Virginia Public Radio

Voters are a few months away from the midterm elections.

But do they feel confident that their votes will count?

Michael Pope has some new poll results.

  The Virginia Mercury Staff from left to right: Ned Oliver, Katie O’Connor, Robert Zullo and Mechelle Hankerson.
(Credit: Robert Zullo)

Virginia’s newest media outlet launches today. The Virginia Mercury is a nonprofit state-wide news website.

As Mallory Noe-Payne reports the scrappy start-up comes at a time when other outlets are cutting back.

The Republican Party is sharply divided over its controversial candidate for U.S. Senate.

But the Democrats are also divided.

As Michael Pope reports, some Democrats in the House of Delegates are staging an insurgency.

Virginia is going to court over alleged misuse of its “Virginia is for Lovers” slogan. And the gentrification battle is again being fought, this time in a pair of Richmond neighborhoods.

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.

 Credit Derek Bruff/Flickr CC

The school shooting in Florida earlier this year caused a new round of discussions about gun safety, although Republicans in the General Assembly say they would rather talk about other ways to make schools safer.

As Michael Pope reports, one of those ways is to look at mental health in the classroom.

A frame of video shows Sen. Tim Kaine (D – Virginia) making a point with a bottle of Catoctin Creek whiskey.

A Virginia distillery got some unexpected attention this week/recently when Senator Tim Kaine held up a bottle of its whisky in Congress.

He was making a point about the effects of the Trump administration’s trade war.

Mallory Noe-Payne reports.

Harvested eel grass with seed pods (Credit: Pamela D’Angelo)

Sea grass world-wide is in trouble. Losses are estimated at an area the size of a football field every half-hour.

Along the Atlantic, near the very tip of the DelMarVa Peninsula, scientists and conservationists have been working for a decade to restore one underwater sea grass that succumbed to disease and the hurricane of 1933.

Pamela D’Angelo asked, why the big effort?

  Abbie Arevalo-Herrera, center, hugs her sister and is embraced by her husband during a press conference at First Unitarian Universalist Church on June 22nd.
(Credit Mallory Noe-Payne / RADIO IQ)

It’s been three weeks since church members in Richmond offered sanctuary to a young mother facing deportation.

She and her daughter came to Virginia from Honduras in 2013, fleeing an abusive relationship and crossing the border illegally.

She’s since married a man here in Virginia and has had another child.

Reporter Mallory Noe-Payne visited her, and has more on how she’s doing.

John Henry James was lynched 120 years ago this week. Now, soil collected from the site of his murder will be delivered to the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama.
(Credit: Emily Richardson-Lorente)

Two tour buses rolled out of Charlottesville Sunday morning, with about 100 people and one jar of soil aboard.

They’re on a pilgrimage, of sorts, to commemorate John Henry James, a lynching victim who died in Charlottesville 120 years ago this week.

Emily Richardson-Lorente has the story.

MBandman/Creative Commons

Cities across Virginia are taking action against poverty.

Michael Pope has the story.

Some fear that the social safety net in Virginia may be crumbling.

Michael Pope explains why.

MBandman/Creative Commons

Hundreds of thousands of people in Virginia are about to get health insurance as a result of Medicaid expansion.

But as Michael Pope reports, the program has been growing even before the expansion.

  Janine Bell, president and creative director of the Elegba Folklore Society.
(Credit Mallory Noe-Payne)

For generations, the trade of enslaved Africans fueled Virginia’s economy, and Richmond was once the hub of that market.

For those who want to confront that difficult past, there’s the Richmond Slave Trail.

Reporter Mallory Noe-Payne went along on the night time tour, and has this report.

Virginia Republicans are in a state of flux right now, a shift that could have long-term consequences for Virginia politics.

Michael Pope has the story.

Credit Vangie Williams for Congress

Only four women have ever represented Virginia on Capitol Hill, and never a woman of color.

Now a Democratic candidate in Virginia’s 1st Congressional District is hoping to change that.

Mallory Noe-Payne reports.

Sen. Tim Kaine (Credit: U. S. Senate Photo)

Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine surprised many political watchers when he tossed his support behind a new bill to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level.

Matt Laslo has the story from Washington.

Several hundred Richmond seniors who would have spent the summer without air conditioning are getting some relief…  and volunteer rescue squads are struggling to remain viable all across Virginia.

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

More from Fred Echols.

John and Ruby Laury fear the Atlantic Coast Pipeline will rob them of clean air, clean water and the quiet of their rural neirhborhood. (Credit Sandy Hausman)

Opponents of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline have warned of possible harm to the environment and challenged Dominion’s right to take private property for this purpose.

Now, another group is coming forward with a different claim as Sandy Hausman reports.

  Senator Mark Warner speaks to reporters Wednesday outside the Youth for Tomorrow facility in Bristow. (Credit Michael Pope)

Some of the children caught up in the recent immigration policy enforcement are here in Virginia.

Michael Pope went to one facility in Northern Virginia where more than a dozen children from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are being housed.

According to a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, much of Virginia’s coastline will face persistent and chronic flooding by the end of the century.

As Mallory Noe-Payne reports, a new cabinet member in Virginia is being tasked with fighting the flooding.

One lost opportunity is turning into a new gig for one Virginia judge.

Michael Pope explains.

Smithfield Foods is no longer curing hams in Smithfield. And Richmond’s school superintendent says it’s time for gender-neutral caps and gowns.

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.

Corey Stewart celebrates victory in the Republican primary on June 12. (Credit: Michael Pope)

Voting results in the recent Republican primary for U.S. Senate show some signs that the traditional urban-rural divide may be slipping a bid.

Michael Pope is looking at the numbers.

Cooper Vineyards in Louisa (Credit Virginia Department of Agriculture)

Rolling into the weekend you may have plans to relax at one of Virginia’s many breweries or wineries

Mallory Noe-Payne reports that in the future, thanks to a new law, you may be able to bring your four legged-friend with you.

Richmond’s largest employer and one of the state’s biggest universities is marking a major milestone this summer.

Jason Fuller reports on how it’s changed the physical landscape of the city.

Virginia politicians are responding to reports of physical and emotional abuse of immigrant children detained at a juvenile justice center outside Staunton.

Mallory Noe-Payne reports.

Businesses across the country are about to get major new tax incentives to move to some of the poorest parts of Virginia.

But will it work?

Michael Pope reports.

Rep. Tom Garrett

Leaving Congress can be a liberating time in the life of an elected official, a time when lawmakers don’t have to listen to leadership or donors.

Michael Pope has the story of one Central Virginia congressman who says he lived those values his entire time in office.

(Credit: Lush Cupcakes)

Breweries and wineries are booming in Virginia.

And now, thanks to a change in state law, a new alcohol-inspired industry may soon blossom: boozy baked goods.

Mallory Noe-Payne has more.

  Patrick Welch, a member of VCU’s Hyperloop team, at work at BuildRVA.
(Credit: VCU College of Engineering)

SpaceX, the company run by Elon Musk has made headlines for revolutionizing space travel.

But the company is also focused on travel right here on Earth — a high-speed futuristic train called the Hyperloop.

It doesn’t exist yet, but college students around the world have done their part to inch the Hyperloop closer to reality, by taking part in an international design competition.

As Mallory Noe-Payne reports two of the twenty teams that are worldwide finalists are from Virginia.

Campers will discover not all Civil War soldiers dressed in blue or gray.
(Credit: National Museum of the Civil War Soldier)

Kids heading for summer camp have lots of choice – from conventional outdoor adventures to programs specializing in computers, the science of space travel and plenty of sports.

Here in Virginia, there’s a camp that allows children to experience the American Civil War.

Sandy Hausman traveled to Petersburg to check it out.