Author
U.S. Chamber: Trump’s tariffs would add tens of millions to cost of Virginia imports from Mexico
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has a state-by-state breakdown of the projected effects of President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on goods imported from Mexico. Virginia, which had about $1.5 billion worth of Mexican imports in 2018, is way down on the list (consider that Texas had $107 billion) but the impact is still significant. The […]
Municipal building mass shooting is ‘most devastating day in the history of Virginia Beach’
A dozen people were killed and at least four more were injured at Virginia Beach’s public works building Friday afternoon by a longtime employee armed with a handgun equipped with a sound suppressor, The Virginian-Pilot and other news outlets reported. Police have not named the gunman, who carried several extended magazines, the Virginia Beach police […]
Tell us about the UFOs already, Mr. President
Maybe he’ll tell us about the UFOs. If there was a sliver of a silver lining to the election of a vacuous, mendacious reality show star, conspiracy theorist and mediocre insult comic to the highest office in the land — someone with little respect for the presidency except as a mirror to his limitless vanity […]
For Chesapeake Bay, Pennsylvania remains a problem
Three states account for about 90 percent of the pollution that makes it into the Chesapeake Bay. Of those, Virginia and Maryland are largely living up to their commitments to meet goals to improve water quality. Not so much the other state, according to a report issued Tuesday by the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation. […]
Report on Northam’s yearbook photo finished
The investigation into the racist photo found on Gov. Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook page is reportedly complete and results are expected to be released Wednesday at a news conference. Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk did not respond to a request from the Mercury to confirm the announcement. However, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, WAVY TV, […]
State survey results show distracted driving considered a ‘serious problem’
Digital town hall results released Tuesday by Gov. Ralph Northam’s office show that 93 percent of the 2,000 respondents considered distracted-driving a “very serious or serious problem.” They also voted it “the most serious of seven highway safety issues provided for ranking, followed closely by drunk driving,” the governor’s office said of the 11-question online […]
It’s not too late to change our shameful collective impotence on mass shootings
Call it a classic case of the grass always being greener. Growing up in Miami, surrounded by beaches and palm trees — even lucky enough every so often to see an escapee from the nearby Parrot Jungle at our bird feeder or roosting in our ficus tree — I dreamed sometimes of being somewhere else. […]
Mercury reporter wins health journalism award
The Association of Health Care Journalists, a leading professional organization dedicated to better reporting on health and health care, awarded our Katie O’Connor second place in its 2018 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. O’Connor was recognized in the organization’s investigative, small publication category for her series of articles about a Richmond-based assisted living […]
A coalition takes aim at Virginia’s ‘vampire squid:’ How much will it make it squirm?
New York investment bank Goldman Sachs was once memorably called “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money,” by Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi. In Virginia, many would argue we have long had our own bloodsucking cephalopod wrapped around the Capitol. And […]
Northam won’t veto GOP budget language that could cripple carbon-capping plan
Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration will not veto GOP-inserted budget language that thwarts Virginia’s plans to join a network of carbon-trading states, throwing a wrench into a regulation developed over nearly two years and approved by a state board last month. In a statement announcing his approval of the state budget Thursday, Northam, a Democrat, said […]
Hampton Roads nursing home violations are higher than the national average; Bedford County shooting started with car argument; Steven Spielberg visited Danville last week and more headlines
NEWS TO KNOW Our daily roundup of headlines from Virginia and elsewhere. • Citing reconciliation, Gov. Ralph Northam kept up a string of recent vetoes by shooting down bipartisan bills establishing minimum sentences for certain offenses. — Richmond Times-Dispatch • Roanoke renamed the city’s courthouse for civil rights legal titan Oliver Hill, who spent his “formative years […]
Localities should decide what belongs in their public spaces
The first time I moved to Richmond, in 2002, this city was a very different place in many ways, with the brewery and culinary explosion of today just a gleam in the eyes of people looking farther ahead than many of us at the time. That year, 83 people were murdered here, a figure that […]