Mark Penn, a former top adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, called Thursday for ABC to launch a formal internal investigation into its news division’s planning and execution of this week’s presidential debate to determine if there was some effort at “rigging the outcome of this debate.”
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Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee on Thursday dismissed two counts against former President Donald Trump in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s election case.
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Climate activists crashed Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s lunch keynote at a Federalist Society education event in downtown Washington, D.C., on Thursday, interrupting his remarks about remembering the victims and heroes of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The Republican, who sailed into office on the strength of parental demands to control their children’s education amid COVID-19 restrictions, was discussing how he just came from Arlington National Cemetery when a small mob of activists approached the stage and started chanting.
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Virginia may not be in play after all in the 2024 presidential contest, judging by the results of a new poll by The Washington Post and George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government.
The poll, conducted Wednesday through Sunday, shows Vice President Kamala Harris leading former President Donald Trump by 8% (51%-43%), starkly contrasting with polls administered in the late spring and earlier summer when President Joe Biden was still the Democratic nominee.
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Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares on Sunday responded to the recent arrest of an illegal immigrant who is charged with the abduction of a teenage girl and falsely claiming he was police officer by condemning Vice President Kamala Harris’ oversight of the southern border as “a betrayal” of the American people.
“This horrific crime is a direct result of Kamala Harris putting her political agenda above the safety of American citizens,” said Miyares in a post to the social media platform X. “It’s not just negligence; it’s a betrayal. Our communities’ safety should never be sacrificed for reckless, politically driven decisions.”
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Localities with “sanctuary” policies in Virginia have grown, many butting up against vital military or national security instillations, posing potential threats, according to a former Homeland Security and immigration senior official.
Last month, immigration policy think tank the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released an updated map of localities that have adopted sanctuary policies, which showed a surge in the commonwealth totaling 84.
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The University of Virginia tops the 2025 free speech ranking on college campuses, a first for the school founded by Thomas Jefferson.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression surveyed over 250 colleges and universities in its rankings. The foundation survey, administered by College Pulse, surveyed nearly 60,000 undergraduates enrolled full-time in four-year degree programs.
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Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares on Thursday said he would not say whether he intends to seek a higher office, or reelection, until after the November elections in a Thursday post to social media.
Miyares confirmed he will hold his silence just hours after Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears on Thursday declared her gubernatorial candidacy in a bid to succeed Governor Glenn Youngkin, who is precluded from seeking a second term by the Virginia Constitution.
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For the second time in one day, Hunter Biden changed his plea in the federal case centered on nine tax charges ahead of the jury selection that was set to begin Thursday.
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A former Virginia police officer on Wednesday became the first January 6 defendant to receive a reduced sentence after the Supreme Court narrowed the scope of an obstruction charge used against Jan. 6 rioters.
The Supreme Court in June made it more difficult to charge the defendants with obstruction but charges can still be brought if prosecutors can prove that rioters were intentionally trying to stop the arrival of certificates used to certify electoral votes during the riot.
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A Tuesday report revealed an influential conservative political fund has spent $2.3 million to flip Virginia’s 7th Congressional District in November. Republicans are trying to help Derrick Anderson secure a victory against Eugene Vindman, who featured prominently in the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump.
Anderson will benefit from $2.3 million in spending from the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), which exists to elect Republicans to the U.S. House, according to a Tuesday report by Punchbowl News.
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Former Virginia House Delegate Jay Jones reportedly filed paperwork to run for Attorney General of the commonwealth, ending his break from politics that began after Jones announced his resignation in 2021.
Jones filed paperwork to run for Virginia Attorney General on August 28, according to WRIC, which reported Monday a staff member for the Democrat replied that any official announcement would come after the November elections.
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College enrollment declined nationwide by 15 percent from 2010-21 and still hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, though the 2023-24 school year was the first since 2020 that schools saw an average increase in enrollment.
Virginia colleges also experienced these trends but over a slightly shorter period. As of fall 2023, enrollment in the state’s four-year universities was actually higher than it was at its peak in 2012 but much lower for its community colleges.
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Gov. Glenn Youngkin held a ceremonial signing for legislation adding ethnicity to the protected classes under the Virginia Human Rights Act and ratcheting up penalties for people committing crimes motivated by bigotry.
The bipartisan House and Senate legislation was inspired by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Gaza, which led to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, sparking anti-Israeli protests around the globe, including Virginia.
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Governor Glenn Youngkin said on Wednesday that Virginia remains competitive for former President Donald Trump and Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) despite President Joe Biden dropping out of the race in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been credited with making up ground lost under Biden.
Youngkin made the remarks during an appearance on The Brian Kilmeade Show, initially acknowledging the recent poll results that showed Harris narrowly leading Trump within the survey’s margin of error.
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Derrick Anderson, the Republican U.S. House candidate for Virginia’s 7th Congressional district, said on Tuesday that his Democratic opponent is “dodging simple questions” about whether he exaggerated or inflated the sum of his military experience while on the campaign trail.
The Vindman campaign is currently the subject of a Federal Elections Commission (FEC) complaint over its reliance on an outside group to provide a response for questions about the candidate’s military experience.
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Recent data on school district spending gathered by the Virginia Public Access Project appear to support the conclusion of a late-February Reason Foundation study assessing the relationship between state K-12 education spending and student outcomes.
The foundation concluded that increased spending does not always correlate with higher test scores, and less spending doesn’t always mean poorer outcomes.
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One bust of President George Washington inside the nation’s capitol just can’t catch a break.
The monument at George Washington University was beheaded during the height of the Black Lives Matter riots in June 2020. The university finally had it fixed by the summer of 2022.
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Immigration policy think tank the Center for Immigration Studies released its updated map of American sanctuary locations on Thursday, revealing a surge in Virginia localities adopting sanctuary status.
The center added 36 Virginia localities to its map for a total of 84.
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Retired Army Col. Yevegny “Eugene” Vindman, the Democrat nominee for Virginia’s 7th Congressional district, on Thursday was confirmed to be the recipient of a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint over an alleged improper contribution from a political organization that supports his candidacy.
Vindman’s twin brother Alexander is the man who overheard the phone call between former President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that led to the first attempt to impeach Trump. Vindman reportedly took the information about the call from his brother and made a report to White House lawyers.
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Former Governor Terry McAuliffe on Thursday disputed the results of a Virginia poll that showed former President Donald Trump statistically tied with Vice President Kamala Harris in the commonwealth, raising allegations about the pollster’s credibility and claims its data was skewed, before arguing federal workers would turnout in sufficient numbers to propel the Harris-Walz ticket to victory.
McAuliffe claimed the pollster who released the Tuesday survey showing Trump and Harris statistically tied, with the Democrat leading the former president by just 3 percent, “has never had a poll that’s been correct in their life,” according to The Washington Times.
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Virginia appears to be in play in the presidential election, with Vice President Kamala Harris holding a slight lead over former President Donald Trump in the commonwealth, according to a poll released Tuesday morning.
The Institute for Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College shows Harris ahead of Trump by three percentage points (47%-44%) in a head-to-head matchup. When other candidates were included, Harris still leads by three points (45%-42%). When factoring in the poll’s 4.5% margin of error, Harris and Trump are in a statistical dead heat.
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As President Joe Biden’s presidential term comes to a close, the administration is bearing down on its goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy and 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind by 2035.
As of 2021, the administration had approved two commercial-scale offshore wind projects, and seven have been approved within the past year.
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The Freedom of Information Act exists to promote governmental transparency, although it doesn’t always accomplish that end, according to the Executive Director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, Megan Rhyne.
And though Virginia’s not unique in that regard, it’s difficult to compare states’ open records laws because they can differ by many variables, according to Rhyne.
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After a story published Sunday by Just The News accusing Lynchburg Mayor Stephanie Reed of bullying constituents whom she believes have wronged her, well as employing the same tactics against members of the Lynchburg City Council, The Virginia Star has received similar allegations from more Lynchburg residents.
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The Republican mayor of Lynchburg, Va., has allegedly repeatedly attempted to silence her critics during her two-year term, according to residents, which has had a “chilling effect on free speech.”
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The Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission recently approved a pilot workforce housing program to make the region more attractive to new businesses and job seekers.
The commission was founded to foster economic growth and opportunity in 34 counties and six independent cities comprising Southwest and Southern Virginia – a region where tobacco farming was once integral to the economy. It’s funded entirely by proceeds from a major 1990s tobacco lawsuit settlement.
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Republican U.S. Senate candidate Hung Cao, himself a decorated veteran of the U.S. Navy, on Wednesday said the allegations of stolen valor levied at Democratic vice presidential nominee Governor Tim Walz are “disqualifying” and reveal “hypocrisy” on behalf of the media.
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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, R, signed an executive order Wednesday, codifying election security measures and listing procedures to prevent non-citizens from voting in elections.
The executive order directs the Commissioner of the Department of Elections to annually certify that election security measures are in place regarding ballot security, testing and certification of ballot counting machines, triple-checking the accuracy of election results, and daily updating of voter rolls.
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Republican attorneys general from 21 states, led by the attorneys general of Montana and Virginia, submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia defending the federal law banning TikTok in the U.S.
President Joe Biden signed the legislation into law in April due to concerns that through Chinese-owned parent company Bytedance, the Chinese Communist Party might be able to gain access to users’ private data or influence American youth toward communism. The law threatens to prohibit the app in the U.S. if Bytedance does not sell its shares in the social media company by Jan. 19, 2025.
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A frustrated group of Virginia Military Institute alumni, some of whom have previously spoken out against the institution’s growing embrace of DEI, have taken on a new battle.
The disgruntled alumni have filed a civil rights lawsuit against VMI Alumni Agencies, arguing the relationship between the official alma mater organization and the institute itself is inappropriate, that school leaders have too much control over it.
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Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares on Friday sent a letter to ActBlue, the top fundraising platform for Democrats and liberal issues, demanding answers over the money laundering and fraud allegations levied by journalist James O’Keefe and his O’Keefe Media Group.
Miyares posted his letter to the social media platform X, confirming his office questioned ActBlue over allegations of “fraudulent, deceptive, and/or otherwise illegal acts,” including “hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions through individual donors” in Virginia who purportedly donated “in volumes that are facially implausible and appear suspicious.”
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The chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) confirmed the party considers Virginia “competitive” for former President Donald Trump in his campaign to retake the White House in November, pointing toward the 2021 victory by Governor Glenn Youngkin as evidence conservatives can still win statewide elections in the commonwealth.
RNC Chair Michael Whatley told the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Wednesday that Virginia will be competitive for the Trump campaign after Youngkin showed “how a Republican can win Virginia” with his 2021 victory.
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Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus Virginia Rep. Bob Good has been unseated after losing a recount stemming from a close June primary race.
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A county supervisor in Virginia on Monday called for an end to sanctuary laws for illegal migrants after two murder suspects were confirmed to be living in the U.S. illegally, 7News reported.
Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity, the one-and-only Republican supervisor in the deep blue jurisdiction, is demanding county officials put an end to laws that protect illegal migrant criminals in the county, according to 7News. Herrity’s public comments follow a brutal murder earlier this month along a popular hiking trail in Oakton, Virginia, with accusations that at least one of the illegal migrant suspects benefited from sanctuary laws before the murder.
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Virginia school boards are issuing cellphone free mandates in their local communities, after Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin ordered schools to draft plans for cell phone-free education in K-12 public schools.
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Virginia State Police cleared the anti-Israel encampment constructed near the home of Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday after it subsisted for over six months.
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) worked with the Virginia State Police to clear the encampment previously constructed on the shoulder of Chain Bridge Road near Blinken’s home on Saturday, with VDOT stating to WTOP the encampment was “unsafe for motorists, bikers and pedestrians and blocks access to emergency vehicles and personnel.”
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Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares filed an amicus brief Thursday on behalf of the Hanover County School Board, which barred a middle school male student identifying as a transgender girl from playing on the girls’ tennis team.
“Neither the federal Constitution nor any federal statute require Virginia school boards to allow biological males to play on a girls sports team,” Miyares said in a statement. “Rather, civil rights law is meant to protect female equity in athletics. I urge the court to ensure that women’s rights and opportunities remain protected in Virginia.”
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The lead sharpshooter of the SWAT Team working alongside the U.S. Secret Service during the attempted assassination against former President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the group had “no communication” with the agency until after the shooting.
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The Federal Reserve is expected to hold the bank’s key interest rate steady this week. Traders currently expect three rate cuts this year beginning in September.
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The executive director, chief of staff and chief of surgery at the Hampton VA Medical Center are all leaving after investigations revealed substandard care and potentially willful negligence.
Their exodus stems from congressional investigations and a Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General report. The OIG began its latest probe into the hospital (there have been others) after learning of six instances of substandard care by the hospital’s assistant chief of surgery and spotting implications of a lack of internal reporting, oversight and accountability.
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New York District Attorney Letitia James on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to block a lawsuit from Missouri that is attempting to stop former President Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush money case.
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The Democratic Party of Virginia (DPVA) confirmed on Tuesday that its delegates to the Democratic National Convention voted unanimously on Monday to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee for the president during its convention next month.
In a statement posted to the social media platform X, the Virginia Democrats confirmed the delegates “met virtually” and “unanimously voted to join President Joe Biden in endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for the 2024 Democratic nomination for President of the United States.”
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Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance drew on his Appalachian upbringing to connect with supporters at a rally in Virginia on Monday night, focusing on the region’s depleted manufacturing industry, fentanyl and surging immigration crisis.
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U.S. Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle resigned from her position on Tuesday following backlash she received after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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Two months after lawmakers passed the commonwealth’s biennial budget containing changes to its tuition assistance program for some military families, legislators reconvened at the Capitol Thursday and passed legislation fully reinstating the program.
Representatives from Veterans of Foreign Wars attended the session and extolled the outcome afterward.
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Ohio GOP Sen. JD Vance will headline a rally in Radford, Va., on Monday as the campaign hopes to flip the Old Dominion into the Republican camp for the first time in 20 years.
Former President Donald Trump announced Vance as his running mate this week amid the Republican National Convention. Though formerly a Trump critic, Vance has emerged as one of his most stalwart supporters in the upper chamber.
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One year after the Virginia Department of Education rolled out new model policies for the treatment of transgender students, the ACLU has undertaken several lawsuits on behalf of students identifying as transgender, saying the policies violate state and federal law.
One lawsuit was dismissed Monday, and the other two will be heard on Aug. 6 and 20, one in federal court and the other in state circuit court.
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Former President Donald Trump has inched ahead of President Joe Biden in Virginia, a state no Republican has won at the presidential level since 2004.
The RealClearPolitics polling average currently shows Trump with 43.8% support to Biden’s 43.4%. The average includes five surveys from Emerson, VCU, NY Times/Siena, Fox News, and Roanoke College.
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The New York Times/Siena College poll just released results from a voter survey taken before the Trump rally shooting, showing President Joe Biden leading former President Donald Trump by just a few percentage points.
The results are causing more chatter about the role Virginia could play in the upcoming election since Biden won Virginia by 10% in 2020. Prior to a May poll by Roanoke College that showed the presidential candidates tied 42%-42%, Virginia was considered reliably blue for Biden – due to his previous performance and to the fact that George W. Bush was the last Republican presidential candidate to win the commonwealth in 2004.
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