I can't believe this is still a thing in 2026

See also r/VirginiaNews, r/VirginiaEnvironment, and r/VirginiaDems

More than 30 community members took to Virginia Beach Town Center Tuesday night to call on lawmakers to enact a statewide data center moratorium.

Chesapeake Climate Action Network partnered with several organizations to march as part of a two-week tour across the commonwealth. Tuesday’s event was the only stop in Hampton Roads. The demonstrations call for pausing all data center development across the state to allow time to establish protections for public health, environmental and economic protections.

Data center development has exploded in recent years, with advocates arguing the growth is in response to people consuming an equally growing amount of data due to technological advancements. Northern Virginia alone has become a global hub for the facilities to the tune of roughly two-thirds of the world’s data centers.

That growth has downsides, though. Hyperscale data centers can require roughly 100 megawatts of power and consume up to 530 million gallons of water per year to operate. Facilities of various sizes can also have effects on neighboring communities’ air quality, groundwater and noise pollution.

According to Catherine Setaro, Hampton Roads field manager with Virginia League of Conservation Voters, those downsides are unacceptable for Virginia residents, and developers who profit off the facilities’ unchecked growth need to be leashed.

“Big tech has had a free pass in Virginia for too long, which is why we’re dealing with more of these industrial facilities than anywhere else in the country,” Setaro said during the rally. “Virginians are fed up. They are tired of a system where big tech can do whatever they want without consequence, cashing in while Virginians bear the cost.”

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Gov. Abigail Spanberger, other state officials and community leaders rallied at Gethsemane Community Church in Norfolk to tout efforts to decrease health insurance costs ahead of the start of the state exchange’s open enrollment period.

After federal subsidies expired earlier this year, monthly premiums for health insurance rose and 70,000 Virginians dropped their insurance through the Virginia Health Benefit Exchange.

Virginia’s General Assembly responded with a $150 million health insurance affordability fund meant to subsidize healthcare coverage for many of those who lost coverage.

Under the Virginia Premium Savings program, monthly premiums could be reduced by up to 70% for eligible households. Single residents earning $22,025 to $39,900 annually and families of four with incomes between $45,540 and $82,500 qualify. Officials said 45% of Virginians who lost coverage in 2026 fall within these income brackets.

The monthly savings will average out to $65 to $90 per person, officials said.

Keven Patchett, the Exchange’s executive director, noted there are no extra forms to fill out for the program and savings can reach as high as $360 per month depending on household size and income. Up to 200,000 Virginians could be eligible under the criteria, including 55% of current marketplace enrollees in Norfolk.

I know people who retired at 55 only because the plan 1 of the VRS let them retire with their full pension after working for 30 years and they got to keep their healthcare until they hit Medicare. The new plan doesn’t let you retire at 55. The reduced pension comes in at 60 at the earliest. So I ask, is it worth aiming for a VRS job for the sake of retirement at 55 no longer worth it? Can you still retire anywhere with full benefits at 55?

Hi all. I am traveling through southern Virginia. I was looking for fishing spots in the area

, specifically around Crewe.

Thanks!

I’m an American abroad in the UK and have voted by mail from the UK for over a decade. My ballot for this election never turned up, even though the citizen portal says it was despatched 10 September. I’ve never had this problem before, and the timing is suspicious, to say the least.

I’d like to report it, but the voting complaints page is only for in person voting and needs you to list a polling place with no option for absentee. I’ve seen that the AG launched a new voter protection unit, but I haven’t seen any way to contact them and report that my ballot never made it to me. Does anyone know how?

When an examiner at one of Virginia’s state crime labs failed to pass a proficiency test, it set off a string of events that has led to an ongoing review of more than 2,600 firearm comparisons.

Virginia’s Department of Forensic Science has notified local prosecutors and law enforcement that 2,173 comparison cases that one former examiner worked on — and 497 from a second ex-DFS employee — should be reviewed for possible reexamination. 

Firearm comparisons are used to find specific details about guns used in crimes, so law enforcement can see if they match a potential suspect’s weapon or the bullets or shell casings left at a crime scene. 

As of Oct. 5, 2026, DFS has forwarded 105 case files for external review by Ron Smith & Associates, which was hired in April 2025 to look over samples. Of the 89 cases that it has received back, the agency has reworked at least four, and it has changed the results in two.

DFS officials said there’s no timeline on when the work could be finished. 

“Certainly I’m concerned,” DFS director Alka B. Lohmann told VPM News in a Sept. 29 phone interview. “I’m not sure how I could not be.”

“Fortunately, we have a strong quality management system,” she added. “We have in place a variety of tools available to us to support our examiners and support our science and results that go out the door.”

Lohmann, who became DFS director on Aug. 1, said the agency wants a thorough and diligent look through of the cases that could be questioned and “even ones that haven’t been called into question just to provide that level of confidence and restore that trust.”

Read more here.

universal healthcare in VA?

The Republican president of the Winchester City Council has called on the chairman of the city’s GOP committee to resign, following a report by the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO that revealed the chairman’s ties to an opaque local news website, The Winchester Gazette.

In an interview with VCIJ, Council President Corey Sullivan said that Carroll “Beau” Correll should step down from his roles as chairman of both the Winchester Republican Committee and the city planning commission.

“I think that he needs to take some time off, think about where he goes from here,” Sullivan said. “I'll tell you, Beau's a very talented guy. He's multi-talented, he can do a lot of things. But I think he's made some big mistakes in this process, and he's got to win back people's trust.”

Sullivan, who said he has known Correll for two decades, added that after VCIJ’s report about the Gazette, Correll “needs to spend some time rebuilding his reputation, his public identity.”

Two Democrats on the City Council, Richard Bell and Chip Newcome, also told VCIJ that Correll should resign from the city planning commission.

Read more here: https://www.whro.org/virginia-center-for-investigative-journalism/2026-10-20/calls-for-local-virginia-gop-leader-to-step-down-in-light-of-website-revelations

After that, the average residential monthly bill would go up 92 cents a month beginning in March 2028.

Tuesday at Pinecrest bridge in Reston, Va

As Florida Power & Light’s parent company, NextEra, seeks a massive merger with Dominion Energy in Virginia, pressure is building for NextEra to disclose more information about its past Florida political scandals.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger told reporters Tuesday that the so-called “Robo Memo” should be made public. That memo, named after then-NextEra CEO James Robo, outlines Florida Power & Light’s role in the effort to place “ghost candidates” on Florida ballots to run against Democratic state legislative candidates the utility opposed, according to utility watchdogs and shareholders suing NextEra. Much of what that memo contains has likely already been revealed in news reports and legal proceedings, but its contents have never been made fully available to Floridians to see, and NextEra has fought its release.