News
UVA Center for Politics: These Virginia congressional races could be Democratic victories
The University of Virginia Center for Politics says the odds that chambers of Congress will be split between parties after the November election are getting better. Democrats now have a slightly better than 50-50 chance of winning a majority in the U.S. House, analyst Kyle Kondik wrote in a newsletter this week. And although Democrats […]
Atlantic Coast Pipeline gets permission to begin North Carolina construction
The 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the more than $6 billion natural gas project led by Dominion Energy, won approval to begin full construction in North Carolina today. The decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission comes amid a federal court challenge that seeks to halt construction of the hotly contested pipeline following a ruling by […]
Danville responds to Corey Stewart’s claims about the city
One of Danville’s top elected officials and the Danville Register & Bee took issue with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Corey Stewart’s description of the city during Saturday’s debate. Stewart described Danville as being ground zero for Democrats’ failed economic policies. The city, according to Stewart, is full of boarded-up storefronts, riddled with residents addicted to opioids […]
Lobbyists dodge disclosure, Charlottesville considers an elected mayor and more headlines
Our round-up of headlines from around the state and elsewhere. Sign up for our newsletter for direct delivery to your inbox every weekday morning. Lobbyists dodge disclosure Recently unmuzzled veteran lobbyist and former journalist Steve Haner, who is now a contributing editor to the public policy blog Bacon’s Rebellion, has a column in the Times-Dispatch about a […]
Cumberland landfill, fiercely opposed by locals, would be state’s first new mega dump in two decades
CUMBERLAND COUNTY — A Virginia political issue largely consigned to the dust heap of history in the late 1990s resurfaced this June when the Cumberland County Board of Supervisors voted to allow plans to go forward for the construction of a mega-landfill just a mile from the Cumberland–Powhatan border. If the company behind the project, […]
‘No one really wins.’ For a supremely polarized electorate, what value do debates add?
HOT SPRINGS — There was plenty of talk about President Donald Trump, boarded-up storefronts in Danville and U.S. relations with Russia at the first debate between U.S. Senate candidates Tim Kaine and Corey Stewart. The two met Saturday at the Omni Homestead Resort for a debate sponsored by the Virginia Bar Association. Generally missing from […]
Bon Secours merging with another Catholic health system
Bon Secours Health, which operates four hospitals in the Richmond area and three in Hampton Roads — in addition to facilities in five other states — is merging with Mercy Health, the largest health system in Ohio. Once combined, the two entities will “create one of the five largest Catholic health care systems in the […]
Virginia makes more money available for school security grants
With Lee County announcing its intention earlier this month to become the first school system in Virginia to arm teachers, partly because it’s cheaper than hiring officers, Gov. Ralph Northam’s office says an additional $1.3 million is available in grants for police and security. “Ensuring the safety of Virginians, especially of our youth, is a […]
Four years of political battling over Medicaid expansion has ended. What comes next?
In May, when Virginia’s General Assembly passed a budget that includes expanding the state’s Medicaid program, Lisa Coles’ daughter came running into her bedroom, ecstatic. “She said, ‘Mom, we’re going to get health insurance! It’s coming through!’” Coles, 49, recalled. “I said, ‘Yeah, girl, Jan. 1, we’re going to get it!’ I was so happy.” […]
Alternate universe Senate race, update on Unite the Right anniversary and Richmond’s attendance woes, among other headlines
A different result with ranked-choice voting? Could instant-runoff voting, also known as ranked-choice voting, have installed Nick Freitas as the GOP Senate candidate instead of Corey Stewart? Marla McKenna at The Culpeper Star-Exponent quotes Freitas as in favor of the method, calling it “a solid policy” and pledging to support legislation that would give Virginia voters that […]
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 […]