Most Read Articles Sept. 12, 2020
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Despite setbacks, Gold Cup optimistic about future
Faced with severe revenue challenges because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Virginia Gold Cup Association took unprecedented steps to salvage this year’s spring and fall steeplechase meets at Great Meadow near The Plains. . . . “The COVID-19 epidemic shattered the financial position of the Virginia Gold Cup for 2020,” VGCA President Will Allison explained. “We were not allowed to sell the things we usually do to raise money” — most importantly admission tickets but also sponsorships to help support the spring steeplechase meet at the 374-acre course in Northern Fauquier.
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Schapiro: A delusional march to redemption
For Levar Stoney, politics is strictly business. There’s a lesson in that for another young man in a hurry — one who has no use for Stoney: Justin Fairfax. Running in a crowded field for a second term as Richmond mayor — amid racial turmoil, police violence, a cratering economy and the coronavirus — Stoney needs all the help he can get. The last person you’d think he’d turn to for an endorsement is the governor whose resignation he demanded 19 months ago for alleged bigotry.
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Loudoun Co. virtual learning interrupted by students using racial slurs, displaying explicit images
The first week of virtual learning in Loudoun County, Virginia, was interrupted by incidents of students using racial slurs, displaying sexual images or popping into the virtual sessions of other classes or schools. “These incidents are contrary to our core beliefs, our commitment to racial equity and other matters of equity as described in the LCPS Equity Statement, and to the expectations we have established for appropriate behavior by students in the virtual environment,” Williams said in a news release.
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King William County Commissioner of the Revenue refuses to cooperate with audit, emails show
King William Commissioner of the Revenue Sally Pearson refused, on several occasions, to let auditors in her office Sept. 2, according to email correspondence between high-level county officials. Pearson’s refusal to participate in the audit comes nearly six weeks after she declined to take part in the county’s reassessment process, one of the essential functions of her office. It was the reassessment, during which it was revealed that hundreds of properties weren’t being taxed, that prompted County Administrator Bobbie Tassinari to initiate the performance audit of Pearson’s office.
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Virginia lawmakers push to expand police decertification law
A white Virginia state trooper yells an expletive-laden threat at a Black motorist who refuses to get out of his car during a traffic stop. Smiling for the driver’s cellphone camera, the trooper remarks, “Watch the show, folks,” then yanks the man out of his car by his neck. The video sparked outrage in Virginia, but under current state law, the trooper’s conduct — unless he’s later convicted of a crime — is not grounds for disqualifying him from working in law enforcement.
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In a historically GOP stronghold, Democrat Abigail Spanberger looks to hang on
POWHATAN — By the end of the day, Rep. Abigail Spanberger had peeked inside a whiskey pot still and toured a garage of banged-up cars, taking notes on how covid-19 has affected a pair of businesses in this small town outside Richmond. Trump-Pence yard signs lined the two-lane road she had driven to get here, proof of the battle the first-term Democrat faces in defending her seat from Republican challenger Nick Freitas.
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Computer hackers attack Fairfax County school system
Hackers attacked the Fairfax County Public Schools computer system and placed ransomware on some of its systems, a school district spokesperson said Friday. The district, which serves 189,000 students in northern Virginia, said it had recently learned of the attack and it is working with its security experts to investigate the scope of the attack and determine what information was stolen. Ransomware is software used to steal and then threaten publication of data or block access unless a ransom is paid.
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From VPAP Maps, Timeline of COVID-19 in Virginia
Our COVID-19 dashboard makes it easy to track the latest available data for tests performed, infections, deaths and hospital capacity. There's a filter for each city and county, plus an exclusive per-capita ZIP Code map. Updated each morning around 10:30 a.m.
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‘We’re committed’: Virginia Tech’s Sands says going remote isn't helpful
Virginia Tech likely won’t send students packing this fall, because a shift to all-online classes would do little to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, President Tim Sands said Friday. “I won’t say categorically that we won’t change direction, but, to be perfectly honest, I think what we’re learning is that going remote wouldn’t help that much,” Sands told students at an hour-long virtual town hall.
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EDITORIAL: Here's what the critics of W&L's 'How to overthrow the state' class missed
Some things are too good to be true. That inheritance from the Nigerian prince. The promise that “one size fits all.” Those pop-up ads that promise “single girls in your area are dying to meet you.” And the fevered claim that has rocketed around the mediasphere that Washington & Lee University is teaching students “how to overthrow the state.” This seemed to fit perfectly into the mindset that academia is an elitist enclave of radicals who are busily molding impressionable young minds to hate America.