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 Aug. 8, 2024:
VDOE hosts Chesterfield town hall on cellphones in schools
Reported by VPM News’ Billy Shields
On Tuesday evening, Lisa Coons, Virginia’s superintendent of public instruction, met with educators and parents at Chesterfield Career and Technical Center to discuss how devices-in-schools policies should be shaped.
The goal is to reach a standardized set of guidelines that districts can adopt, rather than having policies vary greatly. Currently, Chesterfield County has different rules for cellphone usage at the elementary, middle and high schools.
Across the state, Mathews County prohibits students at any level from bringing phones to school. Hopewell City requires middle- and high-school students to place their phones into magnetically locked bags that render them inaccessible during classroom hours; Richmond expanded a similar pilot program in January.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s recent executive order cites survey findings that children who use social media the most often are the likeliest to report poor mental health or thoughts of suicide or self-harm.
Rescue from above: How drones may narrow emergency response times
Reported by KFF Health News
More than 356,000 people have a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital setting every year in the United States, according to the American Heart Association.
“We’ve never been able to move the needle for cardiac arrest in private settings, and this technology could meet that need,” said Monique Anderson Starks, a cardiologist and associate professor of medicine at Duke University.
Starks is leading pilot studies in Forsyth County, North Carolina, and James City County to test whether drone AED delivery can improve treatment response times.
The work is funded by a four-year grant from the American Heart Association. A 2017 study found it takes an emergency medical services unit seven minutes, on average, to arrive on the scene following a 911 call, though response times vary considerably by region, and rural wait times can be much longer.
In other news:
- Battleground Virginia: Both Harris and Trump campaigns open dozens of offices in Virginia. (The News Leader)*
- 15-home infill planned beside centuries-old Grove Ave. house (Richmond BizSense)*
In case you missed it:
- Virginia educators largely support student cellphone ban as VDOE drafts policies (Richmond Times-Dispatch)*
*This outlet utilizes a paywall.
