The mission of this series is to give readers insights into how the Founding Fathers debated and addressed the issues we still contest today.
Read moreOur Unfinished Union
Photo Illustration by Christopher Tyree // VCIJ
Virginia Beach School Board bans the use of seclusion rooms
Virginia Beach School Board Member Alveta Green listens to Julie Xirau speak Tuesday during a school board meeting. Xirau is the mother of Joshua Sikes, an 11-year-old student with autism who died in November 2024 days after being placed in a makeshift seclusion area. The board voted on a new policy to limit seclusion but didn’t outright ban the practice. Photo by John-Henry Doucette // VCIJ
Virginia Beach reported the highest use of student seclusions in the state. A new policy limits the controversial practice for children in crisis.
Read moreVirginia Beach poised to change seclusion policy
Virginia Beach School Board Chairperson Kathleen Brown said the proposed policy could address concerns of parents and be reviewed if there are unintended consequences. Photo by John-Henry Doucette // VCIJ
The Virginia Beach School Board may ban the use of seclusion rooms in city school buildings, a step to curtail the controversial practice of isolating troubled students in emergencies.
Read moreAt Longwood, a journey toward racial reckoning
Official map of Farmville, Virginia in 1934. The outlined area shows the Longwood College campus on the north section and the predominantly Black neighborhood, known as the triangle, to the south. Longwood planned expansions beginning in the 1960s that would diminish, then capture, the neighborhood.
A Virginia university wanted property for dormitories and classrooms. It targeted a Black neighborhood at the center of the Civil Rights Movement.
Read moreAfter police reforms, Virginia traffic stops increase
File photo // WHRO
Law enforcement data from the 2020 Community Policing Act sheds light on traffic enforcement across the Commonwealth
Read moreVirginia state senator’s solar plan roils conservationists
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 moreHistory in Virginia - long in the making
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 moreDOGE cuts wiped out years of growth in Virginia’s federal civilian jobs
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 moreSuit filed in death of Virginia Beach special education student
Julie Xirau, in her Newport News, VA apartment, holds her phone showing a picture of her son Josh Sikes. Photo taken in March 2025. File photo by William Tiernan.
The mother of Joshua Sikes, 11, claims her son was injured in a classroom run by Southeastern Cooperative Educational Programs days before his death. A wrongful death suit seeks $150 million
Read moreVirginia anti-violence programs slashed in federal cuts
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 moreAfter DOGE, a life upended
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 moreA Virginia farmer faces a tumultuous season, future
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 moreNew SNAP requirement raises worries of worsening hunger in Virginia
A sign noting the acceptance of electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards, which SNAP beneficiaries use to pay for food, is displayed at a grocery store. Photo by Justin Sullivan
The federal shutdown is over, but thousands of Virginians who rely on food stamps are now being told to reapply for SNAP — a process that could leave families without assistance for weeks.
Read moreFor Virginia foodbanks, growing demand amidst federal cuts
Pansy Frye and other volunteers load boxes of nonperishable goods for area seniors as part of a federal program at the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank distribution center in Charlottesville, Tuesday, November 12th. Photo by Christopher Tyree
The Trump administration canceled 94 million pounds of food aid in recent months. Here’s what didn’t make it to Virginia charities.
Read moreFederal cuts and shutdown heighten food insecurity across Virginia
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 moreVirginia statewide races draw big national, out-of-state donors - again
First day of early voting in Virginia Beach on September 19, 2025. Photo by Zach D. Roberts.
Billionaires from outside Virginia and partisan groups are fueling campaigns in the final weeks before the Nov. 4 elections.
Read moreUnder Trump, a lifeline for young women in rural Virginia fights to survive
Since 1967, Job Corps has been a fixture in Marion, Va. The residential campus on Main Street has trained generations in health care skills. Despite bipartisan support under previous administrations, the Trump administration is trying to close it.
Read moreBig money flows to Virginia delegate candidates in Hampton Roads
Fundraising by Democrats and Republicans has pushed the cost of some Virginia House races over $2 million, according to public filings.
Read moreFor Virginia farmers, a bumper harvest amid growing uncertainty
Kenney Barnard, 75, oversees migrant workers at Hoot Owl Hollow Farm in Amelia Court House, Va. on August 4, 2025. Many of the seasonal employees, coming from Mexico on H-2A visas, have worked on Hoot Owl Farm for years.
President Donald Trump’s tariffs and aggressive immigration enforcement have shaken markets and migrant labor.
Read moreNew $100,000 H-1B visa fee could stun Virginia companies, universities
Virginia’s businesses, nonprofits and schools employ thousands of foreign professionals. President Trump’s proclamation raising the cost of H-1B visas to $100,000 could send shockwaves through tech companies, universities and even public schools
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