The VPM Daily Newscast contains all your Central Virginia news in just 5 to 10 minutes. Episodes are recorded the night before.
Listeners can subscribe through NPR One, Apple Podcasts, Megaphone, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.
Here’s a recap of the top stories on the morning of Feb. 11, 2025:
Bill would protect overseas service members from Virginia voter roll removal
Reported by VPM News’ Dean Mirshahi
The Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill that would keep state election officials from removing active-duty military members serving overseas from voter rolls.
The proposal, introduced by Del. Amy Laufer (D–Charlottesville), would allow general registrars to only cancel voter registrations through a written request from the voter or data from an approved source.
“It also attempts to streamline procedures by centralizing approved data sources, which mitigates potential errors and disputes related to inaccurate or unverified data,” Laufer said.
Nancy Smith, political director of the conservative Middle Resolution PAC, said the legislation would hinder the state’s ability to remove unqualified voters from its rolls. She also said the bill would cut registrars’ option to review a national database on out-of-state deaths.
The proposal comes after Virginia was sued during the 2024 election cycle over the removal of hundreds of people from the rolls who the Youngkin administration claimed were noncitizens. A federal judge ordered a reversal but the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately granted an emergency appeal, allowing people to be kept off the rolls.
Oilville craft shop hangs it up after years of lasting impressions
Reported by VPM News’ Billy Shields
After about 25 years of creativity, Mitra Palmer is stepping away from an artistic rubber stamp business she started from scratch while teaching high school in Williamsburg.
“I founded this business in a super naive way,” she said. During the late ’90s, “there was no direct-to-consumer sales on the internet.”
Using a rubber-setting machine called a “vulcanizer,” Palmer began creating rubber stamps needed for crafting projects — like homemade greeting cards, posters and invitations.
She and a partner mailed about 1,800 catalogs for her Impression Obsession business to stores nationwide, quickly gaining traction as stamp producers (Palmer bought out the partner after about a year). By the 2000s, Impression Obsession produced around $3 million of stamps per year and employed 10 people.
In addition to issues finding and retaining staff, Palmer had to deal with another issue: online copycat vendors that hawk their wares on a growing number of websites. Palmer pointed out that the sites can quickly and cheaply copy designs, make them in a factory and sell those designs at a fraction of the cost in the United States.
News you might have missed from around the commonwealth
- Trump government cuts come to bear on Virginia governor’s race (The Associated Press)
- McEachin says she has 'no authority' to enforce immigration laws (Richmond Times-Dispatch)*
