Virginia voters will head to the polls this spring to decide the future of the state’s redistricting process after the Supreme Court of Virginia confirmed that the April 21 referendum election will move forward as scheduled. The court rejected efforts to block the...
In November 2019, Jen Soering and Elizabeth Haysom received parole after serving 30 years in state prison for the sensational murder of Haysom’s parents in 1985. Soering, a German national who had been given two life sentences, and Haysom, a Canadian who had been sentenced to 90 years, were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement...
In 2019 Del. Chris Hurst introduced legislation to protect student journalists and their school advisers. That bill died in subcommittee, but Hurst hasn't given up; he introduced a new bill for the upcoming 2020 session. A former journalist turned delegate filed a bill for the upcoming General Assembly session that aims to ensure First Amendment...
Under the Dillon Rule, all decisions made by Virginia localities must be authorized by the General Assembly. Thus far, the GA has not allowed Richmond and other VA cities to remove Confederate monuments. But a new Democratic majority may change all that in 2020. Virginia has 110 Confederate monuments, many of which are housed in Richmond, the...
With sea level rise becoming a growing threat to Virginia's coastal communities, activists want to see greater action -- and more funding -- for programs intended to mitigate the effects of climate change. "Animals have three choices when habitat changes: they can move, adapt or die," said Yorktown Watermen’s Museum Director of Education Mike...
In 2018, almost 20,000 people, most of them African American, were found guilty of marijuana possession in Virginia courts. The racial disparities where the state's marijuana convictions are concerned has led some state officials to consider decriminalizing and perhaps legalizing marijuana. Now that Democrats have won control of the General...
With cannabis decriminalization, cultivation, and legalization at the forefront of political conversations in Virginia, farmers and legislators are grappling with a changing legal and cultural landscape. “We do grams, eighths, quarters, half ounces, pounds, wholesale pounds -- however you want it,” Jacob Stretch said, standing between crates of...
According to US Census data, over 16 percent of Virginians now speak a language other than English in the home -- including a growing number of Arabic families. Nahlaa Alsilfih Alahmari and her husband, Abdullah Alahmari, are graduate students from Saudi Arabia. She is pursuing a doctorate in education at Virginia State University, and he is...
Roanoke’s Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center fights to stay open and save animals' lives in the midst of lawsuits from a local Bojangles’ owner who claims the center “increases noise” and “increases traffic.” The Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center has been helping the animals of Roanoke, Virginia for nearly two decades: anyone who finds an...
This may be the #MeToo era, but here in Virginia, the vast majority of rape cases are still unsolved, and the perpetrators remain unpunished. In the #MeToo era, survivors of sexual assault are feeling more empowered to come forward with their stories. Despite the social movement, though, sexual assaults and rapes have the lowest clearance rates...
