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Roanoke gets Virginia’s first Safe Haven baby box, designed to give parents in crisis a safe way to surrender a newborn
Visitors driving through the parking garage beneath Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital’s new emergency department will now notice an unusual door, raised from floor level and reminiscent of a mailbox, but larger. It’s built to hold a baby. This is Virginia’s first baby box, a device that allows a parent to legally and anonymously surrender an infant in a secure, monitored environment. . . . When Virginia passed a law in 2022 allowing the use of baby boxes, the idea caught the attention of a nurse at Carilion, and she began advocating for a local installation.
Federal agency used Richmond license plate readers for immigration enforcement without permission
A federal agency used the Richmond Police’s license plate reader program to conduct unauthorized immigration enforcement activities, according to the department. On Tuesday, July 8, the Richmond Police Department (RPD) issued a press release regarding the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) use of its license plate reader program to investigate immigration enforcement-related cases. . . . This sort of use violates the department’s operational standards, per the release. The ATF also did not explicitly disclose that it would be using this technology for immigration enforcement when it requested access to the license plate reader system.
VPAP Visual Local Election Turnout: June 2025 Primaries
Turnout for local primaries in June ranged widely across the state, from a high of more than 21% to a low of less than 5%. See which other primaries were on the ballot in these areas and may have contributed to motivating voters.
McCreash: State lawmakers took away my second chance
In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly passed a historic record sealing law set to take effect July 1. When I joined the Virginia Expungement Council in 2022, I was ecstatic to learn of this law, which gave me hope for a second chance. It was a promise to millions of Virginians such as me — an opportunity to wipe the slate clean after years of hardship and setbacks. After a decade of struggle, I believed that, at last, I could provide for my family, volunteer at my kids’ school, work towards my dream of becoming a math/statistics teacher, and move forward from a traumatic chapter in our lives. But in March, lawmakers shattered that hope.
Richmond police cut off federal access to license plate readers
The Richmond Police Department cut off access to federal agencies seeking to use their license plate readers, the department announced Tuesday. “Moving forward, no federal agencies will have access to our license plate reader program,” said Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards. “This tool is vital to solving serious crimes in our city, and we will ensure it is used lawfully, responsibly, and in alignment with Richmond’s values.”
Town Council votes to ban data centers from Warrenton
Warrenton's leaders have officially pushed the reset button on data centers. Just seven months after the citizens of Warrenton elected new council members opposed to the controversial developments, the Warrenton Town Council voted unanimously in favor of a zoning change that essentially erases data centers from the town code. . . . The move is just the latest attempt to turn the page on the special use permit the town council approved in February 2023 for the Amazon data center slated for Blackwell Road in Warrenton —a move which pulled the town into several lawsuits and cost some council members their seats.
Richmond has spent at least $6.7 million on water crisis
January’s water crisis is estimated to have cost the city of Richmond at least $6.7 million, according to a memo provided to Richmond City Council in late June. From Jan. 6 to Jan. 11, a widespread water crisis left residents and businesses throughout Richmond — as well as Henrico, Hanover and Goochland counties — with little to no water. In the wake of this event, both city leaders and regulatory agencies have been looking into how to prevent such a catastrophe from happening again.
Fisher: Trump wins the ritual sacrifice of U-Va.’s president. So now what?
When University of Virginia students return to campus this fall, everything will be different. Their school president will be gone, sacrificed on the altar of the MAGA movement’s campaign against the bogeyman of diversity, equity and inclusion. The school’s DEI programs will be history. The selection process for the next president will be underway, as Trumpian forces transform one of America’s premier universities into a place where students are no longer inculcated with identity politics, no longer infected with anti-Americanism, no longer submersed in leftist values. It will be a MAGA super-paradise come to life on, of all places, a college campus. Or maybe not.
Trump’s megabill slashes wind energy incentives, but Dominion’s Virginia Beach project spared
A late addition to President Donald Trump’s signature policy bill means Dominion Energy’s Virginia Beach wind farm will not be at risk of losing federal tax credits. The bill, which Trump signed into law Friday, slashes many of the solar and wind energy incentives enacted through the Inflation Reduction Act by former President Joe Biden and others. The bill quickly phases out clean energy tax credits for wind and solar projects. Now, projects that are not operational by 2027 will lose out on the tax credits.
Yancey: Two Virginia districts would be good targets for Musk’s new party, but what he really needs is ranked choice voting
Elon Musk wants to start a new political party. Good luck with that, pal. I will hardly be the first to point out the difficulties in that. While we’ve occasionally had third parties pop up around a galvanizing figure — Theodore Roosevelt and the Bull Moose Party in 1912, George Wallace and the American Independent Party in 1968, Ross Perot and the Reform Party in 1992 and 1996 — none have lasted in any serious form.