This past Friday, Brandyn Churchill and Sophie Rogers got an early wedding present.U.S. District Judge Rossie D. Alston, Jr. ruled Oct. 11 that state law requiring people seeking marriage licenses to disclose their race is not only offensive, but it’s also unconstitutional. Rogers and Churchill comprised one of a...
Octoroon. Quadroon. Aryan. In the year 2019, these were some of the hideous choices folks wanting to marry in Virginia could select under the heading of race. Sure, there were other options, and the list wasn’t uniform among the various localities. Some choices weren’t as incendiary. But the point is –...
Ever since Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize marijuana in 2012, cannabis-skeptical Republicans have controlled at least one chamber of the Virginia General Assembly.In a few months, that could change. If Democrats win full control of the statehouse next month by gaining four seats, Virginia would...
By Jaclyn Barton/ Capital News Service
Virginia had the fourth lowest violent crime rate and 13th lowest property crime rate in the United States last year, according to new data from the FBI.
The commonwealth had 200 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2018, the data showed. Only Maine, Vermont and New...
By Georgia Geen/Capital News Service
When Eva Solano returned home after spending 28 days in immigration detention, she knew she wasn’t going to go back to her normal life and pretend nothing had happened.
“I told my lawyer, ‘I need to do something,’” Solano said. “It’s not about me. I’m the...
Virginia prison officials say they want to stop separating mothers who give birth while incarcerated from their newborns by opening a nursery in one of their women’s prisons.The proposal is part of what the Department of Corrections is billing as a “gender responsivity plan” they’ll begin rolling out next...
The number of Virginians who support legalized recreational marijuana spiked over the past two years to 61 percent, according to a poll conducted earlier this month by the University of Mary Washington.The last time the school asked voters for their views on legal recreational pot (in September 2017) only...
Lawyers in Richmond’s public defender’s office, in the midst of a campaign to increase their salaries, say they’re paid so much less than the prosecutors they face in court that it raises questions about whether low-income defendants are getting a fair shake at justice.“If you’re going to fund one...
Chief Larry Boone has taken to begging.As young black men continue to wield guns to settle differences, rob and murder each other, Norfolk’s top cop has repeatedly criticized, cajoled and complained this past year in community gatherings, press conferences and through social media. Boone is urging everyone to approach gun...
WASHINGTON -- When Congress passed the landmark background check legislation known as the Brady Bill back in 1993, two Virginia Republicans were among the 54 GOP lawmakers in the U.S. House who voted to send the bill to President Bill Clinton’s desk.
They were: ex-Reps. Herbert Bateman and Frank Wolf....
