IN THE NEWS
Greene and McGuire yelled at by protesters
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s visit to Albemarle County started late and ended early Wednesday afternoon, after protesters’ loud chants overwhelmed her megaphone and disrupted her campaign rally for fellow Republican John McGuire.
The Georgia congresswoman on Wednesday entered Virginia‘s 5th Congressional District, where McGuire, a state senator, is challenging incumbent Rep. Bob Good in the upcoming Republican primary. While the 5th is a deeply red district in the heart of Virginia, Albemarle County is a longtime Democratic stronghold, and that much became clear Wednesday.
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From left, Republican Virginia State Sen. John McGuire and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia demonstrate in support of McGuire’s campaign for Congress in Albemarle County.
CAL CARY, THE DAILY PROGRESS
Greene and McGuire arrived at a polling place at the Albemarle County Social Services building on Wednesday in a bus emblazoned with the name and image of former President Donald Trump, who recently endorsed McGuire over Good.
In Albemarle County, McGuire and Greene found a group of about 50 protesters waiting for them, greeting them with chants of “Go home” and “There is no hate in our state.”
Electric shock from withdrawal? Chesterfield takes a risk with a new addiction device
PIPE PROBLEMS: Testing of the nearly completed Mountain Valley pipeline through the end of March revealed about 130 potentially problematic areas that required additional analysis, according to records from a federal safety agency.
Gage tool walks, which involve passing a device through sections of buried pipe to check for dents and other weaknesses, “showed that 50 anomalies needed to be excavated for further analysis or remediation,” the records state.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline right-of-way is seen to the left of Steve and Anne Bernard’s home in Franklin County on May 8. The pipeline was buried and now the Bernards are concerned about the lining of the pipe and safety when transporting the gas. switched on.
Photos by HEATHER ROUSSEAU, The Roanoke Times
A second type of test, in which an electrical current is administered to the steel pipe and monitored from the ground, indicated that “80 excavations needed to be completed to validate the data or remediate the coating” applied to the pipe.
THEY SAID IT
“These people see that we are suffering. We are not just a number. And they let us know that every day.”
— Jennifer Hughes, HARP member at Chesterfield County Jail. HARP (Helping Addicts Recover Progressively) is a program started by a licensed counselor who lost her son to a drug overdose in 2019. Hughes will be released from prison in December and is working to curb her addiction to via HARP. The Times-Dispatch visited the jail last month to learn more about a new device that will use electric shocks to stop withdrawal symptoms.
Inmates with substance use disorder spend time recovering at the Chesterfield County Jail in May.
Photos by AKASH PAMARTHY, TIMES- SHIPPING
BY THE NUMBERS
35 million dollars
Company that bred beagles for research agrees to pay a record $35 million fine
Amount Envigo, a company that breeds and sells animals for scientific research, agreed to pay in a settlement with the U.S. government after pleading guilty to conduct that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of dogs and harm to thousands more. At its Cumberland County facility, Envigo ignored multiple warnings, allowing thousands of beagles to live in their own feces, depriving them of adequate food, clean water and medical care, and euthanized the dogs without providing anesthesia.
ROTATIONS
COMFORT COVERS: The American Electric Power Foundation awarded a $25,000 grant to Comfort Cases, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to providing hope and dignity to youth in foster care. Comfort Cases are new backpacks or duffel bags filled with various essential items for children transitioning into foster care. The AEP Foundation grant will allow Comfort Cases to distribute several hundred Comfort Cases backpacks across Appalachian Power’s three-state service territory, including Roanoke, according to a news release from the power company. Funding from the AEP Foundation is making possible the creation of nearly 500 Comfort Cases for organizations that support youth in foster care across Appalachian Power’s service territory, including Western Regional CASA and West Virginia CASA for Children.
IN THE NEWS
Transportation is a Virginia budget priority
Virginia’s latest spending plan includes efforts to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to a prominent transportation agency in Northern Virginia, toll relief in Hampton Roads and highway widening along a stretch of the Interstate 81 in southwest Virginia.
The state budget, adopted in May, includes a radical change from one of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s transportation-related amendments: The recently enacted budget allows the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (the regional body of jurisdictions responsible for fund the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority) keep its trust fund intact.
At the end of the month-long budget deliberations, Youngkin proposed additional funding for Metro, but would have taken money away from the NVTC investment fund used by Northern Virginia jurisdictions. The governor ultimately agreed with lawmakers on a spending plan that did not tap into the NVTC fund.
OVERDOSE: A woman whose 2-year-old son overdosed on fentanyl while eating hash browns at a Stafford County home was ordered Monday to serve three years in prison.
A year after the Huguenot graduation shooting, a mother still has questions
Tabitha Marie Williams, 26, of Triangle, also known as Tabitha Harper, pleaded guilty in Stafford Circuit Court to child neglect, possession of illegal drugs and obstruction of justice. Three other charges were dropped in exchange for her pleading guilty.
According to evidence presented by prosecutor Ryan Frank, officers and medical workers responded to Thomas Jefferson Place on Nov. 19 in response to a call about a child who was choking. They found the boy in the bathtub being held by his father, Mark Anthony Cole. Cole is also charged in connection with the case and his charges are scheduled to be resolved on July 1.
The Virginia Mercury and the KeynoteUSA contributed to this report.
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