COVID shots at colleges, NRA skips Youngkin for endorsement, ‘Roller Dude’ is back, and more headlines

NEWS TO KNOW
Our daily roundup of headlines from Virginia and elsewhere.

• Gov. Ralph Northam said he’s leaving the decision to mandate COVID-19 vaccination up to colleges and universities.—VPM

• The National Rifle Association skipped over GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin, even as it endorsed other Republican candidates on the ticket.—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• Police in Fredericksburg credited two bystanders with saving a police officer from a beating at the hands of a suspect.—Free Lance-Star

• Terry McAuliffe is pledging a ban on assault-style weapons and high capacity magazines if he’s elected.—WVTF

• An Arlington man who was sick of dog pee killing the bushes outside his house became the target of social media ire after a neighbor posted photos of the plastic “scat mats” he installed to protect his shrubbery. “Two people suggested that people should actually bottle up their urine and dump it on my property, which I think is a rather serious offense,” he said.—WTOP

• In what is believed to be the first case of its kind in Virginia, a man from Petersburg pleaded guilty to the burglary of an Ettrick deli after he was linked to the crime by the “yellowish-green luminescent smears of SmartWater — a colorless and odorless liquid nanotechnology coded with a unique signature for each user.”—Richmond Time-Dispatch

• The nationalization of Virginia’s gubernatorial race creates a problem for Glenn Youngkin, because “it raises the question of whether he would campaign alongside Trump — who remains popular with the GOP base but strongly disliked in the vote-rich urban and suburban parts of Virginia that are crucial to winning statewide.”—Washington Post

• In Chesapeake, “Roller Dude” is back.—Virginian-Pilot