Your Custom Text Here
First responders block access to Old Dominion University's campus following an on-campus shooting on March 12, 2026. Photo by Yiqing Wang // WHRO
Weapon law violations at Virginia's colleges and universities have climbed since 2020, driven by cases at Old Dominion University and Virginia Commonwealth University, according to Virginia State Police data.
Read more
Republican Sen. Richard Stuart sits in the Senate chamber in Richmond, January 16, 2026. Stuart is trying install a solar farm on property he owns that is under a conservation easement. Photo by Christopher Tyree // VCIJ
Republican Sen. Richard Stuart wants to develop a large solar farm on his property. Green energy advocates say it would set a dangerous precedent.
Read more
At a time of major political divisions, Abigail Spanberger speaks about her vision for a unified and economically sound Commonwealth during her inaugural address on January 17, 2026.
Democrat Abigail Spanberger becomes Virginia’s first female governor, acknowledging generations who fought for a political voice.
Read more
In February 2025, Goodyear announced that 850 workers would be laid off from their Danville, Virginia, plant. The layoffs here were part of a larger trend across the state as manufacturing took a down turn. Photo by Christopher Tyree//VCIJ
In most years, the Commonwealth has gained federal civilian workers. The Trump administration’s cuts took away more than 20,000 government jobs last year.
Read more
Alex De Paula, former program director of Safer Together, speaks about the anti-violence initiative in April 2024, at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk, Virginia. The three-year, $2 million program was cancelled this year after the Trump administration stopped funding its federal grant. (handout photo)
A Portsmouth nonprofit built a program to aid victims of gun violence in Hampton Roads. It was one of several anti-crime projects in Virginia to lose its funding to the Trump administration’s cuts this year.
Read more
Tanna Price helped governments around the world build their economies and root out corruption. News of USAID cuts reached her in Sri Lanka. Almost a year later, Price and thousands of other professionals like her look toward an uncertain future.
Read more
U.S. tariffs and immigration enforcement have challenged Virginia farmers as the harvest season ends. For one Virginia farmer growing soybeans and tobacco, the next season seems uncertain.
Read more
SNAP beneficiaries will temporarily receive assistance through the Virginia Emergency Nutrition Assistance as government shutdown locks up funding for the federal program. Photo by: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Federal actions hit hardest on needy families in small cities and rural, southwest counties, according to a VCIJ at WHRO analysis.
Read more
First day of early voting in Virginia Beach on September 19, 2025. Photo by Zach D. Roberts.
Fundraising by Democrats and Republicans has pushed the cost of some Virginia House races over $2 million, according to public filings.
Read more
A Flock camera on South Main Street in Bridgwater, Virginia, captures the comings and goings of traffic. The town has five strategically placed Flock cameras. They capture images of nearly 60,000 vehicles every month. Photo by Christopher Tyree // VCIJ
As federal immigration enforcement accelerated, police agencies outside of Virginia searched the Commonwealth’s network of Flock Safety cameras thousands of times over a 12-month period, according to an exclusive analysis by the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO.
Read more
A Flock automatic license plate reading camera overlooks Colley Avenue in Norfolk, Va. on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. A federal lawsuit argues the city's 172 Flock cameras are an unconstitutional violation of privacy. File Photo: Cianna Morales/WHRO News
Surveillance network data obtained by the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO shows how widely outside law enforcement agencies searched Flock Safety systems in Virginia for immigration-related offenses.
VCIJ at WHRO’s analysis of network data from Flock Safety’s Automatic License Plate Reader systems in Virginia was queried by more than 4,000 agencies across the U.S. About 3,000 of the searches conducted by those agencies appear related to immigration enforcement. – despite local agencies promising not to share or use the data for that purpose.
Read more
Greg Meade, who directs TNC’s overarching Cumberland Forest Project, visits the Knott Hollow site in Dickenson County, Virginia, last December. TerraForm Power has the solar lease option, but the development timeline is uncertain because of permitting issues. Photo by Elizabeth McGowan // VCIJ
The state’s milestone Clean Economy Act spurred impressive growth in renewable power. Now, that future is at risk.
Read more
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement assisted by the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, apprehended three illegally present aliens during a routine enforcement operation in Arlington, Feb. 11, 2025. Source// US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Trump administration's enforcement has targeted thousands of foreign nationals - most from Central and South America and without criminal records.
Read more
The Nature Conservancy is partnering with Charlottesville-based TerraForm Power to build a 10-megawatt solar array on a reclaimed surface mine near Pound in Wise County, Va. Wildcats Solar, scheduled to go online within two years, would be the first solar project to rise on TNC’s 253,000-acre, tri-state Cumberland Forest Project.
Renewable energy developers planned dozens of projects on property owned by The Nature Conservancy. Then President Donald Trump signed H.R. 1, upending an unprecedented effort to revitalize Appalachia.
Read more
A car drives past an automatic license plate reader on Route 29 in Charlottesville on June 27, 2025. Photos by Christopher Tyree//VCIJ
Hundreds of Flock Safety cameras capturing images of motorists across Virginia weren’t supposed to be used for immigration enforcement. But they were.
Read more
Contracted workers from Williams Forestry & Associates plant tiny hardwood trees in late March atop a former coal mine in Russell County, part of The Nature Conservancy’s Cumberland Forest Project. It marked TNC’s first forest restoration effort in Virginia, part of a tri-state conservation initiative that began more than five years ago.
Big bet: Can a $130M conservation deal in Virginia’s coal country curb climate change and lift Appalachia?
The Nature Conservancy is halfway through its ambitious 10-year plan to preserve 253,000 acres and boost local economies across three Appalachian states. Backed by a loan from Virginia and private investors, it’s faced challenges and critics. The experiment could be the future of large-scale conservation – or not.
Read more
Photo Illustration by MuckRock. Adobe Stock image.
After decades when few law enforcement officers in Virginia lost the right to serve in sworn positions, recent reforms have brought dramatic increases in decertifications.
Read more
Friendship Court, a low-income housing development in Charlottesville, Virginia. File Photo.
As rental housing costs continue to rise, Virginia lawmakers passed a few modest measures this year to reduce fees, offer tenants more protections and boost housing for Navy sailors. More ambitious proposals, including potential rent controls, failed to win broad approval.
Read more
Meeting of the Commission to Study the History of the Uprooting of Black Communities by Public Institutions of Higher Education in the Commonwealth on Monday, December 2, 2024. The commission was spurred by reporting by VCIJ and ProPublica in 2023. Photo from Virginia House of Delegates.
A new state commission will seek documentation on campus expansions from dozens of Virginia public colleges and universities.
Read more