Governor Abigail Spanberger has said she wants to protect Virginians from harmful federal overreach. If that is true, this is a moment to prove it. This week, Hanover County confirmed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to purchase a...
Princess Blanding, a prominent public safety, mental health and racial justice advocate, has announced her campaign to run for Governor of Virginia in 2021. Blanding has entered the race as the candidate of the newly-formed Liberation Party, which will compete as an independent party in the November 2021 election. Blanding is the sister of the...
In the Richmond City Jail, COVID safety protocols look a lot like torture. If anyone doubts how little the City of Richmond values the emotional well-being of incarcerated people, they should look no further than the Richmond City Jail's harsh (and unacknowledged) quarantine measures. Over the course of five months, from June through October,...
Activist, rapper, mustache-haver -- Goad Gatsby is a lot of things. At the end of the day, he just wants to make the world a better, more chill place -- and maybe inspire others while he's at it. When Kristopher Goad’s friends wanted to get him signed up for Facebook in the mid-2000s, none of them knew his full name. He was known only by his last...
When Virginia's schoolchildren return to in-person schooling after the pandemic, they'll return to a school system in which criminal punishments for unruly in-school behavior have largely been taken off the table. The near future of in-person schooling is uncertain due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Virginia students will return to a system where...
After signing a bill into law that decriminalized marijuana earlier this year, Governor Ralph Northam formally voiced his support for fully legalizing marijuana in Virginia next year. This is welcome news both for civil rights advocates and cannabis enthusiasts in the Commonwealth. Recreational marijuana use may be legal in Virginia by 2021 --...
Recently, two different Latina members of the General Assembly, Hala Ayala and Elizabeth Guzmán, have announced their candidacies for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia; if either is elected, they would be the first Latina woman to hold the office. Hala Ayala and Elizabeth Guzmán, two delegates who represent Prince William County, have formally...
State and local efforts to keep COVID out of jails have been hobbled by poor oversight and unambitious policy, advocates say. At the time the Governor announced his early release plan, Letiesha Gordon’s son, Dayon Jones, was serving the final months of a non-violent felony sentence in Riverside Regional Jail, near Petersburg. As soon as the plan...
Have you felt misunderstood by someone with different beliefs from you? Are there life experiences of yours you want to share? “One Small Step” is looking to connect Richmonders with different perspectives and beliefs — one conversation at a time. A new program, “One Small Step,” has launched in Richmond, in hopes of bridging deep divisions in...
RCJC deputies gassed a man and left him naked in a cell for four days — but can anyone hold the Sheriff’s Office accountable? There is only one Richmond City entity institution that wields a near-absolute power over people’s lives – only one tasked with clothing, feeding, caging, controlling, and providing medical care for hundreds of people,...
