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...
On Tuesday, November 3, you'll have a chance to vote on the way Virginia handles redistricting for the next ten years and beyond. Should you vote yes or no? That depends on who you ask. A single question on the 2020 electoral ballot will decide the fate of the Virginia redistricting system, and determine how voting districts are drawn for the...
People incarcerated at Richmond City Justice Center say a recent tear-gassing by law enforcement endangered their lives. On August 29th, Tobias Hill was sitting in his cell at the Richmond City Justice Center (RCJC) when the gas began to creep beneath the door. He didn't know what was happening outside, but as the tear gas burned his eyes and...
Biden shows a strong lead over Trump in Virginia, and Senator Mark Warner is on track for re-election, but mail-in voting remains a more divisive issue, split largely along party lines. A poll released this week by the Virginia Commonwealth University L. Douglas Wilder School of Government shows presidential candidate Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Mark...
At Marcus-David Peters Circle this summer, a small library popped up during protests to educate the public about liberating the working class, queer people, and people of color. Now located in Chimborazo Park, its organizers continue engaging the community with educational activism. In the 100 days (and counting) of protests against police...
On Saturday, a crowd cheered as the “At Ready” Confederate statue was removed from its place of prominence at the Albemarle County Courthouse near Charlottesville. The August 2017 events in Charlottesville were the catalyst for the removal of Confederate monuments around the country, but the area had yet to see any of its own monuments removed —...
In Prince William County, ICE agents that are visually indistinguishable from local police have been arresting undocumented immigrants. For activists and local elected officials, this comes across as an unjust abuse of power. Standing on a NoVA sidewalk in his Lady Gaga t-shirt on a hot afternoon, Josh Ayala told a small crowd about how ICE...
At such a time that a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, should Virginians be required to get it? The state's health commissioner thinks so; some General Assembly members disagree. Though the federal government is asking states to prepare for the possibility of a COVID-19 vaccine within months, some Virginians differ on whether the vaccine...
Bills sponsored by state Senator Creigh Deeds and Delegate Charniele Herring hope to make expungements of criminal records easier to attain for those who have been convicted of crimes in the past, not just those who are acquitted. Virginia House and Senate committees have advanced legislation that would remove certain criminal records in a...
For Madison Sweitzer and Ben Blevins of the Highland Support Project, buildup of militarized border protections, overpolicing of poor and minority populations, and massive wealth inequality all have a common root: the US's colonialist settler-state mentality. The United States is a settler state. Settlers enter into the territory and make it...
