Most Read Articles Feb. 3, 2026
1
Dem infighting muddies Virginia redistricting
A disagreement between Democrats in the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates has upended plans to redraw the state’s congressional map. Democrats in both chambers want a 10D-1R map, but they disagree on what that map looks like and blew past their self-imposed deadline last week to release a proposal. Leaders from each chamber were supposed to resume negotiations on Monday, but the meeting was cancelled, according to sources close to the process. Some Democrats still hope a new map can be agreed on this week.
2
General Assembly balks at rent caps
Legislators turned their attention toward pressures on some of Virginia’s low-income people in recent days, but balked at a move to slow recent double-digit percent increases in rents. Once again, legislation, Senate Bill 355, giving local governments the power to enact limits on rent increases, failed to make it past legislative gatekeepers. The bill would have allowed localities to cap rent increases at 3% unless landlords show they needed more to maintain a stable net operating income from a property.
3
Yancey: Cold weather countries stay warm without fossil fuels. Here’s why it’s hard for us to do the same.
On the morning of Jan. 27, as Arctic air moved in after a snow and ice storm, the temperatures across the western part of Virginia fell to the single digits. Lynchburg and Roanoke saw the mercury (if anyone still uses mercury thermometers) drop to 7 degrees. Abingdon shivered at 5 degrees, Wytheville at just 1. Blacksburg saw a big fat 0 degrees. And in Burkes Garden, a beautiful place tucked away in a valley in Tazewell County, the temperature sank to a bone-chilling, teeth-chattering, cliche-inducing -1 degrees. In all these places, unless people had a wood stove burning, they stayed warm thanks to fossil fuels.
4
Monks walking for peace draw massive crowd in Richmond
Thousands of people mobbed the streets Monday near the State Capitol, police lights flashing, voices ringing out. But it wasn’t politics that brought so many onto sidewalks piled with ice in a freezing wind. It was the sight of 19 Buddhist monks in burnt-orange robes trudging up Ninth Street on the 100th day of a walk from Texas to D.C. Carrying a message of peace. ... Richmond police cleared some of the city’s busiest downtown intersections for the monks to make their way past the Capitol in an unusual display for an area more used to gun-rights rallies or racial justice demonstrations. ... City and state officials — some of whom had ducked out of the nearby General Assembly session, where partisan combat is on full display — greeted them at City Hall.
5
House subcommittee postpones vote on bill to dissolve VMI governing board
A House of Delegates subcommittee declined to take action Monday on a controversial bill that would dissolve the governing board at Virginia Military Institute. The subcommittee for higher education voted to pass by the bill for the day, a mechanism used when a body is not ready to take action. The full committee can still take up the bill, but if it does not cast a vote before the deadline, the bill will die.
6
Two Spanberger-backed housing bills pass Virginia House
A pair of bills included in Governor Abigail Spanberger’s "Affordability Agenda" got out of Virginia’s House of Delegates Monday. The first bill isn’t exactly sexy, it allows localities to buy affordable housing properties that were built with public funds, but Governor Abigail Spanberger said it was an affordability priority.
7
Traffic cameras aren’t going away, but legislators may add some new restrictions
More and more often, drivers in Virginia are being watched with red-light cameras and speed cameras. Members of the General Assembly are considering a bipartisan effort to create some new restrictions. Senator Mark Peake is a Republican from Lynchburg who is so sick and tired of speed cameras and red-light cameras that he introduced a bill that would have banned them. That idea didn't get very far, so now he's no longer seeking an outright ban. But he wants to follow the money.
8
With districts uncertain, Republicans dig in to defend seats
Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st, and Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-2nd, entered an election year with plenty of money to defend their seats in Congress, but they still can't be sure that they know exactly where they'll be running. They are the top two targets in Virginia for Democrats, who are looking to pick up as many as four Republican-held seats in the U.S. House of Representatives through a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the General Assembly to redraw the state's 11 congressional districts before midterm elections in November.
9
As ICE seeks to expand footprint in Virginia, Youngkin’s final-day prison sale directive draws scrutiny
On his last full day in office, outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin instructed state officials to move forward with selling the shuttered Augusta Correctional Center to a private asset management company, a directive Gov. Abigail Spanberger has since withdrawn pending further review. Details of the now-stopped sale first came to light last week, against the backdrop of a broader push by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to expand immigration detention capacity in Virginia — including controversial proposals in Hanover and Stafford counties.
10
Dentists say these Virginia bills will expand access. Hygienists say they risk patient harm.
Two bills moving through the Virginia General Assembly are fueling a growing fight inside the state’s dental community, as lawmakers look for ways to reduce long waits for routine dental care. The legislation, backed by the Virginia Dental Association, aims to address workforce shortages that have left some patients, particularly in rural and underserved communities, waiting months for cleanings and checkups. One bill would allow dental assistants to earn a new certification to perform limited preventive cleanings, specifically above the gum line, after completing on-the-job training. Another would create a faster licensing pathway for some internationally educated dentists to qualify as dental hygienists, if the state Board of Dentistry determines their education meets Virginia standards.