Briefs
FROM THE EDITOR: Judge us on our journalism
As Jim Bacon at Bacon’s Rebellion chronicles ably and fairly here, an email by David Poole, executive director of the Virginia Public Access Project, to the nonprofit’s board of directors that raised concerns about the source of our funding, leaked out to a wider audience this week. Poole had asked me for more information beyond […]
Advocacy group will monitor Staunton detention center
The disAbility Law Center of Virginia will look for signs of abuse and neglect at the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center, the Staunton News Leader reports. Immigrant children being held at the facility have alleged they were “beaten while handcuffed and locked up for long periods in solitary confinement, left nude and shivering concrete cells,” the […]
Chincoteague looking for new drinking water, mass transit in Pittsylvania and other Va. headlines
Chincoteague looking for new drinking-water wells Figuring out how widespread contamination at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility from dangerous industrial chemicals used in firefighting foams that made their way into drinking water at the nearby island town of Chincoteague will take years, Sarah Rankin from the AP reports. The Eastern Shore tourist town known for the […]
What a Corey Stewart staffer, a white nationalist Facebook discussion group and an alleged break-in have in common
Here’s a weird one that broke Thursday: Virginia GOP Senate candidate Corey Stewart says Stephanie Saul, a New York Times reporter seeking an interview with Brian Landrum, a Stewart staffer, entered Landrum’s Woodbridge apartment uninvited, the Washington Post reported. Landrum, who works part-time for Stewart’s campaign as well as for Prince William County, where Stewart […]
Bad week in court for two Virginia public officials and other news from around the state
The trials of two public officials, one current, one former, wrapped up this week. —In Portsmouth, a jury found Councilman Mark Whitaker guilty of falsifying signatures on financial documents but recommended he serve no jail time, the Virginian Pilot reports. —In Danville, former School Board Chairwoman Sharon Jones was sentenced to serve 60 days in […]
Fox-hunting pens shut down
Six fox-hunting pens have been shut down in Virginia following a two-year investigation by Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring’s office. Nine people pleaded guilty to a range of charges, mostly misdemeanors but also a few felonies. “Fox penning can become unlawful when operators put illegal foxes and coyotes into a fenced-in area and allow dogs […]
Virginian-Pilot stonewalled on tax information
Virginian-Pilot reporter Ana Ley got an earful from Portsmouth’s elected commissioner of the revenue while she was trying to pry loose neighborhood-specific information on meal, beverage and retail tax revenues for a story published Wednesday. “You’ve taken up a lot of time – taxpayer dollars – trying to respond to your request because you want […]
Business down at Virginia Papa John’s amid fallout from founder’s slur
Alexandra Cline at the Richmond Times Dispatch reports that a Virginia Papa John’s franchiser with 21 locations in Richmond, Hampton Roads and Charlottesville is taking steps to distance itself from its corporate parent after the pizza company’s founder used a racial slur in a conference call. “We’re of all walks and creeds,” Matt Sanders, a […]
Follow the money
The Virginia Public Access Project has the breakdown of mid-year campaign finance reports that were due in by midnight Monday. With a whole year to go before the 2019 state Senate and House elections, Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, a Republican from James City County, who has been in the Senate since 1992, had $843,596 […]
VCU president is highest-paid public college president in the state
The Chronicle of Higher Education released its annual ranking of executive compensation of the country’s public and private colleges universities over the weekend. The highest-paid public college president in the state, Virginia Commonwealth University President Michael Rao, came in at 43 on the list with a compensation package totaling $690,943. Behind him on the list […]
Members of Va. gun rights group call for leader’s resignation after he was tricked into recording training video for toddlers
Philip Van Cleave says he suspected he was being set up just five minutes into a multi-hour interview earlier this year with a supposed Israeli anti-terrorism expert. But the president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, the state’s top gun advocacy group, said he pressed on, ultimately agreeing to record a firearms-training video for toddlers […]
A long walk off a short bridge?
Dominion Energy, Virginia’s biggest utility with about 2.5 million customers, is banking big on natural gas, in the near future at least. The company has two big new combined cycle gas plants in Greensville and Brunswick counties, one already finished and the other scheduled to begin operation this year. Another eight smaller gas plants were […]