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By LISA ROWAN,
Cardinal News
Police arrested 82 people, including 53 current students, late Sunday night and early Monday at a pro-Palestine encampment on the lawn of the Graduate Life Center at Virginia Tech.
All were charged with trespassing, a university statement said Monday afternoon.
This appears to mark the largest arrest of students on campus since May 12, 1970, when 107 students were taken in after occupying Williams Hall as part of a protest of the Vietnam War and the fatal shooting of four students just days earlier at Kent State University, according to university records and the Collegiate Times, the student newspaper.
VaNews April 30, 2024
By JAHD KHALIL, SHABAN ATHUMAN, AND DAWNTHEA M. PRICE LISCO,
VPM
Police at Virginia Commonwealth University used force to make an unknown number of arrests roughly 10 minutes after arriving at a protest on Monday night. Students and community members who had gathered were demanding the school disclose and sever financial ties with Israel — and call for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. … Students at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond began implementing a “liberation zone” early Monday, writing chalk messages of support for Palestinians and antiwar sentiments on the public campus.
VaNews April 30, 2024
By DANIEL EGITTO,
ArlNow
A bill to add more flights to Reagan National Airport is moving forward despite opposition from Virginia’s senators.
Senate and House negotiators have reached an agreement to add five more daily round-trip flights to the airport. The 1,069-page reauthorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration will now head to the Senate floor, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation announced today (Monday).
The proposed change comes despite an analysis by the FAA itself, which reportedly found that five more round trips would result in an extra 12 hours of delays each day.
VaNews April 30, 2024
By JILL PALERMO,
Prince William Times
A move to expand data centers into the mid-county area has been dealt a blow by the Prince William County Planning Commission.
Commission members recommended unanimously last week that the supervisors say no to an application to turn the Colchester Industrial Park on Dumfries Road into another data center complex. The area is few miles south of the former Parsons Farm, also on Dumfries Road, which was recently rezoned to allow for 85-foot data centers.
VaNews April 30, 2024
By JESS KIRBY,
Loudoun Times
(Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Loudoun County firefighters voted to approve their first collective bargaining agreement after 16 months of negotiations with the county, the firefighters’ union announced this week. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on the contract on May 7 to decide whether it can take effect. Represented by the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 3756, also known as the Loudoun Career Fire Fighters Association, the firefighters’ contract represents Loudoun County’s first ever collective bargaining agreement with public employees.
VaNews April 30, 2024
By JAMES JARVIS,
FFXnow
Real estate taxes will likely go up for Fairfax County homeowners in the coming year, but perhaps not by as much as they could.
The Board of Supervisors plans to approve a 3-cent tax rate increase, down from the four cents that was advertised. That will reduce the average tax bill hike from about $524 to just over $450.
While additional funding is proposed for affordable housing, public libraries and parks, the county’s fiscal year 2025 budget won’t satisfy Fairfax County Public Schools’ full funding requests or include the pay levels sought by county employees.
VaNews April 30, 2024
By ANTONIO OLIVO,
Washington Post
(Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
A backlash against internet data centers has triggered a wave of laws around the country to restrain the rapidly growing industry that uses massive amounts of energy to make cloud computing and smart technology possible.
In Northern Virginia, home to the world’s largest concentration of data center buildings, Prince William County last week increased its tax rate on the equipment inside data centers by 72 percent, a response in part to complaints about too many of the football-field-sized facilities being built there.
Neighboring Loudoun County — which is home to most of the data centers in Northern Virginia — is moving to keep the buildings away from homes and some commercial corridors, in part by making all data center projects subject to the county board’s review instead of allowing them as a “by right” development in certain areas.
VaNews April 30, 2024
By MARTIN WEIL, ANNABELLE TIMSIT, BEN BRASCH AND KARINA ELWOOD,
Washington Post
(Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations at colleges across the D.C. region intensified over the weekend and into Monday, including the arrest of dozens of students on Virginia campuses. Virginia Tech in Blacksburg reported that campus police arrested more than 80 people late Sunday and into the morning. Of those, 53 were current students. The university said in a statement that the demonstration was not compliant with policy on the use of campus facilities.
VaNews April 30, 2024
By RICH GRISET,
Virginia Business
As a registered nurse unit coordinator and charge nurse at Sentara CarePlex Hospital in Hampton, Andrea Samuel spends her days communicating with doctors and nurses in addition to administering direct bedside care.
A Miami native, Samuel entered nursing school at age 19 and has worked for Sentara since 1991. She celebrated her 78th birthday in March and has no plans to slow down.
VaNews April 30, 2024
By CHARLOTTE RENE WOODS,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Virginia’s growing field of Democratic hopefuls for lieutenant governor just got a new entrant. Two-term state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, filed paperwork Monday to formally enter the race. She joins a 2025 Democratic nomination contest that already includes Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney; Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach; and Dr. Babur Lateef, an eye surgeon who chairs Prince William County’s School Board.
VaNews April 30, 2024
