Most-clicked headlines by section for 2019:
FROM VPAP
The Virginia Public Access Project
VPAP has results of yesterday's elections for all 140 legislative districts, complete with maps and charts. VPAP also has complete results of local elections for county supervisors, school board and constitutional offices.
November 6, 2019
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
INSIDE RALPH NORTHAM'S PLOT FOR SURVIVAL
By ANITA KUMAR AND MAGGIE SEVERNS, Politico
Ralph Northam might just hang on to his job. Left for dead a week ago after his disastrous handling of his history with blackface, the Democratic Virginia governor is quietly plotting a survival strategy. He’s conferring with sympathetic Republican lawmakers and has hired a crisis manager who’s decamped to Richmond from Washington.
February 8, 2019
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
THE THREE WORDS THAT KILLED HANDS-FREE DRIVING LEGISLATION IN VIRGINIA
By NED OLIVER, Virginia Mercury
Ultimately, three words led to the downfall of hands-free driving legislation that lawmakers hoped would finally allow police to crack down on widespread use of phones while driving. ...And it was poised to pass the Senate when an apparently innocent amendment was tacked on to specify the exact appendage lawmakers were hoping to target, inserting the words “in his hand” before the word “hold.” It was the beginning of the end.
February 26, 2019
STATE ELECTIONS
SEN. AMANDA CHASE STRUGGLES TO SHAKE CONTROVERSY
By RICH GRISET, Chesterfield Observer
Since taking office in 2016, state Sen. Amanda Chase hasn’t usually been one to shy away from conflict. In fact, you could even say the Republican lawmaker embraces it, making a name for herself as an outspoken host of her own political radio show, by going up against Dominion Energy on the issue of coal ash legislation and by sporting a gun on her hip during the most recent legislative session. But even she seemed unprepared for the level of controversy the last few weeks have brought to her own political career.
May 31, 2019
FEDERAL ELECTIONS
TRUMP APPROVAL HITS NEW LOW AMONG VIRGINIANS IN ROANOKE COLLEGE POLL
By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Virginians’ dislike of President Trump is getting worse, according to a new statewide poll that suggests the headwinds Republicans could face in crucial legislative elections this fall.
August 27, 2019
STATE GOVERNMENT
SOCIAL SERVICES FAILURES IN DEATH OF ROCKBRIDGE INFANT UNDERLINES LARGER, LONG-TERM PROBLEMS IN VIRGINIA
By ALISON GRAHAM, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
Charlee Marie Faith Ford came into the world struggling to live. After an emergency C-section at 37 weeks, her lungs failed for nine minutes before doctors revived her. She was born with opioids and marijuana in her system. Doctors diagnosed her with cerebral palsy and she suffered from severe seizures. Her mother was a drug addict, her father a convicted felon.
Nov 18, 2019
CONGRESS
WHAT REP. ABIGAIL SPANBERGER LEARNED AFTER CLASHING WITH PROGRESSIVES
By JENNA PORTNOY, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
At the end of another long week in Congress, Rep. Abigail Spanberger poured herself a cup of coffee and waited in her D.C. apartment for her family to arrive from their home outside Richmond. She felt satisfied with a job well done. Then she looked at Twitter.
August 20, 2019
ECONOMY/BUSINESS
AFTER 31 YEARS, LECLAIRRYAN LAW FIRM IS CLOSING
By GREGORY J. GILLIGAN AND JOHN REID BLACKWELL, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
The Richmond-based legal giant LeClairRyan is shutting down, a casualty of a dramatic collapse in revenue and an exodus of lawyers in recent years. The national law firm’s demise also is attributed in part to the uncertainty surrounding a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed by a former client.
August 8, 2019
TRANSPORTATION
NEXT YEAR, VIRGINIA’S $100 MILLION BRIDGE TO NOWHERE WILL FINALLY CONNECT TO A ROAD
By NED OLIVER, Virginia Mercury
For the past four years, the tallest bridge in the state has stood along the Kentucky border unconnected to any open roadways on either side. Some see it as a prime example of the politicization and mismanagement of transportation funding that led to the development of SmartScale, the state’s new point-based scoring system for road projects. Others see the slow pace of work as just another example of Richmond neglecting the needs of Appalachia.
May 20, 2019
HIGHER EDUCATION
CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST REBUKES VIRGINIA TECH'S 'LEFTIST' FRESHMAN ORIENTATION
By SAM WALL, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
A Northern Virginia political activist took to a conservative website to air her grievances regarding the “leftist propaganda” she says she witnessed at her son’s orientation at Virginia Tech. Penny Nance, CEO and president of Concerned Women for America, wrote that she can no longer ignore “the indefensible and discriminatory behavior of the liberal campus bullies ” in her opinion piece “My Son’s Freshman Orientation At Virginia Tech Was Full Of Leftist Propaganda,” published Wednesday in the The Federalist, where she is listed as a contributor.
August 16, 2019
VIRGINIA OTHER
WELCOME TO THE GREENBRIER, THE GOVERNOR-OWNED LUXURY RESORT FILLED WITH CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
By KEN WARD JR., Charleston Gazette-Mail
On a sunny Monday afternoon two and a half years ago, Jim Justice, the wealthiest man in West Virginia, took the oath of office as the state’s 36th governor. Standing at the base of the Capitol steps in Charleston, he assured his fellow West Virginians that his vast business empire of coal mines, vacation resorts and agricultural companies — many of them regulated by the state agencies he would soon control — posed no conflicts with his new job.
August 15, 2019
LOCAL
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ARE MISSING. THE SHERIFF IS DEAD. A SMALL VIRGINIA TOWN WANTS ANSWERS.
By ANTONIO OLIVO, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Before the $21 million allegedly went missing, before the sheriff put his gun in his mouth and fired, before Tuesday’s announcement that the entire top tier of the Warren County government had been indicted, there was the dream. It was a dream of renewal for this town 70 miles from Washington, which fell on hard times after a rayon manufacturing plant closed in 1989, leaving 1,300 people jobless and 440 acres full of toxic waste.
September 25, 2019
EDITORIALS
IS A POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE COMING?
Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
They say dogs can hear earthquakes before they happen because of a wider range of hearing that can pick up sounds deep in the earth of tectonic plates scraping together before everything goes bang. With that image in mind, we pose this question: Did a poll from Christopher Newport University just pick up an impending political earthquake in Virginia?
October 10, 2019
THE FRIDAY READ
SHE HAD NO IDEA HER HOME COULD BE STOLEN. THEN SHE READ HER JUNK MAIL.
By JUSTIN JOUVENAL, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Rohina Husseini had no idea someone could steal a house, but the first small clue that the home she owned for nearly a decade was no longer hers was a piece of junk mail that most of us ignore. The Springfield mother said she initially tossed the mortgage refinancing offers that began arriving over the summer in the trash, but one detail bugged her: The letters were addressed to another woman. Curious, Husseini said she finally opened one.
December 6, 2019
