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DuVal: New K-12 accountability standards must also address disparities
Virginia’s business community is keenly aware of the vital role that education plays in driving economic development and preparing a well-trained, qualified workforce. Our students of today are our workforce of tomorrow. The Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the largest business advocacy organization in the commonwealth with more than 30,000 members, has long supported policies that strengthen our education-workforce system to bolster Virginia’s economic growth and business climate. Simply put, to be the best state for business, Virginia must be the best state for talent.
New budget agreement shows state officials aren’t serious about flooding
How will Virginia defend vulnerable communities, including those in Hampton Roads, from rising seas and recurrent flooding? That question, asked time and time again in recent years, will have more urgency in the wake of the budget agreement brokered between lawmakers and Gov. Glenn Youngkin this week. Democratic negotiators agreed to remove language from the budget they approved in March that would return Virginia to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multistate, market-based emissions reduction compact that has generated more than $800 million for flooding projects and energy-efficiency programs.
Legislators slash funding for Health Wagon amid reports CEO’s compensation package nearly doubled in 2 years
Legislators have pulled more than $800,000 from the state budget that had been earmarked for St. Mary’s Health Wagon, a free clinic in Southwest Virginia whose top executive was recently compensated more than $520,000, a sum that nearly doubled over two years and places her compensation far beyond the salaries of comparable executives in wealthier regions of Virginia. The Health Wagon has received state funding consistently since 2006, and an earlier version of this year’s budget included another allocation for it. However, state budget negotiators removed this allocation after reports surfaced that leadership, including CEO Teresa Tyson and clinical director Paula Hill-Collins, as well as other Health Wagon employees, earned outsized compensation packages in recent years.
What we know about how UVa’s narrative differs from eyewitness accounts of May 4
University of Virginia officials have cited a number of justifications for their decision to have state police wearing tactical gear break up a small encampment of anti-war protesters on May 4, arresting 27 people and deploying pepper-spray into a crowd of students, faculty and members of the public. But witnesses and video footage raise questions about the claims made by President Jim Ryan, UVa Police Chief Tim Longo and other top officials.
New ballpark? Unless poverty becomes our top priority, RVA will keep losing
In a city that’s so accustomed to losing, even the wins feel like defeat. After more than 20 years of handwringing and public debate, the Richmond City Council finally approved a massive, $170 million financing plan on Wednesday to build a new ballpark to replace the nearly obsolete, 40-year-old Diamond on Arthur Ashe Boulevard. ... It would also be paid for with city tax dollars, the same tax dollars that council members struggled to scrounge up just two weeks ago.
Carilion Clinic cleared in tainted instrument probe
Investigators received an anonymous complaint last summer tipping them off that Carilion Clinic’s two largest hospitals were struggling with a months-long spike in surgical instruments with blemishes, stains, spots and debris. Tainted surgical instruments were found on the front lines of care, including in trays awaiting use in heart procedures, and pulled before use. When surgeons had too few clean instruments to operate, patients waited. While the health system showed that no blemished instrument ever touched a patient and few surgeries overall were delayed, inspectors working on behalf of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services put a condition into effect known as “immediate jeopardy.” The reason: a breakdown in infection control.
MVP fined again by regulators for environmental problems
State regulators again cited the Mountain Valley Pipeline for environmental violations, and are seeking another $31,500 in fines that total more than $2 million over the past five years. In an email sent Friday, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality informed the company that its inspections found at least 13 cases of non-compliance with erosion and sedimentation control regulations.
Some VCU students walk out of commencement during Youngkin address
Dozens of Virginia Commonwealth University students walked out of their graduation ceremony Saturday morning as Gov. Glenn Youngkin delivered the commencement address, demonstrating support for Palestinians and protesting some of the Republican’s crusade against efforts to promote racial equity in education. The selection of Youngkin as speaker drew criticism from some ahead of the ceremony. The university’s chapter of the NAACP [last] week urged VCU officials to rescind the invitation, and some students in recent days said they would hold a walkout during the ceremony.
VCU shoots down racial literacy requirement
Virginia Commonwealth University will not impose a racial literacy class requirement on students, its board voted Friday, the most contentious action the board has taken in years as the panel considered a significantly political issue. The board voted 10-5 to reject the mandate, as members in the majority said they opposed adding extra requirements for graduation. It was a defeat for members of the faculty, who developed their plan over a four-year time period, gaining support from academic committees and offices.
Williams: Irvo Otieno’s family needs the Justice Department, without delay
When Ann Cabell Baskervill announced she was resigning as Dinwiddie County commonwealth’s attorney to attend graduate school in France, it wasn’t hard to foresee her dream becoming an American nightmare for Kenyan immigrant Caroline Ouko. Ouko is the mother of Irvo Otieno, 28, who died of asphyxiation on March 6, 2023, after he was pinned on the floor while shackled and handcuffed for about 11 minutes by Henrico County sheriff’s deputies and hospital personnel during his intake at Central State Hospital.