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Five Years After Virginia Beach Shooting, ’No One Is Getting Better’
The ceremony on Friday afternoon will begin with the naming of the 12 people who were killed on May 31, 2019, when an embittered city employee carried out a shooting spree at the building where he worked. At the end of the event, the site of a future memorial will be dedicated, where, eventually, the 12 names will be etched into the landscape of Virginia Beach. The children of Mary Louise Gayle, whose name will be among them, have no plans to be at the ceremony. Sarah Leonard, her daughter, is taking her children camping. Matthew Gayle, her son, is resuming a sailing trip he cut short exactly five years earlier when he learned of a shooting at his mother’s workplace. They could not bring themselves to join hands with a city that they, and members of some of other victims’ families, say let them down.
In embezzlement sentencing, judge says McDonald ‘betrayed’ community she purported to love
The former director of a local economic development authority in Virginia who was accused of embezzling $5.2 million through an array of bogus transactions was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in federal prison — ending a legal drama that featured the death by suicide of a county sheriff who was also implicated in the crimes. Jennifer R. McDonald wore a blank expression inside the Harrisonburg District Court as a judge chastised her for using her position as director of the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority to siphon the money between 2014 and 2018 to buy properties, pay bills and gambling debts, and enrich relatives and friends.
University of Lynchburg cuts 17 programs, eliminates 40 staff member positions
The University of Lynchburg announced Thursday they are taking dramatic steps at the school as they enter a new era. But for some prospective students and current staff, those changes could be detrimental; 17 programs at the school are being cut, and 40 staff members’ positions have been “reduced.” Over the next three years, the school said another 40 faculty will be headed out the door for good as well.
Deren: In Shenandoah, honoring slave owners is OK?
As a retired Virginia educator, it is disheartening to read about the Shenandoah County School Board’s decision to rename two of the schools within their district after certain Confederate Civil War generals. At a time when our nation needs to turn the corner on divisiveness and begin the arduous work of healing, some still strive to maintain outdated and hurtful policies that persist in dividing us. The Civil War was absolutely fought over the issue of slavery.
Yancey: A convicted felon once drew nearly a million votes for president. In Virginia, he did best in Clifton Forge.
Former President Donald Trump is now a convicted felon, 34 times over. Among the many questions that this raises is a very practical one: Will Americans vote for a convicted felon for president? They have before. Eugene Debs ran for president five times: in 1900 as a Social Democrat and in 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1920 as the nominee of the Socialist Party of America. That last time he ran from a prison cell in Atlanta, having been sentenced to 10 years in prison for sedition after criticizing U.S. involvement in World War I. Despite his conviction and incarceration — or perhaps because of it — he received more votes in 1920 than he ever had before, just under one million nationwide. He also made it to the White House later, albeit as a guest of President Warren Harding.
Yancey: Virginians from Emporia to Winchester went ashore on D-Day. Here’s what they said about it later.
In less than a week, the 80th anniversary of what came to be known as D-Day will be upon us — and then will pass on by us as time always does. The Allied landings on the Normandy beaches occupy a pivotal place in the history of the world, but they occupy a place in Virginia history as well. Coming ashore that June 6 morning 80 years ago were men who had signed up years before for the Virginia National Guard but had since been called up to the regular Army — and were now in the first waves assigned to break the Nazi hold on occupied Europe.
Home value disparities are displacing residents of Richmond’s Black neighborhoods
Some Richmond neighborhoods lost between 18% and 45% of their Black residents in the last decade due to rising housing costs and gentrification, according to a new report out Thursday. Decades of racist homelending policies and present-day bias in home appraisal have undervalued many Black Richmonders’ homes. That’s now pushing some longterm residents out of their communities. The report studying disparities in home value is from Richmond-based nonprofit Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia, which used metro-area research from the Brookings Institute, city tax assessment data and American Community Survey demographics census stats.
McDonald sentenced to 14 years in prison for EDA scandal
A federal judge sentenced Jennifer McDonald, a former executive director of the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority, to 14 years in prison on Wednesday for committing financial crimes against the agency. McDonald appeared Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Harrisonburg for the second part of her sentencing hearing.
Schapiro: Does Trump’s endorsement trump all?
In the parallel universe that is a Republican primary in Virginia, the outcome these days is supposed to be decided by the company a candidate keeps. That being blessed by Donald Trump ensures victory, reducing the primary to a mere formality. U.S. Rep Bob Good, an uber-conservative Republican in the sprawling, largely rural 5th District, is seeking renomination in less than three weeks to a third two-year term, running this time — as he did the first time in 2020 — without the endorsement of the former president.
Charges downgraded for 3 Otieno defendants
The three remaining defendants in the death of Irvo Otieno have had charges downgraded from second-degree murder to involuntary manslaughter. Court records on Wednesday show the charges were downgraded in the cases of Wavie Jones, Brandon Rodgers and Kaiyell Sanders. Sanders and Rodgers are Henrico County sheriff’s deputies. Jones was an employee at Central State Hospital, the maximum security psychiatric facility in Dinwiddie County where Otieno, 28, died while handcuffed and pinned to the floor.