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Another type of front-line: There’s an urgent need for funding for children’s mental health
By Dr. Arshia Qaadir On a recent day at his pediatric office in Vienna, Virginia, Dr. Michael Martin noticed something unusual about his schedule. “Twenty-five percent of my visits that day were related to mental health issues,” said the president of the Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “During the winter and with […]
Title IX changes could shield predatory faculty
By Erin Coogan People may assume that sexual advances by professors toward students are confined to the scripted drama of movies or television shows like “Legally Blonde,” “You,” or “Jane the Virgin.” Over the past year, I found myself in the middle of a Title IX case against a longtime, tenured professor. I worked with […]
Despite company claims, only a fraction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline is complete in Virginia
By Jonathan Sokolow Mountain Valley Pipeline is a $6.2 billion corporate boondoggle that a Pittsburgh-based fracked gas company, EQT Corporation, is trying to ram down the throat of West Virginia and Virginia. Boondoggle is exactly the right word for this climate-busting project, which was first conceived in 2014 and has yet to be completed. As […]
On evictions, it’s time for the governor to stop dithering
By the Rev. Dr. Keith Savage, the Rev. Clyde W. Ellis, Jr. and the Rev. James V. Jordan As pastors of African-American congregations, we are gripped with uneasiness and frustration about the potential of hundreds of thousands of people in our congregations and around Virginia potentially losing their homes because the pandemic ravaged the economy […]
Virginia is stopping the debt trap, no thanks to federal regulators
By Dana Wiggins and Benjamin Hoyne We have been battling predatory lending in Virginia for more than 20 years. The Virginia Poverty Law Center’s hotline has counseled thousands of payday and title loan borrowers trapped in a cycle of debt. For many, an unaffordable payday loan of a few hundred dollars due back in one […]
Reducing reimbursements for Medicaid recipients will make this pandemic — and beyond — worse
By Dr. Todd A. Parker Imagine your house is on fire. You call 911, the fire department responds, puts the fire out, and saves your house. Now imagine the government decides they want to spend less on fire department costs, so they create a list of “preventable causes of fires,” like an electrical short from […]
Stop Mountain Valley Pipeline from polluting Southwest Virginia’s water
By Nan Gray and Freeda Cathcart Southwest Virginia’s ecosystem is in peril from the negligent construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Our government must protect the water and our environment from the harm of the out-of-control gas industry. Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality is underfunded and unprepared to regulate a massive fracked pipeline through Southwest […]
A plan for better health care
By Brian Chiglinksy It was all so dramatic. Half past one in the morning. The chamber of the Senate. Packed with senators, their staff, and plenty of reporters. (It was three years ago, so no one was worried about social distancing yet.) Suddenly, the room hushed as a single senator walked on to the Senate […]
Evictions are not a game: The governor must act
By Tram Nguyen and Elaine Poon By midnight on the 25th, the federal eviction moratorium imposed by the CARES Act expired. Days after that, the additional unemployment benefits will as well. An eviction crisis is upon us, but two branches of Virginia’s government are pointing fingers and playing a dangerous game with Virginians’ lives as a result. […]
What’s in a pledge: Joe Morrissey spins on utility contribution
By Josh Stanfield “I lead by what I think is right.” “Just give me the facts.” Throughout 2019, then-candidate Joe Morrissey opened his daily radio show with these two pronouncements of principle. But now it’s 2020, candidate Morrissey is Senator Morrissey, and it seems he’s got a new idea about what is right – and […]
We need universal access to COVID-19 testing and treatment
By Allison Powell At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was terminated from the job I had been working at for the last four years. I was very fortunate to find another job within one week of being let go, as I know most people haven’t had this same experience. This new job was […]
The Great American Outdoors Act nears the finish line: Virginians and the rest of the nation will benefit
By Ray Palmer America is in the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic. By now, we all know the new rules: Wash your hands, wear masks and keep a safe distance from others. Thank heavens from the start we’ve been given the go ahead to spend time outdoors. Even before the virus cases began to […]