Latest news with #Virginian
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Booker wades into Virginia attorney general race
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) endorsed former Virginia Del. Jay Jones (D) for state attorney general Tuesday ahead of the primary this month, becoming the latest national Democrat to wade into Virginia's downballot races this year. 'Jay Jones will be a tireless fighter for Virginia families as Attorney General, and that's why I'm so excited to announce my endorsement today,' Booker said in a statement. 'Jay Jones has the vision, commitment, and integrity to keep families safe and make sure every Virginian gets a fair shake in the justice system. I'll be working every day to ensure Jay wins this race.' Jones is running against fellow Democrat Shannon Taylor, who serves as the commonwealth's attorney for Henrico County; the primary is June 17. Jones has shored up a number of endorsements, including former Virginia Govs. Terry McAuliffe (D) and Ralph Northam (D), while Taylor has the backing of former state Attorney General Mark Herring (R) and former Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D), among other Democrats. Whoever wins the Democratic primary will face off against the state's current Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) in November. Booker is the latest national Democrat to endorse ahead of the state's primaries later this month. On Monday, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg backed Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney (D) in the crowded Democratic primary for Virginia lieutenant governor. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
5 hours ago
- General
- The Hill
Booker wades into Virginia attorney general race
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) endorsed former Virginia Del. Jay Jones (D) for the state's attorney general on Tuesday ahead of the primary this month, becoming the latest national Democrat to wade into Virginia's down-ballot races this year. 'Jay Jones will be a tireless fighter for Virginia families as Attorney General, and that's why I'm so excited to announce my endorsement today,' Booker said in a statement. 'Jay Jones has the vision, commitment, and integrity to keep families safe and make sure every Virginian gets a fair shake in the justice system. I'll be working every day to ensure Jay wins this race.' Jones is running against fellow Democrat Shannon Taylor, who serves as the commonwealth's attorney for Henrico County, in the party's primary on June 17. Jones has shored up a number of endorsements, including former Govs. Terry McAuliffe (D) and Ralph Northam (D), while Taylor has the backing of former state Attorney General Mark Herring (R ) and former Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D), among other Democrats. Whoever wins the Democratic primary will face off against the state's current Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) in November. Booker is the latest national Democrat to endorse ahead of the state's primaries later this month. On Monday, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg backed Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney (D) in the crowded Democratic primary for Virginia lieutenant governor.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘From about 11 hours to around 2 minutes': Dominion Energy $50 billion plan reduces outage times ahead of hurricane season
(WAVY) — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting at least six hurricanes and at least three major hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin in 2025. It's a prediction that has NOAA officials urging people to plan ahead. The National Weather Service reported around 200,000 Virginian's lost power in this past February's winter storm. They add some people were without power as long as five days. Virginia-based Dominion Energy, seeing the rise in demand, is sharing their $50 billion initiative to keep the power on. 'There's a five-year capital plan that stands at about $50 billion, and about $27 billion of that is directly related to upgrades to the grid to help modernize it,' explained Cherise Newsome, a Dominion spokeswoman. 'We're headed into hurricane season and extreme weather can cause power outages. We want to reduce and prevent the power outages as best as possible and that's where grid modernization comes in.' Hardening the grid looks different depending on where customers live. Some who live in areas where power lines are vulnerable to being brought down are seeing those lines move underground. 'Our goal in the strategic underground program is to bury about 4000 miles of power lines,' said Newsome. 'So far, we've buried about 2500 miles of power lines. That represents about 13% of our power lines. What that does is reduce the elements that those power lines are exposed to. It's been able to reduce outage times from about 11 hours to around 2 minutes.' Additionally, for power lines in less vulnerable areas, Dominion Energy has upgraded the installation and size of power poles. 'We have a grid hardening program which uses taller poles rooted more deeply in the ground so that they can better withstand the elements of extreme weather conditions like thunderstorms and lightning,' Newsome said. Dominion Energy has also improved the way they receive reports about power outages through new sensors that are applied to power lines. You can read more about that and other technology improvements by clicking here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Times
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘The Damned' Review: Unfortunate Sons
The skies are overcast and the tone is contemplative in 'The Damned,' as a small company of Union Army soldiers sets out in 1862 to explore the dangerously unmapped territories of the American West. What emerges, though, is more akin to a mood poem than a war movie. In keeping with the socially conscious sensibilities of its director, the Italian-born Roberto Minervini (whose previous work has sometimes probed the forgotten souls of rural Texas and urban Louisiana), 'The Damned' is shaped as a wistful and laconic study of the minutiae of survival. Though billed as his first fiction film, it wobbles tantalizingly on a permeable line between narrative and documentary. Unscripted events and largely unnamed characters emerge organically from the director's offscreen prompts and the men's immersion in the life of the camp where much of the movie takes place. This means that, for long stretches, we're watching the soldiers pitch tents, play cards, do laundry and complain about the deepening winter and declining rations. Embedded alongside the men, we eavesdrop on conversations that range from instructive to confessional, hopeful to cautiously philosophical. They have come from all over, with beliefs as varied as their reasons for enlisting. A golden-haired 16-year-old admits to having shot only rabbits and squirrels before following his father and older brother into the Army. When the three pray together, secure in their faith that the only happiness lies in the afterlife, his innocence is heartbreaking. If God is here at all, he's in the details: the pot of coffee bubbling on a laboriously built fire; the dusting of snow on a pitch-black beard; the veins of gold in a lump of quartz. 'This land has it all,' one man marvels, seeing beyond the conflict to the promise of the soil and the wildlife around them. At times, these moments are acutely lyrical, as when we watch a soldier lovingly clean his horse's head (of mud or blood, we don't know), then press his forehead against the animal in silent communion. Politics is almost entirely absent, along with its accompanying animosities. When a Virginian, who joined up in defiance of his slave-owning neighbors, quietly announces that 'putting people in chains is wrong,' there is no argument from those comrades who are simply there for the paycheck. By contrast, the ease of the film's early rhythms and the intimacy of Carlos Alfonso Corral's images have an almost lulling effect, the sense of tranquillity so strong that when the shooting starts, the shock is real. For a time, all is chaos, the men frantically running, apparently without direction or strategy. Are they heading toward or away from the invisible shooters? We assume they're being ambushed by Confederate snipers, or perhaps even the silent cowboys who circled them one day, but the director doesn't clarify. Pointlessness is his point, as is terror, exemplified by the trembling soldier who desperately hunkers his body against a hillock, the competence and confidence he displayed in earlier scenes already melted away. Shot in Montana in 2022, using mainly nonprofessional actors (including local firefighters and members of the National Guard), 'The Damned' relies on improvised dialogue and a resolute refusal to manufacture tension or good guy-bad guy distinctions. The style is impressionistic and minimalist: Sometimes the only illumination is a flaming torch, the only color Union blue, the only soundtrack the howling of wolves. Cold and hunger and a general aimlessness give the men — and us — time to reflect on the horror of a mission that requires them to kill their fellow countrymen. And when one man remarks that many of his beliefs had later turned out to be false, even the family of Baptists has no answer. In the movie's final section, a hushed mournfulness prevails as the dead are buried and the company searches for a route through the mountains. Minervini, who moved to New York just months before the Sept. 11 attacks, isn't interested in lecturing us on pacifism. Yet as we once again experience a painfully divided nation, we're also occupying a cinematic space between the past of 'The Damned' and the near-future schism of Alex Garland's 'Civil War' (2024). In that space, we can clearly see how far we have come and how little we have learned.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Candidate Profile: John F. Butler (Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney race)
John F. Butler is a candidate for Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney and is running as a Democrat. His name will appear on the June 17, 2025 ballot. Butler is running against incumbent challenger Ramin Fatehi in the June primary. The winner will appear on the ballot for the General Election on Nov. 4. If you are voting in this election, from May 2 through June 14 you can vote early at your On Election Day, polls in Virginia are open from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. Don't forget to bring your ID. to see who is on your ballot. 10 On Your Side reached out to all of the candidates running in this race, with a request for a bio and a list of questions to answer. If you do not see the candidate listed with a profile, we did not receive one. Candidate Profiles Name: John F. ButlerAge: 46Website: John F. Butler is a lifelong Virginian, a lifelong Democrat who worked for Bill Clinton and Al Gore, and a lifelong public servant, who moved to Norfolk 13 years ago as an officer in the Navy JAG Corps. He and his wife fell in love with Norfolk's welcoming spirit and chose to raise their two daughters here. John served as a federal prosecutor for 10 years, where he was appointed during President Barack Obama's administration, and most recently was the Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia's Norfolk Division, where he supervised 60 federal prosecutors and staff and twice received the Department of Justice's highest honor, the John Marshall Award. In the Navy, John prosecuted and defended hundreds of cases, serving eight years on active duty, including a deployment to Kandahar, Afghanistan, during Operation Enduring Freedom. He was named the Navy's Prosecutor of the Year, and he continues to serve as a Commander in the Navy Reserves Judiciary Unit. Now, he is running for Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney to build a safer, stronger Norfolk, because everyone deserves to feel safe, no matter who they are or where they live. I love public service, and I love Norfolk. I want to improve the lives and safety of everyone in our hometown, and I believe I have the education, training, and experience to be most effective in the role of Commonwealth's Attorney. Over the past decade as a federal prosecutor and for two and a half years as the Managing Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, I helped make Norfolk and the region safer, delivering justice to victims and leading critical community violence intervention and prevention programs. I am stepping up to focus my efforts on Norfolk and help build a Commonwealth's Attorney's Office that effectively prepares and evaluates cases, creates a culture of excellence that motivates staff, trains and develops junior prosecutors, and delivers justice to victims to make Norfolk a safer, more thriving city. I bring nearly twenty years of experience as a leader and criminal litigator – both as a prosecutor and defense attorney in the Navy JAG Corps, and then as a federal prosecutor in the Norfolk Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. In these roles, I have demonstrated an ability to lead teams, try complex cases, and deliver justice to victims. As a federal prosecutor, I handled some of our region's most significant cases. I managed the office for two and a half years, overseeing 60 attorneys and staff. I led not just by supervising, but by personally trying multiple cases a year and taking them to trial. The most effective managers are servant leaders, and I made it a point to lead by example and provide the resources my teams needed to be successful. At the United States Attorney's office, I strengthened public safety through community-based initiatives. I created the Hampton Roads Opioid Working Group, bringing together medical professionals, educators, peer recovery specialists, first responders, business leaders, and community partners to address the opioid crisis by connecting people suffering from addiction to the help they needed and taking steps to educate young people to prevent addiction. I took those lessons to the Project Safe Neighborhoods program, a community engagement initiative that intervened with at-risk individuals to prevent them from becoming involved in the criminal justice system. Through this work, I built and ran an effective prosecutor's office that created a culture of excellence, mentored junior attorneys, implemented community-based crime prevention and intervention strategies, and, most importantly, delivered justice to victims and their families. We need a competent Commonwealth's Attorney, who can inspire and motivate a strong team that effectively prepares and evaluates cases, delivering justice to victims. You lose the community's trust when cases are repeatedly lost because of avoidable errors, like not turning over discovery, not properly staffing cases, or failing to prepare witnesses. Winning cases depends on earning the trust of witnesses and the broader community. Witnesses must believe we will win these cases and that they will be safe if they come forward. That requires strong witness and victim protection programs, effective preparation, and a proven record of success in the courtroom. Building trust also requires a partnership between the police department, the Commonwealth's Attorney's office, and the community. That's why community violence intervention programs like Project Safe Neighborhoods are so critical, and why it is essential to work with trusted community leaders to rebuild and strengthen those relationships. First, it is necessary to acknowledge the history of redlining, racial segregation, and systemic racism in Norfolk and across Virginia. We are still working to undo the harmful effects of these policies and must prioritize building a relationship of trust between the community and the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office. A prosecutor must consider and balance the circumstances of the crime, the defendant's history and characteristics, the impact on victims, and the safety of the community. Marginalized communities have faced unfair sentencing and targeting by our criminal justice system, and we must make active efforts to prevent that. That is why I led Project Safe Neighborhoods, the Department of Justice's Violence prevention and intervention program, which focuses on reaching individuals before they become justice involved and providing them the resources they need to succeed. For too long, the reactive approach has not worked; we must be proactive, especially in marginalized communities, to combat the symptoms of crime. I am proud to have done that work and will implement and support funding community violence intervention programs as your next Commonwealth's Attorney. The current Attorney General has failed to stand up against Trump's dangerous rhetoric and decision to roll back progress in civil rights that Virginians have fought so hard for by shuttering the Civil Rights Division's focus on race. When the Trump administration called on our universities to shut down their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, the Attorney General joined them rather than stand up for our students. We must protect civil rights programs and support the communities that have been overlooked for far too long in Virginia. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
