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Virginia Patriot Front members sued for defacement of Richmond’s Arthur Ashe mural

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

Residents of the Battery Park neighborhood of Richmond are suing 27 members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front for defacing a mural of Arthur Ashe, the Black civil rights icon and tennis legend. Arthur Ago, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the group’s actions were “evidence of white supremacy.” Ago said the vandalism led to the partial closure of the park and deprived residents of its use. The vandalism was never criminally prosecuted.

VaNews March 28, 2024


Landowners continue their legal fight against Mountain Valley Pipeline

By LAURENCE HAMMACK, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

As work on the Mountain Valley Pipeline continues, so does litigation aimed at slowing it down. Six landowners in Franklin, Montgomery and Roanoke counties asked the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday to hear their challenge of eminent domain laws used to take their private property for the controversial project. First filed four years ago, the lawsuit contends that Congress improperly delegated its power to seize private property to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees construction of interstate natural gas pipelines.

VaNews March 28, 2024


Sen. Warner talks technology and intelligence in swing through Western Virginia

By TAD DICKENS, Cardinal News

Biotechnologists and life scientists could be players in the U.S.’s defense and intelligence worlds, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, told a group gathered on Wednesday in Roanoke. Warner was part of a roundtable at Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion, where he heard a lot about the Roanoke-Blacksburg region’s growth over the past decade. Warner, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the group that one of his jobs is to try to broaden the definition of national security beyond tanks, guns, ships and planes.

VaNews March 28, 2024


The future of energy in Hampton Roads: Local leaders weigh how to meet rising demand

By KATHERINE HAFNER, WHRO

Hampton Roads officials are discussing how to address energy demand that’s expected to surge in the coming decades — because they say doing nothing is not an option. “We will not keep a status quo if we get no new energy in our region,” Hampton City Manager Mary Bunting said at a recent meeting of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. “We will actually fall even further behind. … ” The ongoing discussions have grown out of a regional analysis completed a couple years ago called the Hampton Roads Long-Term Energy Roadmap.

VaNews March 28, 2024


Nauticus preps for thousands of cruise passengers in Norfolk after Baltimore bridge collapse

By PRESTON STEGER AND ANGELIQUE ARINTOK, WVEC-TV

Nauticus is gearing up for thousands of cruise ship passengers arriving and departing Norfolk on Easter weekend following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore Tuesday morning. Amid clean-up and recovery efforts around the bridge, Carnival Cruise Lines announced Tuesday night it will temporarily move its Baltimore-based operations of the Legend vessel to Norfolk. Officials with the Port of Baltimore said incoming and outgoing vessel traffic is suspended until further notice.

VaNews March 28, 2024


Warner brainstorms about biotech during Roanoke stop

By LUKE WEIR, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

A roundtable of community leaders sent the visiting Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., back to Washington on Wednesday with ideas to nurture the up-and-coming scientific research sector in Roanoke. Research and innovation ongoing in Roanoke helps improve the world at large, while creating opportunity for economic development here at home, said local leaders in health, education and government. That’s the type of impact surrounding the work inside Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, located along the Roanoke River at the foot of Mill Mountain, where Warner finished a multi-day visit to the region.

VaNews March 28, 2024


Youngkin vetoes ban on assault-style weapons, other gun-control bills

By ANDREW CAIN, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed 30 more bills Tuesday afternoon, many of them gun control measures, including proposals to ban the purchase and sale of assault-style weapons. He also signed 31 measures and proposed amendments to six. Youngkin has now vetoed 80 bills so far this year and 121 in his term, breaking Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s record of 120 in his four-year term from 2014 to 2018.

VaNews March 27, 2024


Patrick County hospital sold again

By BILL WYATT, Martinsville Bulletin (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The former Pioneer Community Hospital property on Jeb Stuart Highway has been sold again and Patrick County officials are seeking partnerships with other providers. Foresight Health purchased the property in 2022 for $2.1 million and, earlier this month, sold it to Wolf of Wabash LLC for $1.6 million, according to records on file at the Patrick County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office. Both companies are based in Chicago.

VaNews March 27, 2024


Beaudet: Restricting vaping products will only help big tobacco, not consumers

By TOM BEAUDET, published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

It can’t be said any clearer than this: Virginia is on the brink of disaster when it comes to helping people quit smoking cigarettes if Gov. Glenn Youngkin signs Senate Bill 550 and House Bill 1609 into law. This legislation effectively bans most forms of vaping products while giving a major carve-out to the same products produced by big tobacco companies. This legislation will drive large numbers of consumers back to cigarettes in stark contrast to the decades spent encouraging people to give up the unhealthy practice.

Beaudet is CEO of Accorto Regulatory Solutions.

VaNews March 27, 2024


Yancey: Students are forced to subsidize college sports. Why?

By DWAYNE YANCEY, Cardinal News

The James Madison men’s basketball team lost its NCAA tournament game against Duke over the weekend, but JMU has still finished first in one national category — just not a good one. A recent report by Sportico, a news site devoted to covering “the business of sports,” said that JMU used more money in student fees to support intercollegiate athletics than any other school in the country. In second place was Old Dominion University.

VaNews March 27, 2024