Dove Archives Old Dominion, Prince Edward Co.

Virginia historians want your relics — photos, letters, newspapers, yearbooks — all in an effort to chronicle desegregation in the state. For more than 8 years, a database of primary sources related to the Commonwealth’s struggle to integrate its schools has quietly been growing at Old Dominion University.  Mallory Noe-Payne reports.

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Virginia’s two U-S senators are pushing legislation to help rural hospitals across the commonwealth get the same reimbursement rate for Medicare as their urban counterparts. Matt Laslo has the details from the Capitol.

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Small dollar lending has become increasingly controversial in recent years, especially now that the number of automobiles repossessed by the car title lending industry doubled over the last three years. Now a new federal rule could mean an end to lending practices critics call predatory. Michael Pope has the story. 

Around Virginia, the hottest primary on the ballot June 14 is the Republican contest in Hampton Roads. That’s where Republican incumbent Scott Rigell is stepping down after three terms in office.  As Michael Pope reports, one of the candidates in that primary is buying hundreds of thousands of dollars in television time.

The hottest race on the ballot this year is likely to be in Northern Virginia, where freshman Republican Congresswoman Barbara Comstock is facing Democratic challenger LuAnn Bennett. Michael Pope reports.

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Kroger and the food workers union have a new deal…one that will stop a possible strike next week. The tentative contract agreement comes after two days of negotiations between Local 400 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, and the biggest supermarket chain in the country.  Joe Staniunas reports.

As the Virginia death toll from opiates continues to rise, two big healthcare groups recently endorsed new opiate prescription guidelines aimed at hospital emergency rooms in an attempt to curb the epidemic. Jessie Knadler talks to two ER physicians in Augusta County about the guidelines, and what it’s like to work on the front lines of the drug scourge.

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Car-title lenders in Virginia may have dodged a bullet earlier this year when the Virginia General Assembly passed on reforming their industry. But the industry now faces a new threat from Washington. Michael Pope continues our coverage, with the latest on the new federal rule that could dramatically undermine predatory lending. 

In our region, the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline has aroused controversy.  So has another proposed natural gas line through Southwestern Virginia.  A new study takes a look at local costs of the pipeline that would stretch from West Virginia to a compressor station in southern Virginia. 

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Now that the presidential election cycle is heating up, so is the job market for people who work in political organizations. Michael Pope reports.

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Been out to a bar lately? Chances are you had more beer choices than you used to. That’s a sign of the state’s growing craft beer economy. The number of breweries in the Commonwealth has almost tripled in the past three years. Today, a look at that industry, and how it could change, as large out-of-state companies move into the market.  Reporter Mallory Noe-Payne kicksoff with a question: Is big beer actually a boon for the local guys?

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When members of the General Assembly convened in January, they were considering more than a dozen bills aimed at cracking down on the car-title lending industry. All of those efforts were scrapped, though, when lawmakers decided against passing legislation and instead asked the state regulator to take action. Now new campaign finance numbers that show what was happening behind the scenes. Michael Pope reports.

Across Virginia, local governments are balancing books any way they can. Some are raising taxes on hotel guests. Others are increasing the cost of street parking.  Michael Pope has the story.

Devils Backbone, the eight year old craft brewery headquartered in Nelson County, was recently bought for an undisclosed sum by global beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev. Now, some Virginia fans of the scruffy indie brand are questioning whether the label has sold out. Jessie Knadler sat down with CEO Steve Crandall to find out what’s in store for the Virginia brewery.

Temperatures are creeping up — with highs hitting the 80s this week. That may mean it’s time to trade in that hot cup of coffee in the morning for something different.  Cold brew coffee is a quickly growing sector of the caffeine marketplace, and a new company here in Virginia is finding a way to cash in. It didn’t take much to convince reporter Mallory Noe-Payne to bring us their story.

Frustration is growing in both parties on Capitol Hill because pressing national issues are going unaddressed, which has led to some questioning whether the gridlock will hurt the Republican Party, which controls both chambers of Congress. Matt Laslo reports. 

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It’s been less than a year since the United States Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriages will be recognized nationally. Now the Virginia Supreme Court is getting into the act. The commonwealth’s highest court is making a move toward divorce equality.  Matt Laslo reports.

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Virginia’s car-title lending industry has exploded in the six years since the General Assembly crafted regulations legalizing loans that have more than 200 percent interest rates. But Virginia is not alone. States across the country are struggling to deal with payday loans and Internet loans and open-ended credit loans – a set of financial products critics call “predatory lending.” As Michael Pope reports, that’s why lawmakers in Washington are hoping to create new rules to crack down on the industry.

In Washington, Virginia’s two senators are joining forces along with half a dozen other senators to help encourage states to expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act. As Michael Pope reports, the law is aimed at extending a deadline that’s already passed.