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VaNews

Most Read Articles April 25, 2024

1

Cordish wins Petersburg’s casino business, but council members’ reaction is muted

By BILL ATKINSON, Progress Index (Metered paywall - 10 articles a month)

City Council unanimously chose a familiar face as its preferred casino vendor Wednesday night, but the choice took a back seat to what happened once the special meeting was adjourned. Instead of sticking around to talk about the economic potential of that decision or the next steps in the process of pushing the idea to Petersburg’s voters, councilors quickly dashed to their cars in the Petersburg Public Library parking lot. Some of them declined to comment while others walked stone-faced without saying a word as they approached reporters waiting outside for reaction.

2

Schapiro: Angling to offer something for everyone

By JEFF E. SCHAPIRO, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Virginia Democrats are falling in line and falling in love. With Levar Stoney’s strategic retreat — rather than risk a pasting for the 2025 gubernatorial nomination, he’s risking a pasting for the 2025 lieutenant governor’s nomination — Democrats are forgoing a contest for their top spot to rally behind Abigail Spanberger, whose politics and posturing seem to give almost everyone in a party still whining over Glenn Youngkin’s squeaker victory in 2021 something to cheer about.

3

Virginia sex offender registry displayed inaccurate data for months

By RYAN NADEAU, WRIC-TV

There are nearly 1,800 registered sex offenders who live, work or go to school in the City of Richmond — but it still isn’t the community with the most registered sex offenders per capita in Central Virginia, according to new data from Virginia State Police. Following a recent report stating that the City of Richmond has the highest rate of registered sex offenders per capita among over 430 total major cities surveyed, 8News investigated more local cities and counties to learn how many registered sex offenders are in the Richmond region and some surrounding localities. As the 8News team looked into this topic, multiple issues were discovered in how Virginia’s sex offender registry returns information to users.

4

Petersburg doubles down on Cordish as its casino operator

By GRAHAM MOOMAW, Virginia Mercury

After a closed meeting that lasted more than an hour and a half, the Petersburg City Council abruptly voted Wednesday to pick Baltimore-based Cordish Companies as the developer that will have a chance to build a casino in the economically struggling city. There was nothing on the council’s meeting agenda indicating such a monumental decision could be happening on Wednesday afternoon, and council members quickly left the mostly empty auditorium without explaining the move to the handful of reporters in attendance. Several members said “no comment” when approached.

5

Jury rejects claims that Fairfax schools mishandled teen’s rape claims

By SALVADOR RIZZO AND KARINA ELWOOD, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

A 24-year-old woman who sued school officials in Fairfax County, Va., for millions of dollars, saying they mishandled allegations more than a decade ago that she was raped, lost her case Wednesday when she was unable to convince a federal jury that the school system had failed her. The woman, identified in legal records only by the initials B.R., testified through tears at times in U.S. District Court in Alexandria that she was bullied and harassed in 2011 as a student at Rachel Carson Middle School in Herndon, a pattern of abuse that she said escalated to gang rape.

6

Yancey: Some high-poverty counties told they can better pay for own schools than richest county in country

By DWAYNE YANCEY, Cardinal News

One-third of the localities that are rated the best able to pay for their own schools also have more than 50% of their students living in poverty. That’s a fact, based on data from the Virginia Department of Education. Now here’s an opinion: That doesn’t seem right. The culprit here is the Local Composite Index, the funding formula that determines a locality’s ability (or inability) to pay for its own schools — and therefore determines how much the state will pay to make up the difference. Bath County, Lancaster County and Surry County are among nine localities all scored at .8000 — the highest score possible, meaning they are more able to pay for their schools than anybody else.

7

VCU Health seeks to end $56 million payment to Richmond

By ERIC KOLENICH, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 7 articles a month)

Virginia Commonwealth University Health is seeking to terminate a deal that pays the city of Richmond $56 million, VCU president Michael Rao said Wednesday. The health system agreed to give the city a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, as part of a failed redevelopment project at the Public Safety Building downtown. State lawmakers have called for VCU Health to end the payments, but Mayor Levar Stoney objected, saying the health system should pay what it contractually owes.

8

Pulaski town councilman charged with ethics and conflict of interest law violations

By MARKUS SCHMIDT, Cardinal News

A member of the Pulaski Town Council was charged with three class 1 misdemeanors and one class 3 misdemeanor last week relating to alleged ethics and conflict of interest law violations in his role as a public official between January 2021 and April 2024. The charges against Michael Reis, an attorney from Pulaski who was first elected to the council in 2020, stem from his role in facilitating the appropriation of public funds to benefit the renovation of the Calfee Community & Cultural Center, a local institution that came to be known as the Calfee Training School when it first was a school for Black children in 1894, and Wide Angle Strategies LLC, a consulting firm with a vested interest in the center.

9

Justices’ $1 billion suit against Carter Bank transferred to Virginia court

By MATT BUSSE, Cardinal News

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered that a $1 billion federal lawsuit filed by West Virginia’s governor, his family and their companies against a Martinsville-based bank and its board be transferred from a court in West Virginia to Virginia. Gov. Jim Justice; his wife, Cathy; their son, Jay; and more than a dozen of their family companies filed the suit in November. They allege that Carter Bank & Trust and its directors have violated banking laws and prevented the Justices from working with other lenders so that the bank can continue collecting interest on the family’s loan portfolio.

10

Vindman has huge fundraising lead in 7th District race

By CHER MUZYK, Prince William Times

The race for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District is shaping up to be very competitive — and very expensive. In the Democratic primary race, retired Army Col. Yevgeny “Eugene” Vindman, 48, of Woodbridge, has a solid financial edge, raising more money than all the Republican and Democratic candidates in both primary races combined — by far. Since launching his campaign late last year, Vindman has raised nearly $3.8 million. That’s more than four times the amount raised by his Democratic rivals, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.