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Environmental groups challenge Mountain Valley Pipeline extension in federal court

By MATT BUSSE, Cardinal News

Eight environmental groups have filed a petition in federal court challenging regulators’ approval of a planned extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, arguing that the project’s scope has changed so much that an earlier approval is no longer relevant. The pipeline developers’ latest plans for the MVP Southgate extension from Pittsylvania County into North Carolina call for a shorter route and a wider pipe to transport nearly twice as much gas as previously planned. Developers have also abandoned plans for a new compressor station in Pittsylvania.

VaNews April 24, 2024


GOP congressional hopefuls in 7th District make case at candidate forum

By JOEY LOMONACO, Fredericksburg Free Press

Two of the five candidates who took the stage at the Fredericksburg Convention Center on Tuesday night are military veterans who spent time in the special forces. Two others immigrated to the United States, while yet another is an ordained minister who claimed his bishop told him 10 years ago that “the Lord was sending me to Washington.” However, seeing as voters and not providence will determine the Republican candidate for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, Derrick Anderson, Cameron Hamilton, Maria Martin, John Prabhudoss, and Terris Todd gathered for a wide-ranging candidate forum that covered issues from immigration to inflation, while also serving as a platform for the candidates to tout their credentials.

VaNews April 24, 2024


Who in Virginia is running for Congress? Here are the 2024 candidates.

By PRESTON STEGER, WVEC-TV

Virginia is once again gearing up for primary elections, as voters across the Commonwealth will pick who they want to represent them in the U.S. Congress later this year. One of Virginia’s two seats in the Senate, and all 11 House of Representatives seats are on the ballot on Nov. 5, 2024. Primary elections for those seats will be held on June 18. Several races already have party nominees in place, since those candidates didn’t have anyone else running against them. The deadline to become a candidate in the Democratic or Republican primaries was April 4.

VaNews April 24, 2024


Yancey: 20 questions for the next governor

By DWAYNE YANCEY, Cardinal News

Just like that — snaps fingers — Abigail Spanberger is the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor next year. To be fair, she’s had that position for a while now, which is no doubt what led Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney to drop his gubernatorial bid Tuesday and announce instead for lieutenant governor. That instantly led state Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, to announce what had been widely known anyway: that he’s also a candidate for lieutenant governor. So is Babur Lateef, the chair of the Prince William County School Board. Will a three-way race induce others to enter on the theory that the vote will be chopped up and a majority may not be necessary to win?

VaNews April 24, 2024


Former Ginter Park elementary in Richmond renamed to honor school’s first Black teacher, principal

By MEGAN PAULY, VPM

Relatives, friends and neighbors gathered along Chamberlayne Avenue on Tuesday to honor Frances W. McClenney — who the former Ginter Park Elementary School has been renamed after. The school, like Richmond’s botanical garden, was previously named for Confederate Maj. Lewis Ginter. A new school marquee with McClenney’s name was also unveiled. McClenney was the school’s first Black teacher, as well as its first Black principal. Her daughter, Jacqueline McClenney, said the positions came with death threats.

VaNews April 24, 2024


Ohio man in 2017 UVa. torch-bearing mob heads to trial in first test of Virginia law on intimidation

By HAWES SPENCER, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

For the first time, a jury will get to consider one of the felony intimidation charges against a participant in the torch-bearing mob that marched across University of Virginia Grounds in 2017. The early June trial of Jacob Joseph Dix, who marched with at least 200 others the night before the violent Unite the Right rally-turned-riot in Charlottesville, will be a public test of the prosecutorial discretion of Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley, who has lodged the charges against Dix and his fellow marchers. However, Hingeley has been sidelined and replaced by Henrico County’s commonwealth’s attorney, Shannon L. Taylor.

VaNews April 24, 2024


Richmond Mayor Stoney, state Sen. Rouse announce candidacies for lieutenant governor

By SARAH RANKIN, Associated Press

Democratic Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced Tuesday he is dropping his bid for Virginia governor in 2025, avoiding a nomination contest with U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, and will instead run for lieutenant governor. A former member of ex-Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration and a two-term mayor of the capital city, Stoney said he had wrestled with the decision since he and his wife welcomed their first child in March. While his campaign had sought to make the case in a memo just weeks ago that a Stoney-Spanberger primary would be competitive, he said Tuesday that “while there was a path to victory it was a narrow path.”

VaNews April 24, 2024


Stoney ends gubernatorial bid, announces run for lieutenant governor

By MARKUS SCHMIDT, Cardinal News

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney on Tuesday ended his gubernatorial bid, saying that he would run for lieutenant governor instead. Stoney’s decision puts Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Henrico County, who was the first candidate to jump into the 2025 race in November of last year, on a clear path to win the Democratic nomination to become the 75th governor of Virginia. … Less than two hours later, Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, who’s not even halfway through his first term in the state Senate, announced his own bid for lieutenant governor.

VaNews April 24, 2024


Legislation to protect children’s online privacy back in Youngkin’s hands

By SIERRA KRUG, WRIC-TV

... Proposed legislation in Virginia would protect kids’ online privacy, but politics could get in the way. As initially written, Senate Bill 361 focuses on protecting kids younger than 13. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin wanted to up the ante, protecting all minors, but ultimately, Senate members rejected his recommended changes. … SB361 made it through the Virginia General Assembly with bipartisan legislators voting to bar websites from accessing and selling data from online users under the age of 13.

VaNews April 24, 2024


Stoney drops out of Virginia governor race, will run for lieutenant governor instead

By GRAHAM MOOMAW, Virginia Mercury

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced Tuesday that he’s no longer seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2025 and will instead run for lieutenant governor next year. Stoney’s downshift appears to put Democratic congresswoman Abigail Spanberger on a clear path to become her party’s next pick for governor, making her the lone Democrat officially running for the seat.

VaNews April 24, 2024