Most Read Articles May 17, 2024
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Friday Read She left the CIA in frustration. Now her spy novel is racking up awards.
She felt each boom like an electric jolt as she was trying to sleep in her Alexandria, Va., apartment. It was August 2006, and Ilana Berry was then a 30-year-old Central Intelligence Agency case officer. Outside, construction crews were beginning work on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, knocking down the old expanse to make way for a new six-lane roadway. But each rumble threw Berry off the steady anchors of time and place, hurling her back to her last year stationed in war-rocked Baghdad.
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GOP primary battle turns Va.’s 5th District into a political Tilt-a-Whirl
Republican John McGuire took his upstart bid for Congress to a spring carnival here that mixed small-town charm with MAGA fervor, where children who mustered a bell-ringing whack in the strongman game went home with toy assault weapons. Buttonholing voters on the midway in this red central Virginia town one recent Friday night, the Virginia state senator made a pro-Trump, anti-establishment pitch fit for an ordinary GOP primary fight, the kind with a moderate incumbent challenged from the right. But the Republican whom McGuire wants to oust in the June 18 primary is Rep. Bob Good, chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus.
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Youngkin creates task force to calm furor over veterans benefits
Gov. Glenn Youngkin is trying to quell a furor among Virginia military families by creating a task force to address budget changes that he originally advocated to a state program. The program pays for tuition and fees at public colleges and universities for family of military service members killed or severely disabled while on active duty. Youngkin issued an executive directive on Wednesday night to create the task force, three days after he signed a new two-year budget that would limit eligibility for the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program.
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Charges dropped against several arrested at UVa protest
One by one, the charges lodged against those arrested at an encampment of anti-war protesters at the University of Virginia earlier this month are being dropped. Kristen Finn, a local freelance photographer, was among the 27 people arrested on May 4 when UVa administrators called in Virginia State Police to break up the small encampment that had been quietly protesting Israel's ongoing war in Gaza for four days. ... On Wednesday, Albemarle County dropped the charges against Finn — and five others.
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Henrico launching $60M housing trust fund with revenue from data centers
Less than a month after receiving a directive from county supervisors for “something transformational” to address housing affordability, Henrico officials have come up with a plan that leans heavily on a growing source of revenue: data center dollars. Henrico is contributing $60 million in cash to establish its first housing trust fund, which will be fueled by economic development revenue generated specifically from data centers.
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Arrests of US tourists in Turks and Caicos for carrying ammunition prompts plea from three governors
Five Americans are facing prison sentences of up to 12 years in the Turks and Caicos Islands on charges they illegally carried ammunition during recent trips to the popular, upscale tourist destination about 600 miles (965 km) southeast of Miami. Three of the arrests have prompted pleas for mercy from the governors of Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Virginia. In a letter Tuesday to the islands’ governor, they said the three men charged from their states maintained they inadvertently took ammunition with them on vacation. They did not have firearms.
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Virginia governor asks president to bring back in-person work for federal employees
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is calling on the Biden administration to bring back in-person work for federal employees. Back in December, Youngkin wrote a letter to the Office of Personnel Management urging the administration to mandate and enforce a full return-to-work policy in an effort to boost Metro's ridership. Now he's asking again.
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Democratic race to replace Rep. Wexton gets first negative attack
Virginia’s crowded Democratic primary election contest to replace U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) will soon see its first negative attack — a contrast to what has been a mostly polite competition to succeed the congresswoman who is not seeking reelection in November for health reasons. As early as Friday, a YouTube ad and two mailers paid for by Left Rising, a D.C.-based group that promotes liberal causes, will begin targeting voters with attacks against former Virginia House speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (Fairfax), considered to be one of the top contenders in the June 18 election.
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70 years after landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling, the echoes continue in Prince Edward County
In the 70 years since the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case banned racial segregation in U.S. schools, the pursuit of quality and equitable education in Prince Edward County has taken many forms and faced many challenges, and continues strong today in its legacy and impact. As one of the five civil rights cases that were combined in Brown, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County brought together the lion’s share of individual plaintiffs decrying the “separate but equal” doctrine as a farce — about three-quarters of more than 200 people named in Brown.
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Governor's Office Spurns FOIA Request
Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office is withholding in full 16 pages of records responsive to a request under the Freedom of Information Act, citing the exemption provided for “working papers and correspondence of the Office of the Governor.” The request was for correspondence between the University of Mary Washington, the Governor’s Office and the Virginia State Police that occurred between April 25 and the April 27th arrest of 12 individuals—including nine students—who were participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment on the university campus.