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By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is dead, abandoned by Dominion Energy and its partner, Duke Energy, after the $8 billion project reached a regulatory dead end. The decision, announced Sunday, ends a six-year effort to build the 42-inch-wide natural gas pipeline through the heart of Virginia to connect gas shale fields in West Virginia with markets in southeastern Virginia and eastern North Carolina.
By LAURA VOZZELLA, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Construction workers erecting a new office building for Virginia lawmakers unfurled an enormous American flag on the structure this week, just in time for the Fourth of July. But hours after the flag went up, state officials ordered it removed, calling the banner a "safety risk" and potential "target" for demonstrators.
By MARK BOWES, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Virginia gun sales soared to historic levels in June, the second record spike in three months, in a tumultuous year marked by the long-term uncertainty of COVID-19, the economic turmoil it brought, protests over racial injustices and activists’ demands to defund the police.
By HANNAH ALLAM, NPR
Robert E. Lee's days are numbered. A landmark statue of the Confederate general installed 130 years ago in Richmond, Va., is at the center of a campaign to remove monuments that glorify the losing side of the Civil War. There's a legal battle over whether to remove the Lee statue, but few here expect his monument to survive the re-energized anti-racism movement sparked by the killing of George Floyd.
By STACY SHAW, Bristow Beat
Prince William County teachers rallied outside the Kelly Leadership Center, Friday morning, demanding PWCS school division consider employee input in their plan to reopening schools. They said it is unacceptable that they have only been considered at the end of the process.
By HENRI GENDREAU, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Virginia Tech students are “strongly encouraged” to test negative for COVID-19 no more than five days before returning to campus in the fall. Testing will be available to thousands of students living in university housing. Faculty, students and staff are asked to complete a daily health survey every time they arrive on campus.
By TIM DODSON, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 15 articles a month)
One year ago, Bobby Allen returned home from his job at a Wise County, Virginia, coal mine with bad news: His employer, Blackjewel, had declared bankruptcy, and the miners didn’t know if they still had jobs. As the country’s sixth-largest coal producer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 1, 2019, most of the company’s 1,700 employees were told not to return to work until further notice.
The Full Report
74 articles, 21 publications
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By THE VIRGINIA PUBLIC ACCESS PROJECT, 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 BRYAN MCKENZIE, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
From a passel of new gun laws to outlawing the transport of Virginia-caught gizzard shad, uses of out-of-state bait and cutting the sales tax on feminine hygiene products and disposable diapers, the Virginia General Assembly had a busy season. Local legislators were hard at work, too. State Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath; Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle; and Del. Sally Hudson, D-Charlottesville, introduced or signed as primary sponsors dozens of proposed laws in the last session, helping shepherd many into law.
By CALEB AYERS, Danville Register & Bee
Amid ongoing protests against police brutality and systemic racism that have continued around Virginia and the country for more than a month, local and state leaders lauded the resilience of the Black community and discussed what changes still need to be made at a Friday event in Danville. A crowd gathered in a small stretch of Holbrook Street around the Williams Community Resource Center on a hot Friday afternoon to hear speeches from local officials, civil rights leaders and Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax.
By JENNA PORTNOY, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Several thousand Republican delegates will descend on the pastoral site of the Virginia State Fair on July 18 to choose a challenger to freshman Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D) and try to reverse their losing trend in the state’s suburbs. National parties are watching the central Virginia seat where Spanberger, a former CIA officer, defeated Republican Dave Brat in the 2018 blue wave, helping Democrats win the House majority.
By GRAHAM MOOMAW, Virginia Mercury
It was Frederick Vars’s own experience with bipolar disorder and suicidal thoughts that first got him interested in the idea of letting people ban themselves from buying guns. To him, the idea of a voluntary do-not-sell list as a preemptive option for people worried about what they might do in darker moments of irrationality seemed like common sense. But would anyone use it?
By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press
It was a terrifying bank robbery: Demanding cash in a handwritten note, a man waved a gun, threatened to kill a teller’s family, ordered employees and customers onto the floor and escaped with $195,000. Surveillance video gave authorities a lead, showing a man holding a cellphone outside the Call Federal Credit Union in Midlothian, Virginia, on May 20, 2019. So like a growing number of law enforcement agencies, they got a court-approved “geofence” search warrant, seeking the location history of any devices in the area at the time.
By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Former Gov. Doug Wilder has accused the Library of Virginia of racism for failing to make publicly available the records from his term as the country’s first elected Black governor 30 years ago. Wilder, who took office in January 1990 and ended his term four years later, said the library has recorded the archives of numerous other governors who served after him but has made his gubernatorial records inaccessible to public research.
By SCOTT SHENK, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
Count hopeful drivers as yet another group having to make odd adjustments to life in the world of a pandemic. The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles has a new approach for its road skills test, and it doesn’t involve a road. Instead, the test will be held at certain DMV locations on a closed course, with the examiner watching and giving instructions from outside the car.
By YASMINE JUMAA, WCVE
Virginians with certain felony convictions can now qualify for public benefits. Advocates say the new law, which took effect on July 1, breaks down some barriers for individuals reentering into the community. Under a 1996 federal law, people convicted of drug-related felonies were banned from getting food stamps and cash assistance benefits. And the restrictions didn't extend to other felony convictions. However, the law gave states the discretion to opt-out of or modify the ban.
By ERIN COX AND GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
The two energy companies behind the controversial, 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline abandoned their six-year bid to build it on Sunday, saying the project has become too costly and the regulatory environment too uncertain to justify further investment. The natural-gas pipeline would have tunneled under the Appalachian Trail on its way from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina, building an energy infrastructure proponents said would attract economic development into the region.
By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 1 article a month)
Dominion Energy is pulling the plug on its controversial plan to build a natural gas pipeline crossing Virginia. The decision comes in tandem with a major strategic shift out of the energy giant’s multi-billion-dollar investment in a gas transmission business with operations as far away as Wyoming. Dominion wants to focus on its regulated electric and natural gas utilities and its push to net zero carbon emissions, chairman and chief executive officer Thomas Farrell said Sunday, announcing the $9.7 billion sale of the company’s gas pipeline operations to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway investment company.
By SARAH RANKIN, Associated Press
The developers of the long-delayed, $8 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline announced the cancellation of the multi-state natural gas project Sunday, citing uncertainties about costs, permitting and litigation. Despite a victory last month at the United States Supreme Court over a critical permit, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy said in a news release that “recent developments have created an unacceptable layer of uncertainty and anticipated delays” for the 600-mile (965-kilometer) project designed to cross West Virginia and Virginia into North Carolina.
By IAN MUNRO, Daily News Record (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
The developers of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline announced Sunday that they are canceling the multi-state natural gas project, citing delays and “increasing cost uncertainty.” A portion of the $8 billion pipeline was going to run roughly 25 feet from the farm property of Virginia Davis, who owns Stuarts Draft Farm Market with her husband, Ken Harris, and their son, Tarken Davis, in Stuarts Draft. “I think, with all the bad news in 2020, this is the best news I’ve ever heard.
By LEANNA SMITH AND JEFF SCHWANER, News Leader (Metered Paywall - 3 to 4 articles a month)
"It's the best fourth of July since 1776," is how Nancy Sorrels describes it. The developers of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline announced Sunday that they are canceling the multi-state natural gas project, citing delays and “increasing cost uncertainty."
By RICK MAESE, MARK MASKE AND LIZ CLARKE, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
The Washington Redskins moved Friday toward what team owner Daniel Snyder once vowed was unthinkable: changing their controversial name in a bow to pressure from their largest corporate sponsors and the fierce winds of societal reckoning sweeping the country. After years of resistance, the team said it was launching a thorough review of the name. It did not share any details of the process, but two people familiar with discussions among Snyder, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and league officials that led to Friday’s announcement said the review is expected to result in a new team name and mascot.
By GEREMIA DI MARO, Cavalier Daily
As of at least July 1, barricades have been installed at the main entrance to the University’s Confederate Cemetery — where a monument of a Confederate soldier stands — and at nearby side entrances to the larger University cemetery, which is located at the intersection of Alderman and McCormick Roads near Observatory Hill Dining Hall. The cemetery gate closest to the Confederate monument has also been closed and locked.
By HENRI GENDREAU, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Since Virginia Tech announced in early June that it would once again reexamine the name of a dorm mired in Ku Klux Klan controversy, focus has turned to other campus facilities named for men with ties to the Confederacy and white supremacy.
By JAMEY CROSS, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Students and faculty at the University of Lynchburg will be required to wear masks when campus reopens for the fall semester in August. Thanks to members of the university community, they’ll be provided hand-sewn, reusable cloth masks at no cost.
By SAM WALL, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Radford University will pursue a strategic option to reduce its budget that will look at all aspects of spendin g, including programs and academic departments possibly being consolidated or eliminated, according to university officials. The Faculty Senate voted 45-0 in favor of the strategic option at a June 26 meeting that was closed to the public. The university will consider spending reductions based on productivity and defined criteria to be established.
By ALAN RODRIGUEZ ESPINOZA, WCVE
Undocumented immigrants in Virginia can now qualify for in-state college tuition, after a new law passed by the General Assembly this year went into effect. Undocumented students can claim in-state tuition if they attended a Virginia high school for at least two years and graduated after 2008, and if their household filed state income taxes for at least two years.
By ROBERT MCCARTNEY, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Northern Virginia’s jump to Phase 3 in relaxing covid-19 restrictions, earlier than its neighbors, risks stalling or reversing the region’s progress in containing the disease, according to Maryland and District officials and public health experts. The region has had noteworthy success so far in reducing infection rates, in sharp contrast with many parts of the country in the south and west.
By JOSH REYES, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
The Virginia Department of Health reported 639 coronavirus cases Sunday, bringing the state’s tally to 65,748. Of the total cases, 62,981 are confirmed and 2,767 are probable, meaning they’re symptomatic and have a known exposure to the illness. At least 1,853 Virginians have died from the virus, up four from Saturday. The state’s seven-day percentage of positive tests dropped slightly to 6.1% Sunday.
By MATT JONES, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 1 article a month)
More than 700 new coronavirus cases were reported overnight in Virginia, according to data released Saturday by the Virginia Department of Health. The state’s tally is now 65,109 cases, adding 716 new cases. That’s the largest daily increase in reported cases since June 7, when 1,284 new cases were announced.
By MEL LEONOR, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
As COVID-19 cases surge elsewhere in the country, pandemic trends in Virginia suggest containment of the virus here remains on a steady trajectory. Virginia’s position is precarious heading into the Fourth of July holiday — the first weekend under more relaxed public restrictions that will see many restaurants and stores open at capacity.
By PARKER COTTON, Danville Register & Bee
July 1 marked the beginning of Phase 3 of reopening across Virginia, a significant milestone for local businesses and restaurants in the continued recovery from the economic downturn brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
By DANIELLA CHESLOW, DCist
Paul Rodriguez, 43, a party entertainer, answered a greeter’s questions Tuesday in Chantilly, Va. No, he had not had fever or flu-like symptoms in the last two weeks. No, nobody in his home had fever or flu. No, he had not worked outside his home in the last two weeks. But he wanted to get a COVID-19 test anyway. “What I hear is people who doesn’t have symptoms can be sick also,” said Rodriguez, who moved to the U.S. from Peru about 20 years ago.
By GARY A. HARKI AND TIM EBERLY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Greg Bornako peered through the wrought-iron fence into the grassy courtyard at the Virginia Beach nursing home. His wife, Sue Bornako, sat in a wheelchair about 30 feet away. It was late April and this was as close to her as Greg had been in nearly two months. She had COVID-19 and the nursing home was on lockdown.
By ELISHA SAUERS, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
A Williamsburg doctor wants to recruit local people recently diagnosed with mild to moderate cases of the coronavirus to try an experimental treatment. In one of the few studies across the country involving COVID-19 patients who are not sick enough to be in a hospital, researchers are testing the effectiveness of ciclesonide, a drug commonly used in the long-term treatment of asthma.
Associated Press
State officials in Virginia ordered the removal of a large American flag from a construction site ahead of the Fourth of July, calling it a potential target for people protesting racial injustice and police brutality. Dena Potter, spokeswoman for the state Department of General Services, said officials asked a contractor to take down the flag from a new office building for state lawmakers under construction in Richmond.
By SABRINA MORENO, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Erica Swann’s 5-year-old hand gripped her father’s finger as she squinted at the photo of a Black teenager stationed around the Robert E. Lee monument. “This is Trayvon Martin,” Eli Swann said. “A bad person sent him to heaven over a bag of candy.” She nodded, pulling on her pigtails as her glittery T-shirt that said “Glam Start-Up Kit” glimmered in the Saturday sun.
By SABRINA MORENO, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)
Oluwatoyin Salau. Charleena Lyles. Rekia Boyd. Miriam Carey. Monika Diamond. Aiyana Stanley-Jones. Alberta Spruill. Eleanor Bumpurs. Nina Pop. Breonna Taylor. At 6 p.m. Friday, hundreds gathered on the outskirts of the Virginia Capitol to march and say their names — the ones of Black women, Black trans women, Black gender-nonconforming people whose stories and lives, cut short by violence, haven’t received the same level of outrage and support as men killed by police officers.
By ERIC KOLENICH AND JOHANNA ALONSO, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
State Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, held a black megaphone in one hand and balanced an assault-style rifle with the other. On Saturday afternoon, she spoke to a group of about 250 proponents of Second Amendment rights with her back to the Virginia Capitol. Those who attended were largely armed, some with handguns, others with assault-style rifles. And they represented numerous factions, including right-wing extremist groups, a gun club, Black Lives Matter supporters and white supremacists.
By PETER COUTU, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
With fireworks erupting on the beach and tourists looking down from hotel balconies, more than a hundred people marched down the Virginia Beach Boardwalk Saturday night to protest police brutality and push for new reforms. The activist group Black Lives Matter 757 organized the demonstration, calling it “Shut Down the Oceanfront 2.0” — a reference to the protest that happened on May 31 at the same location.
By ADELE UPHAUS–CONNER, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
Seven Fredericksburg-area lawyers are working together to provide free representation to the 50 people who were arrested on misdemeanor charges related to protests against police violence in late May and early June. “This is something that we feel like, as lawyers, we have an obligation to help our community with,” said Leslie Fierst, an attorney working with the group. “I think we feel like this is a critically important moment in the fight for social justice and we want to do our part.”
By AMY TRENT, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
As the 3 o’clock hour closed in Sunday afternoon, Justina Sandidge turned on her hot pink bullhorn and asked the small crowd for a “woo-hoo” if they could hear her. Receiving a small cheer in response, she thanked the nearly 50 people gathered for coming out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
By STEPHANIE PORTER-NICHOLS, Smyth County News & Messenger
Protesters and counterprotesters squared off in downtown Marion Friday evening. With about of a street block and lines of law enforcement officers between them, Black Lives Matter protesters and All Lives Matter protesters screamed, yelled, and pleaded with one another for about half an hour.
By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
The circuit court judge who imposed an indefinite injunction against removing the statue of Robert E. Lee on state property appears to have recused himself from the case. Judge Bradley B. Cavedo on Wednesday filed a “disqualification order” saying that because a related case had sought to be combined with his case, he could no longer preside and was stepping down. It was unclear Friday night if the case had merged with his case.
By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Richmond Circuit Judge Bradley B. Cavedo has recused himself from participating in a pending legal challenge by residents of the Monument Avenue Historic District of Gov. Ralph Northam’s order to remove the monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. However, Cavedo, who lives within the historic district, remains the presiding judge in an earlier challenge of the governor’s order by a descendant of the family that deeded the property for the monument to the state 130 years ago.
By IAN SHAPIRA, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
When Cary McCormick visited Arlington National Cemetery a decade ago for the funeral of her grandmother, she and several relatives made a stop afterward to another part of the grounds: Section 16, home to 482 graves of Confederate soldiers. One of the area’s headstones marks the remains of her great-great-great-grandfather’s brother: Henry H. Marmaduke, a Confederate naval captain. Marmaduke is one of four Confederates buried at the base of the section’s towering centerpiece: a 32-foot-high bronze monument of a white female figure with a frieze below depicting an enslaved black woman — a “Mammy,” according to the cemetery — clutching the infant of a white soldier.
Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Norfolk police said they’ve arrested a Virginia Beach man after stickers directing people to a blog for white supremacists and neo-Nazis appeared in Ghent. The stickers — featuring a QR code — initially appeared in January before reappearing in June. The Norfolk Police Department identified a suspect Thursday afternoon, asking the public for help locating 33-year-old Samuel A. Caskey, of Virginia Beach. Police announced on Friday Caskey had been arrested.
By PATRICIA SULLIVAN, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Chalk up another local ritual destroyed by the coronavirus: An accelerated, low-profile and unusual election campaign for an unexpired Arlington County Board seat ditched the normal series of neighborhood forums and door-knocking marathons for virtual debates held on social media. Tuesday’s special election, to fill the remaining 18 months of the term of former board member Erik Gutshall, who died of brain cancer April 16, ran just 60 days and coincided with the heart of the covid-19 stay-home effort.
By MICHELLE MURILLO, WTOP
Teacher’s unions in Fairfax County pushed for virtual classes to continue this fall during a town hall meeting Sunday afternoon. Tiffany Dowling, who has been in the profession for 15 years, said going back to class would be a definite threat to her family. “I get the flu most years from my students, which means my sons get it. I catch the common cold from my students every few months, which means my sons get it as well. This virus is no different,” said Dowling.
By HANNAH NATANSON, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
When Christine Contreras-Slaughter saw the asterisks, she thought of her children. She was staring at enrollment data for the Class of 2024 at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, the Northern Virginia magnet school that often ranks as the top public high school in the United States and Contreras-Slaughter’s alma mater: She graduated in 2007 as one of a small handful of Latino students.
By KATHERINE KNOTT, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Local teacher Zoë Padrón believes telling a true and complete history of the United States to Albemarle County students prepares them to be citizens of the 21st century. Key, she says, is ‘true and complete,’ an aspect not necessarily included in all history curriculum. “Because we must teach them actual history,” said Padrón, a talent development teacher at Western Albemarle High School.
By KENYA HUNTER, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
With about two months to go until the traditional start of school, Richmond-area education leaders and families are scrambling to decide what reopening should look like as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on. There are options - many, many options - for how to return to school buildings shuttered since Gov. Ralph Northam in March ordered them closed to curb transmission of the virus.
By JESS NOCERA, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Petersburg High School students will soon have the opportunity to receive immunizations, prescription scripts and physical exams all within the walls of their school. Whether or not students will be back in school come September, the new Crimson Clinic, a primary care and behavioral health clinic, will be waiting for them. Years in the making, the hope for the clinic is to keep students in school and to lower the chronic absenteeism rate.
By STACY PARKER, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
" Nothing but blue skies Do I see" Irving Berlin’s lyrics rolled off of Jennifer Gammill’s tongue. The roaming piano bicyclist can play “Blue Skies” with one hand while steering with the other, all while she sings. “It’s novel,” said Gammill, 39, who loves the attention the custom-made piano bike brings when she rides it on the Boardwalk and Atlantic Avenue. “As a performer, you like being in the spotlight.”
By JONATHAN EDWARDS, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Like most police forces, Norfolk’s has long relied on its internal investigators to root out officer wrongdoing — letting the police police themselves — even though many residents, especially in the city’s poor, black neighborhoods, don’t trust them to do so. But that could be changing. Police Chief Larry Boone said he supports creating a civilian board that would oversee his department.
By RYAN MURPHY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Norfolk has access to roughly $26 million in federal money to help the city government respond to the coronavirus pandemic. But it’s not as simple as turning around and shelling it out. Like many federal payouts, the pandemic assistance has some significant strings attached.
By SARA GREGORY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
When Norfolk schools first closed in March, the federally mandated annual meetings between educators and parents to discuss academic plans for students with disabilities moved to Zoom. Then, halfway through the shutdown, the district told parents it wouldn’t hold any meetings, virtual or not, until schools reopened.
By PETER DUJARDIN, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 1 article a month)
Prosecutors are still investigating whether a Newport News police sergeant was justified in shooting a 43-year-old man to death in his home late last year as officers attempted to take him into custody on a misdemeanor charge. Police Sgt. Albin T. Pearson, a 12-year-department veteran, shot and killed Henry Kistler “Hank” Berry III during the Dec. 27 struggle over a Taser inside Berry’s Oyster Point apartment.
By JOSH REYES, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 1 article a month)
Dog owners in Newport News can no longer tether their dogs and leave them unattended, a change from the previous rule that allowed unattended tethering for one hour. The Newport News City Council voted to make that change June 22. Councilman Dave Jenkins suggested the change, which received support from representatives of PETA and other local animal-rights activists.
By JAMES SCOTT BARON, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
A new committee that would hear complaints of racial injustice and discrimination from county residents could be established in Stafford County by this fall, as a result of community outcry following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. A subcommittee of the Board of Supervisors is exploring how to create the committee, which would act as an advisory group to the Board of Supervisors.
By ADELE UPHAUS–CONNER, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
A group of volunteers organized by Leaders for Peace, one of several groups that have been protesting police brutality in downtown Fredericksburg, spent a recent afternoon clearing dead vegetation and garbage from an alley in downtown Fredericksburg that has ties to the Underground Railroad. The alley, located where Canal and Caroline streets meet at the northern end of the city’s Historic District, leads down to the Rappahannock River. At that spot during the 19th century, John DeBaptiste, a free Black man, owned French John’s Wharf and operated a ferry transporting people and goods across the river.
By CATHY JETT, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
Fredericksburg City Public Schools will resume its emergency mobile feeding program Monday. The program was suspended June 21 “out of an abundance of caution for the health and safety of our workers and volunteers,” said Superintendent Marci Catlett. She said program leaders partnered with the Rappahannock Area Health Department to reassess the prevalence of COVID-19 here, and jointly determined that the meal program can safely resume.
By RALPH BERRIER JR., Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
The Robert E. Lee memorial’s retreat from downtown Roanoke most likely begins Monday. Roanoke City Council will consider a resolution to remove the memorial to the Confederate general, which has stood since 1960 in a plaza that also bears Lee’s name. A majority of the council’s seven members have gone on record saying that they support removing the Lee memorial.
By ALISON GRAHAM, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
The majority of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors rejected the idea of defunding the police department after they received dozens of emails from residents. The board received at least 40 emails since June 15 asking the board to restrict the police department’s budget and reallocate the funding to social services, public health, education and community organizations.
By RANDY ARRINGTON, Page Valley News
Herbert Barbee began sculpting his memory of a lone Confederate soldier guarding the road that passed over Thorton Gap near the Barbee homeplace a quarter-century after the Civil War ended. Barbee, born in 1848, spent his entire life in Page County, except for the few years he moved his family to Italy to study sculpture.
By CHARLES BOOTHE, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Tazewell County voters may get a chance in November to decide the fate of a Confederate statue in front of the courthouse in Tazewell. On Tuesday, the board of supervisors will discuss the issue and possibly make a decision. “At that time, the board will convene (at 4 p.m.) to consider whether to hold a referendum on whether the Confederate statute should remain on courthouse grounds…” said County Administrator Eric Young.
By CHARLES WILBORN, Danville Register & Bee
After pausing disconnections in March amid the coronavirus pandemic, Danville Utilities will resume the practice beginning Sept. 1. In addition, the city will again start charging the $50 delinquent account fee.
By JOHN CRANE, Danville Register & Bee
Peninsula Pacific Entertainment, the company that owns the Colonial Downs racetrack in New Kent County, pitched a backup plan for an off-track betting facility if it couldn't build a casino in Danville. The Richmond-based company was one of seven gaming companies that proposed building and opening a casino in Danville in response to the City Council's request for proposals late last year.
Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
The ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic reach even into the past — into historic places that are so important in the heritage of Virginia and our nation. The struggling economy means that cities, counties and the commonwealth have less money in their budgets, and in tough times, preserving historic sites usually doesn’t isn’t a high priority.
Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
The Green New Deal is a clever phrase with controversial politics behind it. Let’s try to wring those out and just deal with the fundamental concept — that the transition to green energy should be good for the economy. It is true that there are lots of jobs being created by renewable energy. There are now more solar energy jobs in Virginia than there are coal-mining jobs — 4,489 versus 2,730 — and the former is rising while the latter is dropping.
Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
We’ve been writing a lot about history lately, because, as William Faulkner once wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” It does, though, present itself in some unusual ways. Here’s one of them: Why has President Trump become the most prominent defender of Confederate statues, monuments and names? And why have some — though certainly not all — Republicans gone along with him?
Free Lance-Star Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
The good news—and we all need some good news these days—is that new COVID-19 cases in the Rappahannock Area Health District reached their lowest level in months last week, with hospitalizations also down substantially – accounting for just a fraction of the cases experts initially predicted would overrun Virginia’s hospital systems by now.
Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Rather than rely upon wishful thinking, the commonwealth of Virginia should adopt and financially support a plan that gives Virginia higher education a fighting chance to succeed this fall. It needs to have this in motion now. The urgency could not be greater. Without a plan to manage COVID-19 — without a comprehensive testing regime, combined with active tracing of infections — a fiasco beckons this fall.
By KEN WHITE AND TIM SHORT, published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
We all have two passports, Susan Sontag famously wrote: one that offers us citizenship in the kingdom of the healthy, and one that gains us entry into the land of the sick and dying. And it is a 100% certainty that, given humanity’s 100% mortality rate, we all will travel to both places at some point during our lives. Since its eruption, COVID-19 has forced many into the realm of the ill, where we as palliative care providers stand as crossing guards, quite by choice.
White is associate dean at the University of Virginia School of Nursing, a palliative care nurse practitioner at UVA Health and president-elect of the American Academy of Nursing. Short is a longtime palliative care physician at UVA Health.
By LORENZO AMANI AND SUDIPTA SARANGI, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
The death of George Floyd seems to have pushed us over a tipping point — there is now widespread talk of excessive use of force by the police and racial discrimination. America appears to be ideologically polarized, with people choosing to firmly stand on one extreme side or the other. The two cornerstones of our nation’s ideology: freedom and equality seem to be at odds with the way we live our daily lives.
Amani is a doctoral student in the Center for Public Administration and Policy at Virginia Tech. Sarangi is a Professor in the Department of Economics in the College of Science at Virginia Tech.
By EMMELINE GASINK AND JOHN W. EPLING, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
While overwhelming attention and health care resources are rightfully concentrated on slowing the spread of COVID-19, there is growing concern among physicians and public health officials regarding outbreaks of other dangerous infectious diseases, such as measles. Children have missed scheduled vaccine visits due to the ongoing pandemic, and as a result the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported falling vaccination rates across the country.
Gasink is President of the Virginia Academy of Family Physicians and is a family physician in Newport News. Epling is a family physician in Roanoke and a member of the Virginia Academy of Family Physicians.
By GEORGE MCDOWELL, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Many years ago, I voted in my local government's legislative body to approve an ordinance that prohibited our local police from practicing “hot pursuit” in seeking to apprehend traffic violators in our community. The reasoning is simple: Why put by-standing citizens lives at risk in seeking to apprehend something as trivial as a traffic violation when there is the means to obtain an arrest if necessary at a future time on the basis of license plate and other information already obtained.
McDowell is professor emeritus of applied economics at Virginia Tech.
published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Voting is becoming easier for Virginians. Several election-related reforms went into effect in Virginia on July 1. These improvements will remove many obstacles for Virginia voters while still providing strong assurances against fraud. Democracy reform in Virginia was long overdue. In fact, as recently as 2018, Virginia was considered to be the second most restrictive state for voting, according to a study by Northern Illinois University.
Potter is President of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan election law organization. He served as General Counsel for John McCain’s presidential and Senate campaigns and was Chairman of the Federal Election Commission. He lives in Fauquier County.
By HAMID TAVAKOLI AND KEON TAVAKOLI, published in Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
In 2009 I, Hamid Tavakoli, wrote an Op-Ed in The Virginian-Pilot about the essence and beauty of our country. In it I explained how America is not just a nation, but an idea, a way of life. A lot has changed since then, but not the essence of this land. This year has been challenging. The hardship of a worldwide pandemic has been compounded by the death of George Floyd. This unjust act highlighted how some members of our police enforce law and order in our cities.
Hamid R. Tavakoli, M.D., and his son Keon L. Tavakoli, a high school senior, live in Norfolk.
By GORDON C. MORSE, published in Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Will prudence prevail in Virginia? Funny concept, prudence. Sounds tight, small-minded, restricted, restrained. Yet, prudence — contemplation of that next step, consideration of the consequences, take a breath, think, that sort of thing — has long characterized Virginia governance. That’s what we claim, at any rate. Will it hold in present circumstances? It’s a bit iffy.
After writing editorials for the Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot in the 1980s, Gordon C. Morse wrote speeches for Gov. Gerald L. Baliles, then spent nearly three decades working on behalf of corporate and philanthropic organizations
By BRUCE SMITH, published in Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
If you navigate the American landscape in a black body, it is inevitable that you will collide with one of the many hazardous racist obstructions that clutter your path — no matter how adept you may be at maneuvering the dangers of the course. If you are fortunate the collision will be a minor one, perhaps leaving you with no more than a scar of humiliation, a wound to the pride, a puncture in the dignity, a fracture of the spirit.
Bruce Smith is the NFL’s all-time sack leader, a successful real estate developer and the 2019 recipient of the Virginia Beach HRC Human Rights Award.
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