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Mountain Valley Pipeline largely completed, company says

By LAURENCE HAMMACK, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The Mountain Valley Pipeline is largely completed, the company said Monday in requesting federal approval for it to be placed in service. Although some work remains, the company asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue an order by May 23 that would allow it to begin operations. “Mountain Valley has completed all waterbody and wetland crossings project-wide,” Matthew Eggerding, deputy general counsel for the joint venture building the natural gas pipeline, wrote in a letter filed late Monday to the FERC docket.

VaNews April 23, 2024


Richmond Mayor Stoney tells Democrats he’ll drop bid for Va. governor

By LAURA VOZZELLA, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney is telling fellow Democrats that he intends to drop out of next year’s race for Virginia governor and is weighing a run for lieutenant governor instead, according to four people familiar with his plans. Stoney, who has faced a tough contest against Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) for their party’s gubernatorial nomination, has been calling donors, supporters and others in recent days to say that he will bow out of that race, according to the four people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private conversations.

VaNews April 23, 2024


President Biden visits Prince William park to talk solar, youth involvement on Earth Day

By CHARLIE PAULLIN, Virginia Mercury

President Joe Biden stopped by Prince William Forest Park in Triangle on Monday, as the country celebrated Earth Day, to tout two initiatives to combat climate change: expanding solar access and creating jobs to fuel America’s environmental efforts. Called the Solar for All program, Biden told the crowd that families could save about $400 a year on their electric bills by tapping into the federal initiative that will provide grant funding to expand the development of solar projects nationwide.

VaNews April 23, 2024


Trial opens for former Virginia hospital medical director accused of sexual abuse of ex-patients

By SARAH RANKIN, Associated Press

The former longtime medical director of a Virginia hospital that serves vulnerable children used physical examinations as a “ruse” to sexually abuse two teenage patients, a prosecutor said Monday, while the physician’s attorney “adamantly” denied any inappropriate conduct. The trial of Daniel N. Davidow of Richmond, who for decades served as the medical director of the Cumberland Hospital for Children and Adolescents, opened Monday morning in New Kent County, where a judge will weigh the charges against him.

VaNews April 23, 2024


Virginia senators want flight expansion at DCA halted

By DAN RONAN, WTOP

Thursday’s near collision at Reagan National Airport is raising concerns about plans to increase the number of flights at the airport. Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine said Thursday morning’s close call at Reagan National is another reason not to expand the number of flights at the airport as some other senators are attempting to do. “It’s just plain crazy that some are pushing to add more flights to DCA’s overburdened runway,” Warner said to the Senate Friday.

VaNews April 22, 2024


Moss clinic supporters rally in Fredericksburg

By CATHY DYSON, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

People who’ve gotten free medical care at the Moss Free Clinic, as well as those who volunteer and work there, joined members of the community Sunday to show their support for the services the clinic provides. Jim Eagan told the crowd of about 80 people that he went to the clinic when he had an abscessed tooth and couldn’t find help anywhere else. ... The rally came about as the partnership between Mary Washington Healthcare and the clinic, named after the late co-founder, Dr. Lloyd Moss, has deteriorated in recent months.

VaNews April 22, 2024


Faction of GOP is holding Congress hostage, say former Reps. Comstock and Payne

By JASON ARMESTO, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

The United States Congress is broken. So said L.F. Payne, a Virginia Democrat who represented Virginia’s 5th Congressional District in the House of Representatives from 1988 to 1997, during a special visit to Charlottesville Friday. “In the last Congress, I think there were over 500 pieces of legislation that were passed,” Payne said, adding that’s on track with recent history. “This Congress by comparison, now three-fourths of the way through, has passed 69 pieces of legislation. So it is clearly by many measurements dysfunctional.” ... Now serving as president of Former Members of Congress, or FMC, a bipartisan nonprofit group, part of Payne’s job is to help remedy that dysfunction.

VaNews April 22, 2024


Hopewell ex-city attorney raises delinquent-tax issue concerning treasurer

By BILL ATKINSON, Progress Index (Metered paywall - 10 articles a month)

Hopewell’s outgoing city attorney has recommended that the Virginia attorney general’s office look into claims by an alleged department employee that the city’s treasurer improperly removed herself from a state agency’s list of delinquent taxpayers without attempting to settle her own tax debts. The allegations against Shannon Foskey were brought up in a letter sent last week to Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Newman and cited in an April 18 memo from now-former city attorney Danielle Smith to City Manager Dr. Concetta Manker.

VaNews April 22, 2024


Roanoke-based Luna Innovations says more financial statements are unreliable

By MATT BUSSE, Cardinal News

The Roanoke-based fiber-optic technology company Luna Innovations Inc. on Friday added more than a year’s worth of previous financial statements to the list of those that it says are no longer reliable. Luna said in a news release that a committee formed by its board of directors has determined that the company’s financial statements from 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 “cannot be relied upon and need to be restated due to identified accounting errors relating to revenue recognition.”

VaNews April 22, 2024


Fires have consumed nearly 20,000 acres in Va. this spring. That could be good for the environment.

By CHARLIE PAULLIN, Virginia Mercury

Almost 20,000 acres have been lit by flames that primarily torched the western and central parts of the state so far during Virginia’s 2024 spring fire season. With about a week left until the season ends, that is double the amount of acres affected annually in the state across its 10-year average. There’s no question that the fires visibly caused an immediate loss of vegetation and wildlife habitat, but state and federal officials said in interviews with the Mercury last week the blazes provide some benefits and are a centuries-old resource management tool. “It does play an important role in the ecosystem,” said Michael Downey, assistant director for wildfire mitigation and prevention at the Virginia Department of Forestry.

VaNews April 22, 2024