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By DWAYNE YANCEY,
Cardinal News
Just like that — snaps fingers — Abigail Spanberger is the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor next year.
To be fair, she’s had that position for a while now, which is no doubt what led Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney to drop his gubernatorial bid Tuesday and announce instead for lieutenant governor.
That instantly led state Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, to announce what had been widely known anyway: that he’s also a candidate for lieutenant governor. So is Babur Lateef, the chair of the Prince William County School Board. Will a three-way race induce others to enter on the theory that the vote will be chopped up and a majority may not be necessary to win?
VaNews April 24, 2024
By NATALIE ANDERSON,
Virginian-Pilot
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Two cities in Hampton Roads with new speed cameras have raked in around $20 million in revenue since implementing the technology over the last two years. But the legality of the processes used to issue citations and collect fees is now being questioned in a lawsuit filed by a former state legislator who says it’s not exactly what the General Assembly intended when it crafted the legislation allowing municipalities to deploy speed cameras.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By MICHAEL MARTZ,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Gov. Glenn Youngkin didn’t have far to look for a new chief executive officer at the struggling Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority. Youngkin announced on Tuesday that he is appointing Dale Farino, a retired alcoholic beverage distribution executive whom he named to the ABC Board last month, to lead the authority. The governor also announced that he is replacing Farino as vice chairman of the board with Mark Stepanian, the former owner and CEO of Loveland Distributing Co., a beer wholesaler based in Richmond, which is now owned by Premium Distributors of Virginia.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By EMMA MARTIN,
News & Advance
(Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) made a stop in Lynchburg on Monday to talk with voters at La Vida Coffee and Market, between visits to Roanoke and Farmville. A former Virginia governor and mayor of Richmond, Kaine was first elected to the Senate in 2012 and is seeking a third term this November. “...[I]t’s just good to gather, tell people why I’m running again and how excited I am to keep representing Virginia but also take their questions and take their advice,” Kaine told reporters after the event.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By MEGAN PAULY,
VPM
Relatives, friends and neighbors gathered along Chamberlayne Avenue on Tuesday to honor Frances W. McClenney — who the former Ginter Park Elementary School has been renamed after.
The school, like Richmond’s botanical garden, was previously named for Confederate Maj. Lewis Ginter.
A new school marquee with McClenney’s name was also unveiled.
McClenney was the school’s first Black teacher, as well as its first Black principal. Her daughter, Jacqueline McClenney, said the positions came with death threats.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By ANGELIA WILLIAMS GRAVES AND PHIL HERNANDEZ,
published in
Virginian-Pilot
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Right now on the governor’s desk sits landmark legislation that is essential for the safety of doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers. House Bill 861, which we passed through the General Assembly earlier this year, is known as the “Protecting Frontline Healthcare Workers Act.” We call on the governor to sign it into law. This bipartisan bill would finally make it illegal to knowingly bring a firearm, large-blade knife, explosive or other dangerous weapon into a hospital or emergency department. Believe it or not, there is no current state law that directly prohibits this conduct.
Del. Hernandez represents Norfolk’s 94th House District and sponsored HB861. Sen. Graves represents Norfolk’s 21st Senate District and sponsored SB515.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By MARKUS SCHMIDT,
Cardinal News
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney on Tuesday ended his gubernatorial bid, saying that he would run for lieutenant governor instead. Stoney’s decision puts Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Henrico County, who was the first candidate to jump into the 2025 race in November of last year, on a clear path to win the Democratic nomination to become the 75th governor of Virginia. … Less than two hours later, Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, who’s not even halfway through his first term in the state Senate, announced his own bid for lieutenant governor.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By JOEY LOMONACO,
Fredericksburg Free Press
Two of the five candidates who took the stage at the Fredericksburg Convention Center on Tuesday night are military veterans who spent time in the special forces. Two others immigrated to the United States, while yet another is an ordained minister who claimed his bishop told him 10 years ago that “the Lord was sending me to Washington.” However, seeing as voters and not providence will determine the Republican candidate for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, Derrick Anderson, Cameron Hamilton, Maria Martin, John Prabhudoss, and Terris Todd gathered for a wide-ranging candidate forum that covered issues from immigration to inflation, while also serving as a platform for the candidates to tout their credentials.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
After protesters toppled Confederate statues on Monument Avenue and then-Gov. Ralph Northam announced his intent to remove the Robert E. Lee monument, an NPR reporter asked me for a vision of what could take their place. “They could be monuments to reconciliation. They could be monuments to the African American struggle, which until recent years was not told in statuary,” I replied. ... With the Lee statue’s removal in September 2021, Richmond had a blank canvas to reinvent a historic street long defined by a mythology that recast subjugation and defeat as virtue and triumph. Mayor Levar Stoney had most if not all of his second term to launch a conversation about what that might look like.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By LISA ROWAN,
Cardinal News
The Bedford County School Board is suing a local parent for $600,000 for what it calls harassment of school division employees.
The suit follows a complaint the parent made to the state Department of Education in January, in which he claimed that the school had failed to provide services for his son’s learning disability. David Rife, the parent, also has a long history of trying to advocate for his son in the school division, as outlined in documents filed by both parties in the suit.
VaNews April 24, 2024
