Virginia Public Radio

Psychology Professor Bob Emery offers advice to couples on surviving and thriving during a pandemic. (Credit UVA)

The pandemic poses unique challenges to each of us – whether we’re single, part of a couple or family.

At the University of Virginia’s Center for Children, Families and the Law, psychologist Bob Emery is taking notes and offering advice.

Sandy Hausman spoke with him and filed this report.

Lawmakers are headed to Richmond to consider a long list of proposed criminal justice reforms.

As Michael Pope reports, one of those proposals would change how defendants are sentenced.

As some Virginia school districts prepare to re-open without students in the classroom at least one county is looking at renting out unused school buildings. And the city of Radford will limit gatherings as college students return for the fall semester.

Those have been among the most read stories over the past week at the Virginia Public Access Project’s Va. News link.

More now from Fred Echols.

(Credit: Herndon Police Dept.)

Lawmakers are about to consider a proposal that would limit when police officers can serve warrants.

Michael Pope reports.

As a professor at UVA’s Darden School of Business, Roshni Raveendhran has studied productivity and working at home. (Credit: UVA)

With many of us now working from home, managers face a challenge – how to promote productivity when people aren’t in the office.

Some are turning to sophisticated software to track workers’ every move online.  But a business professor at the University of Virginia says that’s the wrong way to go.

Sandy Hausman spoke with her and filed this report.

Virginia is rolling out a coronavirus exposure app, the first of its kind in the country.

David Seidel explains how it works.

Protesters gather around the Lee Monument earlier this summer. (Credit: Mallory Noe-Payne)

A judge in Richmond has given state officials a victory and a blow in two court cases over the Lee statue on Monument Avenue.

The judge dismissed an earlier lawsuit Monday, while at the same time extended an injunction on a second suit.

Mallory Noe-Payne reports.

Election officials in Virginia are working to prepare for a flood of early voting. And there are accusations in one Virginia county of intimidation and harassment against teachers who want students back in the classroom.

Those have been among the most read stories over the past week the Virginia Public Access Project’s Va. News link.

More now from Fred Echols.

UVA Professor Emeritus Frederick Hayden and colleagues in Japan say a drug used to treat flu can also prevent it. (Credit: UVA)

Some public health experts worry that the arrival of flu season could be disastrous for hospitals already coping with COVID-19, but a professor at UVA’s School of Medicine says there’s reason to be hopeful.

Sandy Hausman tells why.

(Credit: Alan Graf)

Statues set in stone signify a sense of eternity.  But that view is changing rapidly as recent events demonstrate.

A Virginia Tech sociologist has been exploring how people in communities with Confederate statues relate to them today.

Robbie Harris spoke to her.

One of Virginia’s new gun laws has seen its first real world application. And a Virginia locality has found at least one benefit to the economic slowdown.

Those have been among the most read stories over the past week at the Virginia Public Access Project’s Va. News link.

More now from Fred Echols.

In Virginia’s statehouse in Richmond,  a statue of Robert E. Lee was removed Thursday night.

And as Mallory Noe-Payne reports, a state panel voted unanimously Friday to recommend removal of a different statue of Lee, this one in the U.S. Capitol.

Virginia lawmakers are preparing to tackle criminal justice reform in an upcoming special session.

As Mallory Noe-Payne reports they heard hours of testimony Wednesday from law enforcement, activists, and the public.

There are many unanswered questions about when and how Virginia schools will reopen and how students will get there. And at least two local governments have declared that the pandemic relieves them of certain requirements under the Freedom of Information Act.

Those have been among the most read stories over the past week at the Virginia Public Access Project’s Va. News link.

More now from Fred Echols.

More than 973,000 jobs in Virginia were spared through the Paycheck Protection Program, according to data released by the U.S. Treasury Department this week.

So what happens if businesses still cut their staff?

Cat Modlin-Jackson has this report.

(Credit: CDC)

An outbreak of COVID-19 at an ICE detention facility in Central Virginia has advocates worried.

More than 100 people detained there have now tested positive for the virus.

Officials say it’s the result of transferring COVID-positive people from other facilities. Mallory Noe-Payne has details.

Housing markets in Virginia are on the mend, but the road ahead is still unclear for renters struggling to recover from the economic devastation of COVID-19.

That’s one takeaway lawmakers heard at a Virginia Housing Commission meeting Wednesday.

Cat Modlin-Jackson has this report.

Housing advocates in Virginia are celebrating landmark anti-discrimination laws that took effect last week (July 1st).

One prohibits landlords from turning away renters based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

And, as Cat Modlin-Jackson found, another could help deconcentrate poverty and racial segregation.