A specific accusation arose during the student-led demonstrations on the Virginia Tech campus late last month. Protesters accused the university, through its drone program, of complicity in Israel’s war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. “Virginia Tech is the drone capital of the world,” one student said in a video posted to X, the site formerly called Twitter. “Every single drone that is in Gaza, targeting civilians right now and killing them, has Virginia Tech engineering ware in it.”  The social media post received more than 1,000 engagements, including more than 400 repostings ..read more

For more information on the June 18 primaries, see our 2024 voter guide. None of the five candidates seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate to run against Democrat Tim Kaine have ever held public office. In some quarters, that’s considered a plus. Some of them, though, have tried. One of them has tried more than any other. In 2010, Virginia Beach attorney Chuck Smith ran for the U.S. House of Representatives against Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Newport News, in the 3rd District but lost, as Republicans typically do in that strongly Democratic district. In 2012, Smith ran for the Kempsv ..read more

Here are some of the top headlines from other news outlets around Virginia. Some content may be behind a metered paywall: Economy: Judge to decide whether to delay construction of Dominion’s offshore wind project. — Virginia Mercury. Sports: The Danville Dairy Daddies? When did Minor League Baseball get raunchy? — Wall Street Journal (paywall). Politics: ‘We can’t handle this’: Bedford commission recommends denial of Forest apartments. — The (Lynchburg) News & Advance (paywall). Culture: New documentary shines light on Paramount Bristol’s storied past and community impact. — WCYB-TV. Weat ..read more

Just four days before lawmakers are set to return to Richmond for a special session to consider a new state budget, the General Assembly’s budget negotiators and Gov. Glenn Youngkin struck a deal Thursday afternoon for a two-year spending plan that, if approved by the legislature next week, would avert a government shutdown by July 1. Del. Terry Austin, R-Botetourt County and a budget conferee who was part of the negotiations, called the agreement a win for both sides. “The Democrats accomplished their objectives with the recognition of their needs for the commonwealth, and we did that throug ..read more

Although Tazewell County produces the third highest amount of natural gas in the state — and a major gas pipeline runs right through the county — businesses and residents there have little access to it. County officials have long dreamed of changing that, and as electric rates continue to increase across Southwest Virginia, they are finally hoping to move forward with plans to tap into the line. “There’s a long history here of resources leaving our part of the state and we don’t really get a whole lot of benefit out of it,” said Tazewell County Administrator Eric Young. “If we could just tap ..read more

Today’s controversial opinion: Gov. Glenn Youngkin is making the case for why Virginia governors should be allowed to run for a second term. Mind you, I’m not saying Youngkin deserves a second term. I’m not saying he doesn’t, either. I’m not even saying Virginia should allow governors to seek reelection. However, I am saying that we should think about all this. Regular readers know that I like to explore ideas, so here’s the one for today: Should Virginia governors be allowed to run for a second term? Virginia is the only state that limits its governor to a single term. More technically, Virg ..read more

A company working to derive cancer therapies from milk is the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council’s top entrepreneur of the year. The council selected Tiny Cargo and its leader, Spencer Marsh, for its Hart of the Entrepreneur Impact Award during Wednesday’s TechNite 2024 celebration. The council also added Virginia Western Community College’s president, Robert Sandel, to its hall of fame. RBTC honored 11 other researchers and tech businesses from the state’s GO Virginia Region 2 at a ceremony at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center that featured a speech from tech-in-humanities pioneer a ..read more

Here are some of the top headlines from other news outlets around Virginia. Some content may be behind a metered paywall: Health care: Virginia health officials launch “surveillance system” for kids sickened by cannabis. — Virginia Mercury. Forty applicants vying for Shenandoah medical marijuana license. — Virginia Business (paywall). Politics: Roanoke citizens, Del. Rasoul seek cease-fire for Gaza. — The Roanoke Times (paywall). Roanoke City Council decides to keep property taxes steady after vice mayor floats rate cut. — Roanoke Rambler (subscription). Economy: Danville City Council revises ..read more

A spokesman for state Sen. John McGuire said Wednesday that the Republican from Goochland will not participate in what would have been the first and possibly only candidate debate in one of the most contentious GOP primary battles nationwide this year. McGuire’s response comes after the Amherst County Republican Committee announced that the senator would face his opponent, Rep. Bob Good, R-Campbell County, on a debate stage at Sweet Briar College at 7 p.m. May 20 for the first time after half a year of dealing each other blows on social media, during campaign speeches and in interviews. “We a ..read more

Want to be the first to see weather news? Sign up for our weekly email weather newsletter, featuring weather journalist Kevin Myatt. Yellow began creeping back into southern Virginia on the U.S. Drought Monitor maps last week. And yellow is painting much of Virginia on the Storm Prediction Center maps for today and Thursday. Those yellow tones mean very different things, and in theory, they could mean opposite things, though that’s not entirely settled this particular week. Yellow marks abnormally dry conditions having returned to southern Virginia. Courtesy of National Drought Mitigatio ..read more