u/VirginiaNews

See also r/VirginiaHistory

See also r/VirginiaNews and r/FreeVirginiaNews

Subtitle: "As Chesterfield voters prepare to weigh in this November on whether to raise the sales tax 1% to fund school construction, the county’s school system unveiled a study last week that said it needs an estimated $850 million over the next decade."

Virginia's Department of Social Services spent $52 million on a failed IT project to overhaul the state's outdated child support enforcement system, Gov. Abigail Spanberger said Wednesday.

In June, VPM News reported on DSS shutting down a two-year project to modernize its child support mainframe system — the Automated Program to Enforce Child Support (APECS) — that records showed had cost more than $50 million.

DSS did not confirm the total cost at the time, but Spanberger revealed the price tag Wednesday while addressing the General Assembly’s joint money committees for the first time as governor.

“We uncovered a $52 million loss at the Department of Social Services on a failed effort to replace the commonwealth's antiquated child support enforcement system,” Spanberger said. “Virginia paid serious money, and all we got were tools that barely worked.”

Spanberger’s remarks about the child support system project came as she criticized actions taken by her predecessor, Republican Glenn Youngkin.

“My predecessor might have thought it was okay to just write off losses like this one, but I don't,” Spanberger said about the project. “It's not a corporate balance sheet that we're dealing with. It is taxpayer dollars.”

Read more here.

Here’s a guide to how fire departments are funded in Virginia, in eight FAQs gathered from Cardinal readers.

See also r/VirginiaNews, r/FreeVirginiaNews, and r/VirginiaUrbanism

See also r/VirginiaGOP, r/VirginiaDems, r/Tidewater, r/HamptonRoads, and r/VirginiaNews.

Virginians can eat iceberg lettuce without heightened fear of contracting the diarrhea-causing parasite that spread across the country this summer.

Cases of cyclosporiasis have “peaked” in Virginia and are expected to continue decreasing, according to the Virginia Department of Health. The number of new cases of cyclosporiasis identified each week in the state has dropped since July 27, when 47 new cases were reported.

As of Monday, Virginia has seen a total 214 cases of the illness, which is caused by infection with the cyclospora parasite. There were 17 new cases identified in the last week, down from 35 the week before and 36 the week prior. The five-year average for total annual cases of cyclosporiasis in Virginia is 116, according to the health department.

Kelsey Holloman, VDH’s foodborne diseases epidemiology program manager, said the prevalence of cyclosporiasis is expected to return to normal — barring any unforeseen changes — now that the Aug. 3 use-by date of the recalled iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms in Mexico has passed.

“There’s always a risk associated whenever you eat any type of fresh produce items, but we can say now (the recalled lettuce products) are now out of date and they should no longer be in stores or available to consumers via restaurants or retailers,” Holloman said. “Cases reported in Virginia are beginning to decrease so we feel at this point that we have seen the peak in the number of cases (of cyclosporiasis).”

Holloman added that there is always a risk of illness associated with eating fresh produce and advised the public to wash all their fruits and vegetables thoroughly under running water before preparing them to eat. Cooking produce at about 158 degrees is the most effective way to avoid consuming the parasite, she said.

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See also r/VirginiaOpEds, r/VirginiaGOP, and r/VirginiaDems.

As a part of celebrating America’s 250th anniversary, VPM Media Corp. released Declarations: Black Americans and the Revolutionary War by Director Stacey L. Holman earlier this summer.

Four Black Americans are highlighted in the hourlong documentary, which chronicled their push for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for themselves and their communities as the young country fought for independence from England.

Featured are Elizabeth Freeman — formerly known as Mum Bet — a Massachusetts woman who successfully sued for her freedom; James Lafayette, a double agent who helped shepherd the British surrender at Yorktown; Harry Washington, who escaped George Washington’s Mount Vernon and fought with British troops; and Abraham Peyton Skipwith, a Richmonder who petitioned for his freedom and became one of the first Black landowners in the city.

Skipwith's home recently was returned to Jackson Ward from Goochland County after construction of what’s now Interstate 95/64 in the 1950s ripped the historically Black neighborhood in half.

Declarations can be found on both the PBS app and YouTube.

Holman, along with producer Maya Tepler, spoke with VPM News Director Elliott Robinson about the documentary.

Read more here.

Disclosure: VPM Media Corp. is the FCC license holder of VPM PBS and VPM News, which operates as 88.9 FM in Richmond, 89.1 FM in the Northern Neck (Heathsville) and 90.1 FM in Southside Virginia (Chase City). VPM Media Corp. acquired Style Weekly in 2021.

As a newsroom, VPM News does not use generative AI in its content creation and maintains editorial independence — this article went through our usual fact-checking and editing process. Station leadership did not receive questions prior to their interviews, nor view this article prior to publication. Questions about this article and VPM News' overall editorial policy should be directed to Managing Editor Dawnthea M. Price Lisco.

See also r/VirginiaNews and r/FreeVirginiaNews

See also r/HamptonVA, r/Tidewater, r/HamptonRoads, r/VirginiaEnvironment, and r/VirginiaUrbanism