Gov. Ralph Northam

Polling from Roanoke College shows approval for Virginia Governor Ralph Northam is on the rise.

He’s up to a 37% approval rating. That’s a five point uptick since February when a racist photo was discovered on his medical school yearbook page.

Mallory Noe-Payne has this look at where Virginia’s Governor stands now, six months later.

  Air pollution or haze hurts scenic views in Shenandoah National Park. The National Park Service has documented the effect on the park’s views back into the 1990’s.
(Credit” Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments)

When you think about a national park, you probably think about fresh air, but the fact is that pollution blows through many of our parks, including the Shenandoah.

The Environmental Protection Agency came up with a rule to address air quality, but park advocates complain that the Trump administration is getting in the way of improvements.

Sandy Hausman explains.

Credit: MBandman / Creative Commons

Do local governments across Virginia have zoning authority to tell gun stores where they can be located and, maybe more importantly, where they can’t be located?

Michael Pope reports.

Creative Commons via flickr.com

A judge in Oklahoma ruled yesterday/Monday the company Johnson and Johnson is partially responsible for the opioid epidemic there. The drug-maker has been ordered to pay half a billion dollars.

Virginia wasn’t a party in that case, but as Mallory Noe-Payne reports the ruling could still have implications for the Commonwealth.

Next week is Labor Day and the traditional beginning of the campaign season in Virginia.

As Michael Pope reports, a new poll shows Democrats are poised to do very well.

US Census Bureau Data

Virginia marked Women’s Equality Day Monday.

But as Michael Pope reports, there’s still no equality between the genders in Virginia when it comes to pay.

Charles Jameson looks on as fellow reenactors Charles Belfield, George Beckett and fire muskets in a salute to black patriots of the Revolutionary War.
(Credit: Pamela D’Angelo)

It’s been nearly two-and-a-half centuries since the Revolutionary War and still very little is known about Virginia’s black patriots.

Some were promised freedom and went into battle. Others produced weapons, clothing and food.

In the Tidewater Region, the Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Society is recognizing the role of black patriots in winning the war.

Pamela D’Angelo reports.

(Credit: 401(K) 2012 via Flickr.com / CC)

Is the federal government doing enough to protect people with student loans?

Michael Pope reports that one Virginia Congressman is seeking action on the issue.

  Shalin Desai celebrates completing his AT hike from Georgia to Maine. Now he’s organizing groups to enjoy and maintain the trail.
(Credit: Shalin Desai)

The Appalachian Trail stretches nearly 2,200 miles from Georgia to Maine, and it depends on volunteers to keep the path clear.

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy is now trying to interest more people in the job – especially those who have not, historically, been part of the hiking community.

Sandy Hausman has details.

(Credit: Mallory Noe-Payne)

400 years ago, the first enslaved Africans arrived to English North America. That moment would set the trajectory of a nation.

The story begins in 1619. In western Africa, a village is raided and the people that lived there are put on a ship and forced to go to the New World. Through piracy and storms, about twenty land eventually in Point Comfort, Virginia.

Today the site is called Fort Monroe and it’s a National Monument.

Mallory Noe-Payne spoke about the history and future with Superintendent Terry Brown.

  Robert Morris, commissioner for RVA League for Safer Streets. Many of the young men he works with have been stopped by police. (Credit Mallory Noe-Payne)

Earlier this year Richmond Police released a trove of data. It revealed who in the city is stopped by law enforcement, and why.

The numbers show large racial disparities in stops for things like suspicious activity, and disorderly conduct.

Mallory Noe-Payne takes a look at the most drastic disparity– curfew violations.

Appalachia is known for its abundance of water. But a new study finds that climate change could have a strange effect here, causing both more floods and more droughts.

Robbie Harris reports.

  Pythium Pathogen grown from Chincoteage water samples. (Credit Erica Goss)

At Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on the Eastern Shore, a herd of wild ponies is under attack by a deadly infection.

So far, eight female ponies have died, and the volunteer fire department that owns the herd is fighting to prevent additional deaths.

Pamela D’Angelo reports the region’s changing climate is creating an ideal environment for the disease.

  Veterinarian Richard Hansen inspects ponies. (Credit Pamela D’Angelo)

For the past three years, a mysterious micro-organism has been infecting the famous wild ponies of Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

The infection is known as swamp cancer and it has killed eight female ponies so far.

The volunteer fire department that owns the herd and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the refuge, have brought in scientists and veterinarians to try to eliminate the culprit and cure the disease.

Pamela D’Angelo reports.

Private war games in Hanover County have some neighbors upset. And the toll road industry in the Hampton Roads area is now bigger than some of the region’s better known economic mainstays.

Those have been among the most read stories over the past week at the Virginia Public Access Project’s Va. News link. 

More now from Fred Echols.