Search
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 ...
Loudoun Co. proposes 16 delayed-start days next year to allow teachers to meet state training requirements
Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia is considering adding 16 delayed-start days to the calendar for the 2024-25 school year, as part of a plan to give teachers more time to complete critical trainings. The proposal, which Superintendent Aaron Spence presented to the school board Tuesday night, is the result of new standards covering several subject areas getting implemented at the same time. Under the plan, the school district would have teachers start their days at the regular time, but students would arrive two hours late. That would happen roughly two days per month, Spence said.
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.
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.
Forever chemical cleanup could cost Fauquier County $44M
Fauquier County now has a price for cleaning up its drinking water. It could cost the county about $44 million to upgrade its drinking water wells to meet new EPA standards, officials say. More than a third of Fauquier County’s drinking water wells would need those upgrades because they tested over the limit for forever chemicals. Exposure to PFAS has been linked to deadly cancers, impacts to the liver and heart and immune and developmental damage to infants and children.
In hundreds of deadly police encounters, including in Virginia, officers broke multiple safety guidelines
In hundreds of deaths where police used force meant to stop someone without killing them, officers violated well-known guidelines for safely restraining and subduing people — not simply once or twice, but multiple times. Most violations involved pinning people facedown in ways that could restrict their breathing or stunning them repeatedly with Tasers, an Associated Press investigation found. Some officers had little choice but to break policing best practices — safety guidelines that are recommended by government agencies, law enforcement groups and training experts — to save a life or protect someone.
George Mason University announces 3% tuition hike
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.”
Body-worn cameras for Virginia State Police dropped from new budget
An effort to purchase body-worn cameras for the Virginia State Police died during this year’s prolonged budget talks, which concluded on Monday. That means the state police, Virginia’s largest law enforcement agency with over 1,800 officers, will remain without the devices at least until next session. The effort was initiated this session by State Sen. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg.
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.
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.