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.

About 2,000 college students in Virginia won’t have to pay back some of their student loans, thanks to a state settlement with the Education Management Corporation. That company owns a handful of for-profit colleges in Virginia that have been under investigation for lying to students about job placement rates and graduates’ salaries. Mallory Noe-Payne filed this report.

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.

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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. 

Richmonders get their first look at a Crosely TV set in the lobby of the Byrd Theater.

From neglect to the rise of Netflix to general lack of funds, several of the opulent, old movie palaces across the Commonwealth have closed or have been repurposed altogether. But Kelsea Pieters looks at two of Virginia’s historic theaters that have survived – and thrive from support of those in their communities.

(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.

State and local election officials are hoping to see a lot of people at the polls Tuesday.  But must experts believe only about 23-to-29 percent of those registered will vote will show up. Some have already voted…they cast absentee ballots.  Joe Staniunas has more.
The State Board of Elections says it’s received more than 55,000 absentee ballots so far. That’s close to the same number that came in four years ago, in the last off-year election like this.

This Election Day voters are deciding which party will run the Virginia Senate for the next four years. Republicans hold a 21-to-19 majority but Democrats can take control by gaining one seat since they have the tiebreaking  vote in the person of Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam. With Republicans likely to maintain a large majority in the House of Delegates and Democrat Terry McAuliffe sitting in the governor’s mansion today’s outcome in the senate will have enormous implications for the direction of state government in the immediate future. More now from Fred Echols.

About 60 black students from middle schools and high schools throughout Central Virginia gathered recently for the second EMBODI conference in Charlottesville.  Jordy Yager was able to attend the day of workshops for this report on how local African-American leaders are striving to empower the next generation of young black men.

Spiders get their ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ every Halloween as one of the scary symbols of the holiday, but there’s nothing to be frightened of in this report. As Robbie Harris tells us, the webs they weave may hold the key to some new, environmentally safe products.