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Friday Read She left the CIA in frustration. Now her spy novel is racking up awards.
She felt each boom like an electric jolt as she was trying to sleep in her Alexandria, Va., apartment. It was August 2006, and Ilana Berry was then a 30-year-old Central Intelligence Agency case officer. Outside, construction crews were beginning work on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, knocking down the old expanse to make way for a new six-lane roadway. But each rumble threw Berry off the steady anchors of time and place, hurling her back to her last year stationed in war-rocked Baghdad.
246 Years Project launches at Morven Park to help African Americans research their ancestors
When African Americans research their genealogy, they usually can find information only back to 1865. That’s because before slavery was abolished, many of their ancestors were considered “property.” As a result, their names are absent from many government records, such as the census and birth and death registers. A new project initiated at Morven Park is trying to change that – one record at a time.
GOP primary battle turns Va.’s 5th District into a political Tilt-a-Whirl
Republican John McGuire took his upstart bid for Congress to a spring carnival here that mixed small-town charm with MAGA fervor, where children who mustered a bell-ringing whack in the strongman game went home with toy assault weapons. Buttonholing voters on the midway in this red central Virginia town one recent Friday night, the Virginia state senator made a pro-Trump, anti-establishment pitch fit for an ordinary GOP primary fight, the kind with a moderate incumbent challenged from the right. But the Republican whom McGuire wants to oust in the June 18 primary is Rep. Bob Good, chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus.
Virginia governor asks president to bring back in-person work for federal employees
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is calling on the Biden administration to bring back in-person work for federal employees. Back in December, Youngkin wrote a letter to the Office of Personnel Management urging the administration to mandate and enforce a full return-to-work policy in an effort to boost Metro's ridership. Now he's asking again.
Kempsville High baseball season ended over ‘racism, hate speech, and harassment’ within team
Kempsville High School’s baseball season is over after “a lengthy investigation” found that “racism, hate speech, and harassment” have been prevalent on the team for multiple years, according to a note principal Melissa George sent to parents in recent weeks. “After our lengthy investigation after we received allegations of racism on the baseball team earlier in April, we have found that racism, hate speech, and harassment have been an ongoing issue for multiple years,” George wrote in the message, first reported by WTKR. “Due to additional information we have through our investigation, at this time we are forfeiting (the May 2) game against (Princess Anne).”
Democratic race to replace Rep. Wexton gets first negative attack
Virginia’s crowded Democratic primary election contest to replace U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) will soon see its first negative attack — a contrast to what has been a mostly polite competition to succeed the congresswoman who is not seeking reelection in November for health reasons. As early as Friday, a YouTube ad and two mailers paid for by Left Rising, a D.C.-based group that promotes liberal causes, will begin targeting voters with attacks against former Virginia House speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (Fairfax), considered to be one of the top contenders in the June 18 election.
Prince Edward schools that helped usher in Brown v. Board of Education still in disrepair
A small group of Robert Russa Moton High School students in Farmville began gathering in secret months before an April 23, 1951, walkout to protest the unequal conditions of school facilities for Black students. “It was the same type of secrecy that was developed during the Manhattan Project,” said John Stokes, one of the walkout’s organizers. “We had to trust everyone so we could pull this thing off.” Students decided to report a fake disturbance downtown, luring Moton Principal M. Boyd Jones away from school on the day of the protest. … When Jones returned to school, the strike was in full force. About 400 students gathered in the auditorium to hear a speech from 16-year-old student Barbara Johns before walking out of the school in protest.
A Democratic congressional candidate represented Kessler in the court case to allow Unite the Right
In Virginia’s first congressional district, Democratic candidate Leslie Mehta is facing criticism for representing Jason Kessler during his effort to hold the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. The events that unfolded that day resulted in the death of Heather Heyer after a white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of people who were counter-protesting the rally. Two state police officers also died after their helicopter crashed while monitoring the events. Mehta says that while Kessler and his group represent everything she stands against, the First Amendment rights of Americans should always be defended when they are being used peacefully, as the organizers said would happen in court documents.
Search warrants claim ‘pattern of money laundering’ at some Va. cannabis-related stores
Newly unsealed search warrants in Washington County allege that some of the cannabis-related stores that were targeted in a region-wide raid last fall were involved in money laundering. Dozens of stores across Southwest Virginia were raided in September. While the ownership structure of many of the shops is unclear, the search warrants show that the homes and banking records of two people who owned multiple locations also were searched. Among the items that were seized were a number of guns — pistols, rifles and shotguns — as well as ammunition, computers, cellphones and vehicles, including two Rolls-Royces.
Virginia changes educational benefit for veterans’ families
Veterans and their family members who planned to use an educational benefit from the state are calling recent changes to the program “the largest rollback of veteran benefits in Virginia history.” The Friends of VMSDEP, which stands for Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program, are referring to state budget bills signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin this week. The new legislation changes the nature of the benefit and shifts control from the Department of Veterans Services to the State Council of Higher Education Virginia, or SCHEV.