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Richmond finalizes labor deals with unions for police, firefighters and other city employees

By DEAN MIRSHAHI, WRIC-TV

The Richmond City Council approved collective bargaining agreements between the city and unions representing police, firefighters, emergency workers and other city employees. The city’s three-year labor deals with the unions — the Richmond Coalition of Police, the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 995 and the Service Employees International Union, Virginia 512 – take effect on July 1 through June 30, 2027.

VaNews May 15, 2024


Yancey: 5 questions about the 5th District

By DWAYNE YANCEY, Cardinal News

Five weeks from today, we’ll be talking about who won the 5th District Republican primary between U.S. Rep. Bob Good and challenger state Sen. John McGuire — and why. Today, we’ll pose five questions, the answers to which we don’t know right now, but which will help determine the winner in the June 18 primary. So let’s go! 1. Who benefits most from a high turnout? Here are the facts we start with: Good has never had to run in a primary before. When he won the nomination in 2020 by defeating incumbent Denver Riggleman, he won it in a convention where 2,375 people were registered. When he was renominated in 2022 over challenger Daniel Moy, he did so in a convention where 1,795 votes were cast.

VaNews May 15, 2024


Wexton, Briskman, EPA reps celebrate excavation of Hidden Lane Landfill

By JESS KIRBY, Loudoun Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Leesburg) and Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Juli Briskman (D-Algonkian) gathered with Environmental Protection Agency representatives at the Hidden Lane Landfill Superfund site May 14, celebrating progress made on the decades-long effort to clean up the site. The EPA began excavation work in February on the 25-acre site located between the Broad Run Farms and Countryside subdivisions in northeastern Loudoun County.

VaNews May 15, 2024


Richmond’s first Black-owned hospital now on list of endangered historic sites

By SEAN JONES, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

The aged red brick and boarded up windows of Richmond Community Hospital have been at the center of debate in North Side, where residents have been rallying to save the historic building. A freshly achieved historic designation could aid in the preservation of that historic building. The hospital, now closed since the 1980s and covered in Ivy, was once the first Black-owned hospital in the city. It was the only place where Black physicians could practice, and Black patients could receive medical care.

VaNews May 15, 2024


Shapiro: How the pro-Palestinian movement mirrors ‘Stop the Steal’

By CONOR SHAPIRO, published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

The free exchange and balance of ideas at universities is essential to an enriched collegiate experience. Unfortunately, what we’ve witnessed at Virginia Commonwealth University and other colleges across the country the last few weeks is a targeted campaign to silence and intimidate Jewish people and our singular nation-state. The TikTok-fueled propaganda depicted under the benign, euphemistic banner of a “Free Palestine Movement” is riddled with hypocrisy. Student protestors are disrupting and eliminating dialogue, shouting over speakers who dissent.

Shapiro is co-founder of Jewish Men of Richmond.

VaNews May 15, 2024


Former Sen. Amanda Chase in court for assault charge

By BRANDON JARVIS, Virginia Scope

Former state Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, was in court Monday for an assault and battery charge after an altercation earlier this year at a local GOP event. Chesterfield Republicans met in March to select new committee leaders, but a confrontation involving Chase became the main attraction. Chase was charged with assault and battery after a confrontation with Adaire Lazaro outside of the meeting.

VaNews May 15, 2024


George Mason University announces 3% tuition hike

By ANNA CHEN, WDVM-TV

George Mason University (GMU) announced it would be raising its in-state tuition for the 2024-2025 school year. The university said its Board of Visitors (BOV) voted to increase the tuition by 3% in an effort to keep up with inflation and to “compensate for lower state support.”

VaNews May 15, 2024


Judges side with family in Mountain Valley Pipeline compensation case, reversing earlier decision

By MATT BUSSE, Cardinal News

A three-judge panel of a federal appeals court on Tuesday restored a jury award of more than $520,000 to compensate a Roanoke County family after some of their land was seized for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, reversing a district judge’s decision last year that had cut the award almost in half. In their published opinion, judges Stephanie Thacker, Roger Gregory and James Wynn Jr. of the Richmond-based 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with the Terry family that evidence presented at a 2022 trial supported a jury awarding the higher amount.

VaNews May 15, 2024


Appalachian Power makes another move toward renewable energy

By LAURENCE HAMMACK, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Appalachian Power Co. is in the market for three wind, solar and battery energy systems as it takes another step toward establishing an all-renewable power portfolio. The company’s request for proposals from energy companies is the latest in a series of planned acquisitions to comply with the Clean Economy Act, a state law that requires Appalachian to deliver totally carbon-free power to its Virginia customers by 2050.

VaNews May 15, 2024


Virginia approves $26.5M for Bristol landfill remediation

By JEFF KEELING AND JAYONNA SCURRY, WJHL-TV

Bristol Va.‘s challenging task of environmental remediation at its former landfill got a huge economic boost Monday with the inclusion of $26.5 million in the Commonwealth of Virginia’s final approved fiscal 2025 budget. The state funding greatly eases the potential burden on city taxpayers as Bristol continues extensive efforts to prevent further release of noxious gases that prompted community outcry in 2020 and led to the landfill’s closure in September 2022.

VaNews May 15, 2024