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By JENNA PORTNOY, EMILY DAVIES AND ANTONIO OLIVO, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Cameron Webb — an African American physician, former White House fellow and health policy researcher — is the Democratic nominee for an open congressional seat in central Virginia, setting up a potentially competitive general-election showdown. In Virginia’s only statewide contest Tuesday, establishment favorite Daniel Gade won the Republican Senate primary and will challenge Sen. Mark R. Warner (D) in the fall. Gade, a professor at American University in the District, is a retired Army lieutenant colonel whose leg was amputated after he was wounded in Iraq.
The Virginia Public Access Project
VPAP makes it easy to drill into unofficial returns provided by the Virginia Department of Elections. Get top level numbers from the Republican U.S. Senate race and six House of Representatives districts, map of results and drill down to the precinct level.
By SALEEN MARTIN, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Gov. Ralph Northam said at his press conference this week that the state will move into Phase 3 of reopening July 1. Richmond and Northern Virginia will move into Phase 3 with the rest of the state, Northam said.
By LAURENCE HAMMACK, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Virginia will soon enter the next stage of its plan to ease restrictions aimed at curbing the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Ralph Northam said Tuesday. But as the governor announced plans for a so-called Phase 3 to start July 1, there was new evidence of what similar steps in other states might bring. With many beaches now open, people returning to the Roanoke region from summer trips are bringing the virus back with them.
By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press
A moratorium on evictions in response to the coronavirus pandemic has been lifted by the Supreme Court of Virginia, paving the way for eviction proceedings to resume next week. An order issued by the state’s high court Monday said courts may resume hearing eviction cases on June 29. Tenant advocates said thousands of families that are struggling financially because of COVID-19 could be affected.
By NED OLIVER, Virginia Mercury
Gov. Ralph Northam expressed befuddlement Tuesday at ongoing protests against police brutality in Richmond, defending city and state police officers who earlier in the morning used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear a sit-in outside of City Hall that was blocking a side street. “Mostly these demonstrations have been peaceful, but here in Richmond we continue to see nightly conflicts between demonstrators and our police,” Northam said during a press briefing on the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. “After three weeks it is no longer clear what the goals are or a path to achieve them. . . . "
By C. SUAREZ ROJAS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)
The prospect of extending virtual learning for Virginia’s K-12 students into fall during the pandemic is driving some Henrico County families to advocate for a return to a normal five-day week when schools reopen. At a joint meeting of the Henrico Board of Supervisors and School Board on Tuesday, about 50 parents and children held protest signs asking the county to reconsider its tentative plans to stagger in-person instruction by time of day or day of the week to limit the spread of COVID-19.
The Full Report
48 articles, 19 publications
Read Online10 Most Clicked
The Virginia Public Access Project
VPAP has maps showing the extent that voters in Tuesday's primary elections sought the safety of early voting -- much of it by mail -- amid the coronavirus pandemic. For the Republican statewide primary, maps show the percentage of votes that were cast absentee. There is one map for the four Democratic congressional district contests.
The Virginia Public Access Project
Our COVID-19 dashboard makes it easy to track the latest available data for tests performed, infections, deaths and hospital capacity. There's a filter for each city and county, plus an exclusive per-capita ZIP Code map. Updated each morning around 10:00 am.
By LAURA VOZZELLA AND ANTONIO OLIVO, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said Tuesday that he plans to loosen business and social restrictions for the whole state July 1, moving into Phase 3 of reopening an economy he largely shuttered in March amid an outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
By MEL LEONOR AND JUSTIN MATTINGLY, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Virginia will move onto the third phase of the state’s gradual reopening from COVID-19 on July 1, state officials announced Tuesday. Phase 3 will allow for social gatherings of up to 250 people from the current limit of 50 people, and will also allow for restaurants and retail businesses to operate at full capacity.
By SARAH RANKIN, Associated Press
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Tuesday that he plans to further relax restrictions on businesses and public gatherings next week, saying trends related to cases of COVID-19, hospitalizations and other key health metrics were moving in the right direction.
By MEL LEONOR, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
As clashes between police and protesters continue in Richmond, Gov. Ralph Northam said Tuesday he does not “condone” violent protests, while declining to weigh in on the tactics used by law enforcement to disperse the crowds. “After three weeks, it is no longer clear what the goals are or a path to achieve them,” Northam said during a briefing with reporters.
By MAX THORNBERRY, Northern Virginia Daily
Virginia entered the fray to fight for a special enrollment period that would allow people who missed the window to gain insurance through the Affordable Care Act late last year to protect themselves against potential bank-breaking costs from COVID-19. Unemployment rates are inching back down after record highs earlier this year but hundreds of thousands of Americans who relied on employer-sponsored health insurance are facing a global health crisis with few avenues of financial escape should they get sick.
By AMY FRIEDENBERGER, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Gun rights groups filed a lawsuit challenging a law scheduled to go into effect next week that will expand background checks for purchasing firearms. The Virginia Citizens Defense League, other gun rights groups and gun owners are asking that the new law be halted from going into effect while the lawsuit is ongoing.
By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Gun rights groups filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block Virginia’s enactment of a law requiring universal background checks for firearms purchases that goes into effect July 1. The new law “unconstitutionally requires a background check for any firearm sale, even between private parties,” the lawsuit says. It was filed in Circuit Court in the city of Lynchburg by the Gun Owners of America, Virginia Citizens Defense League, Gun Owners Foundation and three individuals.
By GRAHAM MOOMAW, Virginia Mercury
The Democratic Party of Virginia is officially urging voters to oppose a proposed constitutional amendment to create a bipartisan redistricting commission that, if approved in November, would redraw the state’s political maps starting in 2021. The proposal — the compromise product of years’ worth of anti-gerrymandering advocacy — caused a major split among Democrats in this year’s legislative session, with most Senate Democrats strongly supporting it and most House Democrats adamantly opposed.
By JUSTIN MATTINGLY, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
A U.S. Army veteran whose right leg was amputated after he was wounded in Iraq will represent Republicans in the party’s bid to unseat Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in November.
By STACY SHAW, Bristow Beat
Daniel M. Gade won the Republican nomination to run represent Virginia in the U.S. Senate. He will run against incumbent Sen. Mark Warner-D in November. Daniel Gade won with 67.47% of the vote in a three way race. Alissa Baldwin won 18.1% and Thomas Speciale II won 14.43%.
By ALAN SUDERMAN AND DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press
The stage is set for a fierce rematch for what was one of the most hotly contested congressional seats in the country two years ago. Former congressman Scott Taylor won the Republican primary for his Virginia Beach-area district Tuesday, positioning him to face U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria again this fall.
By AMY FRIEDENBERGER, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Cameron Webb emerged the winner of a four-way competition to determine the Democratic nominee for the open congressional race in central Virginia. Webb, an internal medicine doctor and director of health policy and equity at the University of Virginia, swept the Democratic primary on Tuesday with more than 26,800 votes, accounting for 68% of the vote with nearly all of the precincts reported.
By MATT STEVENS, New York Times (Metered Paywall - 1 to 2 articles a month)
Cameron Webb decisively won a four-way Democratic primary in Virginia on Tuesday, setting up a potentially competitive race in the state’s Fifth Congressional District, where the Republican incumbent was recently ousted in a drive-through convention. If he wins in the Republican-leaning district in November, Dr. Webb, 37, will become the first black physician to serve as a voting member of Congress.
By JAMES SCOTT BARON, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
Qasim Rashid won Tuesday’s Democratic primary over Vangie Williams to earn his party’s nomination to challenge Rep. Rob Wittman for the 1st District seat in U.S. Congress in the Nov. 3 general election. Also Tuesday, Republicans picked Daniel Gade to be their nominee and face off against U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat who is seeking his third term as senator.
By JUSTIN MATTINGLY, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Election issues in Virginia Beach during Tuesday's primaries led to voters casting provisional ballots in each of the city's roughly 100 precincts. Virginia Department of Elections Commissioner Chris Piper said Tuesday morning that electronic poll books in the state's largest city were programmed incorrectly, meaning poll workers were unable to check in voters.
By NEIL HARVEY, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
An extension of the statewide judicial emergency, issued this week by the Virginia Supreme Court, will stretch current courtroom precautions well into next month. It also looks ahead to an eventual return to activity, with particular regard toward jury trials and eviction proceedings. Monday’s order stipulates that the emergency status will continue through July 19.
By JUSTIN MATTINGLY, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Evictions can resume in Virginia next week after the state’s high court lifted a ban on eviction hearings in response to COVID-19. The ban, instituted initially in March and extended earlier this month, expires June 28.
By JOHN REID BLACKWELL, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
A total of more than $230,000 in grants has been awarded by GO Virginia to help businesses, entrepreneurs and unemployed people in the Richmond and Petersburg area to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
By ALEXA DOIRON, Williamsburg-Yorktown Daily (Metered paywall - 3 articles per month)
Gov. Ralph Northam has officially announced plans to move into Phase 3 reopening July 1, but some local leaders are unhappy with what this means for Busch Gardens. Under Phase 3 guidelines, entertainment locations, such as Busch Gardens, would only be allowed to operate with a 1,000-person limit. Kevin Lembke, president of Busch Gardens, expressed his disappointment Tuesday during a James City County Board of Supervisors work session about Busch Gardens being lumped into a category with other entertainment.
By JORDAN PASCALE, WAMU
Metro is replacing the head of its Rail Operations Control Center — the nerve center for monitoring the entire rail system — after a series of safety violations, including sending trains with passengers to investigate a reported fire in tunnels. WMATA General Manager Paul Wiedefeld sent out a memo Monday announcing the change.
By KRISTI KING, WTOP
When students return for the new academic year at Virginia Tech facilities, including seven in Northern Virginia, everyone will be required to wear masks and respect social distancing, and the university president admits that’s going to be a challenge.
By CLAIRE MITZEL, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Roanoke College plans to eliminate the jobs of 14 employees and make other cuts to reduce spending by $6 million, the college announced Tuesday, citing financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Associated Press
Three football players at Liberty University say they have entered the transfer portal, with two of them citing “racial insensitivity” by the university’s leadership or similar reasons for their decisions.
By CALEB AYERS, Danville Register & Bee
Wayne Whitt, of Danville, and Bob Sullivan, of Tunstall, used to walk in the Danville Mall with their wives and other friends from church almost every morning. As many as 12 of them would walk throughout the mall and then sit together and eat in the food court.
By ROBYN SIDERSKY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Fewer than 600 coronavirus cases were reported overnight, according to data released Tuesday morning by the Virginia Department of Health. The state’s tally is now 58,994 cases. Of those, 56,452 cases are confirmed and 2,542 cases are probable, meaning they’re symptomatic and have a known exposure to the illness.
Loudoun Now
After months of stating that a Virginia law prohibited the disclosure of COVID-19 case information at individual nursing homes, state authorities on Friday released that data. In Loudoun, a total of 376 cases and more than 60 deaths have been attributed to outbreaks at eight area senior living centers, as of June 22. More than 70 percent of Loudoun’s coronavirus-related deaths have involved residents at senior living communities.
By MARK ROBINSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)
Two Richmond City Council members said Tuesday they will seek to prohibit police from using tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades in the city.
By FRANK GREEN AND ALI SULLIVAN, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Police used tear gas and other less-lethal projectiles in the early hours of Tuesday morning to break up an encampment of about 60 protesters who had gathered around City Hall. They arrested 12 people who refused to leave the area demonstrators had dubbed “Reclamation Square” after police declared an “unlawful assembly” at around 12:42 a.m., several hours after the gathering began.
By EZRA MARCUS, New York Times (Metered Paywall - 1 to 2 articles a month)
Until three weeks ago, Lee Circle, which is named for the 130-year-old statue of General Robert E. Lee that stands some 60 feet high at its center, attracted few visitors beyond the occasional tourist or weekend sunbather. But as protests over police brutality and racism, ignited by the killing of George Floyd while he was in policy custody, have spread across the country, and Confederate monuments have been torn down in many cities, crowds of people have been showing up to this little park on Monument Avenue every day.
By FATIMAH WASEEM, Reston Now
Black residents are involved in 53 percent of all use-of-force incidents by Fairfax County Police Department, even though they make up less than 10 percent of the county’s total population, according to report released Tuesday. The Fairfax County Police Department’s latest report sheds new light on the disproportionate impact of use of force on the local Black community. Data are based on closed cases between 2019 and June 1 of this year.
By FATIMAH WASEEM, Reston Now
Reston Strong, a local community advocacy group, offered a direct message when residents covered a Confederate monument in front of the old Fairfax County courthouse with tarp and white duck tape over the weekend. The issue has prompted Fairfax County elected officials to request a complete report of Confederate street names, monuments and public places in the county.
By MICHELLE BASCH, WTOP
The Fairfax County School Board has unanimously voted to change the name of Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield, Virginia, on Tuesday. A one-month public comment period to consider which replacement name is best starts Wednesday.
By KENYA HUNTER, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
A Richmond General District Court judge on Tuesday ordered Richmond Public Schools to turn over data within two weeks to a VCU professor who first requested it under the state’s open records law last July.
By MATT JONES, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 1 article a month)
John Baytop Cary, the namesake of Cary Elementary School in Buckroe, was Richmond’s first school superintendent. Originally from what is now Hampton, he was a teacher before the Civil War and founded a private school on Hampton Creek in 1851. He was also an officer during the Peninsula campaign under the command of Confederate General John B. Magruder, whose forces burned Hampton in 1861.
By RYAN MURPHY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Portsmouth’s City Council has set aside $250,000 to move its Confederate monument, weeks after it was beheaded and spray painted during a protest. But, as usual when Portsmouth politics cross issues of race, it’s not so simple.
By ALEXA DOIRON & JULIA MARSIGLIANO, Williamsburg-Yorktown Daily (Metered paywall - 3 articles per month)
People are calling for police departments across the country to look at their own arrest rates of minority individuals and the Williamsburg Police Department is no exception.... Forty-seven percent of arrests in 2019 were African American individuals despite only 14 percent of Williamsburg’s population being black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Out of 408 arrests, 87 were Williamsburg residents.
By RANDI B. HAGI, Harrisonburg Citizen
The Harrisonburg Police Department added a provision to its use-of-force policy as part of changes in response to recent community feedback and racial justice efforts, Chief Eric English told the city council Tuesday.
By ALISON GRAHAM, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Roanoke County plans to spend 30% of its federal coronavirus relief funding on facility improvements to improve social distancing and public health needs.
By YANN RANAIVO, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Councilwoman Johana Hicks struggled to hold back tears Tuesday evening, responding to a legal opinion on several ethics complaints against her that her colleagues discussed. “You’ve made this about me ever since the beginning,” said Hicks, who’s still just months into her council term. “I’m tired of the attacking, of you guys coming after me … You’re blaming me for things you guys are doing to me.”
By JOHN CRANE, Danville Register & Bee
Emails obtained by the Danville Register & Bee show city leaders scrambling to put together the May 18 event announcing negotiations with Caesars Entertainment following a two-page Sunday ad in the newspaper pushing for support of a casino at the White Mill site.
Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
One spring day in 2008, the Franklin County Board of Supervisors made history, whether it intended to or not. In May 2008, the board agreed to put up a new Confederate statue in front of the courthouse, replacing one from 1910 that had been smashed to bits the year before by an errant driver in a pickup truck.
Free Lance-Star Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
Last Friday, Gov. Ralph Northam announced that he was reversing his previous policy and belatedly releasing the names of nursing homes and assisted living facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks—which now account for nearly two-thirds of all coronavirus fatalities in the commonwealth.
Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
When the Save A Lot in Norfolk’s St. Paul’s neighborhood shut its doors for good, that area became what’s known as a “food desert” — a place without an accessible source of fresh, nutritious food. It is one of several such “deserts” across Hampton Roads that are not merely a problem for those who depend on grocery stores for food or employment, but a problem that warrants community concern and concerted action.
Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
The events of the past few weeks have been exhilarating for some, disorienting for others and distasteful for still others. Either way, it’s clear that something has happened in the country that has brought about a shocking amount of change in an equally shockingly short period of time. Some of that change has come lawlessly — the crowds of protesters who have toppled statues in Richmond and elsewhere.
By CONOR POWELL AND MICHAEL R. PURDY, published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
As Americans are confronted once again with a societal conflagration ignited by a combination of police brutality and our nation’s original sins of slavery and racial inequality, we are now more than ever forced as citizens to examine what we can do to move our nation beyond this sad legacy.
Powell, a freelance journalist and host of “Long Shots” podcast, lives in Los Angeles and is a 1999 graduate of VMI. Purdy is an attorney at Google in Washington, D.C. and is a 1999 graduate of VMI.
By L. SCOTT LINGAMFELTER, published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Amid the recent upheavals in racial relations in America, there are calls to remove all statues that honor the Confederacy. “They were traitors,” those advocating removal passionately assert. Others see these representations — whether sculpted, painted, or memorializing the name of a building or place — as the source of wrenching pain. Still others say these images represent a form of white supremacy that is specifically designed to oppress others.
L. Scott Lingamfelter is a retired U.S. Army officer and former member of Virginia House of Delegates.
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