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Wizards, Caps to stay in D.C. after Alexandria kills proposed Potomac Yard arena

By LIAM GRIFFIN, Washington Times

Washington Wizards and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, who confirmed Wednesday his teams will stay in the District through 2050, praised the $515 million neighborhood redevelopment package put together by Mayor Muriel Bowser and anti-crime legislation recently approved by the D.C. Council. Mr. Leonsis, head of the teams’ parent company Monumental Sports and Entertainment, said at an evening press conference alongside the mayor that the deal would include 200,000 square feet of expansion of the existing Capital One Arena complex into the nearby Gallery Place space, the creation of an entertainment district in the city’s surrounding Chinatown neighborhood and safety and transportation upgrades.

VaNews March 28, 2024


Amtrak service delay to Christiansburg could also impact Bristol

By DAVID MCGEE, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 15 articles a month)

Passenger rail service to the New River Valley has been pushed back to at least 2028 and potential changes there could impact extending service to Bristol. The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority notified stakeholders in the New River Valley in late January of the delay. Amtrak service from Roanoke to the greater New River Valley area was originally proposed by 2025 or 2026.

VaNews March 28, 2024


Alexandria declares $2 billion arena project dead; Youngkin blames legislature

By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

The city of Alexandria declared the $2 billion Monumental arena project dead on Wednesday, expressing disappointment in the acrimonious political stalemate between the Virginia General Assembly and Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who had championed the project as his top legislative priority. Instead, Ted Leonsis, owner of the NBA’s Washington Wizards and the NHL’s Washington Capitals, announced a deal with Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to keep the teams in Washington until 2050.

VaNews March 28, 2024


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


UVa. president to meet graduate students and address payment concerns

By THOMAS BAXTER, Cavalier Daily

In what some graduate students concerned with years of late and incorrect stipend payments see as a turning point, President Jim Ryan has agreed to meet with graduate student leaders April 4 to discuss solutions to the payment problems. Ryan agreed to meet with graduate students after members of the University’s chapter of the United Campus Workers of Virginia attended the March 1 Board of Visitors meeting with signs and flyers detailing their concerns and highlighting the importance of graduate workers for the University’s academic success and longevity. The protest did not disrupt any Board activities.

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