Image: Creative Commons

President Obama started the New Year off by refocusing Washington and the nation on gun control. Matt Laslo reports from Washington that he may have inadvertently broadened the gulf between him and Republicans who control Capitol Hill.

Secretary Jones with the Northern Neck team.

Five economically distressed  regions of Virginia are receiving grants to stimulate job growth.  Maurice Jones, Virginia’s Secretary of Commerce, traveled to the Northern Neck Friday to personally hand over a $70,000 check for a new center to help bring technology jobs back to the U.S. Pamela D’Angelo reports.

Creative Commons

This holiday season turned many consumers into bargain sleuths, trying to figure out the best deals, the best time to buy…. more decisions to make than ever before. But researchers say, it’s becoming clear that there’s also more to a great deal than price alone. Robbie Harris reports.

Credit: Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

Recent record highs this winter may have you seeing green in your garden long before you should. Reporter Mallory Noe-Payne visited Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, to see what’s blooming.

Photo: Creative Commons

It’s the time of year when people may be feeling they are maxed out on their credit cards. So is it time to go ‘cash only?’  Researchers at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin School of Business warn, there’s a subtle catch to using cash. It may lead you to splurge even more.  Robbie Harris reports.

Christopher Brooks in his office on the VCU campus.

Virginia Commonwealth University is one of the state’s most diverse four-year colleges. But if you’re a student there you may not see that diversity in who’s teaching you. While 15% of VCU students are African-American, only 5% of full-time faculty are. Students are demanding that VCU fix that problem– and fast. Mallory Noe-Payne reports.

This historic home of Civil War officer John Mosby now serves as headquarters for the Piedmont Environmental Council.

As the suburbs of Washington grew, people who loved the rural feel of neighboring Virginia counties were alarmed.  Residents of Albemarle County were equally worried as Charlottesville began to expand.  Today, a group called the Piedmont Environmental Council has emerged as a champion of farmland, forests and historic sites in nine counties south and west of D.C.  It’s also become a model for preservationists nationwide as Sandy Hausman reports.

The Piedmont Environmental Council hosts an open house Friday, December 11 from 10:30 to 7 at its newly renovated headquarters on Horner Street in Warrenton.

http://chronicle.com/article/32-Leaders-of-Private-Colleges/234482

The Chronicle of Higher Education is out with its annual list of what private college presidents earn, and three Virginia executives are in the top 100. Sandy Hausman has that story.

Virginia educators and state leaders are soon expected to be able to exert more control over local schools across the commonwealth. Matt Laslo reports on the effort speeding through Congress to unwind the controversial No Child Left Behind act. 

As we’re in the season of holiday celebrations at home, hundreds of families in Virginia fear they may be losing their homes because local inspectors say they’re not safe.  Sandy Hausman reports that the city of Richmond has begun inspecting trailer parks – ordering residents to make repairs or move out.

Person receiving a vaccine

Virginia was the first state in the nation to require that kids entering the sixth grade be vaccinated against human papilloma — a virus that causes cervical cancer in women and throat cancer in men.  Parents can opt out of that requirement, and it turns out many of them do.  Virginia ranks 44^th in the nation when it comes to HPV vaccination.   A team of nurses at the University of Virginia is looking at that problem and making recommendations, as Sandy Hausman reports.

Although segregation ended formally in the United States more than fifty years ago, there are places right here in Virginia that are still segregated, and aren’t likely to change anytime soon. Those places are cemeteries. After integration, historically black cemeteries around Virginia fell to the wayside, often unkempt, uncared for, and forgotten. Mallory Noe-Payne reports.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

If you thought the threat of a government shutdown was taken off the table, think again. Matt Laslo has this story from the Capitol on how Virginia may once again get caught in the crosshairs of a partisan battle in Washington. 

(Richard Webster / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.)

In 1967, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service created the first endangered species list, the Eastern Shore’s Delmarva Peninsula fox squirrel was there among better known species like the bald eagle and Florida manatee. A combination of clearcutting of old growth forests and hunting contributed to its near extinction. Today, the Service officially removed the squirrel from its federally protected designation. Pamela D’Angelo reports.

http://www.cbf.org

After months of contentious hearings, the Richmond County Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 1  to rezone a one-thousand acre pristine tract of land along the Rappahannock River. Pamela D’Angelo reports.

Photo: http://www.vims.edu

While farmed oysters are big business in Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay wild oyster is still struggling with bay pollution and two diseases, harmless to humans, but fatal to oysters. Since the late 1980s, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science has conducted annual surveys to check on how wild oysters are coping. Pamela D’Angelo reports.

Last month, Dominion Power offered its annual report to the state – explaining how it intends to supply affordable and reliable energy over the next 15 years.  Sandy Hausman reports that the company may be leaning toward expanding its nuclear capacity.

Interest in the whole ‘farm to table’ movement is growing.  But one aspect of it continues to be controversial in Virginia; direct farm sales of unpasteurized milk, also known as raw milk.  Some say it should be a personal choice. And others warn, it’s a question of public safety. Robbie Harris has more.

Gov. McAuliffe shucking with his wife, Sec. of Agriculture and Forestry Todd Haymore, and Rita McClenny, president and CEO of Virginia Tourism Corp.

Governor McAuliffe traveled to the Northern Neck this week to fire up the Virginia Oyster Trail.  That’s an initiative he announced last year that connects 250 miles of seafood producers, restaurants, wineries, craft breweries and artisans around the Chesapeake Bay’s rural communities. Pamela D’Angelo reports.

Information on watermen  heritage tours,  as well as restaurants, hotels and vineyards on the trail can be found at virginiaoystertrail.com

Last week the U-S House was able to pass a long term transportation bill which has businesses across the commonwealth feeling optimistic.  Capitol Hill reporter Matt Laslo reports that people are hoping it marks a new day for a gridlocked Washington.

Dominion Power is starting a new project, one that will make its power lines safer to large birds. Crews have begun an effort across the state to slowly change the way power lines are structured. Mallory Noe-Payne reports.

Virginia’s election board is still crunching the numbers for 2015, but if you look at the last ten elections in non-presidential years, voter turnout has been under 40%.  That number could increase if Americans were allowed to do what Estonians have been doing for a decade – voting online.  Sandy Hausman reports on how it works, and how a country of 1-point-3 million people is pioneering all kinds of cyber services.