Search
By DEAN MIRSHAHI,
WRIC-TV
The city of Petersburg can hold a casino vote this November after Virginia lawmakers approved a change to a bill from Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
The Virginia General Assembly approved a bill to make Petersburg eligible for a casino vote, but there was a re-enactment clause added to the legislation to require a second vote to put it into effect.
Gov. Youngkin (R) proposed an amendment to remove that clause that was approved by the House of Delegates and Virginia Senate during the General Assembly’s reconvened session on April 17.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By DAVE RESS,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
The state Senate on Wednesday rejected Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s amendments that would toughen state oversight when Virginia legalizes skill games.
The 34 votes against Youngkin’s proposals versus six supporting them move the measure back to the governor, who has the power to veto the measure. If he does, there is no opportunity to override it.
With the bill now headed back to Youngkin’s desk, “we hope that he reconsiders the future of the tens of thousands of small businesses struggling to make ends meet here in his own commonwealth,” said Rich Kelly, president of the Virginia Merchants and Amusement Coalition, a group of stores that lobbied for legalization.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By DEAN MIRSHAHI,
WRIC-TV
A bill that would have allowed hundreds of people incarcerated in Virginia on cannabis-related felonies to reduce their sentences or be released was vetoed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
The bill from state Sen. Angelia Williams Graves (D-Norfolk) was among the seven pieces of legislation from Democrats that the Republican governor axed the day after his hopes of luring two professional sports teams to Alexandria collapsed. It would have given incarcerated people convicted of certain felonies tied to the possession, selling, manufacture, giving, transportation, distribution or delivery of cannabis before July 2021 – when recreational possession was legalized – an automatic hearing to modify their sentence.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By THOMAS BAXTER,
Cavalier Daily
The Jewish Leadership Advisory Board, an elected organization of Jewish student leaders, criticized the (UVa.) Board of Visitors for politicizing the experiences of Jewish students at the University in an April 3 letter acquired by The Cavalier Daily. The letter came after the March 1 meeting of the Board of Visitors, where Bert Ellis, Board member and College and Darden alumnus, criticized the University and Rector Robert Hardie for their responses to allegations of rising antisemitism on Grounds.
JLAB is composed of students elected to govern the Hillel Jewish Leadership Council.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By MADISON MOORE,
WRIC-TV
Dozens of Powhatan County residents, teachers and parents showed up to yet another packed Powhatan County School Board meeting Tuesday night, with many voicing their frustrations about the alleged ongoing racial discrimination taking place in the school district.
The public outcry comes in response to a series of recent incidents, including a racist death threat scrawled on a Powhatan High School student’s arm that went viral on social media in February.
“There is a wildfire raging in Powhatan schools and you [Powhatan School Board] are allowing it to escalate,” said a Powhatan resident at the meeting.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By TIM HENDERSON,
Stateline
Juan Ramirez, watching his dog play in Chandon Park here in suburban Virginia on a Saturday morning, tries to imagine the massive office buildings next to the park becoming apartments and townhouses.
“I guess it’s inevitable. People don’t use offices as much now. I hope it’s affordable. Maybe it’ll bring more young people to town, more taxes for parks,” said Ramirez, 38, who grew up in the area and returned recently to take a restaurant management job after living in Minnesota and Ohio.
Cities and suburbs around the country are struggling with vacant office space as remote work becomes an established post-pandemic reality.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By NATALIE ANDERSON,
Virginian-Pilot
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
The Hampton Roads Regional Jail Authority officially approved Portsmouth’s pitch to buy the now closed facility.
The jail, on Elmhurst Lane, opened to fanfare in 1998 with a capacity of 1,300. The publicly owned facility housed overflow inmates from Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Hampton and Newport News. But in October, the full HRRJ board — including city managers, sheriffs and council members from each jurisdiction — voted unanimously to close the jail April 1 after several cities began pulling back on the number of inmates housed there.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By BRENDA POGGENDORF AND JASON FERGUSON,
published in
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Virginia’s college-bound high school seniors and families each spring decide which college or university to call home for the next four years. Typically, students choose between in-state or out-of-state and whether to attend a large public university or a small nonprofit private college. While this selection process is complex enough for a high school senior, in 2024 prospective students and families are also experiencing new concerns about affordability brought on by complications from the latest, so-called “better FAFSA,” which stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The admissions process naturally combines excitement with anxiety and even some celebration or disappointment, but the federal government should not make it more difficult.
Poggendorf is vice president for enrollment management at Randolph-Macon College. Ferguson is dean of admissions at Longwood University.
VaNews April 18, 2024
By PAUL GOLDMAN,
published in
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Mayor Levar Stoney and City Council members — soon to leave office — are hellbent to use their waning power to put Richmond taxpayers on the hook for $280 million in unprecedented baseball stadium debt financing. Stoney unveiled his proposal on April 8. He and his Council majority say they will ram it through at a Council meeting on May 8. But having the right to do it doesn’t make it the right thing to do.
Paul Goldman is a lawyer, former chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party and author of “Remaking Virginia Politics.”
VaNews April 18, 2024
By PETER EAVIS,
New York Times
(Metered Paywall - 1 to 2 articles a month)
New John Deere tractors made their way last week through the sprawling port of Brunswick, Ga., their distinctive green paint glinting in the sunshine. Stevedores drove the tractors up a ramp into the belly of the Leo Spirit, a ship that would take them to Asia.
As orderly as everything looked, the tractor convoy was an example of the enormous lengths to which East Coast ports, railways, truckers and shipping lines have gone to remake supply chains after a container ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last month. The bridge’s collapse closed most of the Port of Baltimore, which last year handled 1.3 million tons of farm and construction machinery and 850,000 cars and light trucks.
VaNews April 18, 2024
