Northam pushes for more HBCU funding, ‘pirate boat’ removed and more headlines

• “The newly proposed Virginia congressional map sent candidates scrambling Thursday to rethink their campaigns after the draft gutted the state’s competitive 7th Congressional District and moved it to a completely new part of the state.”—Washington Post

• Continuing his farewell tour, Gov. Ralph Northam announced he will include an additional $297 million in his outgoing budget for historically Black colleges and universities after criticism that his administration hadn’t funded them more.—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• A judge’s halt of Virginia’s skill game ban until May has allowed players to return quickly to the slots-like machines but hasn’t restored state and local tax revenues. Critics of the ban “say the current situation is a prime example of how state lawmakers messed up” in crafting the law.—WAVY

• “Virginia’s only mental hospital for children and adolescents entered a new crisis on Thursday, with new admissions halted after the facility lost eight staff temporarily to COVID-19 infections and a scuffle with two violent patients the previous night that left five employees with ‘moderate to severe injuries.’”—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• After 10 years of negotiations, the U.S. Army signed over the last remaining parcel of land at Fort Monroe to the state of Virginia.—Virginian-Pilot

• The attorney general’s office is suing a landlord over “predatory and deceptive rental practices” involving 275 tenants in the Richmond area who were allegedly lured into rental agreements with rent-to-own promises and then evicted.—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• A former Portsmouth police officer accused of raping a 17-year-old girl while on duty was sentenced to five years in prison after a plea agreement.—Virginian-Pilot

• A Giles County judge abruptly dismissed all charges against a police officer accused of killing a fleeing motorcyclist before they could be considered by the jury. The judge said he was taking the “rare step” because the prosection hadn’t shown the officer engaged in gross negligence.—Roanoke Times

• The ACLU of Virginia is suing the Hanover County School Board over its failure to adopt policies related to transgender students in line with a 2020 General Assembly law. “The board members knew the board’s actions were discriminatory and outside the law, but they did it anyway.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• The developers of a proposed 83-mile natural gas pipeline through central Virginia held their first public meeting virtually, five months after residents received land survey letters. “It was a mistake — we should have done outreach first.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• A possible threat led Manassas Park to close schools Friday in the latest in a rash of school threats in the region, including three at Stafford High School in one day and five in Prince William schools in a single week.—InsideNova

• “A group of students at Rockbridge County High School is facing disciplinary action after posing with a swastika and performing a Nazi ‘sieg heil’ salute in a classroom.”—WSET

• Construction is underway on a “temporary” casino at a former Belk store in Bristol, which is expected to open in the second quarter of 2022 while the permanent $400 million casino is being developed.—Bristol Herald-Courier

• The board of Lee Enterprises, which owns 13 newspapers in Virginia including the Richmond Times-Dispatch, rejected a sale offer from Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund known for gutting newsrooms.—Washington Post

• An abandoned vessel dubbed the “pirate boat” off the shore of First Landing State Park was removed after a multi-month effort and $11,000 in donations.—Virginian-Pilot