Editor’s Note: This story includes remarks from a national webinar hosted by the Hemp Industry & Farmers of America (HIFA) on Friday, November 8, 2025, before Senator Mitch McConnell’s hemp amendment was inserted into the government funding package over the...
Stranded on the side of a highway somewhere in Nairobi, we considered ourselves lucky. My boyfriend and I had just jumped out of our Uber in a panic after being threatened by a police officer. “I will take you both to jail too. I have that power,” still rang in my ears as my breathing gradually came back to normal. Before we had a chance to see...
The ERA passed a Senate committee vote yesterday, but its path to ratification in Virginia is still long and uncertain. An 8-6 vote by a Senate committee Wednesday brought the federal Equal Rights Amendment one step closer to passing the General Assembly — which could make Virginia the 38th and final state necessary to add the ERA to the U.S....
*This article originally appeared in RVA Mag #35, on the streets now at all your favorite spots. On the edge of Hanoi's old quarter sits the Hanoi Opera House. A relic of French colonialism and an architectural beauty, it presents and accomplishes a perfect draw for tourists -- but locals know better. They know what's behind it. Quyen Van Minh, a...
"We’re taking on the wealthiest man that’s ever lived. There’s more of a disparity between Jeff Bezos and the average American than there was between the Pharaoh and the average Egyptian. It’s going to be a hard fight." Delegate Lee Carter (D-Manassas) made national headlines in 2017 when, running as an open socialist and member of the Democratic...
A Supreme Court ruling in a Virginia gerrymandering case could have a major impact on Virginia’s political landscape. 11 of Virginia’s House of Delegates districts were struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in March, 2017 after the court found that those districts had been racially gerrymandered to dilute the voting power of...
In the coming weeks, Virginia’s environmental and political future is set to see a potential shift. The past weeks were marked by upsets, confrontations, and accusations of corruption surrounding the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines, and as a crucial vote approaches, the future is decidedly uncertain. The path to this moment began on...
David Smith doesn’t cut the figure of a man who’s been to prison, let alone one who spent more than a year in solitary confinement. Dressed in a button-up white shirt, with tan khakis and a blue blazer, the impression Smith gives is more of a white collar worker. This impression isn't out of place in the homely lower level of the Bethlehem...
Richmond has seen an uptick in gun thefts over the last several years, and often, these guns end up in the wrong hands. In the Virginia House and Senate, legislators recently struck down a bill that would require gun owners to report missing weapons within 24 hours of noticing they are gone. Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham, who worked...
*This article originally appeared in RVA Mag #34, on the streets now at all your favorite spots. He stood in an alley on the south side of Chicago, smoking a joint. His parents didn’t know where he was, or if they did, they were most likely too busy working to be concerned. The child of Italian immigrants, most days he was left on his own while...
