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Unsealed federal lawsuit alleges Omega Protein skirted U.S. citizen ownership requirement
A recently unsealed federal lawsuit alleges that the lone menhaden reduction fishery in the Chesapeake Bay broke federal law by creating a shell company to cover-up its foreign ownership, routing profits to a Canadian company instead of keeping them in Virginia. Benson Chiles and Chris Manthey, two private investigators involved in environmental conservation efforts, brought forward the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 2021 against Omega Protein under the False Claims Act, saying the company violated the Jones Act and American Fisheries Act by not disclosing that its owners are family.
Schapiro: A Wilder ride for Rao and Youngkin
Doug Wilder always says the loud part louder. In a little-noticed speech this past weekend, the former governor and ex-Richmond mayor artfully laid into the president of Virginia Commonwealth University, Michael Rao, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who appoints the overseers of VCU and more than a dozen other taxpayer-financed colleges and universities. Wilder has attacked both men before. His speech wasn’t necessarily more of the same, though, because Wilder had a different audience. He spoke to newly minted, politically focused university graduates who, he implied, should not follow Rao’s and Youngkin’s examples.
SCC Hearing Examiner Recommends Denial of Greenway Toll Increases
State Corporation Commission Senior Hearing Examiner Michael Thomas on Wednesday released a report recommending denial of a rate increase submitted by Toll Road Investors Partnership II, the company that owns the Dulles Greenway. He ruled the increase in the maximum tolls charged to most drivers because it would “materially discourage use of the Greenway,” in violation of state law. The request, submitted in July of last year, is to increase rates to $8.10 during peak hours, up from the current $5.80; and to $6.40 during off-peak hours, up from $5.25. A hearing on the application was conducted in February, following a public comment period and public hearings.
UVa president says he’s willing to accept consequences for breaking up campus protest
“If all of you decide I’m not the right leader, that’s your choice,” said University of Virginia President Jim Ryan. “That’s how I feel.” Though no university officials have publicly called for Ryan to resign, Ryan's tone and demeanor were marked by a resignation of their own at the university's Faculty Senate meeting last Friday. Ryan, alongside Provost Ian Baucom, university Chief Operating Officer J.J. Davis and UVa Police Chief Tim Longo, spent an hour answering questions during Friday's meeting of the Faculty Senate, a governing body of roughly 90 faculty representatives from across the university’s 12 schools charged with advising UVa’s leaders on “matters affecting the welfare of the University."
Yancey: In agreeing to debate, Biden and Trump cast aside a Virginia school
The presidential debate deal announced Wednesday may be good for the two candidates (they wouldn’t have agreed to it if it weren’t) — and might even be good for voters. It won’t be good for one Virginia school. Virginia State University had been picked by the Commission on Presidential Debates as a site for one of three presidential debates this fall. Instead, the campaigns of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump decided to bypass the commission and agree to two debates, each handled by a major television network. The Republican National Committee voted two years ago to withdraw its support for the debate commission, believing it was biased against the party’s candidates (even though one of the commission’s co-chairs is a former chair of the RNC). What’s new here is that the Democrats have now ditched the commission as well.
Hanover County School Board members discuss possible policy change on student cell phone usage
Hanover County Public School leaders are grappling with what to do when it comes to cell phones usage at schools across the district. At a meeting on Tuesday, May 14, board members had to weigh in on whether to change the district’s current policy to further limit students’ use of the devices in school buildings. The discussion at the May 14 meeting centered around whether to change the policy at elementary and middle schools in the county. The decision to revisit the policy comes as several surrounding districts have recently made changes to their cell phone policies that limit student usage.
Virginia State University left out in the cold after candidates determine debate schedule
Virginia State University said Wednesday it was "disappointed" over reports that VSU appears to have been dropped from the upcoming presidential debate schedule, yet hopeful that an arrangement can be worked out. "A presidential debate at VSU is a huge win, not only for our students and campus community but for the greater community in general," university spokesperson Gwen Williams Dandridge said in a statement.
Black waterman villages in Suffolk among Virginia’s most endangered historic places
For years, Mary Hill has watched her Suffolk community of Hobson slowly disappear. Hill is a seventh-generation descendant of Black freedmen who helped build the community centuries ago. They established a self-sufficient oyster industry that thrived along the Nansemond River until pollution devastated it starting around the 1960s. Since then, historical buildings once crucial to tight-knit community culture have been torn down, Hill said. Many who were alive in the village’s heyday have died, and some other descendants moved away and sold property passed down for generations. In their place, developers are building modern, more expensive homes that edge out historic ones. “You have a slow death” of the area, said Hill, who is in her early 60s. She now hopes a new designation will bring attention and funding to the area.
Segregation skyrocketed among Virginia’s Latino students in past 30 years
Richmond Public Schools had the highest levels of school segregation between white and Latino students in Virginia in 2022, according to a Stanford University analysis of federal data. The combination of ethnicity, poverty and language create a “triple segregation” among Latino students that’s been overlooked for decades and “left to fester,” said Gary Orfield, co-director of the UCLA Civil Rights Project. Latino students’ federal right to desegregation didn’t happen until nearly 20 years after the Brown v. Board ruling with the 1973 Supreme Court case Keyes v. School District No. 1, Denver.
School segregation in Virginia is increasing 70 years after Brown v. Board ruling
Racial segregation in Virginia’s public schools has increased over the last three decades, according to an Axios review of federal data. Segregated schools disproportionately hurt Black and Latino students because schools where they’re the majority often have fewer resources, more teacher shortages, higher student-to-school counselor ratios and greater suspension rates — all of which impacts quality of education. Seventy years after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which declared racially divided schools as unconstitutional, Virginia’s population is the most diverse it’s ever been.