Youngkin Asks Colleges To Reverse Tuition Hikes And More Va. Headlines

A Staff Report, Virginia Mercury

- June 20, 2022

• Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration is asking Virginia’s colleges and universities to reverse tuition hikes.—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• Lego, which announced last week it was opening a major new factory in Chesterfield, “briefly made public a frequently-asked-questions document that seemed to distance the company from Youngkin’s conservative stance on race and the environment.”—Washington Post

• “Approximately two-thirds of Virginia school districts were still not spending at pre-recession levels during the 2018-19 school year, when adjusting for inflation.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• In addition to the budget, the General Assembly reached a deal last week on filling two state Supreme Court vacancies.—Associated Press

• Virginia’s health commissioner “who in comments to his staff and media interviews dismissed the role of structural racism in public health, on Friday walked back his views in a staff-wide note as public officials questioned his fitness for office.”—Washington Post

• Some state workers are worried about losing protections for disabilities in Youngkin’s shakeup of the state’s remote work policy.—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• U.S. marshals are searching for four inmates who “walked away” from a minimum-security federal prison campus in Hopewell.—WTVR

• A Virginia delegate and former pharmacist is convening a work group on pharmacy benefit managers, who critics contend are the middlemen that drive up prescription drug prices.—Virginian-Pilot

• The Hanover County School Board has voted to keep on its library shelves an illustrated poetry book that centers on a police shooting of a Black woman after it drew a parent complaint and a local elected official called it “garbage.”—VPM

• Virginia Beach is considering a 5-cent plastic bag tax.—Virginian-Pilot

• The 37th annual James River Batteau Festival, which honors the historic boats that moved goods along the river in the 1700s and 1800s, kicked off in Lynchburg.—Cardinal News

• A notorious former center for the slave trade in Alexandria is opening today as Freedom House, a museum on slavery and freedom.—Washington Post

• A father-son duo from Richmond created the Juneteenth doodle for Google’s homepage.—NBC12

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