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By JUSTIN JOUVENAL,
Washington Post
(Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
A special grand jury in Virginia released a long-awaited report on the security lapses that led to the shooting of a teacher by a 6-year-old student at Newport News’s Richneck Elementary School, an incident that grabbed national attention and stirred questions about how such a young child could sneak a gun onto campus and shoot first-grade teacher Abigail Zwerner. The report answered that question and provided a glut of new information.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By JIM MORRISON AND JUSTIN JOUVENAL,
Washington Post
(Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Authorities said Thursday that they will look into possible efforts to obstruct the investigation into the shooting of a teacher by a 6-year-old student at Virginia’s Richneck Elementary School last year, focusing on what happened to key pieces of evidence in the case. Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard E. Gwynn, the top prosecutor in Newport News, Va., said his office will probe why one of the shooter’s discipline files disappeared and the other had material removed from it.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By ERIC KOLENICH,
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Virginia Commonwealth University could raise tuition by as much as 4% next year. On Thursday, university administrators proposed a range of options, from keeping costs flat to raising it by 4%.
The university needs to raise a student’s cost for education by more than 2% to avoid cutting the budget, administrators said. VCU’s financial picture will not become clear until Gov. Glenn Youngkin and state lawmakers agree to a budget for the next fiscal year, which could take months.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By LISA ROWAN,
Cardinal News
A. Scott Fleming will lead the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, the council announced Thursday, following a nearly yearlong search process.
SCHEV is the coordinating agency for Virginia’s public colleges and universities, tasked with ensuring implementation of state policies across institutions and collecting data on the higher education landscape.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By GRAHAM MOOMAW,
Virginia Mercury
After years of partisan debate over the state of Virginia’s election system, Gov. Glenn Youngkin blocked Democratic bills meant to continue the adoption of ranked choice voting, expand legal protections for voting rights and modify data practices to avoid canceling the registrations of eligible voters.
The governor also vetoed a measure that would have expanded the state’s existing ban on guns at polling places and nixed a bill that would have added photo identification cards issued by nursing homes and other state-licensed medical facilities to Virginia’s list of acceptable IDs for voting.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By BRAD KUTNER,
WVTF-FM
The Hanover County Board of Supervisors spent their Wednesday afternoon meeting approving language to honor a handful of Girl Scouts for completing their Gold Award projects, among other items.
But one Girl Scout, whose project was designed to fight what she sees as censorship in the county’s school system, had her commendation “amended.”
Cold Harbor District Supervisor Michael Herzberg pulled out the proclamation for Hanover County student Kate Lindley from a group of proclamations for Girl Scouts achieving their highest honor.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By PETER DUJARDIN,
Virginian-Pilot
(Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
The former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School made her first court appearance Thursday on a series of felony child neglect charges related to the shooting last year.
Ebony J. Parker, 39, Newport News, is accused of ignoring several clear warnings that a 6-year-old Richneck student was armed in school on Jan. 6, 2023.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By DANIEL EGITTO,
ArlNow
Two local lawmakers who spearheaded bills to limit domestic abusers’ access to firearms blasted recent vetoes of that legislation at a press conference today (Thursday).
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) last month struck down bills from State Sen. Barbara Favola and Del. Adele McClure that would have strengthened existing gun control laws around people who have physically attacked family members and romantic partners.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By ANNABELLE KINNEY,
WDBJ-TV
Governor Youngkin signed an amended version of the Name, Imagine, and Likeness bill into law this week. It will essentially streamline how N-I-L will operate in the Commonwealth.
House Bill 15-0-5 was sponsored by Republican Delegate Terry Austin. It does three main things.
First, it would prohibit organizations with authority over college athletics, for example the ACC, from preventing universities and athletes from using NIL agreements.
Second, it would require schools to have policies in place to oversee the compensation athlete’s get.
VaNews April 12, 2024
By SABRINA MORENO,
Axios
Virginia has become the first state in the South to ban child marriage.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bill this week that closes a loophole in state law allowing minors to marry if they’re emancipated.
Only 11 other states in the U.S. have made it illegal for children to marry without exceptions, according to Unchained at Last, an advocacy group that helps girls get out of forced marriages.
Six of those laws, including Virginia’s, passed in the past two years.
In four states — California, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Mississippi — there is no minimum age.
VaNews April 12, 2024
