Most Read Articles March 23, 2026
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‘Not a done deal’: Democrats start to sweat over Virginia’s redistricting referendum
After putting an aggressive redraw of the state’s congressional map before voters, some Virginia Democrats are growing uneasy about its prospects for passage one month out from the special election. Virginia Democrats entered 2026 riding a wave of momentum, comfortably flipping the governorship and expanding their majority in the state House in last fall’s elections. And heading into the April contest, they hold massive fundraising and ad spending advantages. But recently, the realities of waging a unique campaign in a state that isn’t nearly as Democratic as California, where voters approved a redrawn map through a similar process last year, have begun to set in.
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VPAP Visual Contrarian Caucus 2026
See which General Assembly members voted alone against all the other legislators in their chamber. The list includes every legislator who voted alone at least twice on floor votes in the 2026 session.
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A hidden threat to maple syrup — and the people who make it in Highland County
The woodpecker was the first sign of something strange underway. Ronnie Moyers heard the bird hammering in the woods one morning in late February, several weeks before the species usually shows up in Virginia’s western highlands. “That means there’s gonna be a thaw,” Moyers’s father told him. Warm weather would mean bad news for maple syrup production, one of the main sources of income for Moyers’s family farm.
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Virginia lawmakers passed big changes to energy and environment policy this year. Here’s a look.
Lots of legislation that made it through this year’s General Assembly session touches on environmental issues. That includes expanding access to solar power, boosting coastal marshes, optimizing the electric grid and protecting water from contaminants. Gov. Abigail Spanberger still needs to sign all approved bills by April 13 for them to become laws. Here’s an overview of some of the biggest pending environmental changes.
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Vertical Farms Tried to Compete With Open Field Farming. It Isn’t Going Well.
Vertical farming businesses blossomed a decade ago, promising an abundant, cleaner source of fruits and vegetables. Today, most of those start-ups have withered. Constructed in opaque buildings, like warehouses, vertical farms resemble sterile manufacturing facilities more than farms. Crops are grown in trays stacked to the ceiling, fed with hydroponic or aeroponic systems. Plants are bathed in white and purple LED lights to maximize photosynthesis. Owners of vertical farms once talked about their industry in almost messianic terms, as a climate-friendly solution to the ills they said plagued modern farming: pesticide use, water overconsumption, long-distance trucking and labor exploitation. By the late 2010s, Silicon Valley was on board, investing billions of dollars in companies promising to remake agriculture.
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Spanberger votes yes on Virginia’s redistricting referendum; Rep. Wittman responds
Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) has cast her ballot in Virginia’s redistricting referendum. Spanberger voted in favor of a proposed constitutional amendment that would give the Democratic-controlled General Assembly the power to implement a new congressional map in Virginia. “Virginia has the opportunity to take a real stand in this moment,” Spanberger told reporters after voting early on Friday.
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Yancey: Report says 35% of the jobs in Virginia may be at risk to artificial intelligence
One spring day about 66 million years ago, some dinosaurs probably looked up at the sky and, if their walnut-sized brains could process what their eyes saw, they might have wondered why there was a bright light streaking across the sky. They sure didn’t understand the consequences, though. Today, the mammalian species that took dinosaurs’ place as the apex predator on the planet — us — is figuratively in the same place they were, except we’re looking at our computer screens and probably not fully comprehending what we’re seeing headed our way, either. A recent report that a Charlotte, North Carolina-based research firm conducted for the Virginia Chamber Foundation attempted to quantify how the work landscape is going to change over the coming years. The short version: Artificial intelligence isn’t going to change everything, but it’s going to change a lot.
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ODU shooting case renews debate over Virginia’s inactive background check law
Federal charges filed against a Virginia man accused of illegally selling the gun used in a recent shooting at Old Dominion University are intensifying scrutiny of the state’s now-defunct universal background check law — and raising new questions about whether the violence could have been prevented. The case comes as Virginia’s background check requirement for most private firearm sales remains invalidated following an October ruling by a Lynchburg-area circuit court, a decision that still stands after an appellate court declined to revive the law. Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, who sought to intervene after then-Attorney General Jason Miyares did not defend the statute, said the consequences of that decision were significant.
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When Voters Worry About ‘Affordability,’ Many Point to Health Care
Tom Perriello, a Virginia Democrat who was swept from the House in 2010, in large part because of his vote for the Affordable Care Act, is trying for a comeback this year — but far from running away from that vote more than a dozen years ago, he’s embracing it. “What’s aged politically even better than my support for the A.C.A.,” Mr. Perriello said, “was the fact that I was pushing right to the end for it to be stronger.” ... A Democrat embracing this issue might not seem like a novel concept; the party has been more trusted on health care for a while now, though the public hasn’t often seen it as a top issue. But in 2026, Democrats like Mr. Perriello have a new script on health care that could prove more potent. It’s affordability, not access.
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Va. could ban the sale of assault firearms: What to know
Legislation passed by the General Assembly seeks to ban the sale and production of assault weapons and to prohibit carrying them in public. The bans are part of a suite of gun regulations the legislature sent to Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s desk. Virginia last passed sweeping gun reforms in 2020, when Democrats had control of the legislature and the governor’s mansion. ... Spanberger, a Democrat, has indicated she would sign legislation to tighten firearm storage requirements, prevent the sale of large-capacity magazines and crack down on ghost guns.