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By DWAYNE YANCEY,
Cardinal News
Roanoke, a seven-time winner of the All-America City designation, recently won another title.
The Star City was named a “Certified Welcoming” city by Welcoming America, a nonprofit dedicated to welcoming immigrants.
Roanoke is the first locality in Virginia to earn this distinction and one of just 24 across the country. It’s also the fifth smallest community on that list, which is otherwise dominated by major metros.
Given the tenor of the national conversation about immigration, you would not expect to find a small city on the edge of Appalachia to be an officially “welcoming” city for immigrants, yet there Roanoke is. This is just one of many data points about Roanoke that show how it’s different.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By CHER MUZYK,
Prince William Times
The path to control the U.S. House of Representatives runs through Northern Virginia this fall with two open seats and competitive races in the 7th and 10th Congressional Districts, both of which include parts of Fauquier and Prince William counties.
Recent campaign filings show that in the 10th District race, the Democrats are outraising their Republican candidates.
Collectively, the 12 Democrats in the race have raised more than $4.5 million, while the four Republicans have pulled in about $583,000, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By GRACIE HART BROOKS,
Madison Eagle
Despite numerous resident objections, the Madison County School Board has approved changing “winter break” to “Christmas break” in the 2024-25 school calendar. In March, Madison County resident Mike Sharman made a comment suggesting the change of “winter break” to “Christmas break.” The board then suggested making that change in the 2024-25 draft school calendar. “Christmas is a cultural thing in our community,” board member Christopher Wingate said. “I support the idea.”
VaNews April 26, 2024
Virginian-Pilot
Editorial
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
With help from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Hampton and Newport News are embarking on an ambitious strategy to use newly available federal funds to tackle the related problems of climate change and wealth inequality. The neighboring Peninsula communities are the only two in Virginia among 25 cities nationwide selected for the $200 million Bloomberg American Sustainable Cities initiative. The initiative, to last three years, aims to help cities make the most of federal funds to develop projects that combat climate change, increase resilience and improve economic conditions in disadvantaged neighborhoods ...
VaNews April 26, 2024
By ELIZABETH MCGOWAN,
Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism
The red brick apartment building Zenobia Wilson called home for a dozen years was a ringside seat to a noisy, polluting, 14-lane jumble of Interstate-264 overpasses, cloverleaf interchanges and ramps whizzing around the majority-Black St. Paul’s neighborhood.
But when the mother of three moved out of Tidewater Gardens in August 2022, it wasn’t by choice.
Norfolk was advancing another long-simmering initiative to “deconcentrate poverty,” christened the St. Paul’s Transformation Project. Its initial $400 million phase called for demolishing all 618 units of the deteriorating, barracks style public housing. Everybody had to relocate.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By ALEXANDER ZACCARDELLI,
published in
Virginian-Pilot
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Virginia is facing a worsening teacher shortage. However, the focus on pure numbers has directed attention away from another problem: a shortage of diverse teachers. Troops-to-Teachers (TTT), a program that helps veterans obtain teaching licenses, offers solutions to both crises, bringing demographic and life experience diversity into our classrooms.
Zaccardelli is an elementary education undergraduate at William & Mary and an ALL-IN tutor at J. Blaine Blayton Elementary in Williamsburg.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By DHARMENDRA PATEL,
published in
Roanoke Times
(Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
As one of the leaders of the Asian American Business Owners Association (AABOA), I know firsthand how skill games have not only benefited Virginia small businesses but also helped them survive the onslaught of COVID, skyrocketing inflation, and higher-than-expected wages. AABOA represents more than 300 convenience stores, gas stations, and restaurants in Southwest Virginia. The survival of many of our locations depended on supplemental income from skill games before they were abruptly banned in October.
Patel lives in Salem.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By JAMES T. AREDDY,
Wall Street Journal
(Subscription Required)
States have a new adversary: China.
From Florida to Indiana and Montana, an expanding array of local proposals, bills, laws and regulations aim to block Chinese individuals and companies from acquiring land, winning contracts, working on research, setting up factories and otherwise participating in the U.S. economy.
State officials, overriding traditional local interests such as drawing investment and creating jobs, say they are acting where Congress hasn’t to address grassroots American distrust of the Chinese Communist Party. … “There is a real responsibility on behalf of governors and state legislatures to look out for the safety and protection of our citizens,” said Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin ...
VaNews April 26, 2024
By ANNA BRYSON,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
The Virginia Board of Education approved $25.4 million for six new lab schools Thursday as state officials find ways to accelerate the approval process to use the existing lab school funding before the current budget cycle ends. Some education officials worry that the expedited approval process might affect the quality of lab school plans, but proponents say officials thoroughly vet the applications.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By MARK J. ROZELL,
published in
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
A drumbeat among many Democrats is to galvanize persuadable voters in a righteous movement to “save democracy” from a Republican Party now wholly ruled by former president Donald Trump. It’s an appeal to the founding tenet of our nation and one that has resonance for many voters, especially in light of the violent assault by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Rozell is the dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University where he holds the Ruth D. and John T. Hazel Chair in Public Policy.
VaNews April 26, 2024
