VPM Daily Newscast

Hopewell Public Schools now requires middle and high school students to keep their cellphones locked away in magnetic pouches during the school day — and other divisions in the commonwealth are following suit.   Megan Pauly with VPM News reports. 

An upstart Fan bar is looking to the court system for help in its battle with the state health department; Stone Brewing is in production expansion mode at its massive East End Richmond facility; and a 4-acre food truck park is moving into the former Innsbrook After Hours location.

Back in 2021, the Hanover County Board of Supervisors partnered with a broadband company called All Points to develop a comprehensive plan to connect county residents to reliable internet service.  However, since said partnership began, the pace at which the Connect Hanover project has progressed has been slower than anticipated.  In the words of Henry District Supervisor Sean Davis, Hanover resid...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS, pronounced pee-FOSS) include thousands of unique chemical compounds that have been widely used in industrial and household products since the 1940s — including firefighting foam, nonstick cookware and disposable plates. And in 2021, Henrico County detected those chemicals in both the Chickahominy River and further upstream in the White Oak Swamp watershe...

The city of Richmond and the Virginia Museum of History and culture recognized the family history of nine Black Richmonders this past weekend; There may be a rural-urban divide among mice – and you may be able to use it for free pest control; Virginia Beach is hosting a hiring event on Saturday to help combat its shortage of garbage truck drivers.

Emails obtained by VPM News show Virginia is talking with more than a dozen other states, including Ohio and Florida, to come up with a plan to combat voter fraud; A Richmond-based Kava-Bar is taking the Virginia Department of Health to court over its battle to open; Bus riders who rely on the Greater Richmond Transit Company’s downtown hub will see some service changes when the new transfer stati...

Richmond’s in the process of setting up a major surveillance system.

Professional, environmental and health regulations make up the majority of those under review this year, according to a VPM News analysis of a publication announced by Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Monday.  The Unified Regulatory Plan is required to be compiled each year, under a 2022 executive order. It lists all anticipated rulemaking activities for the next fiscal year, which runs from July 1-June 30.

One of the larger remaining pieces of the GreenCity puzzle is now in place for the massive arena-anchored development in the works in Henrico; A local developer has pulled the plug on its plans for hundreds of new apartments downtown; A hotelier and financier are teaming up to buy a downtown office tower and carry out a previously proposed plan to turn it into hundreds of apartments; and other loc...

Trudy Berry was always a long-shot candidate for the heavily rural and Republican Senate District 9 seat, stretching from Danville to the outskirts of Farmville.    But her odds dimmed further when Danville Democratic official Clem Oliver left off a .gov from an email submitting Berry’s paperwork to the state on April 10, according to a letter to the board from the Democratic Party of Virginia. Th...

The city's school board approved a third-party investigation into the June 6 Huguenot High School graduation shooting that killed a graduating student and his stepfather. Last month, the school board received a 7-page internal review of the shooting — including districtwide recommendations to implement. Those included adopting enhanced security protocol for all graduations and large events, as wel...

A nonprofit that runs a charitable bingo game in Southside is asking a Richmond circuit court to remove a casino referendum from November ballots; Hanover’s comprehensive plan envisions the county’s long-term growth; Virginia State University has installed fifty solar-powered trash compactors on its campus ahead of the 2023 school year. 

Cindy Moussavou and Beth Vann-Turnbull of Housing Families First are working to ensure struggling families across Virginia find permanent places to live — all while rents soar, and the number of available houses and apartments dwindles.   The two recently spoke to VPM Morning Edition Host Phil Liles about the obstacles they face and the tools they’re using to overcome them.

For at least the third time in its history, Willow Lawn is being eyed for a major transformation; A proposal being pondered by the City of Richmond could have Carytown closing off to car traffic in the coming years; and after a year in Shockoe Slip, an Italian eatery is heading west to a longtime Fan restaurant space.

The State Water Commission heard updates on public efforts to detect and remove PFAS (PEA-foss) from drinking water systems this week; There’s no evidence the E-G-5 Covid variant spreads more easily or causes more dire illness. That's according to the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts; The Hanover County School Board amended its library policy this week. 

Virginia Housing denied the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s application for about $15 million dollars in federal tax credits to build the second phase of new housing in Creighton Court; The Henrico Board of Supervisors has voted unanimously to approve a new solar panel site on the roof of the Eastern Henrico Recreation Center along North Laburnum Avenue; National environmental activ...

The city of Richmond is holding a gun buyback event between 7 and 11 A-M Saturday; A commission studying how to change the structure of city government recently submitted its report to Richmond city council; Attorney General Jason Miyares is calling for the end of legacy admissions at all colleges and universities in the commonwealth. 

Three Central American men filed a federal lawsuit last week alleging they’ve been unlawfully detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Virginia after winning their immigration cases.  In separate cases, the three men won immigration cases that granted them protection from deportation to their homes in El Salvador and Honduras. Judges ruled the men risked being tortured if they returned. ...

A New Orleans native is tackling food waste and expanding access to healthy food in Richmond.

Sauer Properties is looking to effectively build a new neighborhood from scratch in the next leg of its Sauer Center development in the city; After years of preparation, the needle is set to drop on a new winery on the Southside; and Sugar & Twine is planning to invite its patrons back inside after several years of serving them on the sidewalk.

The City of Richmond’s Bike Share program shut down in May; The Virginia State Police are investigating the July death of a patient at Central State Hospital; A new refrigerator, filled with free fruit and vegetables is going up in Southside.

The city is rolling back plans to build Richmond Fire Department's new training facility in a Southside greenspace, following months of resident opposition and a lawsuit.  City Council voted to approve the original planned structure next to Hickory Hill Community Center in May — after the city’s Planning Commission and Urban Design Committee voted against it.  The new new planned facility will be...

VPM News requested data from the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts on the differences in health outcomes by race and income — following the announcement of more than $600,000 in Health Equity Fund grants for local organizations to address disparities. What RHHD aggregated illustrated continued health disparities between Black and white Richmond residents when it came to COVID-19, food access,...

Petersburg City Council has voted to issue $34 million dollars in bonds to pay for the expansion of the city’s downtown courthouse; Each year since 2006, Virginia has waived sales tax for certain back-to-school-supplies during the first weekend in August; The Richmond-based United Network for Organ Sharing might not retain its monopoly on transplants after a vote last week by the U.S. Congress.

A Lynchburg-area coalition is aiming to secure up to $75 million dollars of federal aid to help develop the region’s nuclear industry; Richmond City officials are pushing back against the local Electoral Board’s decision to eliminate two early voting sites; Two Richmond City Councilors made recommendations Friday on how to serve residents experiencing homelessness; and other local news stories.