By SABRINA MORENO, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the U.S., told Virginia community leaders on Friday that it’ll be “open season” for vaccinations in April, meaning anyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get it. “If we get that overwhelming majority of people vaccinated, I think we could start approaching a reasonable degree of normality toward the mid-fall of 2021,” he continued. He spoke as Friday marked the third day in a row that Virginia reported more than 5,000 additional cases.
By SARAH RANKIN, Associated Press
Some local health departments across Virginia will begin offering COVID-19 vaccines next week for limited portions of the general public as the state begins to move into its second phase of vaccine distribution. The Virginia Department of Health said in a news release Friday that 11 local health districts expect to begin gradually adding vaccination opportunities for people who fall into what’s called Phase 1b of the state’s distribution plan, a group that includes people over age 75, incarcerated people and certain types of workers. All of the state is expected to move to Phase 1b before the end of January, the news release said.
By PATRICK HITE, News Leader (Metered Paywall - 3 to 4 articles a month)
The Virginia Education Association (VEA) is calling for public schools to remain or shift to all-virtual instruction until school staff members have been vaccinated. “Gov. (Ralph) Northam this week said that getting Virginians vaccinated against COVID-19 is the best way to end this pandemic, rebuild our economy, and move the Commonwealth forward,” VEA President James J. Fedderman said Friday afternoon. “We commend Gov. Northam for that, and we call upon the Governor, school boards, and school superintendents to keep all students and staff safe with virtual instruction until staff are vaccinated.”
By MEL LEONOR, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
The pandemic continues to rage. A promise to make strides on systemic racism and inequality looms. And he’s got just one year left in office. “There’s none of this ‘lame duck.’ We’ve got a lot to do,” Gov. Ralph Northam said in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch Friday, just days before lawmakers convene in Richmond for their annual legislative gathering. Virginia’s 73rd governor is pressed for time as lawmakers prepare to gather Wednesday for the last regular General Assembly session over which Northam will preside, one that GOP lawmakers want to restrict to 30 days.
By LAURA VOZZELLA, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Facebook suspended the official account of a Virginia state senator and gubernatorial candidate Friday, days after the self-described “Trump in heels” praised rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol as “patriots” while also suggesting that left-wing “antifa or BLM agents of destruction” were really to blame. Sen. Amanda F. Chase (R-Chesterfield), who spoke to the crowd of President Trump’s supporters in Washington on Wednesday but left before they crashed through Capitol security, cannot post or comment for seven days, or post live video for 60 days on her official Senate page, according to a written notice she shared with The Washington Post. She announced Facebook’s actions on her personal Facebook page, which was not affected.
By ALI ROCKETT, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)
Virginia State Police on Friday denied any involvement with the creation of a pair of collectible coins that reference a controversial traffic stop in Northern Virginia and the state agency’s response to civil unrest in Richmond last summer. A Virginia State Police spokesperson did say that a related “personnel matter” involving one employee had been addressed under the agency’s disciplinary policy. “The Virginia State Police does not condone either of these challenge coins, their images, the unauthorized use of the Department patch, or wording,” state police spokesperson Corinne Geller wrote in an email about the coins, which have gained attention on social media.
By DANIELLE DOUGLAS-GABRIEL AND NICK ANDERSON, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
With thousands of online students at Liberty University set to lose access to a lucrative state grant, the evangelical school sued Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) on Friday to halt a change in who is eligible for the program. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Western District of Virginia, is rooted in a state budget amendment last year that made incoming students enrolled exclusively in online programs ineligible for the Tuition Assistance Grant program for Virginia residents. Students who had to shift their studies online because of the coronavirus pandemic were exempt from the change.
The Full Report
38 articles, 19 publications
The Virginia Public Access Project
The flu season should be in full swing right now. But this year, the Virginia Health Department reports no significant levels of influenza-like illness anywhere in the commonwealth. This visual compares activity this year during the first three months of flu season compared to the previous four years.
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 10:30 a.m.
By EMILY ZANTOW, Washington Times
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is considering year-round school to help students who have fallen behind amid the coronavirus pandemic. “Our children have suffered from COVID-19, as have our families. And one of the things that we certainly are entertaining is looking at perhaps year-round schooling for the next year [and] perhaps adding increased days this summer to really help our kids get caught up,” Mr. Northam said during a press conference Wednesday.
By KARA DIXON, WAVY-TV
The Virginia State Conference NAACP is hoping the General Assembly can pass laws to make the state more equitable for Virginians, especially Black Virginians. The organization released a three-page list of actions they hope the legislature can accomplish in 2021 but during a virtual press conference on Friday, board members shared their top seven priorities.
By DON DEL ROSSO, Fauquier Now
Retired long-time pharmacist and former Warrenton Town Councilman Jerry M. Wood, 83, died Friday at the Novant Health UVA Prince William Medical Center in Manassas of complications from COVID-19. In a Dec. 22 Facebook post, Mr. Wood’s wife Coleen updated his battle with the virus, condition and treatment, including antibiotics, and his brief hospital stay at that time.
By ALAN SUDERMAN, Associated Press
A Virginia gubernatorial candidate who is an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump has had new restrictions placed on her Facebook account after falsely blaming antifa activists for Wednesday’s deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Democrats, meanwhile, called on her to resign. Republican state Sen. Amanda Chase said Facebook has blocked her from making posts or comments on the social media site for 30 days. She said she’s also banned from doing live video or buying advertisements for 60 days.
By ANDREW CAIN, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Access to this article limited to subscribers)
Sen. Amanda Chase, a Republican candidate for governor who has defended backers of President Donald Trump who stormed the U.S. Capitol, says Facebook has suspended her state Senate account for 60 days....Facebook’s action came two days after a pro-Trump mob breached the U.S. Capitol. While Virginia officials from both political parties have condemned the violence, Chase has been an outlier, giving voice to the rioters’ grievances.
By NED OLIVER, Virginia Mercury
Virginia Democrats in the state Senate are calling for Republican Sen. Amanda Chase, a gubernatorial candidate from Chesterfield, to resign, citing her spread of conspiracy theories and comments supporting members of the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. In a statement Friday, the Democratic caucus wrote: “As we all watched in shock and disbelief at the insurrection in Washington, D.C., Senator and gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase was horrifyingly empowering a failed coup d’état. . . .
By KATE ANDREWS, Va Business Magazine
Virginia Senate Democrats called Friday for the resignation of Republican state Sen. Amanda Chase, who spoke at the pro-Trump demonstration in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday that turned violent and led to a breach of the U.S. Capitol, but Chase says she “absolutely” will not leave her office. Facebook placed restrictions on Chase’s Senate Facebook page for 60 days beginning Friday, Jan. 8. The Chesterfield County state senator who is running for this year’s GOP gubernatorial nomination, had posted video and photos from the pro-Trump demonstration near the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
By SCOTT MCCAFFREY, Sun Gazette
He may end up being part of a cast of thousands, but an Arlington resident has thrown his hat into the ring to become Virginia’s next lieutenant governor. And unlike many seeking the Democratic nomination, Xavier Warren appears to be focusing on economic, rather than social-justice, issues. “I’m running for this office not only because I love Virginia but because the duties of the position are to create jobs, foster entrepreneurship and grow the commonwealth’s revenue so that people and localities can support themselves,” he said in a Jan. 6 kickoff announcement.
By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
A judge on Friday threw out three misdemeanor charges of improper conduct at a polling place that had been brought against state Sen. Joseph D. Morrissey (D-Richmond). The dismissals came during a brief hearing in General District Court before retired Judge Robert H. Downer Jr., who was brought onto the case last month after questions were raised about an appearance of a conflict of interest involving the initial judge who arraigned Morrissey. Morrissey was charged in December after allegedly interfering at a Richmond polling place during the 2019 election in which he won his Senate seat.
By DANIEL BERTI, Prince William Times
Del. Luke Torian announced Thursday that he will seek re-election to serve a seventh term in the 52nd House of Delegates district. Torian, a Democrat, was first elected in 2009 and has been re-elected five times since.
By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 1 article a month)
For Rep. Rob Wittman, the only member of Congress from Hampton Roads voting to reject some electors pledged to Joe Biden, it came down to a view that his job Wednesday was not just ceremonial or administrative. But the 1st District Republican said he accepts that many Virginians might not see his vote against certifying electors from Pennsylvania that way. On the other hand, there are Democrats who, in 2005, took a similar view when 31 voted to reject Ohio’s electoral votes for President George W. Bush, he said.
By REGINA MOBLEY, WAVY-TV
The halls of Congress are still close to Scott Rigell’s heart. He retired from Congress in 2016, but his current email address still bears part of the address that constituents used to find the representative’s office in the Cannon House Office Building. That building was placed on lockdown Wednesday afternoon as an angry and dangerous mob stormed the nearby Capitol building after the 45th president repeated false claims of a rigged election and instructed his followers to march on the Capitol building as members of Congress had convened to certify the votes of the Electoral College.
By ARIANA FIGUEROA, Virginia Mercury
A Capitol Police officer died late Thursday from injuries he sustained while a violent mob breached the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers were set to vote to certify the presidential election results. The officer, Brian Sicknick, died at 9:30 p.m. at a local hospital, according to U.S. Capitol Police. His death is being investigated by several agencies, including the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide branch and the U.S. Capitol Police. A federal probe also is underway, according to officials. USA Today and other outlets reported that Sicknick lived in Springfield.
By BRETT HALL AND AMELIA HEYMANN, WAVY-TV
So far, two Virginians from Mathews County have been arrested for their involvement in yesterday’s riot in D.C., according to the U.S. Capitol Police. Both are from the Hampton Roads area. The two people arrested were Cindy Fitchett, 59, of Cobbs Creek and Douglas Sweet, 58, of Hudgins. They are both charged with unlawful entry.
By KARRI PEIFER, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
The president of the Richmond Food Truck Association has resigned after participating in Wednesday’s rally in Washington, D.C., that led to a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump storming the U.S. Capitol and the deaths of five people. “The now-former president of the Richmond Food Truck Association made the decision to participate in the rally in Washington, DC, that led to abhorrent violence against our Capitol and American democracy,” the association wrote in a Facebook post Thursday night. “Collectively, the remaining members of the RFTA have demanded and received the resignation of Billy Metzger as the president of the RFTA.”
By YANN RANAIVO, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Marie March trekked to Washington earlier this week to hear President Donald Trump, whose rhetoric on Wednesday moved a mob of his loyalists to eventually storm the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the President-Elect Joe Biden’s victory. March, who owns restaurants Due South and Fatback Soul Shack in Christiansburg, said she left before the start of the violence and condemned it.
By LAURENCE HAMMACK, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is seeking public comments on a compressor station at the start of a natural gas pipeline in Pittsylvania County. Mountain Valley Pipeline is seeking a permit to build a 29,000-horsepower facility that would provide the compression needed to move natural gas at high pressure through the pipeline, an extension of its current project.
By RICHARD CHUMNEY, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Liberty University on Friday sued Gov. Ralph Northam and the director of the body charged with coordinating higher education in the commonwealth over changes to a state-funded tuition assistance program that bars online students from receiving financial aid. The civil lawsuit, filed in federal court in Lynchburg, alleges state officials discriminated against students in the commonwealth by distinguishing between online and residential students when distributing financial assistance through the Virginia Tuition Assistance Grant program.
By SARAH RANKIN, Associated Press
Liberty University sued Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Friday, accusing his administration of wrongfully denying financial aid to some of the evangelical school’s online students. At issue is a budget change Northam and the Democrat-controlled General Assembly implemented last year that made incoming students enrolled exclusively in online programs ineligible for the state’s long-running Tuition Assistance Grant program for Virginia residents. Exempted from the change were students who had to shift their studies online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
By ERIC KOLENICH, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
AVirginia Commonwealth University worker took a hammer and flathead screwdriver and pried the off the letters of the name "Jefferson Davis Memorial Chapel" last month in the West Hospital building. VCU has begun the process of removing Confederate-associated names from its buildings and removing commemorations. The school's board of visitors unanimously approved a resolution in September to remove 16 names, plaques and other symbols on campus that honor people associated with the Confederacy.
By MEL LEONOR, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Some localities in Northern Virginia and Southwest Virginia on Monday will begin offering COVID-19 vaccines to frontline essential workers and anyone over the age of 75, state health officials announced Friday. These localities — none in the Richmond metro area — will move on to the next phase of vaccine delivery, having nearly completed vaccinations of health care workers and nursing home residents, who were first in line for the new vaccine.
By DAVID SEIDEL, WVTF
The Virginia Department of Health announced that the Roanoke City-Alleghany, New River, Mount Rogers, Lenowisco and Cumberland Plateau Health Districts will begin Phase 1B as early as Monday, January 11th. People included in the Phase 1B eligbility group include those over age 75 and essential workers like police, firefighters and teachers. Case numbers and the positivity rate in southwest Virginia have been running higher than the rest of the state for months.
By SALEEN MARTIN, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Starting next week, front line essential workers, people age 75 and older, and people living in correctional facilities, homeless shelters or migrant labor camps in certain areas of the state will get access to COVID-19 vaccines, the Virginia Department of Health announced Friday. Hampton Roads, however, is not in the first wave of localities as the health department begins to roll out what is known as Phase 1b vaccinations.
By STAFF REPORTS, Prince William Times
Police officers, teachers, homeless people and anyone over the age of 75 will be soon be eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccination in the Prince William Health District. The Virginia Department of Health announced Friday that the Prince William Health District, which includes the county, Manassas and Manassas Park, is one of 11 health districts in Virginia that will gradually move to the next phase of vaccinations, known as phase “1b,” beginning on Monday, Jan. 11.
By ERIC KOLENICH, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)
Virginia Commonwealth University Health has offered COVID-19 vaccines to all of its 13,000 employees, whether they work in the emergency room or their own living rooms. But it hasn’t offered vaccines to its medical students, some of whom work alongside doctors and nurses as part of a treatment team. VCU medical students were told to stay home for the next two to three months because of the surge of coronavirus cases that is straining the hospital’s resources and infecting its employees. Administrators said they will pause the in-person clinical rotations that are key to future doctors' training.
By ELISHA SAUERS, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Studies show Black and Latino people face increased risks of getting the coronavirus and becoming severely ill, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday. The nation’s top infectious disease expert said infections are happening at a higher rate among those minority populations, in part because of occupations and living conditions that lend themselves to more person-to-person contact.
By SALEEN MARTIN, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Another record-setting number of coronavirus cases — 503 — was reported Friday morning in Virginia Beach, according to the statistics from the Virginia Department of Health. The report comes a day after the record was set at 419 and brings the city’s total number of cases during the pandemic to 19,314. Health department officials said both increases are a result of the expected “post-holiday surge” and not a backlog issue.
By BRYAN MCKENZIE, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
As the number of COVID-19 cases increases across the commonwealth and the region, the University of Virginia Medical Center has had to divert some patients to other hospitals while moving staff to treat pandemic patients. Hospital officials said Friday that while there may be physical space for additional patients, staff members may be needed in COVID wards, forcing officials to temporarily not accept transfers or new admissions.
By RICHARD CHUMNEY, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Medical and nursing students in the Lynchburg-area received the first doses of a coronavirus vaccine last week, as local health care officials moved to inoculate the region’s frontline caregivers from the deadly pathogen. The first of about 400 students who work at Centra Health facilities began the first round of vaccinations last week, according to Michael Elliot, Centra’s senior vice president and chief transformation officer.
By ELLEN GOODENOW, Winchester Star (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Increased isolation and unemployment from the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated local overdoses in 2020. The 53 fatal (40 men, 13 women) and 202 non-fatal overdoses (95 men, 47 women) last year were the most ever in the Lord Fairfax Health District, which encompasses Winchester as well as Clarke, Frederick, Page, Shenandoah and Warren counties. Deaths nearly doubled in 2020 from the 27 in 2019, and there was a 42% spike in non-fatal overdoses.
By LAURENCE HAMMACK, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Weakened regulations will lead to more logging in the Jefferson National Forest and other federal woodlands, conservation groups said Friday in a lawsuit that seeks to reverse the rollbacks. The U.S. Forest Service recently finalized changes to a set of rules that provided public oversight over logging, road-building and other commercial projects in national forests. “The changes are part of an onslaught launched by the Trump administration against the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA,” the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represents a coalition of nine organizations, said in a news release.
By WHITTNEY EVANS, WCVE-FM
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in an immigration case that originated in Virginia. The court will decide whether immigrants who illegally entered the country seeking asylum-like protections -- after having already been deported previously -- can ask to be released on bond while they fight their case. The issue of which immigrants held in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are eligible for bond is complicated, but repeat offenders are not on that list.
By DON DEL ROSSO, Fauquier Now
Promising “light at the end of” the COVID-19 “tunnel,” the board of supervisors’ new chairman Thursday night urged all residents to get vaccinated against the deadly virus. In blunt language, Chris Granger (Center District) also condemned the behavior of Trump supporters who violently overtook the Capitol Wednesday, interfering with Congress’s confirmation of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s Election Day victory.
By BRIAN BREHM, Winchester Star (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
The offices of Winchester’s commissioner of the revenue and treasurer will remain closed for another week after two staff members tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus. ...On Monday, city officials announced the temporary closures of the Treasurer’s and Commissioner of the Revenue’s offices due to an outbreak of COVID-19. The offices share space in the Creamery Building at 21 S. Kent St., so all staff members were ordered to quarantine at home.
By JEFF STURGEON, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
A former senior Bank of Fincastle executive who heads an economic development organization in Botetourt County paid $15,000 last year to resolve misconduct allegations dating back to his time at the bank. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., John Kilby engaged in “recklessly unsafe or unsound practices and breaches of fiduciary duty” in late summer of 2015, shortly before he left the bank. A civil penalty was assessed against him in May 2020.
Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Sometimes government appears to move maddeningly slow. Right now, though, the machinery of Virginia’s new redistricting process is whirring right along at an exceptionally brisk pace. On Nov. 3, Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment that takes the power of drawing new district lines out of the hands of the majority party in the General Assembly — right now Democrats — and gives it to a special commission.
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