Virginia averaging more than 3,500 new COVID cases a day, first-time unemployment claims fall, Tuskegee airman turns 100, and more headlines

By: Robert Zullo - December 18, 2020 7:46 am

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

• Virginia is averaging more than 3,500 coronavirus cases per day as the holidays approach and officials are urging people to stay home and get tested if they will travel.—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• The number of Virginians filing first-time unemployment claims fell 13 percent last week.—Virginian-Pilot

• Health officials are gearing up to get information about COVID-19 vaccines out in several languages, especially Spanish.—VPM

• Virginia regulators have been criticized for approving a new power plant at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard over environmental justice concerns.—Utility Dive

• Hundreds of inmates and dozens of staff members have tested positive for the virus at Middle River Regional Jail outside Staunton.—Staunton News Leader

• Danville hit a 30-year low for violent crime.—Register & Bee

• Blood banks still need donations, with the pandemic cutting severely into supplies.—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• Washington, Virginia and Maryland are seeking more money from the federal government for WMATA.—Associated Press

• A former Republican state delegate says some Virginia senators have discussed expelling Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, from the Senate over her call for President Donald Trump to impose martial law and hold a new election.—WVTF

• State Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta, is still considering a run for governor.—Daily News-Record

• A Lynchburg resident and former Tuskegee airman will turn 100 later this month. “I did the best I could,” Alfred Farrar said. “One hundred years is a long time.”—News & Advance

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Robert Zullo

Robert spent 13 years as a reporter and editor at weekly and daily newspapers before becoming editor of the Virginia Mercury in 2018. He was a staff writer and managing editor at Worrall Community Newspapers in Union, N.J., before spending five years in south Louisiana covering hurricanes, oil spills and Good Friday crawfish boils as a reporter and city editor for the The Courier and the Daily Comet newspapers in Houma and Thibodaux. He covered Richmond city hall for the Richmond Times-Dispatch from 2012 to 2013 and worked as a general assignment and city hall reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 2013 to 2016. He returned to Richmond in 2016 to cover energy, environment and transportation for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He grew up in Miami, Fla., and central New Jersey. A former waiter, armored car guard and appliance deliveryman, he is a graduate of the College of William and Mary. Contact him at [email protected]