship in the 10-square-mile patch of land in the shadow of university founder Thomas Jefferson's Monticello estate. For decades, city residents have shrugged off grievances over the university's growing appetite for land and development. . . . But some residents have reached a breaking point.

VaNews May 16, 2025


Youngkin signs bills designed to improve foster care in Va.

By TYLER ENGLANDER, WRIC-TV

Chesapeake resident Katie Jones knows all too well that in the past, Virginia’s foster care system hasn’t always worked like it’s supposed to. “I absolutely did not get what I needed as a child. No foster kid does,” Jones told 8News. That’s why Jones, who aged out of the foster care system several years ago, was on hand in Richmond on Thursday to witness Governor Glenn Youngkin sign two bills to improve Virginia’s foster care system.

VaNews May 16, 2025


Meet the two Democrats running in the primary for Virginia Attorney General

By MARGARET BARTHEL, WAMU-FM

In Virginia’s attorney general race, Democratic voters have two candidates to choose from, former state Del. Jay Jones, in his second primary bid for the role, and longtime Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor. Virginia has an election every year, and this is a big one: this fall, voters will pick the next occupants of the three statewide offices — governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general — as well as all 100 seats in the House of Delegates.

VaNews May 16, 2025


Hard Rock gaming revenues again exceed $21M in April

By DAVID MCGEE, Bristol Herald Courier (Subscription Required)

For the second consecutive month, adjusted gaming revenues from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol exceeded $21 million. The casino reported $21.04 million in AGR during April, the second highest month since the facility opened in mid-November, according to a new report from the Virginia Lottery. Gaming revenues for March were a single-month record $21.4 million.

VaNews May 16, 2025


McClellan, Virginia Democrats warn of dire impact to state if proposed Medicaid cuts materialize

By CHARLOTTE RENE WOODS, Virginia Mercury

U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, said she had been awake over 36 hours by the time she joined a call with members of the media on Thursday to discuss GOP lawmakers’ plan to slash $625 billion in federal Medicaid funding over the next decade. The lack of sleep didn’t disturb her, she said, but her Republican colleagues’ advancement of Medicaid overhaul proposals that could leave over 630,000 Virginians and millions of Americans without health insurance, however, did.

VaNews May 16, 2025


Fairfax leaders angered at being left out of funding for future Va. transportation projects

By SCOTT MCCAFFREY, FFXnow

Fairfax County leaders believe they and other Northern Virginia leaders are getting an unfair deal when it comes to state transportation funding. The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday (May 13) to send a letter to Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sheppard Miller III, expressing concern about being passed over in the latest round of “Smart Scale” funding for transportation improvements. The state program allows localities to submit proposals, which are then scored to see how they meet designated criteria. Final approval is given by the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB).

VaNews May 16, 2025


Trump administration’s cancellation of internet access grants will cost SW and Southside Virginia, officials say

By TAD DICKENS, Cardinal News

An Abingdon nonprofit organization, looking to expand broadband access and literacy, put its blueprints in place. People Inc. of Virginia used $55,000 in federal money and worked with multiple Southwest Virginia nonprofits to create a plan that would help a variety of Southwest Virginia residents with digital literacy, coding and consumer protection, and would provide devices for doing schoolwork to children living below the poverty line, among other actions. People Inc. set up similar plans in Northern and Central Virginia locations with another $70,000.

VaNews May 16, 2025


Professor, civil rights icon Owen Cardwell, who desegregated E.C. Glass, dies

By MARK HAND, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)

Owen Cardwell Jr., who joined Lynda Woodruff as the first two Black students to attend previously all-white E.C. Glass High School in 1962, died Monday at the age of 78. The son of a top official with the local chapter of the NAACP, Cardwell, at the age of 14, was one of the students picked when a call went out for Dunbar High School students interested in participating in a desegregation lawsuit in Lynchburg.

VaNews May 16, 2025