Elle Meyers

Gov. Ralph Northam announced that Virginia colleges and universities will be allowed to hold in-person classes this fall, as the state’s COVID-19 cases continue on a favorable trajectory. He also noted that the state’s May revenues weren’t as bad as officials expected at a press conference Thursday.  “I’m glad to say that so far Virginia…

Gov. Ralph Northam announced that Virginia schools will reopen in the fall, but the school day will feel different due to modifications for social distancing. “The school experience will look very different,” Northam said. “Phases will allow in-person instruction, but slowly. We’ll start with small groups [of students] which will give schools the flexibility they…

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. apologized Monday for advertising face masks with a racist photo on Twitter. The tweet has since been deleted. The photo came from Gov. Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook page in the 1980s, and pictured a student in a KKK costume and a student in blackface. “After listening to African…

President Donald Trump tweeted a memo from his pollster that argues without evidence that media company pollsters are colluding against Trump in favor of Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden. His pollster, John McLaughlin of McLaughlin & Associates, also happens to be responsible for one of the biggest polling errors in the past…

The murder of George Floyd and ongoing unrest across the country has placed renewed interest on the progress local officials have made to address criminal justice reform, or rather the lack thereof.  When Democrats took full control of the state legislature in Virginia, many ran for their seats on the promise of criminal justice reform.…

Gov. Ralph Northam officially announced that the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert Lee would be coming down in the state’s capital city. “Virginia has never been willing to deal with symbols until now,” Northam said at a press conference Thursday. “Generations ago, Virginia made the decision not to celebrate unity, but to honor the cause…

Gov. Ralph Northam announced most of Virginia will enter Phase Two of reopening from the coronavirus shutdown on Friday, but also spent much of his time addressing ongoing protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.  Northam said most of Virginia could proceed to Phase Two of reopening later this week due to…

Top leaders of the church that President Trump used as a photo backdrop after tear-gassing peaceful protesters are outraged at the president’s callous action. “There was no reaching out, no sense that it would require some sort of authorization before using the church as a backdrop in that way,” Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, told NPR.…

You may not have known that a group called the United Daughters of the Confederacy still exists in Virginia, but they do, and their headquarters in Richmond was set on fire early Sunday morning in the midst of protests over police violence and the death of George Floyd. The group has argued that the South’s…

In Virginia, like many other states, deciding when and how to begin lifting coronavirus pandemic restrictions has become deeply politicized.  Gov. Ralph Northam began lifting some restrictions earlier this month, with most of Virginia entering the first phase of reopening on May 15. Some regions, like northern Virginia and Richmond, opted to wait until their…