News and political coverage for national news outlets spanning various topics including housing policy, transportation, cannabis legalization and reform, social justice, politics and entertainment.
A Newport News task force, one of two recently established groups in Virginia investigating the historic displacement of Black communities by the state’s public universities, is facing allegations that it has not been open about its operations.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
As a teenager, I competed in track meets at Christopher Newport University. As a reporter, I unearthed the painful history behind the campus’s location.
Sixty-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.
Super Bowl champion Marvin Washington said he believes a “sensible non-prohibitive, non-degrading cannabis policy” is coming to the NFL when their collective bargaining agreement is up in 2021.
Time is ticking for New York's governor and state lawmakers as they continue to hash out a deal to fund the government for the coming fiscal year. As the Monday deadline approaches to approve the budget, the push for legalizing adult-use cannabis does not appear to have made the cut. The Albany Times-Union reported Thursday legalized marijuana appeared to be out of the budget. But at the start of the week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office told CBS New York's Marcia Kramer the governor was still "negotiating to legalize marijuana by the end of the legislative session in June."
With a majority of Americans in favor of legalizing marijuana and more states moving toward legalizing medicinal or adult-use programs, the need to decide how prosecutors handle marijuana-related offenses has become a growing issue. Last week, Baltimore State Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced her office will no longer prosecute marijuana possession cases.