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By MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
After protesters toppled Confederate statues on Monument Avenue and then-Gov. Ralph Northam announced his intent to remove the Robert E. Lee monument, an NPR reporter asked me for a vision of what could take their place. “They could be monuments to reconciliation. They could be monuments to the African American struggle, which until recent years was not told in statuary,” I replied. ... With the Lee statue’s removal in September 2021, Richmond had a blank canvas to reinvent a historic street long defined by a mythology that recast subjugation and defeat as virtue and triumph. Mayor Levar Stoney had most if not all of his second term to launch a conversation about what that might look like.
VaNews April 24, 2024
The Virginia Public Access Project
This morning on VPM, Ben Dolle engages in a discussion with Chris Piper, Executive Director of VPAP, marking the debut of our monthly recap highlighting key stories from VaNews and showcasing the month’s most popular visual content. Don’t miss out on this discussion; tune in at 7:45 a.m.! If you missed it live, visit vpm.org to hear the recording.
VaNews April 25, 2024
By MEGAN PAULY,
VPM
Relatives, friends and neighbors gathered along Chamberlayne Avenue on Tuesday to honor Frances W. McClenney — who the former Ginter Park Elementary School has been renamed after.
The school, like Richmond’s botanical garden, was previously named for Confederate Maj. Lewis Ginter.
A new school marquee with McClenney’s name was also unveiled.
McClenney was the school’s first Black teacher, as well as its first Black principal. Her daughter, Jacqueline McClenney, said the positions came with death threats.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By CHARLOTTE RENE WOODS,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Virginia Democrats, joined lawmakers from the House and Senate to urge the Office of Personnel Management to require all health insurance carriers in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program to cover in-vitro fertilization treatments and medications.
If the agency were to take up the request, this would affect federal employees, many of whom live in Northern Virginia.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By SARAH RANKIN,
Associated Press
Democratic Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced Tuesday he is dropping his bid for Virginia governor in 2025, avoiding a nomination contest with U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, and will instead run for lieutenant governor.
A former member of ex-Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration and a two-term mayor of the capital city, Stoney said he had wrestled with the decision since he and his wife welcomed their first child in March. While his campaign had sought to make the case in a memo just weeks ago that a Stoney-Spanberger primary would be competitive, he said Tuesday that “while there was a path to victory it was a narrow path.”
VaNews April 24, 2024
By SIERRA KRUG,
WRIC-TV
... Proposed legislation in Virginia would protect kids’ online privacy, but politics could get in the way. As initially written, Senate Bill 361 focuses on protecting kids younger than 13. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin wanted to up the ante, protecting all minors, but ultimately, Senate members rejected his recommended changes. … SB361 made it through the Virginia General Assembly with bipartisan legislators voting to bar websites from accessing and selling data from online users under the age of 13.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By ALLIE PITCHON,
Progress Index
(Metered paywall - 10 articles a month)
Lauren McCray and Khloe Atwood are just 11 years old. That didn’t stop them from traveling to the General Assembly in February alongside two other young girls with the help of Petersburg non-profit Pretty Purposed, where they spoke to lawmakers about underfunding issues affecting their schools.
“Most of our milks and stuff are either expired or are going to be expired the next day, and our water fountains weren't turning on for like two years," said Atwood, who attends the fifth grade at Sunnyside Elementary School in Dinwiddie County.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By LISA ROWAN,
Cardinal News
The Bedford County School Board is suing a local parent for $600,000 for what it calls harassment of school division employees.
The suit follows a complaint the parent made to the state Department of Education in January, in which he claimed that the school had failed to provide services for his son’s learning disability. David Rife, the parent, also has a long history of trying to advocate for his son in the school division, as outlined in documents filed by both parties in the suit.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By DAVE RESS,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Not quite a week after the General Assembly brushed off his amendments to two bills ensuring the right to contraception and two more requiring insurance coverage, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he’s still thinking about what do. They’re among some 50 bills where legislators rejected his amendments or — as in the contraception rights bills — simply let the amendments die without a vote.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By ERIC KOLENICH,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
The city of Richmond will give CoStar Group Inc. a grant worth several million dollars, a recognition of the company’s plan to build an office tower expected to generate more than $30 million in new tax revenue. Richmond City Council on Monday approved an ordinance that will refund some of CoStar’s real estate and business property taxes after the 26-story building is complete. “This project is an incredible success story for the city,” said Leonard Sledge, Richmond’s head of economic development.
VaNews April 24, 2024
