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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 the 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.
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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.
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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.
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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 moreDetailed data on the 2024 general election in Virginia.
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Civil rights activist and local historian, Gary Flowers, points out how the construction of I-95 in the 1950’s demolished and separated the vibrant and bustling Black neighborhood of Jackson Ward in Richmond, VA, to travel magazine editors Leroy Adams and Marie Adams, at right, during a tour on Friday, July 12th. Photo by Christopher Tyree // VCIJ at WHRO
The historic Black neighborhood of Jackson Ward was intentionally split by highway development in the 1950s. Generations later, could a plan to reconnect the north and south sides renew a community?
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Vicki Lightfoot stands by the front door with Maurice and Marie while waiting for the other grandchildren, Alysha and Corey, to finish getting ready for school. The two youngest kids go to daycare while the two eldest attend elementary school, giving Lightfoot time to relax and study for her classes. File photo by Hadley Chittum // VCIJ
For decades, Virginia has ranked poorly among states for providing financial support for kinship carers — grandparents, aunts, uncles and other family members raising children who are their relatives. And a critical state report found many social services departments in Virginia have failed to provide enough oversight and protection for children in the care of their relatives.
Starting July 1, bipartisan legislation signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin tackles some of these problems by establishing an aid program and protective guidelines for kinship care families.
Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia, for decades expanded into and disrupted a neighboring, predominantly Black community, sometimes acquiring property by eminent domain. Virginia lawmakers on May 13 approved a two-year study commission to probe the uprooting of Black communities by the state’s public colleges and universities. Photo by Christopher Tyree. // VCIJ at WHRO
Spurred by a VCIJ at WHRO and ProPublica investigation, the recently approved Virginia budget includes nearly $60,000 over the next two years for a commission to study the disruption public college and university expansions have had on Black communities.
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Since 2020, changes to the disciplinary process for law enforcement officers have driven up decertifications of wayward cops and prison guards. But a new law may shield investigators’ records and hearings from the public
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Christopher Newport University’s campus displaced a Black neighborhood in Newport News, Virginia. Photo by Christopher Tyree/VCIJ at WHRO
The groundbreaking commission, which was proposed in response to our “Uprooted” series, would consider compensation for dislodged property owners and their descendants. Whether Gov. Glenn Youngkin will sign the bill is unclear.
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Vicki Lightfoot washes dishes while Maurice plays on the floor by her side early in the morning before school. Lightfoot was solely responsible for getting all four children ready for daycare and school.
A Richmond-area retiree raises four grandchildren, struggling to pay bills and navigate the tangled bureaucracy of kinship care
Relatives caring for children in Virginia are far less likely than caregivers in other states to have help from the foster care system for child care, counseling, grocery bills and other needs. About 12% of the children in Virginia’s foster care system live with relatives and receive support from the system, according to state data, far below the national rate of 33%.
A recruitment poster for the Norfolk, Virginia Police Department hangs inside a New York City subway train in July 2022. Photo by Dan Morisson // VCIJ at WHRO
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police, Virginia lawmakers took action on reports that state policing regulators failed to strip the police certifications from dozens of officers with criminal convictions ranging from embezzlement to possession of child pornography and sexual assault.
The Legislature passed a bill in October 2020 requiring police departments to complete internal investigations even if officers resign during them, and to provide any records of misconduct to new prospective employers for officers; strengthening the requirements for agencies to send reports of misconduct to state regulators; expanding the offenses for which officers can be stripped of their certifications; and requiring a state board to write a statewide standard of conduct for policing.
Three years later, barely anything has changed.
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Christopher Newport University's campus stands on the site of a once-thriving Black community. Photo by Christopher Tyree // VCIJ
Spurred by our “Uprooted” series, a task force created by the city of Newport News and Christopher Newport University will reexamine decades of city and university records shedding light on a Black neighborhood’s destruction.
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Following an investigation by the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO and ProPublica, Del. Delores McQuinn introduces bill for a commission to investigate the displacement of Black neighborhoods by Virginia’s public colleges and universities
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A portrait of Trible and his wife hangs in the library named after them. Photo by Christopher Tyree // VCIJ at WHRO
Black enrollment at Virginia’s Christopher Newport University fell by more than half under longtime president Paul Trible, a former Republican senator who wanted to “offer a private school experience.” By 2021, only 2.4% of full-time professors were Black.
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A Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority map from the 1960s shows how Old Dominion University (then called Old Dominion College) planned to expand into the Lamberts Point neighborhood in Norfolk, Virginia. (Old Dominion University Special Collections & University Archives)
In response to our reporting, state Delegate Delores McQuinn said a task force could shed light on the impact of college expansion in Virginia. Officials are also calling for displaced families to receive redress, from scholarships to reparations.
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Sun sets on Virginia Capitol in Richmond, Va., Nov. 3, 2023. All 140 seats in the General Assembly are on the ballot this year. Photo by Jimmy Clutier
Virginia’s high-stakes General Assembly elections on Nov. 7 are the commonwealth’s most expensive on record — and could prove to be among the costliest legislative elections in U.S. history.
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Illustration by Christopher Tyree // VCIJ
A provision in state law exempts college presidents’ “working papers and correspondence” from disclosure even after they step down — as we found out when we asked about one ex-president’s role in campus expansions that uprooted a Black neighborhood.
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“Dark money” organizations have spent more than $1.7 million on Virginia candidates. More than $1.4 Million going to Republican candidates. Photo by Jimmy Cloutier // VCIJ
Independent political groups backed largely by “dark money” organizations and wealthy donors have spent nearly $1.7 million on Virginia candidates this election cycle, raising concerns about transparency and the influence of outside money in the tightly contested battle for control of the General Assembly.
Read moreSixty-plus years ago, the white leaders of Newport News, Virginia, seized the core of a thriving Black community to build a college. The school has been gobbling up the remaining houses ever since.
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