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By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 1 article a month)
Dominion Energy’s move out of the gas pipeline business set off a stock market scramble Monday that saw its shares falling roughly 11% — a loss of roughly $900 for even a small investor, with just 100 shares. But the shift in business strategy that led the energy giant to cancel its controversial Atlantic Coast Pipeline and sell its multi-state gas transmission operation also reflects a change in the way Dominion wants Wall Street to see it, chief executive Thomas Farrell said in a conference call to financial analysts.
By EMILY BROWN AND NICK CROPPER, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Half a decade of their lives were devoted to fighting the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. As news of its demise broke Sunday, those dedicated to the anti-pipeline cause in Nelson County were overcome with emotions. “Tears. For real. Tears of relief and joy,” Richard Averitt, a Nelson resident who entered the fight initially to preserve private property rights, said of his reaction.
By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
The Virginia Retirement System expects a 2% return on investments in the fiscal year that ended June 30 after weathering a deep loss in the state pension system’s value in March because of the economic chaos caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
By GORDON RAGO, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Classrooms that have sat empty since March might finally be put to use by students and teachers this fall as administrators grapple with a plan to return to school amid the coronavirus pandemic. Starting Thursday, families living in one of the commonwealth’s largest cities will have a choice to make: send their kids back to school or continue distance learning online.
By KATE MASTERS, Virginia Mercury
Within a week after Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Henrico reopened its doors to new admissions, the nursing home accepted a handful of what medical director Dr. Jim Wright referred to as “unknowns” — residents who had been transferred from the hospital without being tested for COVID-19. The facility, which had just weathered one of the deadliest nursing home outbreaks in the country, had established its own strict testing program for patients in response. When the newly admitted residents were tested onsite, one came back positive.
By HANNAH NATANSON, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Schools throughout Virginia are shedding Confederate names and mascots, as officials face a burst of advocacy from students, alumni and parents fueled by the ongoing national reckoning over racism and injustice. Prince William County is renaming Stonewall Middle School, named after Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson, for a local black couple. After hours of debate, Loudoun County voted last month to remove the mascot for Loudoun County High School: the Raiders, named for Confederate Col. John S. Mosby’s troops, guerrilla-style fighters who wrought havoc on Union supply lines.
By ZACH JOACHIM, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
For a century, Monument Avenue has showcased some of the Confederacy’s most revered figures. Soon, there will be a blank canvas. Over the past week, the Richmond Times-Dispatch asked demonstrators, residents, artists and community leaders what they'd like to see on the new Monument Avenue.
The Full Report
37 articles, 22 publications
Read Online10 Most Clicked
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 NED OLIVER, Virginia Mercury
Courts around Virginia began working their way through a backlog of more than 12,000 eviction cases last week as a statewide moratorium expired, with many judges apparently declining a last-minute request from Gov. Ralph Northam to continue the stay at the local level. “It’s a total patchwork,” said Christie Marra, the director of housing advocacy at the Virginia Poverty Law Center, which has asked Northam to use his executive authority to intervene more decisively. She said the current approach of leaving the decision to local courts is “absolutely not working.”
By JUSTIN MATTINGLY AND MICHAEL PHILLIPS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Gov. Ralph Northam has joined the growing calls for the Washington Redskins to change their name. Asked if Northam supports changing the name, Alena Yarmosky, a spokeswoman for the governor, said: “Yes, it’s about time.”
By MARTY O'BRIEN, Virginia Gazette (Metered Paywall - 4 Articles per Month)
Sen. Thomas K. “Tommy” Norment Jr., R-James City, decried Gov. Ralph Northam’s decision denying a waiver for theme parks such as Busch Gardens and Water Country USA that would allow them to reopen in Phase 3 with more than 1,000 attendees. In a letter to the Northam on Thursday, Norment suggested that the decision is “myopic” and “devastating” because of the economic consequences to tourism in the Historic Triangle.
By LAURENCE HAMMACK, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
A chemical spill that killed more than 50,000 fish in Tinker Creek could lead to the demise of a popular downstream attraction — the Mason Mill dam. Removal of the dam, which is in a Roanoke park, would improve the habitat of surviving fish and make it easier for them to swim up and down the creek, according to a proposal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
By CAT MODLIN-JACKSON, WVTF
Housing advocates in Virginia are celebrating landmark anti-discrimination laws that took effect July 1st. One prohibits landlords from turning away renters based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. And another could help deconcentrate poverty and racial segregation.
By STACY PARKER, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
The Virginia ABC store at the Oceanfront — the state’s third highest-grossing location — will have a new home next year. Right now, the liquor store is situated at the corner of 30th Street and Baltic Avenue. Construction of a new, two-story building on the northeast corner of Laskin Avenue and Holly Road will begin July 13, said Martin Murden, who will lease the property. It will take about a year to complete.
By JOHN CRANE, Danville Register & Bee
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine took a walking tour of Danville's River District with city officials, visiting businesses and viewing sites from Craghead Street all the way to North Union Street on a sweltering Monday afternoon. Kaine met with Mayor Alonzo Jones and other city officials to see the investments Danville has made in revitalizing the River District with federal tax credits.
By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Welcome to the new version of the old Virginia Electric & Power Co. Dominion Energy’s double-barreled decision on Sunday to abandon the $8 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline and sell its natural gas transmission and storage operations for almost $10 billion is part of a new company commitment to focus on the old business of running state-regulated electric and natural gas utilities.
By JACKIE DEFUSCO, WAVY
The long-contested Atlantic Coast Pipeline is cancelled but debate continues over what this means for the future of Virginia’s energy economy. First announced in 2014, the 600-mile underground pipeline would’ve cut across Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. Dominion Energy and Duke Energy pitched the project as a solution to a regional natural gas deficit caused by the widespread retirement of coal-fired electric generation.
By ALAN SUDERMAN, Associated Press
Virginia’s businesses and nonprofits took in between $9.5 billion to $18.2 billion through the U.S. Treasury Department’s Payroll Protection Program, new data released Monday shows. The government data said nearly 110,000 PPP loans were awarded in Virginia, with the vast majority — 93,000 — under $150,000. The Treasury Department only released the names for about 16,000 Virginia entities that received loans of more than $150,000.
By SYDNEY LAKE, Va Business Magazine
The U.S. Small Business Administration has released a list of major recipients of its $659 billion Paycheck Protection Program small business relief program, with exact loan amounts redacted. Of the more than 150,000 small businesses named on the U.S. list., approximately 16,100 businesses in Virginia (including Virginia Business Media LLC) benefited from the federal relief program, intended to assist small businesses meet payroll costs and make mortgage interest, rent and/or utilities payments due to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
By JOHN REID BLACKWELL, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
More than 2,300 businesses and nonprofits in the Richmond region got loans of between $150,000 and $10 million from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program, an emergency lending program designed to help businesses keep employees on payrolls during the coronavirus pandemic.
By KIMBERLY PIERCEALL, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
The company that manages the Midtown and Downtown tolled tunnels, Elizabeth River Crossings, is looking to sell itself to an interested bidder. Commuters who have long loathed the tolls that have affected Portsmouth in particular, shouldn’t expect change anytime soon. The lucrative contract ERC secured years ago would be transferred to the buyer.
By JULIA MARSIGLIANO, Williamsburg-Yorktown Daily (Metered paywall - 3 articles per month)
The coronavirus pandemic has caused many businesses to suffer, including airports. Take for instance the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport. Airport Executive Director Michael Giardino told Williamsburg City Council members Monday that prior to the pandemic the airport was doing “very well” and they planned to announce another airline.
By RUTH SERVEN SMITH, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Varun Chharia, a rising third-year from Loudoun County, has spent the months since the University of Virginia sent students home at his parents’ house. Because they’re both at risk for complications from COVID-19, Chharia has rarely even left the house.
By ELIZABETH BELL, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Washington and Lee University faculty passed a motion to remove Robert E. Lee from the name of the small liberal arts college in Lexington. The motion — the first time for W&L faculty to make such a recommendation — will be sent to the board of trustees.
The Breeze
On July 6, in an email sent out by President Alger to the class of 2020, it was announced that on-campus commencement ceremonies scheduled for Aug. 7-8 are postponed to an undetermined date. The email said this decision, which was made by JMU’s senior leadership team, comes after the university consulted with health officials regarding the current state of the pandemic.
By SUKAINAH ABID-KONS, Harrisonburg Citizen
As a lesser-publicized consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, many colleges and universities stopped paying for certain on-campus work-study jobs when classes shifted online in March. For many of these students, the checks that were supposed to come until May abruptly ended two months early, creating a cash crunch for those students — and uncertainty about regaining those work-study positions in the fall. Some international students rely on institutional work-study programs for income, especially because they are not eligible to apply for federal loans or other aid and aren’t allowed to work other off-campus jobs because of visa conditions.
By VIRGINIA COVID-19 CASES INCREASE BY 2,367 THROUGHOUT THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
The Virginia Department of Health reported Monday that the statewide total for COVID-19 cases is 66,102 — an increase of 2,367 from the 63,735 reported last Thursday before the holiday weekend. The 66,102 cases consist of 63,339 confirmed cases and 2,763 probable cases. There are 1,853 COVID-19 deaths in Virginia — 1,747 confirmed and 106 probable. That’s an increase of 37 from the 1,816 reported last Thursday.
By KATE ANDREWS, Va Business Magazine
COVID-19 cases increased slightly last week in Virginia for the second week in a row, although the number of deaths during the same period was down a bit. The Virginia Department of Health reported 3,920 new cases for the week ending July 3, up from 3,724 the previous week. The seven-day positivity rate reported Monday is 6.1%, up from a low of 5.8% on June 23.
By DANA HEDGPETH AND FENIT NIRAPPIL, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Virginia reported no known coronavirus-related deaths Monday for the first time in more than three months, while the District lost ground in a key metric after identifying a weeks-old spike in cases. The District, Maryland and Virginia reported 659 new known coronavirus cases Monday, bringing the regional total to more than 146,000 since the start of the pandemic. The daily increase is the smallest number in the three jurisdictions since April 3.
By JESS NOCERA, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Richmond officials said Monday that they are wary of the increasing COVID-19 cases as the city and state continue to loosen the restrictions meant to curb the virus — but recently improvements have stalled. Dr. Danny Avula, director of the Richmond and Henrico County health districts, said at a City Hall news conference that a sharp decline in cases the city had been recording has slowed.
By RACHEL MAHONEY, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Centra Health is continuing to restrict visitors to its hospitals and other facilities with “narrow exceptions,” citing safety concerns during the ongoing pandemic. Centra started restricting visitors March 16, with exceptions that patients receiving pediatric, obstetrical and end-of-life care would be allowed one visitor.
By BRIAN BREHM, Winchester Star (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Jubal Early seems an unlikely candidate to have a Winchester street named in his honor. Early was a Confederate Civil War general and unrepentant white supremacist from Franklin County. He never lived in Winchester, but commanded troops during the Second Battle of Winchester in June 1863 and defended the Shenandoah Valley from Union forces in 1864.
By RALPH BERRIER JR., Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
The Roanoke City Council on Monday began the process of removing the memorial marker to Robert E. Lee from downtown Roanoke. The council unanimously approved a resolution to remove the 60-year-old granite shaft from Lee Plaza.
By ALISON GRAHAM, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
The Lexington City Council voted unanimously Friday morning to rename Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery after hearing from dozens of residents on both sides of the issue. The council’s meeting began 8 p.m. Thursday and didn’t end until around 1 a.m. Friday morning after about five dozen people addressed the council virtually or through comments that were read aloud by council members.
ArlNow
More than 500 people have signed a petition calling for the S. Abingdon Street bridge over I-395 to be renamed “Black Lives Matter Bridge.” The petition was created amid dueling efforts to place and remove the letters “BLM” on the bridge’s chain link fence, a thus far nonviolent dispute that has resulted in multiple calls to Arlington County police.
By STAFF REPORT, Loudoun Times
Parents and guardians of students enrolled in Loudoun County Public Schools must choose whether their children will subscribe to a hybrid- or distance-learning model in the fall by July 13 at 8 a.m., according to a Monday email to LCPS families. During its lengthy meeting last week, the Loudoun County School Board endorsed the implementation of a learning model under "Phase 3" reopening in Virginia in which most students will spend two days per week in physical attendance and three days at home, though families can opt out in favor of a 100% long-distance option.
By KATHERINE KNOTT, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Faced with rising numbers of coronavirus cases in the area and elsewhere and a slew of other concerns, the Charlottesville School Board is torn about how to reopen to students in the fall. How to reopen schools should be a community decision, Superintendent Rosa Atkins said during Monday’s board meeting, which focused on plans for the coming academic year.
By MEGAN WILLIAMS, Daily News Record (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
The Rockingham County School Board got its first look at the proposed plan to reopen schools in the fall, which included a transitional model that will have most students in school two days a week.
By CLINT SCHEMMER AND EMILY JENNINGS, Culpeper Star Exponent (Metered Paywall - 20 articles a month)
An online petition urging Culpeper to furl a Confederate flag at a county park has quickly caught fire. The petition, launched 12 days ago by Culpeper resident Amy Hunter, had garnered 1,555 signatures as of Saturday night.
By JEFF STURGEON, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
The U.S. Senate has confirmed Tom Foster to be U.S. marshal for the Western District of Virginia. Foster, 55, who is Vinton’s police chief, was confirmed Thursday.
Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
One down, one to go? We’ve had lots of shocking news lately, but it’s hard to find anything more shocking than the news that came out of Richmond on Sunday afternoon: Dominion Energy and its partners have cancelled the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would have piped natural gas from West Virginia, through Virginia, and onto North Carolina.
Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
This past month, the leaders of three of Virginia’s most prominent public colleges — the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth University — proposed that the state dedicate $200 million in federal COVID-19 relief for testing on campuses during the 2020-21 school year.
By JOSEPH D. MORRISSEY, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
On April 13, 1996, at 2:45 am, Thomas W. Foley was shot in a breezeway of an apartment building on Midlothian Turnpike while trying to purchase crack cocaine. Foley died later that morning at Chippenham Hospital. For reasons that would later confound legal experts (see below), 16-year-old Rojai Fentress was charged and convicted of first-degree murder and given a 53-year sentence. He has served almost 24 years in prison.
Morrissey is a state senator from Richmond. He is a Democrat.
By DOUG CUMMING, published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
“It’s time to let him go,” my colleague Toni Locy wrote regarding Robert E. Lee a few weeks ago in The Nation, arguing that our beloved Washington and Lee University should change its name. She isn’t alone. Our department of journalism and mass communications has issued a statement calling on the board of trustees to change the university’s name.
Doug Cumming, Ph.D., is an associate professor of journalism at Washington and Lee University, where he has taught since 2003.
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