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By RALPH BERRIER JR.,
Roanoke Rambler
The Rev. Bill Lee believes it’s raining manna all over Roanoke.
Lee stood before a roomful of listeners and recounted the story from Exodus of the miracle food from heaven that sustained the Jewish people as they wandered in the wilderness after their escape from Egypt. He asked his audience, Black and white people, church-goers from congregations across the city, if they believed manna still covered the ground today.
“What sustains us?” he asked. “What is all the stuff that God has made available to us, the manna, that we are not picking up? God didn’t stop giving manna in 2024. It’s everywhere.”
Lee’s examples were not honey-flavored crackers from the Old Testament. Instead, he pointed to modern-day opportunities that seem like miracles to someone who grew up in a rural area in the 1950s and ’60s like he did, opportunities such as a community college system that’s available to anyone.
VaNews April 19, 2024
Associated Press
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed measure into law Thursday that allows state colleges and universities to directly pay their athletes through name, image and likeness compensation deals, a measure believed to be the first of its kind.
The law, which takes effect July 1, was signed one day after the NCAA eased some of its NIL restrictions but noted that its longstanding “prohibitions against pay-for-play and schools compensating student-athletes for use of their NIL remain in place.”
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said other states may follow Virginia’s lead.
VaNews April 19, 2024
By ACACIA JAMES,
FFXnow
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is asking the county’s General Assembly delegation to oppose Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed funding cuts to Metro in the state’s budget.
During a board meeting on Tuesday (April 16), supervisors unanimously approved a letter written by Chairman Jeff McKay, Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw, and Dranesville District Supervisor James Bierman, asking the delegation to oppose the cuts and retain the funding needed to address the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) estimated $750 million shortfall.
VaNews April 19, 2024
By DAVID TEEL,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
As state politicians and university administrators led the drive for pioneering compensation opportunities for college athletes in Virginia, coaches anxiously awaited the final legislation. Ryan Odom, Tony Elliott and Brent Pry were not disappointed. They joined dozens of others Thursday morning at the Patrick Henry Building in Richmond, where Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed House Bill 1505, giving in-state schools virtual autonomy in providing name, image and likeness compensation to athletes.
VaNews April 19, 2024
By ALYSSA HUTTON,
Cardinal News
More than 100 people gathered Thursday morning to witness the unveiling of a state historical marker for Lucyville, a community founded in the late 19th century by a freed slave.
The Rev. Reuben T. Coleman was born into slavery, then freed in 1860. Lucyville is named after his daughter. Coleman owned a bank in the community, which in the 1890s also had a post office, a mineral springs resort and a newspaper.
VaNews April 19, 2024
By EM HOLTER,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
The Richmond Coliseum, the defunct regional arena, could soon be torn down pending a vote by the Richmond City Council.
The request comes from the city administration that petitioned an additional $3.5 million be tacked on to Mayor Levar Stoney’s proposed $3 billion FY2025 budget to cover the $3 million cost of demolition as well as $500,000 to meet security needs.
VaNews April 19, 2024
By ERIC KOLENICH,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
The demolition of Richmond’s Public Safety Building, a valuable piece of city-owned downtown real estate, is scheduled to begin in one to two weeks, according to a spokesperson for Virginia Commonwealth University Health.
The removal of the building, long considered an eyesore, is the first step toward its redevelopment. VCU Health agreed to pay for demolition as part of its failed redevelopment plan. It hired Henrico County-based DPR Construction for $5 million, according to city records.
VaNews April 19, 2024
By DAVE RESS,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Gov. Glenn Youngkin still has concerns about legislation to legalize skill games — the slot machine-like devices that hundreds of convenience stores say keep them in business — but says he thinks an answer could come when the General Assembly meets next month to consider a new state budget.
His big concern is to make sure skill games are not set up too close to schools or churches, and he thinks the bill aligns with the state’s casino gaming law, which bars additional historical horse racing gambling devices within 35 miles of a casino host city.
VaNews April 19, 2024
By BETH JOJACK,
Virginia Business
Florida-based aerospace and defense contractor L3Harris Technologies announced on Thursday a $41.2 million expansion and modernization of its Aerojet Rocketdyne facility in Orange County, with plans to add 80 employees.
Over the next three years, L3Harris also plans to construct new facilities and buy new equipment for the facility, according to a statement from the company and another by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
VaNews April 19, 2024
By NEAL AUGENSTEIN,
WTOP
A Loudoun County, Virginia, judge set a new trial date for fired school superintendent Scott Ziegler and made no reference to Ziegler’s attorneys claim that the judge erred in ordering a new trial after setting aside a previous misdemeanor conviction.
Thursday morning, Circuit Court Judge Douglas Fleming set Feb. 3, 2025, as the first of a possible five-day jury trial, six weeks after throwing out Ziegler’s conviction for the retaliatory firing of a teacher who reported that an elementary school student inappropriately touched her.
VaNews April 19, 2024
