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If only: Northam’s missed chances to lead on race as governor
Gov. Ralph Northam is in full-fledged image rehabilitation mode, appearing in a nationally televised interview on CBS Sunday night and pledging himself to racial reconciliation in the wake of the furor over a racist photo that appeared on his medical school yearbook page. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Monday night that Northam will attend a forum […]
A turbulent weekend in Virginia politics got even rougher Monday
A weekend that had much of Richmond waiting to see if Gov. Ralph Northam would resign after a racist image from his medical school yearbook surfaced last week took a new tumultuous turn early Monday morning involving the man waiting in the wings to replace him if he steps down: Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax. The […]
COMMENTARY: Will it get built? Atlantic Coast Pipeline, dogged by invalidated permits, faces mounting costs, longer timeline
Dominion Energy’s 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline, planned to run from West Virginia, through the heart of Virginia and into North Carolina, has seen its costs balloon by another $1 billion and won’t be fully in service until 2021, the company says. And some analysts are questioning whether it will get built at all. Utility Dive, […]
At surreal press conference, Northam struggled with the one question that mattered most
For all the theater of the absurd on display Saturday during Gov. Ralph Northam’s bumbling, stumbling news conference — Michael Jackson, moonwalking and shoe polish are just some of the cringeworthy moments — the whole thing really came down to one question. If, as Northam says, he’s not either of the people in the racist […]
Saying he now thinks racist photo isn’t of him, Northam says he won’t resign
The Virginia Democratic Party says Gov. Ralph Northam, the subject of an immense outcry over a racist photo that surfaced from his medical yearbook, will not step down, resisting calls for his resignation from virtually every state Democrat and many Republicans. “We made the decision to let Governor Northam do the correct thing and resign […]
House Republicans also call on Northam to step down
Virginia House Republicans added their voices Saturday morning to the swelling chorus calling on Gov. Ralph Northam to step down in the wake of the publication of a racist photo from his medical school yearbook. House Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, Majority Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, and other GOP leaders said in a statement they were […]
Panel OKs Rules for Using ‘Dangerous’ Room Dividers at Schools
By Saffeya Ahmed/ Capital News Service On an afternoon last spring, Wesley Lipicky, a third-grader at Franconia Elementary School in Fairfax County, was helping his teacher in the gymnasium when he became caught between a motorized room partition and a gym wall. The 9-year-old boy suffered traumatic head injuries and died that night. On Monday, […]
Veteran GOP senator undecided about seeking re-election
Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, says he hasn’t made up his mind about whether he’ll seek re-election this year, when every seat in the state Senate and House of Delegates is up. “I’m weighing all my options,” he told a Mercury reporter Thursday. “I’ve made no decision.” Wagner, chairman of the powerful Senate Commerce and […]
After years of legislative wrangling, ‘peace in the valley’ on coal ash
Republicans and Democrats, and perhaps most importantly, Dominion Energy, appear to have struck an accord that will ensure that some 30 million tons of coal ash at four sites around the state won’t be left to leak heavy metals and other contaminants into waterways. The deal was rolled out by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, Speaker […]
Another election-year GOP ploy on fossil fuel bill?
A strange thing happened at the House Commerce and Labor Committee Tuesday. A sweeping and ambitious (probably overly so) bill by Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, that would dramatically overhaul Virginia’s energy landscape made it out of the GOP-controlled committee over the fervent opposition of utilities and energy interests that generally hold lots of sway there. […]
In wake of compressor station vote, Northam’s order reconstitutes environmental justice advisory council
After a vote on what had become Virginia’s most high-profile environmental justice issue — the contentious natural gas compressor station proposed for Buckingham County by Dominion Energy as part of its Atlantic Coast Pipeline — Gov. Ralph Northam is reconstituting an advisory council that urged him last year to halt the project. The former members […]
Six senators vote against Northam’s pick to lead environmental agency
Gov. Ralph Northam disappointed some members of his transition team and left environmental groups seething last year when he reappointed David Paylor to his longtime job as director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. Business interests, including the state’s big utilities, chief among them Dominion Energy, like Paylor’s light touch with the regulatory powers […]