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By DWAYNE YANCEY,
Cardinal News
Roanoke, a seven-time winner of the All-America City designation, recently won another title.
The Star City was named a “Certified Welcoming” city by Welcoming America, a nonprofit dedicated to welcoming immigrants.
Roanoke is the first locality in Virginia to earn this distinction and one of just 24 across the country. It’s also the fifth smallest community on that list, which is otherwise dominated by major metros.
Given the tenor of the national conversation about immigration, you would not expect to find a small city on the edge of Appalachia to be an officially “welcoming” city for immigrants, yet there Roanoke is. This is just one of many data points about Roanoke that show how it’s different.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By BRAD KUTNER,
WVTF-FM
Governor Glenn Youngkin is still looking to spend $100 million on new lab schools across Virginia, and a handful of applications were approved Thursday. But there were concerns about the viability of at least one of the programs.
Lab schools were authorized by the legislature in 2022. They aim to partner with colleges to provide real world experience to students so they can enter the job field more quickly upon graduation. And while the spirit of the program is supported by many, the funding— directly from the state and given to public and private colleges— has been a source of budget fights.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By GRAHAM MOOMAW,
Virginia Mercury
A week before the Petersburg City Council voted unanimously to pick Cordish Companies to potentially build a casino, City Manager John Altman Jr. signed a letter saying the city council intended to pick a competing company, according to a copy of the document obtained by The Virginia Mercury.
The April 17 letter of intent addressed to Bally’s, a national casino company that was one of five finalists for the Petersburg project, said the pending deal would still depend on outside factors. However, the letter clearly indicated Bally’s was the city’s initial choice … The city claims the letter was signed under duress as the General Assembly pressured local officials to pick a certain casino company or risk losing the project entirely.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By DHARMENDRA PATEL,
published in
Roanoke Times
(Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
As one of the leaders of the Asian American Business Owners Association (AABOA), I know firsthand how skill games have not only benefited Virginia small businesses but also helped them survive the onslaught of COVID, skyrocketing inflation, and higher-than-expected wages. AABOA represents more than 300 convenience stores, gas stations, and restaurants in Southwest Virginia. The survival of many of our locations depended on supplemental income from skill games before they were abruptly banned in October.
Patel lives in Salem.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By CHER MUZYK,
Prince William Times
The path to control the U.S. House of Representatives runs through Northern Virginia this fall with two open seats and competitive races in the 7th and 10th Congressional Districts, both of which include parts of Fauquier and Prince William counties.
Recent campaign filings show that in the 10th District race, the Democrats are outraising their Republican candidates.
Collectively, the 12 Democrats in the race have raised more than $4.5 million, while the four Republicans have pulled in about $583,000, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By NATALIE ANDERSON,
Virginian-Pilot
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
City leaders are submitting plans to the state to acquire the Hampton Roads Regional Jail for use as the new Portsmouth city jail and aim to make the transition no later than the start of 2025.
The Hampton Roads Regional Jail Authority, which comprises city managers and other representatives from the five participating jurisdictions, voted unanimously last week to allow Portsmouth to purchase the facility. The move means the facility could serve as Portsmouth’s new city jail, allowing the city to convert the current aging waterfront jail facility into a tax-generating property — a goal the city has been working toward for years. It could also provide a safe place to accommodate juvenile detention services.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By ELIZABETH MCGOWAN,
Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism
The red brick apartment building Zenobia Wilson called home for a dozen years was a ringside seat to a noisy, polluting, 14-lane jumble of Interstate-264 overpasses, cloverleaf interchanges and ramps whizzing around the majority-Black St. Paul’s neighborhood.
But when the mother of three moved out of Tidewater Gardens in August 2022, it wasn’t by choice.
Norfolk was advancing another long-simmering initiative to “deconcentrate poverty,” christened the St. Paul’s Transformation Project. Its initial $400 million phase called for demolishing all 618 units of the deteriorating, barracks style public housing. Everybody had to relocate.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By ANNA BRYSON,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
The Virginia Board of Education approved $25.4 million for six new lab schools Thursday as state officials find ways to accelerate the approval process to use the existing lab school funding before the current budget cycle ends. Some education officials worry that the expedited approval process might affect the quality of lab school plans, but proponents say officials thoroughly vet the applications.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By ERIKA CRAVEN,
WTKR-TV
Roughly one month after a container ship hit and collapsed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, the first vessels passed through the Baltimore port after a temporary deep channel opened.
The collapse had a ripple effect in Hampton Roads as ports, including the Port of Virginia, absorbed the Baltimore traffic. Even with Baltimore’s port partially reopened, Virginia will still see additional traffic.
Our port is expected to get 18,000 to 20,000 containers of cargo from Baltimore this month.
VaNews April 26, 2024
By MATTHEW BARAKAT,
Associated Press
A jury on Wednesday rejected a woman’s lawsuit seeking tens of millions of dollars from Virginia’s largest school system over allegations that she was raped multiple times as a middle schooler.
The woman, who was identified in court papers only by her initials, sued Fairfax County Public Schools under Title IX, a law that guarantees girls and women equal educational access. The lawsuit alleged school officials at Rachel Carson Middle School in Reston ignored her complaints that she endured sexual harassment and sexual assaults inside and outside of the school back in 2011 and 2012, when she was a seventh-grader.
VaNews April 25, 2024
