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By BEN PETERS,
Inside NOVA
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to raise taxes on data centers in hopes of making good on the promise that data center revenue will help to offset the county’s residential tax burden. … The data center rate hike will bring Prince William County more in line with its neighbors in how it taxes the tech hubs.
VaNews April 25, 2024
By LISA ROWAN,
Cardinal News
The New College Institute in Martinsville appears to be starting a mediation process with its estranged philanthropic arm, but the details remain unclear.
In a meeting Wednesday, the state-run higher education center’s executive committee voted to name board vice chair Richard Hall as sole spokesperson for the board in mediation with its foundation.
Adam Kane from the state attorney general’s office attended the meeting, including the closed session that preceded the vote. The office serves as legal counsel for NCI.
VaNews April 25, 2024
By TAD DICKENS,
Cardinal News
President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed into law a legislative ultimatum to social media giant TikTok: sell or be banned in the United States.
In Virginia, one very prominent voice was glad to see it happen. Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat and chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, is certain that TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, is beholden to its country of origin, China. That poses multiple problems, including reaping U.S. citizens’ data and influencing them with propaganda, Warner said in a recent interview.
VaNews April 25, 2024
By BILL ATKINSON,
Progress Index
(Metered paywall - 10 articles a month)
City Council unanimously chose a familiar face as its preferred casino vendor Wednesday night, but the choice took a back seat to what happened once the special meeting was adjourned. Instead of sticking around to talk about the economic potential of that decision or the next steps in the process of pushing the idea to Petersburg’s voters, councilors quickly dashed to their cars in the Petersburg Public Library parking lot. Some of them declined to comment while others walked stone-faced without saying a word as they approached reporters waiting outside for reaction.
VaNews April 25, 2024
By MATT BUSSE,
Cardinal News
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered that a $1 billion federal lawsuit filed by West Virginia’s governor, his family and their companies against a Martinsville-based bank and its board be transferred from a court in West Virginia to Virginia.
Gov. Jim Justice; his wife, Cathy; their son, Jay; and more than a dozen of their family companies filed the suit in November. They allege that Carter Bank & Trust and its directors have violated banking laws and prevented the Justices from working with other lenders so that the bank can continue collecting interest on the family’s loan portfolio.
VaNews April 25, 2024
By RYAN NADEAU,
WRIC-TV
There are nearly 1,800 registered sex offenders who live, work or go to school in the City of Richmond — but it still isn’t the community with the most registered sex offenders per capita in Central Virginia, according to new data from Virginia State Police.
Following a recent report stating that the City of Richmond has the highest rate of registered sex offenders per capita among over 430 total major cities surveyed, 8News investigated more local cities and counties to learn how many registered sex offenders are in the Richmond region and some surrounding localities.
As the 8News team looked into this topic, multiple issues were discovered in how Virginia’s sex offender registry returns information to users.
VaNews April 25, 2024
By TAFT COGHILL JR.,
Fredericksburg Free Press
There weren’t any tense exchanges during the forum for Democratic candidates seeking the 7th Congressional District seat Wednesday night at the Fredericksburg Convention Center.
The seven candidates who took the stage at the event sponsored by the Fredericksburg Free Press largely expressed similar views when it came to issues such as supporting gun control, U.S. globalism, the federal legalization of marijuana and the potential banning of TikTok, among other concerns.
So, when providing closing remarks, candidates made their pitch explaining how they are best equipped to defeat a Republican challenger in November, keep the ultra-competitive 7th District in the hands of a Democrat and potentially turn the U.S. House of Representatives blue.
VaNews April 25, 2024
By MARKUS SCHMIDT,
Cardinal News
A member of the Pulaski Town Council was charged with three class 1 misdemeanors and one class 3 misdemeanor last week relating to alleged ethics and conflict of interest law violations in his role as a public official between January 2021 and April 2024.
The charges against Michael Reis, an attorney from Pulaski who was first elected to the council in 2020, stem from his role in facilitating the appropriation of public funds to benefit the renovation of the Calfee Community & Cultural Center, a local institution that came to be known as the Calfee Training School when it first was a school for Black children in 1894, and Wide Angle Strategies LLC, a consulting firm with a vested interest in the center.
VaNews April 25, 2024
By JEFF E. SCHAPIRO,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Virginia Democrats are falling in line and falling in love. With Levar Stoney’s strategic retreat — rather than risk a pasting for the 2025 gubernatorial nomination, he’s risking a pasting for the 2025 lieutenant governor’s nomination — Democrats are forgoing a contest for their top spot to rally behind Abigail Spanberger, whose politics and posturing seem to give almost everyone in a party still whining over Glenn Youngkin’s squeaker victory in 2021 something to cheer about.
VaNews April 25, 2024
By DWAYNE YANCEY,
Cardinal News
One-third of the localities that are rated the best able to pay for their own schools also have more than 50% of their students living in poverty.
That’s a fact, based on data from the Virginia Department of Education.
Now here’s an opinion: That doesn’t seem right.
The culprit here is the Local Composite Index, the funding formula that determines a locality’s ability (or inability) to pay for its own schools — and therefore determines how much the state will pay to make up the difference.
Bath County, Lancaster County and Surry County are among nine localities all scored at .8000 — the highest score possible, meaning they are more able to pay for their schools than anybody else.
VaNews April 25, 2024
