Most Read Articles Sept. 7, 2020
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Two delegates rip fellow Democrat who voted against bill to end qualified immunity for police
Two members of the House of Delegates took to Twitter on Saturday to rip a fellow Democrat who voted against a bill to end qualified immunity for police officers. The House voted 48-47 Friday to defeat House Bill 5013, sponsored by Del. Jeff Bourne, D-Richmond, a measure meant to strip a doctrine that often is used to protect officers from lawsuits.
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Hundreds of JMU students are sick. Thousands have to move home by Monday.
Jessica Reyes watched as stickers on floors guiding direction and distance went unheeded and unregulated during the days of her first week back at James Madison University. And at night, she’d see groups as large as 15 dressed in party clothes and packing into Ubers. Autry Harper saw students cycle in and out of a still-crowded dining hall — unmasked as they ate — during her shifts as a dining employee.
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Rural Virginia community that thought it could escape pandemic now has among highest number of new cases in state
In the brightest red corner of Virginia, where "Trump Digs Coal" signs dot the Appalachian mountain hollers, Jerry Estep first brushed off the coronavirus as an urban plague. Now he won't leave home in this tiny town, population 980, without a mask. “I was just going out like normal, but that’s not normal no more,” said Estep, 77, a retired florist with longtime health woes that could make a case of the coronavirus especially lethal. “I thought we were immune to it because we’re a small, rural area. But it has caught up.”
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From VPAP Maps, Timeline of COVID-19 in Virginia
Our COVID-19 dashboard makes it easy to track the latest available data for tests performed, infections, deaths and hospital capacity. There's a filter for each city and county, plus an exclusive per-capita ZIP Code map. Updated each morning around 10:30 a.m.
5
House of Delegates passes police reform bills banning chokeholds, no-knock warrants and more
The Virginia House of Delegates passed a batch of reform bills Friday that would ban police from using chokeholds or serving search warrants without police announcing their presence, as well as strengthen the process of decertifying an officer’s license to prevent a bad one from working again in law enforcement.
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Entrenched racist culture at heart of Portsmouth’s police department, officers and former chief say
From offensive jokes to fighting reform and endangering Black officers, the Portsmouth Police Department has an entrenched racist culture that hurts female and minority officers and the predominantly Black community alike, according to nine current and former officers, including the department’s former chief. Time and again a group of mostly white officers have pushed back against modernization, worked to oust chiefs, stifled the careers of minority and female officers and sought retribution on anyone seen as a threat to their “good-ol’-boy” system of racial intimidation, according to eight Black officers who recently spoke to The Virginian-Pilot.
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Virginia Supreme Court refuses to extend state ban on evictions, saying federal moratorium in effect
The Supreme Court of Virginia on Friday denied a request from Gov. Ralph Northam (D) to extend a state moratorium against evictions that's due to expire Monday, but noted the state's judges should follow a federal moratorium put in place this week. Aimed at protecting cash-strapped people from losing their homes during the coronavirus pandemic, the state’s moratorium began a month ago at Northam’s request and runs until Monday.
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Northam signs legislation to allow ballot drop boxes
Gov. Ralph Northam signed legislation Friday to set up ballot drop boxes for the November election. The General Assembly gave final passage to the measure earlier in the day. With about two months until the general election, the legislature wanted to fast-track the legislation so that local registrars could make the last-minute changes to voting opportunities. Republicans pushed back on the legislation, bringing up concerns about the security of the boxes and the $2 million cost for prepaid postage for absentee ballots sent to voters.
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Even with federal moratorium, thousands still face eviction in Richmond
When he limped into a Richmond courtroom last week, Ronald Dabney was no closer to coming up with the money he owed his landlord than at the start of the pandemic. Since then, things had gone from bad to worse. As COVID-19 upended life across the state, he lost his job as a cook. Then his side work as an in-home caregiver dried up.
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Rozell: Blue Virginia now and forever? Not so fast
The Democratic Party in Virginia is having a remarkable run of victories — so much so that many observers today count the Old Dominion a solid blue (Democratic) state. No Republican candidate running statewide has won an election here since 2009, and Virginia is widely considered an easy win for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Democratic Sen. Mark Warner is projected to easily hold his seat.