As promised last week, Republicans in the House of Delegates put forward a redistricting plan Tuesday that protects incumbents by slightly tilting competitive districts in favor of the party that currently holds the seat.Republicans said in a release that the new districts were drawn without racial data and described...
Editor's note: Whether Democrats can retake the House of Representatives is the big storyline of this fall's midterm election cycle. Four competitive Virginia House races for seats currently held by Republicans, profiled this week in a series in the Mercury, could play a key role come Election Day. As a...
The state's Department of Health, along with local departments in Fairfax and Arlington counties, are sending 35 public health nurses to North Carolina to provide emergency shelters with medical support in the wake of Hurricane Florence, which has so far killed 23 people.The first 22 nurses left Virginia on...
The state estimates that the cost of preparing for Hurricane Florence will total nearly $60 million, Virginia Secretary of Finance Aubrey Lane said Monday.He said that's more than the most the state has ever spent up front on a storm response, a result of the decision to issue a mandatory...
The state treated Elmo Augustus Reid's hepatitis C once before. It didn't work.An inmate at the Buckingham Correctional Center in Dillwyn, Reid was treated in 2013 once he had fibrosis, or scarring, on his liver. He was given drugs that had been used to treat hepatitis C for years,...
Two state agencies that have grown to be major revenue sources have never been comprehensively reviewed by the 45-year-old legislative commission created to oversee Virginia government.And staff at the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission think it’s time for the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority and Virginia Lottery to...
A New York Times-Siena College poll of the state's 7th Congressional District says Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Brat has a slight edge over his Democratic challenger, former CIA operative Abigail Spanberger.The poll of 501 people puts Brat's likely share of the vote at 47 percent and Spanberger's at 43...
Shaun Brown, an independent candidate running for Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District seat, won’t be on the ballot after the state Supreme Court dismissed her appeal.Richmond Circuit Court Judge Gregory Rupe decided Sept. 5 that Brown's name couldn’t be printed on ballots alongside U.S. Rep. Scott Taylor, a Republican, and Democrat...
Gov. Ralph Northam's administration announced Wednesday that it would seek to regulate methane emissions from natural gas infrastructure and join a regional group of northeastern and mid-Atlantic states to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles as well as an alliance to fight ocean acidification."More than one third of all carbon...
BUCKINGHAM — Scores of people came out Tuesday night against a proposed compressor station in rural Buckingham County for Dominion Energy's Atlantic Coast Pipeline.The public hearing, held by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, was intended to solicit input on a draft air quality permit to construct and operate...
