Keya Vakil

More than a million Virginia taxpayers will not receive tax refund checks approved by Virginia lawmakers, according to a new analysis by The Commonwealth Institute, a nonprofit, Richmond-based thinktank. Many taxpayers – primarily lower-income Virginians – won’t receive checks because their state income tax liability is already offset by existing state tax credits, like the…

Want to get involved in your community this week? Here’s what’s happening this week in Virginia: Northern Virginia / D.C. Congressional Town Hall with Reps. Don Beyer (D-8), Gerry Connolly (D-11) and Jennifer Wexton (D-10) – Sept 13 from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM – Northern Virginia Association of Realtors, 8407 Pennell St, Fairfax, VA…

Virginia’s first responders experience suicidal thoughts at a rate of more than double the general population, and nearly one-in-four suffer from work-related depression, according to a new mental health survey conducted by the Fairfax County police, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Fairfax Coalition of Police Local 5000.  Nearly 4,900 police officers, firefighters and 911 call…

The chief executives of 145 of America’s biggest companies are calling on the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate to expand background checks to cover all gun sales and implement tougher “red flag” laws. In a letter addressed to the Senate, the CEOs of companies such as Uber, Bain Capital, Levi Strauss, and Airbnb wrote that that “Doing…

Editor’s note: This is the second installment of a series profiling candidates running in competitive Virginia state legislature elections. Make sure to check out our first installment, featuring Sheila Bynum-Coleman. A former juvenile probation officer and local volunteer, Ann Ridgeway has long considered herself an advocate for the people in her community. But she never thought…

The number of uninsured Americans increased in 2018, marking the first increase in the uninsured rate since the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, with experts laying at least part of the blame at the doorstep of the Trump administration and their efforts to undermine the healthcare law. Roughly 27.5 million people, or 8.5% of…

Virginia’s poverty rate fell by 1% in 2017-2018, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The percentage of Virginians living in poverty dropped from 11.1% in 2015-16 to 10.1% in 2017-18, and the state’s poverty rate remained below the national rate of 12% for the most recent two-year period. Virginia tied with…

The University of Virginia Medical Center is reviewing its policy of suing and garnishing wages of patients with outstanding medical bills, after a scathing report from Kaiser Health News revealed the breadth of the policy and its consequences. In the six years leading up to June 2018, the UVA health system and its doctors sued…

The Richmond City Council condemned the use of “conversion therapy” in the city on Monday, adopting a resolution first proposed by Mayor Levar Stoney. The council unanimously voted to approve the nonbinding resolution banning the dangerous and long-discredited practice, which involves trying to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender expression. The controversial practice has…

Welcome to the latest edition of our Virginian of the Week series. This week, we interviewed Elizabeth Gray, a Lynchburg-based designer who specializes in hand lettering. Her work can be found on her Etsy store, Instagram, and Facebook. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Are you from Virginia originally?  I’m actually a Georgia-born gal,…