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By DAVE RESS,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Some Virginia state employees will pay more for health insurance beginning July 1, following the state’s latest review and projection of claims.
Overall, the state Department of Human Resource Management proposed a 6.3% increase in total premiums for the next fiscal year.
But full-time employee contributions — the sums taken out of paychecks — will rise by less than that. For some plans, there will be no increase at all.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By CHARLIE PAULLIN,
Virginia Mercury
President Joe Biden stopped by Prince William Forest Park in Triangle on Monday, as the country celebrated Earth Day, to tout two initiatives to combat climate change: expanding solar access and creating jobs to fuel America’s environmental efforts.
Called the Solar for All program, Biden told the crowd that families could save about $400 a year on their electric bills by tapping into the federal initiative that will provide grant funding to expand the development of solar projects nationwide.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By LUCA POWELL,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
A Richmond man associated with the white supremacist group Patriot Front is accused of striking a police officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol building. Nathaniel Noyce of Richmond is charged with assaulting law enforcement officers, civil disorder, and violence and disorderly conduct at the Capitol.
VaNews April 23, 2024
Virginian-Pilot
Editorial
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
By signing a bill last month that abolished child marriage, Gov. Glenn Youngkin made Virginia one of only a dozen states to prohibit the practice and the first Southern state to do so.
That’s a landmark for the commonwealth, one that should have earned unanimous support in the legislature. Those who voted against, including three Republicans from Hampton Roads, should account for their opposition.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By MICHAEL HEMPHILL,
Cardinal News
Outside his hometown of Roanoke, Edward R. Dudley lived a life of a civil rights hero.
Special assistant counsel to Thurgood Marshall at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
First African American to run for statewide office in New York on the ticket of a major party.
First African American to serve as an administrative judge in New York State.
And most prominent: first African American U.S. ambassador. But within Roanoke? “He’s such a brilliant guy, my dad,” lamented his 81-year-old son, Edward Dudley Jr. “But nobody knows about him.”
Until now.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By GRAHAM MOOMAW,
Virginia Mercury
The Bedford County School Board filed a lawsuit seeking $600,000 in damages from the father of a special needs student, claiming the man’s abrasive communications with school staff about his son’s treatment over the last three years amounts to illegal intimidation and harassment.
In court filings, Bedford resident David Rife insists he’s the one being intimidated, noting that the county school board sued him shortly after he filed a complaint with the Virginia Department of Education saying local school officials weren’t following the individualized education program, or IEP, designed to accommodate his son’s learning disability and improve his reading skills. When he filed the complaint, Rife told state officials he feared he would face retaliation locally, according to court documents.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By MEGHAN MCINTYRE,
Virginia Mercury
Both residents and Virginia Department of Forestry officials agree: Callery pear trees, including the much-loathed Bradford pear variety, aren’t just offensive to the nose — they’re detrimental to the state’s environment.
A new state program is what led approximately 300 residents to the department’s headquarters in Charlottesville this past weekend, each having chopped down at least one pungent, invasive Callery pear in exchange for a native tree species.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By CORMAC DODD,
Winchester Star
(Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Citing the national debt, U.S. Rep. Ben Cline (R-6th) voted against legislation that could send Ukraine $60 billion in foreign aid that passed the House over the weekend with bipartisan support. But Cline backed three other measures contained in the $95 billion package the House approved on Saturday, which included $8.1 billion for the Indo-Pacific region to deter China; about $26 billion for supporting Israel and providing humanitarian relief for people in Gaza, and a measure that could force TikTok to sever ties with its parent company, Bytedance, or face a nationwide ban.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By FORD MCCRACKEN,
Cavalier Daily
The Theta Chi and Sigma Alpha Mu fraternities had their Fraternal Organization Agreements suspended by the University, while the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity had its FOA terminated after allegations of hazing, according to Ben Ueltschey, Inter-Fraternity Council president and third-year College student. While the Theta Chi and Sigma Alpha Mu fraternities face temporary suspensions, the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity will have its FOA terminated for a minimum of four years. It is unclear when the violations in all three chapters took place or when the University moved to suspend and terminate their FOAs.
VaNews April 23, 2024
By ROSLYN RYAN,
Powhatan Today
After previously voting it down, the Powhatan County School Board voted 4-1 on April 16 in favor of adopting a controversial policy related to the division’s treatment of students who identify as transgender or nonbinary.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s “Model Policies on Ensuring Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents in Virginia’s Public Schools,” had been opposed 3-2 by the Powhatan School Board last December, during the last meeting of the previously-elected board.
VaNews April 23, 2024
