Most Read Articles April 4, 2025
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Yancey: 10 takeaways from this week’s General Assembly session on vetoes and amendments
The so-called “veto session” is now behind us but more vetoes lay ahead. How can this be? A brief civics lesson before we delve into the politics of what went down in Richmond this week. Virginia’s state government operates somewhat differently from the federal government (thank goodness, right?). A Virginia governor has more options on what to do with measures before him than an American president does. He (or next year, likely she) has three options: to sign a bill, veto it, or send it back to the legislature with amendments.
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Friday Read A toddler picked up a rock on a family trip. It was a 3,800-year-old artifact.
Ziv Nitzan was doing what all curious toddlers do on a nature walk: picking up rocks. So her parents thought nothing of it when the 3-year-old gazed out onto an expanse along a footpath in southern Israel one Saturday morning and plucked a small, rounded stone off the ground. ... It wasn’t until Ziv dusted the sand off the stone — small enough to fit in the palm of her tiny hand — and asked her mother about its strange markings that her parents realized she might have picked up something much more interesting than a rock.
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Chase files to challenge Earle-Sears in GOP primary for governor, but it’s unclear if she will qualify for ballot
Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, have submitted the paperwork necessary to face off in the race to be Virginia’s next governor—and the first woman to hold the seat. There may be a Republican primary for the executive office in June, however. Earle-Sears’ campaign filed paperwork to appear on the ballot, and the number of signatures her campaign submitted was verified by the Republican Party of Virginia on March 19. Former state Sen. Amanda Chase also filed paperwork to run in the governor’s race by the 5 p.m. deadline on April 3, though the number of signatures Chase submitted had yet to be verified by the party as of 6 p.m. Thursday.
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Warner and Kaine recommend GOP leader Gilbert, others for U.S. attorney in two districts
United States Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine sent their recommendations to President Donald Trump regarding who they want him to pick to be Virginia’s next United States Attorney in the Eastern and Western Districts. House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert and Senior Assistant Attorney General Robert Tracci were recommended for the Western District. In the Eastern District, Warner and Kaine recommended the Assistant General Counsel and Director of Investigations for Huntington Ingalls Industries, Michael Gill, and interim Eastern District U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert.
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Earle-Sears comments on federal layoffs spark outcry from unions, veterans
A newly surfaced recording of Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears is drawing sharp criticism from Democrats and federal employee unions, who say her remarks downplaying the impact of recent federal layoffs show a disregard for the thousands of Virginians — many of them veterans — who have lost their jobs under President Donald Trump’s administration’s workforce cuts. In the clip, released last week by the progressive media outlet Meidas Touch, Earle-Sears is heard downplaying concerns from federal workers about job losses tied to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has already axed more than 6,000 veterans and is on track to cut at least 80,000 VA employees nationwide, according to the Associated Press.
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As Lynchburg company vows to build small nuclear reactor for mass production, critics voice doubts
Last week, Lynchburg celebrated the opening of an innovation center owned by the nuclear energy giant BWX Technologies. They hope to build a small reactor that could be mass produced and shipped almost anywhere. Speeches were inspiring—full of hope and promise—but some energy experts are skeptical when it comes to small, modular nuclear reactors.
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Lingen: Cuts to Medicaid would devastate rural care in Virginia
Shortly after Doris Brown moved into her new home in Accomack County, she had to take her 4-year-old daughter for her wellness visit. Brown went to the same health provider that she had visited since she was a teen: Eastern Shore Rural Health System Inc., the only federally qualified health center (FQHC) on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. At that time, Brown’s daughter would at times appear lethargic and without an appetite, signs — since she wasn’t ill — that Brown chalked up to her daughter being four and a picky eater.
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Va. reports close to 300 layoffs across three businesses
A Fortune 500 federal contractor, a global aluminum company and a private school notified Virginia on March 31 of job cuts in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. Leidos, which has its headquarters in Reston and provides technology, engineering and science services to defense, intelligence, civil and health customers, will lay off 29 employees who work in Alexandria and Manassas next month. The company has a global workforce of 48,000.
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Former vice chair of Smyth County School Board pleads guilty to using minors to produce child pornography
The former vice chair of the Smyth County School Board pleaded guilty Thursday to using at least six male minors to produce child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia. Todd Stewart Williams, 54, of Chilhowie, pleaded guilty to four counts of persuading, inducing, enticing, and coercing and attempting to persuade, induce, entice and coerce one or more minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct, in interstate commerce, according to a news release.
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Spanberger will be lone Democratic nominee for Virginia governor’s race
Abigail Spanberger’s path to the Democratic nomination for Virginia governor is officially clear. The three-term former House member and former CIA case officer, who announced her bid to lead the state in November 2023, was confirmed as the party’s nominee by the Democratic Party of Virginia on Thursday after no other prospective candidates filed to run by the state deadline.