The VPM Daily Newscast contains all your Central Virginia news in just 5 to 10 minutes. Episodes are recorded the night before.
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Here’s a recap of the top stories on the morning of Sept. 21, 2023:
Sustainability steers Hardywood brewery toward change
Reported by VPM News’ Ian Stewart
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery recently announced it’ll phase out bottles by the end of 2023 and use only cans to distribute its beer in an effort to run a more sustainable business.
“For us, the desire was always to offer the most environmentally conscious package that met our customer's needs,” said Eric McKay, CEO and co-founder of the brewery, which has locations in Scott’s Addition and West Creek. “And I think those two things have started to come together more and more with cans. They're lightweight. And it costs a lot less to ship them to our distributors and retailers.”
Virginia announces new, post-ERIC voter data agreements
Reported by VPM News’ Ben Paviour
The Virginia Department of Elections announced Wednesday it signed agreements with five states and the District of Columbia to share voter data. The move comes after the commonwealth quit a multistate partnership that has been the target of right-wing conspiracy theories.
In an annual report released Wednesday, ELECT said it had made “unprecedented strides in improving the accuracy of its voter list.” Some voting experts and Democrats, meanwhile, said the changes will lead to less reliable voter rolls and could result in the removal of eligible voters.
Commissioner of Elections Susan Beals announced Virginia was leaving the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, in May. Though she’d publicly defended the partnership as recently as April, Beals cited concerns about privacy and costs without providing details. Past VPM News reporting showed Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office was directly involved in discussions leading up to the state's departure from ERIC.
In other news:
- Otieno family reaches $8.5M settlement with state, Henrico (The Associated Press)
- Virginia officials say school mental health pilot ‘successfully launched’ new services (Virginia Mercury)
- Dominion offers Virginia Beach $19 million for offshore wind transmission easements (The Virginian-Pilot)*
In case you missed it:
- A brand new neighborhood is coming to Richmond’s Pulse bus rapid transit corridor (Greater Greater Washington)
- The kids on the night shift (The New York Times)*
- Crypto mining firm finds energy in Buchanan, plans to hire 100 (The Roanoke Times)*
*This outlet utilizes a paywall.
