By ANDREA CAMBRON, WTOP
Virginia faith leaders addressed Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam at a virtual news conference on Sunday where they asked him to hold off on evictions so they can help inform residents about the assistance and protections in place to keep people in their homes who have been unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Virginia Rent and Mortgage Relief Program has been in effect since late June, and it is designed to help people who have been laid off or had their hours reduced due to the pandemic pay their rent or mortgage.
By LAURA VOZZELLA, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Gov. Ralph Northam on Friday called the General Assembly into a special session next month to remake a state budget upended by the coronavirus — and to grapple with social justice issues at the fore since the killing of George Floyd. The legislature will reconvene Aug. 18. “I look forward to bringing legislators back in session as we continue to navigate these unprecedented times,” Northam (D) said in a written statement.
By HENRI GENDREAU, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
As a rising senior at Virginia Tech, Andrew Williams is “strongly encouraged” to test negative for COVID-19 before arriving on the Blacksburg campus next month. But he probably won’t get that test. Not unless such an opportunity becomes more widely available around his home in the Hampton Roads area, where he works as a construction site inspector.
By PETER COUTU, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
At the end of June, with many of the state’s key coronavirus metrics trending in a positive direction, it appeared as if Hampton Roads had escaped the worst of the pandemic. And with those promising signs came the hope that schools could reopen this fall — as close to normally as possible. Many local cities had been reporting just a handful of new cases each day and much of the region was well below the state’s goal of less than 10% of tests coming back positive.
By LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO AND CHRISTIANNA SILVA, NPR
The employees who work in the poultry plants on the Eastern Shore of Virginia are accustomed to long hours and some of the most grueling work in the country — work that has grown uniquely dangerous amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Many of these workers came to the United States from Guatemala and Mexico, and are not used to having their voices heard. That is, until this past Wednesday, when one of their demands was answered.
By SARAH RANKIN, Associated Press
The head of a Virginia agency that has come under scrutiny for its handling of unemployment benefits countered criticism from dozens of Democratic lawmakers, saying that “while there is room for improvement,” her staff has performed “admirably” during unprecedented times. Virginia Employment Commissioner Ellen Marie Hess responded late Thursday to a letter sent earlier in the day by 34 House members and nine state senators that described a flood of complaints from constituents about problems with unemployment benefits and communication with the agency.
By ALLISON BROPHY CHAMPION, Culpeper Star Exponent (Metered Paywall - 20 articles a month)
A white Culpeper philanthropist is calling for immediate removal of the Confederate soldier monument that has stood tall for 109 years in the courtyard beside the Culpeper County Courthouse on West Davis Street—and he’s willing to pay to see it gone. Jefferson Homebuilders President Joe Daniel, namesake of Germanna Community College’s Joseph R. Daniel Technology Center in Culpeper County, has offered the county up to $50,000 to remove the monument erected in 1911 by the A.P. Hill Camp No. 2 of the Confederate Veterans group in the Richmond area.
The Full Report
66 articles, 14 publications
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 MARIE ALBIGES, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
State lawmakers will head back to Richmond Aug. 18 to amend a budget radically affected by the coronavirus pandemic and consider new criminal justice legislation, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Friday. It’s unclear how long the special session could last, especially since legislators have said they are planning to file multiple bills related to police accountability and transparency, something protesters nationwide have been calling for since the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed by a white police officer in May.
By MEL LEONOR, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Virginia lawmakers are due back in Richmond on Aug. 18 for a special session that will focus on the state budget in the aftermath of COVID-19 as well as criminal and social justice reform, Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration announced Friday. “I look forward to bringing legislators back in session as we continue to navigate these unprecedented times,” Northam said in a statement.
By AMY FRIEDENBERGER, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
A young woman left a mental health facility in Northern Virginia and went into a Dunkin’ Donuts to use the phone to call a cab for a ride home. Police officers also happened to be there on a break. There was confusion about where she lived and if the officers could drive her home, so the woman became upset. She threw a container of food to the ground. Then she picked up a sliver of cooked onion and threw it at an officer.
By LAURA VOZZELLA, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Republicans picked state Del. Nicholas J. Freitas at a convention Saturday to challenge freshman Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D) in November, enduring a scorching day at the state fairgrounds as the party tries to regain its footing in Virginia's suburbs. Freitas (Culpeper), a former Army Green Beret, will try to unseat Spanberger in a longtime GOP stronghold that firmly backed Donald Trump four years ago but has trended blue ever since.
By JUSTIN MATTINGLY, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Del. Nick Freitas, R-Culpeper, will take on Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, in November. In an in-person convention in Caroline County on Saturday, Freitas, who has served in the House of Delegates since 2016, received 56% of the vote on the third ballot, outlasting five challengers in his bid to secure the GOP nomination in the one-time Republican stronghold that turned blue in 2018.
By JOHN REID BLACKWELL, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
After facing budget cuts over the past nine years, the Virginia Employment Commission’s unemployment insurance division has had to quickly hire people over the last few months and log thousands of hours of overtime because of massive unemployment filings across the state, the agency’s commissioner said.
By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)
A conversation between a Virginia State Police helicopter pilot and his trooper co-pilot before a crash that killed both of them referred to an aerodynamic phenomenon that a National Transportation Safety Board investigation concluded was the probable cause of the fatal accident three years ago after the violent Unite the Right rally in downtown Charlottesville.
By GRACE MAMON, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Getting a driver’s license, one of the biggest teenage milestones, has been put on hold in recent months, with closures at the DMV and waitlists at driving schools. Private driving schools are “overwhelmed with driver training” because many school systems are not offering it this summer, said Gabe Saker of Saker’s Driving School in Roanoke.
By ROBERT MCCARTNEY, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
As the Washington region tries to pull out of the most severe economic slump in most of our lifetimes, the biggest challenge is defeating the novel coronavirus so our work lives can return to something like normal. But it will be at least six months — and possibly much longer — before a vaccine is available. And it’s not clear yet whether the region will succeed in containing the virus via other measures such as masks, physical distancing, testing and contact tracing.
By SABRINA MORENO, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)
The Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority announced Friday that starting Monday, the agency will enforce the use of face masks in stores to limit the spread of COVID-19. The requirement isn’t new for the 389 ABC stores in the state, but denying entry will be. As part of the effort, ABC will attempt to provide masks to customers who don’t have one.
By RACHEL SMITH, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
For most Lynchburg-area pawn shops, the lending side of the business is their bread and butter. While most also sell merchandise, cash loans are their specialty. Generally, a pawnbroker provides a short-term cash loan to a customer, who puts up their own items — for example, coins or guns — as collateral, with the understanding they’ll pay off the loan soon with interest and get the item back.
By CASEY FABRIS, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
When the schools shuttered because of the coronavirus pandemic, Jerry Conner began to worry about the fate of his farm. Four Oaks Farms, a hydroponic operation in Wirtz, counted Franklin County Public Schools and Roanoke College among its customers. And the farmers markets where Conner also sells his lettuce and greens were scrambling to adapt. He estimated those two avenues make up about 80% of the farm’s sales.
By ANTONIO OLIVO, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
The Monsanto agricultural products company has agreed to pay $52 million to the District over the company’s alleged role in the contamination of the Potomac River and other local waterways for nearly 50 years during the 20th century, the office of D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine announced Friday. The city’s lawsuit against the agribusiness giant, filed in D.C. Superior Court in May, was part of court actions around the country related to Monsanto’s production and sale of products that contained polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
By JEFF STURGEON, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Federal regulators have circulated a draft report critical of lapses in financial management at Valley Metro last year. The finance department at Valley Metro paid operating costs with a capital assistance grant in 2019, running afoul of a host of protocols, according to documentation prepared for the Federal Transit Administration.
By ALLISON WRABEL, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Furloughs and salary reductions at the University of Virginia Health System will not be extended. In April, it was announced that some employees were furloughed and others took a 20% pay cut as the UVa Health System saw surgeries and clinical visits drop by 70% and 90%, respectively, following Gov. Ralph Northam’s order halting elective procedures. Dr. K. Craig Kent, executive vice president for health affairs at UVa, announced on Twitter earlier this week that the system was ending its financial mitigation measures and soon will be welcoming all faculty and staff back to work.
By JAKE CONLEY, The Breeze
As the coronavirus races across the world, the higher education system is suffering its own losses — especially in its financial departments — and JMU hasn't been left behind. Federal and state agencies requested at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis that JMU leadership estimate the financial impact the pandemic would have on the university. Charles King, senior vice president for administration and finance, said he estimated that the pandemic will cost JMU around $33 million across the university in both direct costs and missed-out-on revenue. That number was later confirmed by Caitlyn Read, JMU’s spokesperson and director of communications.
By SAM WALL, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Radford University, a campus embroiled in a debate over pandemic-related budget reductions, has filed its reopening plan, which includes COVID-19 tests for thousands of students in early August. The school sent its reopening plan to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia on July 6 and expects to hear back from the group sometime this week with feedback and possibly ultimate approval, university spokeswoman Caitlyn Scaggs said.
By ANTONIO OLIVO, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
The Dominion Energy company plans to spend $25 million to support historically black colleges and universities in four states, including Virginia, and an additional $10 million on scholarships for African Americans and other students of color in its service territory, the Richmond-based company announced Thursday.
By HANNAH NATANSON, DONNA ST. GEORGE AND PERRY STEIN, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
From the moment schools shuttered unceremoniously in March, one thought dominated: How to return. Officials across the Washington region huddled to make plans for a triumphant resumption of in-person learning. Discussions persisted into the summer: Superintendents held listening sessions to solicit safety suggestions, parents tried to convince kids that face masks aren’t so bad, and educators scoured YouTube for videos depicting what socially distant teaching looks like in other countries.
By REBECCA TAN, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
D.C., Maryland and Virginia reported 2,049 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, the highest single-day increase since late May. The seven-day average in cases for the region has been trending upward for nearly two weeks. The region also added 11 deaths, nine of which were in Maryland. Virginia reported 1,057 new infections, including 80 in Fairfax, 51 in Loudoun and 48 in Prince William. Virginia Beach, where the surge in infections has been concentrated, recorded 146 new cases — the highest single-day increase in the state.
By MEL LEONOR, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Virginia’s eastern region, outlined by the state’s beaches, has seen an explosive spread of the coronavirus in recent weeks as trends for the rest of the state have seen slight upticks. But as a slew of states to the south face devastating spikes in cases and new lockdowns, Virginia’s localized surge has prompted questions about how the state will avoid following suit.
By PETER COUTU, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
The Virginia Department of Health reported 1,057 coronavirus cases Sunday, bringing the state’s tally to 77,430. Of the total cases, 74,490 are confirmed and 2,940 are probable, meaning those patients are symptomatic and have a known exposure to the illness.
By BRYAN MCKENZIE, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Thomas Jefferson Health District officials have received about 200 complaints for non-compliance with Gov. Ralph Northam’s executive order requiring face masks as questions of enforcement linger when businesses and people don’t cooperate with the rule. Health district officials say they are teaming up with the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control to make sure restaurants, bars and venues follow the face mask mandates.
By WHITTNEY EVANS, WCVE
The Henrico County Jail reports 16 incarcerated people have tested positive for the coronavirus Friday. The jail first reported an outbreak on July 5th, in which three people incarcerated at Jail West on East Parham Road tested positive after experiencing mild symptoms. On Wednesday Sheriff Alisa Gregory announced that 79 more inmates and six jail staff had tested positive.
By NEIL HARVEY, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
As the Roanoke Valley court system continues to navigate the ongoing pandemic, it saw one of its key figures sidelined this week. Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Hilary Griffith said Wednesday she has tested positive for COVID-19 — the first such announcement from a judge in the 23rd Circuit, which serves Roanoke, Roanoke County and Salem.
By LUANNE RIFE, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Ballad Health said the pace is accelerating so rapidly for people becoming seriously ill from COVID-19 that if it goes unchecked, the health system will be overwhelmed. The warning came on the same day 30,000 fans were expected to pass through turnstiles at Bristol Motor Speedway for NASCAR’s All-Star Race.
By CHARLES WILBORN, Danville Register & Bee
In a span of one week, the Pittsylvania-Danville Health District has added more than 100 cases of COVID-19, according to data from the Virginia Department of Health. In fact, the local district was highlighted as a surge area by the health department's weekly update on Friday. It joins eight others in the Hampton Roads area and the Thomas Jefferson district in the Charlottesville area.
By JESSICA NOLTE, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
A group of activists gathered at Rudee Inlet on Friday night to protest police brutality. As they took their first steps of the march they were met by a line of Virginia Beach police officers demanding they move to the boardwalk. The group of about 25 people chose instead to stick to the sidewalks of Atlantic Avenue — one of the protest leaders told the crowd that police had threatened to arrest anyone who stepped in the street.
By JUSTIN FAULCONER, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Dozens gathered in the sweltering heat Saturday evening in Amherst to march for social justice, an event organized by the Amherst County branch of the NAACP in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. The majority had facial coverings to protect against the spread of COVID-19 and some wore Black Lives Matter shirts and clothing and carried signs with phrases such as "I Can't Breathe," "Stop hurting good people with bad policy," and "White silence is violence."
By JAMES SCOTT BARON, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
Thousands pass the high-flying Confederate flag each day as it waves along Interstate 95 in southern Stafford County. “We believe today, that that flag represents racism,” said Melvin Allen of Stafford, during the July 7 Board of Supervisors meeting. “It’s a racist symbol. If we look at what’s going on in American today … that flag that sits on someone’s land, that flies across America’s highway, we believe that is a racist sign.”
By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Other local governments in Virginia have voted to take down monuments to the Confederacy, but Charles City County could become the first to ask voters their opinion first. Charles City, a rural county of fewer than 7,000 residents, has begun an uncomfortable community conversation about what to do with a 120-year-old monument to the Confederacy erected outside the courthouse just eight years after an African American man was lynched on the grounds.
By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
The judge who has repeatedly blocked efforts to remove Confederate statues in the former capital of the Confederacy has recused himself from two lawsuits aimed at protecting the monuments. Richmond Circuit Court Judge Bradley B. Cavedo filed an order Friday morning taking himself off a case filed by an anonymous person against Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, acknowledging that Cavedo’s personal residence near the Monument Avenue statues could create an appearance of impropriety.
By SABRINA MORENO, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)
After estimating that 200 people demonstrated outside her house Wednesday night, a Richmond City Council member and mayoral candidate said protesters have “crossed a serious line.” In an interview Thursday with the Richmond Times-Dispatch, 2nd District Councilwoman Kim Gray said it was unacceptable for anyone to show up at her home and in people’s neighborhoods carrying guns and blocking off streets, adding that she isn’t the only one experiencing this “lawlessness in our community, but it goes against our constitution and our democracy.”
By KEITH EPPS, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
Fredericksburg Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw’s house was the site of a small demonstration Thursday evening. A group of about 20 protesters were on the sidewalk and street in front of her Fauquier Street home, shouting familiar Black Lives Matter chants and some making disparaging remarks about the mayor. Among other things, they repeatedly called the mayor a liar and linked her in chants to the Ku Klux Klan.
By NEAL AUGENSTEIN, WTOP
With the nation again embroiled in a debate over police reform after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Northern Virginia prosecutors are looking for ways to strike out Confederate-era laws and legal customs as they work to dismantle systemic racism. Elected Commonwealth’s Attorneys from Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William and Stafford counties, and the City of Alexandria — four of whom are first-term Democrats — detailed to WTOP how vestiges of Virginia’s past as the core of the Confederacy have been embedded in the legal system for decades.
By JUSTIN JOUVENAL, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Arlington County is launching a wide-ranging review of the policies and practices of its police department, prompted by local concerns and the national conversation unfolding over police reform in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. City officials announced the new effort Friday, saying it would be led by two experts in policing and a panel of 15 people drawn from the police department, social justice groups, the NAACP, the public defender’s office and elsewhere.
By MIKE MURILLO, WTOP
As several Northern Virginia school systems announce their fall plans, Alexandria City Public Schools is still working on developing how it intends to restart learning during the coronavirus pandemic. “Whether it’s a hybrid approach or not, we’re looking at are we able to meet the CDC requirements to keep our staff and students safe,” said schools Superintendent Dr. Gregory Hutchings Jr.
By JOHN DOMEN, WTOP
Some students in Fairfax County Public Schools won’t be going back to their Virginia classrooms at all this fall, after their parents opted strictly for remote-learning when the new school year begins in September. For other students who will be in school buildings this fall, they will only be there a couple of days a week. Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Brabrand conceded it’s not the most ideal of circumstances for anyone.
Loudoun Times
According to a tally of parents’ selections for fall classes, half of Loudoun’s 82,847 public school students will participate in 100 percent distance learning and half will participate in the hybrid model with two days of in-person, in-class learning. Most teachers, 54 percent, said they preferred to participate in the hybrid teaching model when classes begin Sept. 8.
By ANA LEY, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)
Governments across Hampton Roads, grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, have drastically reduced the ways they carry out one of their most crucial functions: soliciting public input. As a result, people haven’t been speaking to local officials as openly as they used to. Before social distancing rules were put in place to stymie the coronavirus outbreak, people in the seven cities could take the lectern at the end of most regularly scheduled public meetings and talk publicly about anything on their mind.
By MARK ROBINSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
During the most challenging period of his term, Mayor Levar Stoney tallied a six-figure fundraising haul for his re-election bid. Stoney reported about $116,000 in political donations between June 12 and June 30, according to a campaign finance report filed this week.
By ALI ROCKETT, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Richmond’s top prosecutor has announced a new policy in which her office will publicly name police officers indicted by a grand jury for any crime involving abuse of authority or excessive use of force “while in the performance of their duties.” Touting “transparency and accountability” on Friday, Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin said the new policy is effective only “going forward.” She then refused to name an officer with a pending case set for trial in August.
By YASMINE JUMAA, WCVE
Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners voted to change its billing processes on Wednesday. This comes after advocates took legal action against the agency for wrongfully charging tenants. The Legal Aid Justice Center filed the federal class-action in 2017, criticizing RRHA for the way it set, implemented and charged tenants’ electric utility allowances.
By C. SUAREZ ROJAS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
McKinley Harris, 72, was about 6 years old when he first learned about the burial grounds in Brown Grove, on land where a $175 million Wegmans distribution center is now slated to rise. “Our grandparents, other older people would tell us about all the slave graveyards behind our house,” he said. “They were all over that area.”
By RYAN MURPHY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Amid furloughs and layoffs as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Norfolk’s remaining employees will nearly all get bonuses for continuing to work through the crisis. Except for a handful, the city’s rank-and-file employees will get either hazard pay or what city officials are calling “thank you pay.” The hazard pay program has been under discussion by officials and city council for several weeks, part of a larger spending plan for $26 million in federal money the city received to help it grapple with impacts of COVID-19.
By MATT JONES, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 1 article a month)
It doesn’t matter if other students go back to school in September. All the children on Joy Naik’s cul-de-sac are staying home. Parents were given two options as part of Chesapeake Public Schools’ reopening plan. Option 1 is the “continuum,” which could range from normal classes to online classes depending on health conditions.
Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
In the wake of protests and continued calls for change after numerous highly publicized cases of police brutality against African Americans, law enforcement training also has been called out as one of the problems. Thousands of the region’s law enforcement officers and recruits train at a facility just outside Fredericksburg, in the Spotsylvania Industrial Park. Mike Harvey, the Rappahannock Regional Criminal Justice Academy’s executive director, talked about some of the ways officers are trained and about approaches the academy has been taking for several years to improve how police deal with the public.
By NOLAN STOUT, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Charlottesville City Council is set to signal its support for expanded civilian oversight of police. The council will consider a resolution at its meeting Monday supporting proposed General Assembly legislation related to police review boards and take up other measures in the wake of protests around police brutality.
By JOHN CRANE, Danville Register & Bee
Danville's crime rate is on the decline, with homicides decreasing by 50% from 2016 to 2019 and appearing to be on the way to a further drop for 2020, according to statistics from the city's police department. There were 16 homicides in Danville in 2016, but by 2019 that number dropped by half to eight. Through July 1, there have been just two this year.
Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit public education hard, leaving administrators and teachers scrambling to figure out how to help children continue to learn and develop while keeping everyone as safe as possible. There’s a real danger that children will fall behind without the face-to-face interactions they usually have with teachers. Parents are trying to pick up the slack, but many of them are already heavily stressed, juggling working at home with supervising home schooling, or struggling with childcare while they head out to work.
Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
A headline in The Boston Globe caught our eye recently. “The thrill of city living is gone,” it read. The premise: Maybe living scrunched up so close to people isn’t the best idea when there’s a highly contagious and potentially fatal virus going around. The subhead: “Maybe a takeaway from the coronavirus is that the suburbs really are better.” To which we’d pose another question: Is this the moment that will finally reverse the demographic decline of rural America?
Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Today — or tonight, rather — is a good time to look away from our daily concerns of politics and pandemics and cast our eyes skyward. Fifty-one years ago tonight, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the moon. The anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on that technological feat, and also assess where we stand (other than earthbound) all these years later.
Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
There will be no high school football this fall. Do we have your attention yet? There will be no high school football this fall. OK, that’s not quite a done deal, yet. However, the Virginia High School League staff presented three options to its executive committee this week — and none involved a fall football season for public schools.
Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial (Access to this article limited to subscribers)
Virginia’s approximate 1.3 million public school students are preparing to start a new year of learning in less than two months, but it won’t be a normal return. Amid the global coronavirus pandemic and rising cases statewide, school systems are scrambling to figure out how to safely reopen.
By JEFF E. SCHAPIRO, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)
Caroline County is Virginia’s latest hot spot — politically and, perhaps, pandemically. On Saturday, some 5,000 Republicans are expected to stream onto the state fairgrounds — they embrace the farm on which Secretariat, the Triple Crown winner, was born — to choose from among six candidates the party’s congressional nominee in the 7th District, a rural-suburban mishmash that stretches south, west and north of Richmond.
By JEFF MANN, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
An open letter to the governor of Virginia: Dear Dr. Northam, In the midst of your present determination to remove Confederate monuments, you don’t seem to have considered what the descendants of rebel soldiers might think. My paternal grandmother’s maternal grandfather was an artilleryman in the Confederate Army and is buried in my family graveyard in southern West Virginia, a place I hope to be interred myself one day.
Mann is a writer from Pulaski
By KRISTEN AMUNDSON, published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Because I have been quarantining pretty seriously since March, it was not until late May that I drove past my local public library. The parking lot nearly was full. That seemed unusual, since neither the library nor the adjoining recreation center was open. Later, I realized those were families using the library’s free Wi-Fi so kids could do schoolwork. Across the country, the spring COVID-19 shutdown revealed a tough truth: Many students lack the basic tools — computers and reliable internet — for online school.
Kristen Amundson is the former chair of the Fairfax County School Board and a former member of the Virginia General Assembly.
By SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG, published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
There are so many unanswered questions facing families and educators right now. When will school start again? Will it be safe? How will it be different? The last thing state leaders should be doing is creating more barriers to successfully navigate these obstacles. Yet, with the looming economic challenges, educational resources will be a controversial topic in the coming months.
Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, represents the 72nd District in the Virginia House of Delegates and is a public school teacher.
By JAMES J. FEDDERMAN, published in Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Four months ago, when Gov. Ralph Northam ordered public school buildings closed, Virginia had 220 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and there was real hope that we would “flatten the curve” and enter this fall with a sharply declining rate of new cases. Instead, Virginia has now endured more than 2,000 deaths and 71,000 confirmed cases, and the infection trendline is tipping upward again. What we hoped for has not come to pass.
James J. Fedderman, of Accomack County, takes office as Virginia Education Association president on Aug. 1
By GORDON C. MORSE, published in Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
When it comes to racism’s political effects, it sometimes happens that you don’t know what you don’t know. Other times, you might prefer not to know at all Let’s take the first. An example arrives in the form of a recent paper by Professor Daniel J. Hopkins and Samantha Washington, two University of Pennsylvania researchers, who reached counter-intuitive conclusions after examining the effects of President Trump’s “explicit, negative rhetoric targeting ethnic/racial minorities.”
Morse began his writing career with the Daily Press editorial page in 1983, then moved across the water to write opinion for The Virginian-Pilot. He later joined the administration of Gerald L. Baliles as the governor's speechwriter and special assistant.
By CAROLYN WARD, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
With potential passage of the Great American Outdoors Act, our country is on the verge of one of the most important legacy events to support our national parks and public lands in my lifetime. Recently passed by the US Senate on a bipartisan 73-25 vote, the legislation now heads to the House for consideration. With potential passage of the Great American Outdoors Act, our country is on the verge of one of the most important legacy events to support our national parks and public lands in my lifetime. Recently passed by the US Senate on a bipartisan 73-25 vote, the legislation now heads to the House for consideration.
Ward is CEO of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, the primary philanthropic partner to the Blue Ridge Parkway.
By BOB GIBSON, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Where should Gens. Robert E. Lee, Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson and their monumental steeds go if and when they are removed from their pedestals in downtown Charlottesville parks? Should the Lee statue be placed in a museum, or a Civil War battlefield where the history of his life might be made available on site for tourists to gain a fuller understanding of his story?
Gibson is communications director and senior researcher at the University of Virginia’s Cooper Center for Public Service. The opinions expressed here are his own
By NILES COMER, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
To open the schools, or not to open the schools. It seems to me that we are asking the right question the wrong way. The question seems to focus solely on “re-opening” the physical school building to re-start education. It would be prudent for us to not only think “outside the box” but also “outside the building”. We are oversimplifying the question — to hurriedly re-opening a school building — all in the name of incredibly valid reasons: learning, childcare, parents freed to focus on work, the nutritional, social, emotional and learning needs of the students, and a return to some sense of normalcy.
Comer is a certified addictions counselor and a certified peer recovery specialist. He lives in Roanoke.
By BETTINA RING, published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Like many legal terms, the words “heirs property” probably do not mean a lot to most Virginians. However, this concept and the legal structures that surround it have been significant contributors to the loss of family-owned farm and forestland for many decades. Thanks to more than a year’s worth of work — led by the Black Family Land Trust, Virginia’s United Land Trusts, the Virginia Bar Association and the Uniform Law Commission, among others — this past session, the General Assembly unanimously passed a consensus piece of legislation that aims to solve many of the problems associated with our legal system’s broken way of dealing with heirs property.
Bettina Ring is secretary of agriculture and forestry for the commonwealth of Virginia
By ELLEN MARIE HESS, published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Over the past 16 weeks, Virginia has received more claims for unemployment benefits — nearly 1 million — than it did during the entire Great Recession of 2007-09. This unprecedented crisis has been met with an unprecedented response. Since mid-March, the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) has quadrupled call-center staff, ramped up staffing in the unemployment insurance division by nearly 50% and issued benefits payments totaling close to $6 billion. As of late June, more than 75% of those who had applied for unemployment benefits received payment.
Ellen Marie Hess is commissioner of the Virginia Employment Commission
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