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CoStar to receive a grant from Richmond worth millions

By ERIC KOLENICH, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

The city of Richmond will give CoStar Group Inc. a grant worth several million dollars, a recognition of the company’s plan to build an office tower expected to generate more than $30 million in new tax revenue. Richmond City Council on Monday approved an ordinance that will refund some of CoStar’s real estate and business property taxes after the 26-story building is complete. “This project is an incredible success story for the city,” said Leonard Sledge, Richmond’s head of economic development.

VaNews April 24, 2024


Petersburg nonprofit helps girls advocate school issues to General Assembly

By ALLIE PITCHON, Progress Index (Metered paywall - 10 articles a month)

Lauren McCray and Khloe Atwood are just 11 years old. That didn’t stop them from traveling to the General Assembly in February alongside two other young girls with the help of Petersburg non-profit Pretty Purposed, where they spoke to lawmakers about underfunding issues affecting their schools. “Most of our milks and stuff are either expired or are going to be expired the next day, and our water fountains weren't turning on for like two years," said Atwood, who attends the fifth grade at Sunnyside Elementary School in Dinwiddie County.

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


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


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


Williams: Reimagining Monument Avenue is a lost cause. Stoney planted and punted.

By MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

After protesters toppled Confederate statues on Monument Avenue and then-Gov. Ralph Northam announced his intent to remove the Robert E. Lee monument, an NPR reporter asked me for a vision of what could take their place. “They could be monuments to reconciliation. They could be monuments to the African American struggle, which until recent years was not told in statuary,” I replied. ... With the Lee statue’s removal in September 2021, Richmond had a blank canvas to reinvent a historic street long defined by a mythology that recast subjugation and defeat as virtue and triumph. Mayor Levar Stoney had most if not all of his second term to launch a conversation about what that might look like.

VaNews April 24, 2024


Graves and Hernandez: Governor should sign bill to protect health workers

By ANGELIA WILLIAMS GRAVES AND PHIL HERNANDEZ, published in Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Right now on the governor’s desk sits landmark legislation that is essential for the safety of doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers. House Bill 861, which we passed through the General Assembly earlier this year, is known as the “Protecting Frontline Healthcare Workers Act.” We call on the governor to sign it into law. This bipartisan bill would finally make it illegal to knowingly bring a firearm, large-blade knife, explosive or other dangerous weapon into a hospital or emergency department. Believe it or not, there is no current state law that directly prohibits this conduct.

Del. Hernandez represents Norfolk’s 94th House District and sponsored HB861. Sen. Graves represents Norfolk’s 21st Senate District and sponsored SB515.

VaNews April 24, 2024


CoStar Group to acquire Calif. technology company Matterport for $1.6 billion

By STAFF REPORT, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

The CoStar Group, which announced in February plans to move its headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Rosslyn, announced that it will acquire California 3D technology company Matterport for $1.6 billion. Matterport offers 3-D capture technology which delivers “dimensionally accurate, photorealistic virtual tours” for any type of property and is widely used in real estate. ... CoStar said last year it expected to hire 2,000 more people in Richmond, putting its workforce here at about 3,500.

VaNews April 23, 2024


New law closes marriage loophole to protect Virginia children

Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

By signing a bill last month that abolished child marriage, Gov. Glenn Youngkin made Virginia one of only a dozen states to prohibit the practice and the first Southern state to do so. That’s a landmark for the commonwealth, one that should have earned unanimous support in the legislature. Those who voted against, including three Republicans from Hampton Roads, should account for their opposition.

VaNews April 23, 2024


Richmond man charged with assaulting officer in Jan. 6 Capitol attack

By LUCA POWELL, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

A Richmond man associated with the white supremacist group Patriot Front is accused of striking a police officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol building. Nathaniel Noyce of Richmond is charged with assaulting law enforcement officers, civil disorder, and violence and disorderly conduct at the Capitol.

VaNews April 23, 2024