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Brown v. Board promised better schools for all, but Richmond falls short
Keri Treadway was setting up her classroom library a few days before students from William Fox Elementary School began attending class at Clark Springs Elementary School. It was about three months after a three-alarm fire destroyed the 111-year-old Fox building in 2022. Treadway is a reading interventionist for Fox students, and due to space limitations usually works in a small room located within a classroom — a quirk of the Clark Springs design. There’s no door separating the space from the main classroom, so Treadway fashioned a curtain to divide the space.
Montgomery County board raises concerns about MVP
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors is joining a growing chorus of concerns about the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s request to begin operations by June 1. Construction is continuing along the slopes of Poor Mountain, according to board Chairwoman Mary Biggs, and questions remain about whether the company has completed all of the required safety testing and repairs to the pipe.
Facing ‘no-win situation,’ Loudoun Planning Commission recommends data centers in neighborhood
The Loudoun County Planning Commission voted narrowly May 9 to recommend approval of the Hiddenwood Assemblage application, which asks the county to allow several homeowners along a once-rural Arcola gravel lane to sell their land to a data center developer. Decision makers on both sides of the issue call it a “no-win situation” as they try to balance the interests of the homeowners petitioning for the zoning change with those who live in Briarfield Estates, an adjacent neighborhood that would be almost entirely surrounded by data center construction if the rezoning goes through.
Landfill Clean-Up Progress Celebrated in Loudoun
Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA-10) joined representatives of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Juli E. Briskman (D-Algonkian) and area residents at the Hidden Lane Landfill site Tuesday morning to celebrate the progress made in cleaning up and restoring safe drinking water at the location. The site was first added to the EPA’s National Priority list in 2008 ...
VPAP Visual New Voter Registrations: April 2024
New registrations are off to a slow start in the first four months of 2024. Virginia has had 84,411 new registrations so far this year, the lowest number of the past five presidential election years for January through April.
As Danville Casino marks 1 year, full resort expected to draw ‘different type of visitor’
Exactly one year ago Wednesday, Danville’s temporary casino opened, inching the city closer toward becoming a tourism destination. Housed in a giant tent-like structure — although once inside it’s hard to believe it’s a makeshift building — lines of eager patrons with money in hand awaited the doors to officially open at 10 a.m. May 15, 2023. With the full resort expected to be in operation by the end of the year, the shift will move from a day-trip style visit to more of a vacation getaway. “This is a different type of visitor that we truly haven’t seen as much of in this community,” Lisa Meriwether, tourism manager with Visit SoSi, told the Register & Bee in an interview Monday.
Fewer Virginia kids are overdosing on cannabis products following new law
The number of children and teens in Virginia going to the emergency room for cannabis-related sickness has declined, following a law passed last year that regulates the sale of THC in commercial hemp products or extracts. An analysis from the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association determined the number of cannabis-related pediatric ER visits dropped 14% between the second half of 2022 and the second half of 2023. The decline is a sign the new law is working, said Ryan McKinnon, a spokesperson for a group called Virginians for Cannabis Safety.
Judges side with family in Mountain Valley Pipeline compensation case, reversing earlier decision
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.
Petersburg won’t release $1.4B casino proposal from company that won project
Petersburg officials say they won’t release the winning proposal for a planned casino project they’ve called the largest economic development effort in the city’s history. Last month, The Virginia Mercury requested a copy of the successful casino offer submitted to the city by Maryland-based Cordish Companies. On Tuesday, the city’s Freedom of Information Act officer said the document wouldn’t be released because the city canceled its competitive bidding process and hasn’t awarded a contract to Cordish. … Petersburg is preparing to ask its voters to approve the Cordish project in a ballot referendum expected to take place in November.
Virginia budget includes $26.5M for Bristol landfill remediation
Funding to support Bristol Virginia’s landfill remediation efforts survived the final cut of Virginia’s embattled biennial budget. On Monday, the General Assembly approved a two-year spending plan that includes $26.5 million to aid with work to resolve environmental issues with the city’s landfill. Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed the compromise budget Monday afternoon. “The city would like to thank Virginia lawmakers, especially Gov. Glenn Youngkin and our local representatives, Sen. Todd Pillion and Del. Israel O’Quinn, for ensuring this critical funding remained in the final budget,” the city said in a written statement.