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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 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 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
By GRAHAM MOOMAW,
Virginia Mercury
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced Tuesday that he’s no longer seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2025 and will instead run for lieutenant governor next year.
Stoney’s downshift appears to put Democratic congresswoman Abigail Spanberger on a clear path to become her party’s next pick for governor, making her the lone Democrat officially running for the seat.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By ANGELIA WILLIAMS GRAVES AND PHIL HERNANDEZ,
published in
Virginian-Pilot
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Right now on the governor’s desk sits landmark legislation that is essential for the safety of doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers. House Bill 861, which we passed through the General Assembly earlier this year, is known as the “Protecting Frontline Healthcare Workers Act.” We call on the governor to sign it into law. This bipartisan bill would finally make it illegal to knowingly bring a firearm, large-blade knife, explosive or other dangerous weapon into a hospital or emergency department. Believe it or not, there is no current state law that directly prohibits this conduct.
Del. Hernandez represents Norfolk’s 94th House District and sponsored HB861. Sen. Graves represents Norfolk’s 21st Senate District and sponsored SB515.
VaNews April 24, 2024
By MARKUS SCHMIDT,
Cardinal News
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney on Tuesday ended his gubernatorial bid, saying that he would run for lieutenant governor instead. Stoney’s decision puts Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Henrico County, who was the first candidate to jump into the 2025 race in November of last year, on a clear path to win the Democratic nomination to become the 75th governor of Virginia. … Less than two hours later, Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, who’s not even halfway through his first term in the state Senate, announced his own bid for lieutenant governor.
VaNews April 24, 2024
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
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 JOEY LOMONACO,
Fredericksburg Free Press
Two of the five candidates who took the stage at the Fredericksburg Convention Center on Tuesday night are military veterans who spent time in the special forces. Two others immigrated to the United States, while yet another is an ordained minister who claimed his bishop told him 10 years ago that “the Lord was sending me to Washington.” However, seeing as voters and not providence will determine the Republican candidate for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, Derrick Anderson, Cameron Hamilton, Maria Martin, John Prabhudoss, and Terris Todd gathered for a wide-ranging candidate forum that covered issues from immigration to inflation, while also serving as a platform for the candidates to tout their credentials.
VaNews April 24, 2024
