VaNews
December 30, 2020
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** Record COVID-19 positivity foretells grim start to 2021 ([link removed])
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By DAVID MCGEE, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 15 articles a month)

The region shattered its all-time COVID-19 testing positivity rate record Tuesday, which could foretell a grim start to the new year. The seven-day average hit 30.1% across Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, according to Ballad Health which compiles information from health department figures. That means, over the past week, nearly one in three people locally tested was positive for the novel coronavirus.
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** Testing clinics fill up as COVID-19 cases and deaths rise in Fredericksburg ([link removed])
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By CATHY DYSON, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

New cases, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 aren’t the only things on the rise in the Rappahannock Area Health District. There’s been such a turnout at free virus testing clinics offered by local health officials that all the slots have been taken before the first nostril was swabbed.
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** VPAP Visual More than 1,200 apply for 8 Redistricting Commission seats ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

It took an all-hands-on-deck Tuesday effort by the Division of Legislative Services to process a last-minute rush of applications from citizens seeking to become part of Virginia's new Redistricting Commission. Nearly 450 applied on Monday, the deadline. VPAP has updated its visual that breaks down the 1,238 applicants by age, gender, race, region, income and party self-identification. The next step: Legislators will review the list and, by Friday, nominate at least 64 names for a panel of retired judges to consider.
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** Dominion donates $50,000 to Stoney's One Richmond PAC ([link removed])
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By C. SUAREZ ROJAS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

After raising over $1 million this year for his successful re-election bid last month, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney received a $50,000 gift from Dominion Energy last week to his One Richmond PAC. The end-of-year donation led to some criticism as Democratic leaders around Virginia refuse money from the utility monopoly. It also fed speculation about whether the cash could help launch a campaign for higher office soon — a notion the Democratic mayor has dismissed for the duration of his next four-year term.
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** New Virginia law capping insulin prices at $50 a month goes into effect Friday ([link removed])
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By DANIEL BERTI, Prince William Times

Thousands of Virginians with diabetes will no longer have to worry about paying excessively high payments for life-saving insulin starting this week. A new law that caps monthly insulin co-payments at $50 in Virginia is planned to take effect this Friday, Jan. 1, after being passed by the General Assembly during the 2020 spring session and subsequently signed into law by Gov. Ralph Northam.
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** Falls Church City Schools plan to have all students back in classrooms in January ([link removed])
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By DAN FRIEDELL, WTOP

Students in Falls Church, Virginia, are slated to begin returning to classrooms on Jan. 5, the school said in an update on Tuesday. The school system paused all in-person instruction in late November due to rising coronavirus case counts in Northern Virginia. The goal is now to have all of the city’s students back in classrooms by the end of January.
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** Ted DeLaney, Conscience of a Roiled University, Dies at 77 ([link removed])
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By CLAY RISEN, New York Times (Metered Paywall - 1 to 2 articles a month)

Ted DeLaney, who began his nearly 60-year career at Washington and Lee University as a custodian, accumulated enough credits to graduate at 41, returned a decade later as a history professor, became the school’s first Black department head and later helped lead its reckoning with the Confederate general its very name honored, Robert E. Lee, died on Dec. 18 at his home in Lexington, Va. He was 77. His son, Damien DeLaney, said the cause was pancreatic cancer.
The Full Report
26 articles, 14 publications
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** FROM VPAP
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** From VPAP New Look, Features for COVID-19 Dashboard ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

VPAP has revamped its COVID-19 dashboard to focus on recent trends and to include information about cases by age and race. We've also updated pages that include the latest statistics for each city and county. Updated each morning around 10:30 a.m.


** EXECUTIVE BRANCH
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** Northam adds $20 million to Rebuild VA Economic Recovery Fund ([link removed])
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By AMELIA HEYMANN, WRIC-TV

Governor Ralph Northam announced Tuesday he will allocate another $20 million to the Rebuild VA economic recovery fund to meet the demand for the program and fulfill pending grant applications. The governor’s office said this additional funding will bring the program total to $120 million and allow more than 300 small businesses and nonprofits that applied before the last round of funding was exhausted in early December to receive grants.


** STATE ELECTIONS
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** Princess Blanding, sister of Marcus-David Peters, announces run for governor ([link removed])
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By ALI ROCKETT, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)

Princess Blanding, the sister of Marcus-David Peters, who was fatally shot by Richmond police in May 2018, has officially announced a third-party bid for governor of Virginia. Blanding launched her campaign Tuesday in a news release and video, embarking on a candidacy under the banner of the newly formed Liberation Party that will emphasize public safety and racial and economic justice, among other progressive reforms.
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** Sister of Black man killed by police announces run for Virginia governor ([link removed])
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By PATRICIA SULLIVAN, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Princess Blanding, whose brother was killed by Richmond police during a mental health crisis in 2018, announced Tuesday that she is running for governor of Virginia next year. Blanding, 38, is running under the Liberation Party, a new political party formed after the death of her brother, high school biology teacher Marcus-David Peters.


** STATE GOVERNMENT
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** Alcohol Sales Soared As Stay-At-Home Orders Came ([link removed])
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By IAN M. STEWART, WCVE-FM

As soon as the stay-at-home guidelines began, Virginia ABC CEO Travis Hill says he knew sales were about to spike. “You could really see when there was an announcement around further restrictions or stay-at-home orders, you would see these spikes in purchasing,” Hill said. Between March and November, ABC took in over $9 million in statewide sales. In the Richmond region, it’s just over $1 million.
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** Paid family leave policies draw interest from Virginia insurers ([link removed])
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By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 1 article a month)

Half the insurers that sell short-term disability coverage in Virginia — the policies that reimburse lost income when illness or an accident keeps a person from working — say they’d be interested in offering paid family medical leave policies. Family leave coverage would pay a benefit if a person needs to be away from work to care for a family member or for the first weeks a newborn or adopted child comes home. The State Corporation Commission surveyed insurers for their interest in paid leave policies at the direction of a new state law requiring disability insurers provide at least 12 weeks of coverage after childbirth.
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** Advocates Worry Foster Children Left Behind By State Budget ([link removed])
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By CLARA HAIZLETT, WCVE-FM

Leading up to the pandemic, lawmakers and advocates were making significant strides to improve Virginia’s foster care system. But now, advocates say they’re back to where they started. Allison Gilbreath is the policy and programs director at Voices for Virginia’s Children. “It's not necessarily that anything extraordinarily new is happening within foster care,” Gilbreath said. “It's just, we hadn't even gotten the band aid on correctly in the first place. And then this happened.”


** ECONOMY/BUSINESS
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** Medical marijuana dispensary opens in Portsmouth, is first in Hampton Roads ([link removed])
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By NOOR ADATIA, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

After several delays, Hampton Roads’ first medical marijuana dispensary opened Tuesday in Portsmouth. According to the store’s website, Columbia Care opened Tuesday at 10 a.m. Located on Seaboard Court, the facility sells and produces CBD and THC-A oil-based products including capsules and creams. Customers are required to bring a Virginia Medical Registration card to enter the store. Columbia Care was one of five companies to receive a processing license by the Virginia Board of Pharmacy to operate medical dispensaries.
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** Struggling, the Virginia Aquarium wants Virginia Beach to chip in $335,000 ([link removed])
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By ALISSA SKELTON, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Like many organizations that rely on visitors for revenue, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center has struggled throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The aquarium and its foundation have lost $5.5 million since the crisis began, said Cynthia W. Spanoulis, the Virginia Aquarium director. The organization shut down for 96 days starting March 16. After reopening in June, the aquarium has seen a 31% decline in visitors through November.
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** Women Face Impossible Choice: Second Shift or Leave Work ([link removed])
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By CONNOR SCRIBNER, WCVE-FM

In October, Virginia’s labor force participation rate fell to 63.5%, its lowest level since at least 1976, the first year the Bureau of Labor Statistics published state-level data. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, over 175,000 Virginians have left the labor force, around 3% of the state’s work-eligible population. But, while the pandemic certainly accelerated the process, it’s a continuation of a trend the state, and the whole country, has been experiencing throughout the 21st century.


** TRANSPORTATION
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** Express bus service between Tysons and Bethesda? Study looks at congestion on an expanding Beltway. ([link removed])
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By LUZ LAZO, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

A suburb-to-suburb express bus service with routes along the Capital Beltway linking Maryland and Virginia is emerging in the region’s 2021 transit wishlist. The two states are studying potential transit options to connect their most populous counties and to reduce the number of vehicle trips over the American Legion Bridge, one of the nation's worst traffic bottlenecks. The proposals would link the Tysons area in Fairfax County with Bethesda, Gaithersburg and Silver Spring in Montgomery County.


** CORONAVIRUS
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** Washington region records most daily virus deaths since start of the pandemic ([link removed])
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By RACHEL CHASON AND REBECCA TAN, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

The greater Washington region on Tuesday reported the highest number of confirmed coronavirus-related deaths in a single day since the start of the pandemic. Maryland, Virginia and D.C. reported 126 new fatalities, breaking the previous single-day record of 124 deaths on Dec. 15. The District reported four new fatalities, Maryland reported 63 and Virginia reported 59 — that state’s second-highest daily total.
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** Days after Christmas, Richmond COVID testing site draws hundreds while statewide testing numbers plummet ([link removed])
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By SABRINA MORENO, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)

Fewer Virginians have sought out COVID-19 testing in the days after Christmas, with some numbers falling short of the daily 10,000-test benchmark set in April by Gov. Ralph Northam and deemed an essential piece to reopening. Reported daily tests trended downward starting Christmas Day, which saw testing numbers almost halved from Dec. 23. One of the lowest testing numbers recorded by the Virginia Department of Health was on Monday, which saw only 9,422 new COVID-19 tests administered.
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** CVS begins providing vaccinations to long term care facilities in Northern Virginia ([link removed])
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By BROOKE LEWITAS, Fairfax Times

Residents of over 800 long term care facilities in Virginia will start receiving the COVID19 vaccination starting this week provided by CVS due to a federal partnership with the company. According to Dr. Troy Brennan, executive vice president and chief medical officer at CVS Health, the company will send teams with full protective equipment and provide vaccinations to “all the people who work in the long term care facilities as well as all the people who consented to have the vaccinations who are patients there. . . . "
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** Regular vaccine clinics are planned for Roanoke region ([link removed])
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By LUANNE RIFE, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

A second and much larger shipment of vaccines arrived Tuesday that will allow the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts to protect more EMTs, paramedics and other vulnerable health care workers from COVID-19. Dr. Cynthia Morrow, director of the health districts, said a shipment of 1,200 doses arrived moments before her weekly news briefing.
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** Responders roll up their sleeves to receive COVID-19 vaccine ([link removed])
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By DAVID MCGEE, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 15 articles a month)

Mike Rudd weighed the potential risks of taking the new COVID-19 vaccine before rolling up his sleeve Monday morning. Rudd, 65, of Bristol, Virginia, was among hundreds of emergency responders and front-line health care workers receiving the vaccine Monday at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center during a clinic organized by the Mount Rogers Health District. “I don’t want COVID,” Rudd said with a laugh. “I feel like this is a safer alternative than the chance of getting COVID and not making it through.”


** VIRGINIA OTHER
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** 18 seek federal bench seat ([link removed])
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By PETER VIETH, Virginia Lawyers Weekly (Subscription required for some articles)

Eighteen lawyers and jurists have submitted materials to be considered by the Virginia State Bar and other bar groups evaluating candidates for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District. The applicants hope to succeed Judge Liam O’Grady who took senior status May 1. Web conference interviews by the VSB Judicial Candidate Evaluation Committee will be held Feb. 11.
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** Patawomeck tribe moving forward with cultural center and museum ([link removed])
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By JAMES SCOTT BARON, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Although the coronavirus pandemic may have slowed some of the progress in restoring an old home and creating a historic village, members of the local Patawomeck tribe have a bright outlook on the future. They’re still working on the property adjacent to Duff McDuff Green Memorial Park in Stafford County, and hope to reveal the new cultural center to the public next year.
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** Black real estate photographer files complaint after he is questioned by officers when White neighbors complain ([link removed])
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By TOM JACKMAN, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

A Black real estate photographer hired to take pictures of an Arlington couple’s home last week filed a complaint with the Arlington County Police Department on Monday after officers questioned him and demanded his identification, apparently after calls from White neighbors. He captured much of the Dec. 21 event on video and posted it on Facebook. The photographer, Marlon Crutchfield, is also a former U.S. Capitol Police officer, Army veteran and licensed real estate agent.


** LOCAL
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** Lynnhaven Mall to require adult supervision for young visitors after recent spate of violence ([link removed])
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By JANE HARPER, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

After several incidents involving youth behaving violently at Lynnhaven Mall recently, the shopping center announced Tuesday that young people must now have a chaperone on Friday and Saturday evenings. The new policy will require that guests under the age of 18 be chaperoned by a parent or other adult who is at least 21 after 4 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
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** With home release rising, agency steps up to help inmates ([link removed])
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By TYLER HAMMEL, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)

Though more people than ever before are being offered home electronic release from the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, not all of them have a place to go. That’s where Cherry Henley comes in. The founder and operator of the Fluvanna County-based Lending Hands agency, Henley has made it her mission to help people who are incarcerated get back on their feet.
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** Danville IDA forgives more than $100,000 in loans for local businesses ([link removed])
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By JOHN R. CRANE, Danville Register & Bee

For Christie Wall, finding out she didn't have to pay back city loans for her two businesses to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic was a huge Christmas gift. She got the call just before Christmas. "I was speechless and pretty emotional, considering everything we're going through right now," Wall, owner of Grizzly's Hatchet House and River City Escapes in the River District, said Tuesday. "It couldn't have come at a better time."


** EDITORIALS
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** Payroll tax relief is good, but not enough ([link removed])
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Free Lance-Star Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

Gov. Ralph Northam’s announcement last week that the commonwealth will provide temporary payroll tax relief for Virginia businesses that had to lay off workers this year due to the coronavirus pandemic shutdowns is both necessary and welcome. But it’s not enough.
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** Rise in drug deaths sounds the alarm in Virginia ([link removed])
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Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

Skyrocketing numbers of fatal drug overdoses in Virginia make it more urgent than ever to support existing programs and come up with new approaches to combat this deadly scourge. Opioid addiction and deaths from overdoses of opioids and other drugs were already at epidemic proportions here as in much of the United States, despite increased awareness and more prevention and treatment initiatives. Then the coronavirus pandemic struck, and as with so many societal ills, it made a bad drug problem much worse.


** OP-ED
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** Slemp: Hands off while driving in Virginia ([link removed])
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By CHUCK SLEMP, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Beginning Jan. 1, 2021, in Virginia, it will be illegal to use a cell phone while driving a motor vehicle. Drivers cannot even hold a cellular device starting New Year’s Day while behind the wheel. Police can and will pull you over if they see you holding any electronic communications devices. You will be charged and prosecuted. Each year, approximately 1.6 million automobile collisions are caused by drivers using a cell phone according to the National Safety Council.

Slemp is Commonwealth’s Attorney for Wise County and the City of Norton.
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** Austin, Hazel and Lawrence: A strategic approach to health sciences education and career development in Virginia ([link removed])
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By TERRY AUSTIN, BILL HAZEL AND CYNTHIA LAWRENCE, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Far too often, we hear of graduates who are not properly qualified for current and future job opportunities. The health care industry alone faces a current shortage of qualified workers, and it is estimated that in the next decade, more than 122,000 health care related jobs will be needed in the commonwealth. An examination of the current health sciences curriculum in the Roanoke and New River Valleys revealed that our respective school systems are teaching in silos.

Austin, R-Botetourt, is a member of the House of Delegates. Hazel was state Secretary of Health and Human Services and is deputy executive director of the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation. Lawrence directs Carilion Clinic Office of Workforce Development


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