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Residential, retail and a new hotel: Norfolk targets MacArthur Center for a mixed-use development

By RYAN MURPHY, WHRO

Norfolk wants to redevelop MacArthur Center into a major mixed-use development anchored by a 400-room military-themed hotel. Mayor Kenny Alexander said during his State of the City the redeveloped mall would include 518,000 square feet of high-rise residential space, including rentals and units to own. “The future of MacArthur Mall demands a bold vision that celebrates our culture, reconnects our city, attracts tourists and ensures economic vitality,” Alexander said in his address to the region’s civic and business leaders.

VaNews April 15, 2024


Unleash America was supposed to be about supporting Va. candidates. But the money didn’t go there.

By ELIZABETH BEYER, News Leader (Metered Paywall - 3 to 4 articles a month)

Robert Landrum thought he was supporting Republicans in Virginia’s statehouse elections that year, when he donated $500 to a federal super PAC in April 2023. The super PAC, Unleash America, had one stated goal: To get Republicans elected during Virginia’s 2023 statehouse contests to support Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s agenda. “That’s how he represented the PAC. That’s what he said,” Landrum said in a phone interview with USA Today. He was referring to the PAC’s then “honorary chairman,” Hung Cao, a failed 2022 Congressional candidate from northern Virginia.

VaNews April 15, 2024


Youngkin proposes a second vote to remove Robert E. Lee license plate

By NATHANIEL CLINE, Virginia Mercury

While Gov. Glenn Youngkin did not veto a measure to repeal two license plates connected to the controversial history of the Confederacy, he is staving off Democrats’ effort to do so by requiring lawmakers to vote again on the measure next year. The governor also amended the bill, which received bipartisan support from the General Assembly last month and would repeal the special Sons of Confederate Veterans and Gen. Robert E. Lee license plates, by directing the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles to study when special license plates should expire.

VaNews April 15, 2024


60 years ago, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel connected Hampton Roads

By CONNOR WORLEY, WHRO

Day after day of the same back-breaking, laborious routine: Load. Lift. Secure. Seal. Monotonous, but little-by-little the progress on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was visible. It’s formally known as the Lucius J. Kellam Jr. Bridge Tunnel; named after the man who spearheaded the project. It opened 60 years ago on April 15, 1964. Prior to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, travelers had two options to navigate between Tidewater Virginia and the Eastern Shore: take a ferry across the Chesapeake Bay or take a circuitous seven-hour drive up, over and down.

VaNews April 15, 2024


Waynesboro man arrested, charged with violence against officers in Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots

By PATRICK HITE, News Leader (Metered Paywall - 3 to 4 articles a month)

A Waynesboro man was charged for his role in the breach of the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Darl McDorman, 53, was arrested on felony and misdemeanor charges, including for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers, for his participation in an attack on the Capitol Jan. 6, 2021, per a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Columbia.

VaNews April 15, 2024


Rural Loudoun broadband project delayed by 15 months

By JESS KIRBY, Loudoun Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

For months, the western Loudoun subsidized fiber-optic broadband project has lagged behind its targeted “milestones,” but All Points Broadband has insisted the project would still finish on time. Now, officials say it won’t be complete until October 2025 — a delay of more than a year. Last week, the state approved a 15-month extension of the project, which aims to bring high-speed internet to more than 8,600 homes and businesses in rural Loudoun County using 620 miles of fiber-optic cable.

VaNews April 15, 2024


EPL to expand in Danville, investing about $37 million and adding 24 jobs

By JOHN R. CRANE, Danville Register & Bee

EPL America Inc. in Danville is expanding its manufacturing facility, investing $37.4 million and adding 24 new jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday. The company will upgrade its 200,000-square-foot facility and add new machinery. The additional equipment will allow EPL, formerly known as Essel Propack, to grow into the beauty and cosmetic markets and serve customers interested in replacing existing plastic products with laminate tubes, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

VaNews April 15, 2024


Law firm representing Ziegler says Loudoun County Public Schools owes $617K in legal fees

By EVAN GOODENOW, Loudoun Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The law firm representing former Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler says the school division stiffed them on legal fees incurred for representing Ziegler. The School Board hired the firm, Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore, in April 2022 to represent "any school official in any legal proceeding," according to the suit, which was filed on April 10 in Loudoun Circuit Court. But the firm says the school division has never paid its bills for those services and has an outstanding balance of $617,000.

VaNews April 15, 2024


Virginia farmers find new cage-free egg market

By DAVE RESS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Last year, when Bobby Bowen, a young Southside Virginia farmer, told his wife that Tyson Foods was shutting its Glen Allen chicken processing plant, she started crying. And he figured it meant an end to his dreams of following his dad and grandfather working the family farm — a dream his dad had tried to discourage him from following. But now that he and other chicken farmers who had supplied Tyson have banded together in the new Central Virginia Poultry Cooperative, they've found a new and very different kind of poultry market: eggs from free range hens.

VaNews April 15, 2024


Chesapeake will now require lobbying disclosures on planning applications

By NATALIE ANDERSON, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Planning and land use applications in Chesapeake will begin to include lobbying disclosures in May. City Council member Robert Ike first made the disclosure request in January and council approved the new process in March. Ike proposed the city begin requiring the disclosure of all companies, firms and individuals hired to lobby City Council and the Planning Commission on land use matters such as rezoning requests, special use permits and planned unit developments.

VaNews April 15, 2024