Javascript is required to run this page
VaNews

Search


Henrico considering ‘transformational’ fix to housing affordability crisis

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

Henrico County leaders are considering a plan to make roughly 100 to 150 new homes more affordable each year. There’s a national home affordability crisis that’s showing its effects locally with average homebuyers being priced out of the market. Staple jobs — police officers, teachers, dental assistants and paralegals — often make less than half the yearly salary needed to afford the median home price in the county.

VaNews April 29, 2024


Warner vows to continue support for mental health training for police, first responders

By KEITH EPPS, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

About a year and a half ago, Fredericksburg police responded to an accident at one of the city’s apartment complexes in which an 8-year-old boy ran in front of a car and was struck. City police chief Brian Layton said the first responding officer spoke Spanish and was able to communicate with the boy. But he couldn’t save the child, who died in the officer’s arms. “It was a horrific scene,” Layton said. “That’s the kind of thing that stays with you for a lifetime.”

VaNews April 29, 2024


Google Announces $1B Investment in Virginia Data Center Expansion, AI Training Programs

By STAFF REPORT, Loudoun Now

Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat on Friday announced a $1 billion investment to expand Google’s Virginia data center campuses this year including two Loudoun County sites. The $1 billion investment brings Google’s total investment in the state to more than $4.2 billion. Google calculates its Loudoun County investment at more than $1 billion.

VaNews April 29, 2024


RPD asked protesters to scale back marches amid spike in violence, staffing issues

By SAMUEL B. PARKER, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards on Thursday said the department had reached out to pro-Palestine protest organizers to ask them to decrease the frequency of their demonstrations amid a surge in violent crime in the city and persistent police staffing issues. In a text message sent by Richmond police officer Mohammed Maher Hameed to organizer Zaid Mahdawi, Hameed requested that the protesters give Richmond police “a little break.”

VaNews April 29, 2024


UMW students arrested after re-erecting encampment

By JOEY LOMONACO, Fredericksburg Free Press

At least 12 people — including several University of Mary Washington students — were arrested Saturday evening as police from descended upon an encampment in Jefferson Square that was previously disbanded on Friday night. However, students from the university’s Students for Justice in Palestine organization re-staked their tents on Saturday afternoon, and at 5:39 p.m., SJP president Amirah Ahmed sent a Free Press reporter a two-word text message: “they’re arresting.” An Instagram live feed from UMW’s SJP showed at least three students being led away from the square in handcuffs by UMW Police officers, while a mix of students, faculty and community members looked on. Troopers from the Virginia State Police were also on the scene.

VaNews April 29, 2024


UVa students, faculty named in blacklist, accused of antisemitism without evidence

By JASON ARMESTO, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

An anonymous University of Virginia parent has accused two professors and one student of antisemitism for organizing an Israel-Palestine film series. Organizers, however, say the series was specifically designed to show balanced perspectives. It alternated between screening movies from Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers. The accusation is one of many listed in a document compiled by multiple UVa parents, which outlines a wide range of reported antisemitic incidents they say have occurred on UVa Grounds since Israel’s war against Palestinian terrorist group Hamas began in October of last year.

VaNews April 29, 2024


Virginia Tech orders pro-Gaza protesters to disperse; dozens reported arrested

By CARDINAL STAFF, Cardinal News

Virginia Tech ordered the students protesting the Israeli military action in Gaza to disperse Sunday night or risk arrest. Freelance journalist Justin Fleenor said he saw “more than two dozen” people arrested, including one professor. Virginia Tech did not have a number available for how many people were arrested. One video that Fleenor posted showed a woman in a Tech graduation robe being arrested; another showed police carrying a protestor from the site. Others were seen walking with police. Fleenor also posted a video showing a large group of students chanting “let them go!” Videos from others at the scene showed a crowd jeering police as they led handcuffed protestors to waiting vans.

VaNews April 29, 2024


Declining volunteerism leads rural Va. counties to use paid EMS services

By GRACE MAMON, Cardinal News

As fire and rescue volunteerism declines across the state, many localities are changing the way they provide this service. Using paid crews is costly and sometimes controversial, but it’s already been an effective solution for several Southern Virginia counties, and likely will be for many more. Some localities, like Henry County, have coupled paid staff and volunteers for decades. Others, like Franklin and Pittsylvania counties, are in earlier stages of the transition to what is called a combination model of rescue services.

VaNews April 29, 2024


Rep. Good brings ‘Freedom Fighters’ tour to Amherst, addresses Ukraine funding bill

By JUSTIN FAULCONER, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)

At a campaign event in Amherst County on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Bob Good, R-5th District, described his intra-Republican Party battle with a state legislator challenging his allegiance to former President Donald Trump as “the highest-profile primary race in the country.” Good, chair of the House Freedom Caucus who was among the group in Congress who engineered the historic ouster of former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last fall, is trying to secure a third term in the June 18 primary against newly elected state Sen. John McGuire, R-Goochland.

VaNews April 29, 2024


Casey: Why are congressmen from Western Virginia mostly soft on Ukraine?

By DAN CASEY, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

There’s a popular saying about the war in Ukraine that goes something like this: “If the Russians stop fighting, the war ends. If the Ukrainians stop fighting, Ukraine ends.” More than anything else, that simple aphorism highlights the nature of the most damaging conflict in Europe since World War II: Unprovoked military aggression by the authoritarian Russian Federation against a European democracy.

VaNews April 29, 2024