VPM Daily Newscast

Feds greenlit MVP’s natural gas operations on Tuesday. Also: Free breakfast and lunch being offered to Richmond students and families; and other local stories.

State lawmakers will meet on June 28 to discuss changes to state-provided military education benefits. Also: Fairfax County educators unionize; Richmond Parks & Rec will now operate Calhoun community center; and more local news.

The 303-mile-long pipeline could begin pumping natural gas as soon as this week. Also: Some Virginia Community Health Workers made it into the 2-year budget; UVA baseball heads to College World Series; and more local news stories.

The City of Richmond has acquired three historic Black cemeteries; VPM News ran two stories late last week about the primary races in Virginia's 7th and 10th Congressional Districts.

A year after a Richmond BizSense report revealed that backing out of an ill-fated downtown development cost VCU Health $80 million and counting, a state review is calling for significant changes to the health system’s leadership structure.

Lawmakers will be called back to Richmond to address recent cuts to the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program; Northern Virginia voters are deciding who to nominate for this fall’s general election. Six Republicans and Seven Democrats are seeking their parties’ nominations in the 7th Congressional District.

The Virginia General Assembly in 2021 approved a plan for the state’s air board to adopt the standards, which required all new passenger vehicles sold in the commonwealth to be electric by 2035 — though 20% of those could be plug-in hybrids. Also: Virginia's air board adopts federal particulate matter standards; and other stories

Henrico County's Arrive Alive campaign aims to improve road safety; Trial begins for man who carried a torch in Charlottesville in 2017; and other stories

The families of three University of Virginia football players killed in a 2022 shooting have reached a financial settlement with U-V-A and the commonwealth; PlanR-V-A is seeking survey responses and holding public meetings for its Comprehensive Climate Action Plan; A Chesapeake Bay blue crab density survey found that populations declined slightly over the past year.

A new podcast produced by VPM is focusing on Richmond-area local government and community issues. Rich Meagher, a professor of political science at Randolph-Macon College, hosts RVA’s Got Issues — a biweekly show that drops Wednesdays. 

‘Policy Matters’ is your window into Virginia politics with VPAP. It's our monthly roundup of the top political headlines from across Virginia, powered by VPAP’s daily e-newsletter, VaNews. This month, we discuss the Governor and the General Assembly finalizing a state budget, highlights in key primary contests across the state, and information on early voting in Virginia.

Waukeshaw Development is working on a slate of new projects that’ll bring nearly 400 apartments and new commercial space to Petersburg’s Olde Towne area; the effort to line up funding for the long-planned Powhite Parkway extension in western Chesterfield County took another step forward this month; Southside's Coqui Cyclery is reopening as Cornerstone Cycle in early June; and a new bakery is comin...

Virginia budget provides $4.9M to tackle invasive species; Charges have been downgraded for the three remaining defendants accused of killing Irvo Otieno; City of Richmond receives $50 million from Virginia DEQ for combined sewer overflow project; and other stories

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts will be receiving almost $350-thousand dollars thanks to a federal grant, to help construct an expansion; Are you ready to get hooked…on fishing? ; The Ashland Theatre is hosting a  community meeting to discuss the approval of a possible data center split between Hanover County and Ashland.

Virginia electoral board delays vote on removing Charles City County official; Federal judge rejects request to halt Dominion’s Virginia Beach offshore wind farm; and other stories

Hanover County’s board of supervisors recently appointed two new members to the local school board; Senator Tim Kaine announced new legislation to increase access to mental health resources for students in public schools; The Orange County School Board voted to disaffiliate from the Virginia School Boards Association; and other local news stories.

Tree of Heaven is an especially pervasive weed in Virginia. And in recent years it’s become host to another invasive - the spotted lanternfly.

A virtual reality venue is plugging in as the latest entertainment-focused offering to come to Regency; A decade-plus effort to provide new signage for the entrance to Carytown has reached the finish line; A community meeting was held Monday night to field public input on what a new Mayo Bridge could look like; and what started as a way to drum up lunchtime business at a western Henrico Thai resta...

Dominion Energy is considering building a natural gas power plant on the site of a retired coal plant in Chesterfield, after initially planning to locate it on a nearby property; The Mountain Valley Pipeline won’t be ready to begin operations this week, the project’s builder told federal regulators; Earlier this week, Virginia’s nonpartisan oversight commission released its 2024 plan for evaluatin...

Charlottesville community comes together to reclaim the former site of a Confederate statue, Virginia Democrats say budget compromise falls short without RGGI and other stories

Also: The Virginia Housing Commission is studying Accessory Dwelling Units; who’s running for the Richmond School Board?

HCA Healthcare is attempting to build new facilities in Hanover County for a third time; Virginia legislators are sounding the alarm over the health and safety of people incarcerated at Riverside Regional Jail; A 140-year-old Charlottesville church along Ridge Street will again be a place of worship, after the nonprofit owners sold the building to Point Church for just over one million dollars.

Shockoe Slip and the Branch Building, where The Well Collective will be operating holds the inception of the country's economic development system, including the hurt and harm of the slave trade. Owner Ashley Williams says the building will be reimagined as a place of healing.

Less than 24 hours after authorizing a new financing plan for the ballpark-anchored Diamond District development, Richmond City Council and Mayor Levar Stoney have been hit with a lawsuit challenging the action; local developer Duke Dodson is set to turn a former Scott’s Addition bar-arcade space into a sports bar-card shop combo concept; and more than 500 apartments are in the works near the inte...

The 70th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision that found racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional is Friday.  One of the court cases that led to that decision began in Virginia, with calls for newer and better school facilities for Black students. This VPM News series examines the issue of school conditions — then and now — to unpack why so many...