Virginia’s junior U.S. Senator is backing a federal dual-enrollment bill that would enable more students to attend high school while earning college credits. Senator Tim Kaine tells Virginia Public Radio’s Tommie McNeil that his family saved money through a dual enrollment program—and similar initiatives nationally could help put more students through college.

Greg Sanders, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (http://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsnortheast/6044721273)

Summer is just about here,  and in many of the nation’s national parks, that means forest fires.  Here in Virginia, it may also bring a different kind of blaze – one that threatens a vast wetland and wildlife refuge near Norfolk.

After losing thousands of acres in years past, experts have come up with a plan for saving the Great Dismal Swamp.  Sandy Hausman has that story.

Governor McAuliffe marked the 60th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown versus Board of Education, with a visit to a Richmond high school.

African-American students from Virginia had joined that case in the 1950s after walking out of their racially segregated school in protest of its dilapidated conditions and inferior curriculum.

And as Virginia Public Radio’s Tommie McNeil reports, the governor provided a brief civics lesson—tying issues six decades ago to issues today.

As churches struggle to keep young Americans in the fold, some are moving their services to surprising places.  In Charlottesville, more than three dozen of the faithful assemble at a bar each month to drink beer and sing hymns.  Sandy Hausman has that story.

Republicans say a new Environmental Protection Agency rule will kill jobs in Virginia and they see it as a way to win November’s election. Capitol Hill reporter Matt Laslo has the story.

Photo: Eric Shimelonis

It’s said the harmonica was invented by German instrument maker Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann in 1821. Nearly 100 years later, a man was born who would take his passion for the harmonica to another level… and keep it there for nearly another 100 years.
Rebecca Sheir introduces us to Virginia resident Jack Hopkins who… at age 94… has had a longer love affair with the harmonica than most.

Kevin Quick Photo Courtesy: Virginia State Police

More charges today against nine defendants linked to the alleged kidnapping and murder of Waynesboro Reserve Police Captain Kevin Quick.
The charges and more than two dozen others are now unsealed, and link Quick’s death to  Bloods gang members and what’s known as the 99 Goon Syndikate.
In a 39-page indictment, charges linked to the group include robbery, larceny, burglary, obstruction of justice, kidnapping, carjacking, malicious wounding, drug trafficking, conspiracy and murder.
U.S. Attorney Timothy Heaphy held a news conference today in Charlottesville.

American Chestnut trees used make up 25% of the Appalachian forest. A blight, in the early 1900s changed that, and today they’re all but gone from the forests from Georgia to Maine. But the tree left us a way to resurrect it from the dead, and with it, a kind of message: Only with the help of human beings will the towering Chestnuts return. Robbie Harris prepared this report about people working to resurrect them.

Since the advent of smart phones, thousands of applications have come on the market.  You can buy one to help identify bird calls or constellations.  Another makes random sounds — a drum roll or a sad trombone for example.  I-steam fogs up the screen of your phone, allowing you to write things with your finger, and now Virginia’s Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is working on an app to make hunting and fishing simpler.  Hawes Spencer has that story.

Stock Photo/morguefile.com

This week embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is scheduled to face a Senate panel after veterans groups and some lawmakers have called for his resignation. Capitol Hill reporter Matt Laslo has the story.

Every year V-DOT brings before the public a six year improvement program that includes new projects along with those that have been on the shelf for years, or even decades. But, this year’s prioritizing may come undone.  Tab O’Neal reports.

Phil Hollman/Wikimedia Commons

Shareholders hoping to push Dominion Power to go green are celebrating today, after four resolutions they proposed won about 20% support at the utility’s annual meeting.  Such resolutions are not binding, but they can be influential.  Sandy Hausman has more on that story.

Stan Brock, Remote Area Medical

A nonprofit organization that brings free medical care to underserved communities has announced the establishment of a state office and a permanent presence in Virginia. “Remote Area Medical” has been offering regular, mobile clinics in Southwest Virginia that have attracted thousands of patients needing care. RAM intends to expand operations—including to other regions of the Commonwealth.

The cost of health care has been rising faster than other sectors for decades, to the point where today, one of every five dollars is spent there.  But exactly why that is, has not been well understood, until now.  Robbie Harris has this report.

Photo: WSET

There have been a dozen toxic spills from railroad cars in North America over the last year and three cases of river pollution in this region over the past four months. Are these accidents happening more often?   Should this country have rail lines and toxic storage facilities so close to its waterways, and what’s being done to prevent future problems? We asked Sandy Hausman to find answers.

Next week the U-S Senate is expected to have a debate on a bill that would modernize the federal government’s use of energy, but it could get derailed by an oil pipeline in the Midwest. Capitol Hill reporter Matt Laslo has the story.

Photo from LuAnn Hunt, City of Lynchburg

The National Transportation Safety Board has a team in place in Lynchburg, trying to determine the cause and the environmental impact of yesterday’s CSX train derailment downtown that plunged three oil-carrying tanker cars into the James River and the resulting massive fire.  Connie Stevens has more.