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 April 9, 2025:
‘Idleness and boredom’: Virginia juvenile justice system strained by staffing shortages
Reported by VPM News’ Keyris Manzanares
Lockdowns, increased restrictions on out-of-cell time, a lack of rehabilitative services and critically low staffing levels have recently drawn attention to Virginia’s only youth prison: Bon Air Juvenile Justice Center in Chesterfield County.
Recent public hearings have resulted in officials calling for investigations — a potential first step in preventing dangerous conditions from becoming commonplace in the face of chronic understaffing at the juvenile correctional facility.
In an email to VPM News, Department of Juvenile Justice spokesperson Melodie Martin acknowledged the department’s issues hiring enough staff. She wrote that the agency has participated in hiring events, job fairs, “college and university visits, outreach to military and veteran communities,” and has offered signing bonuses and referral incentives.
But the Bon Air facility's also “utilized specialized staff from the Virginia Department of Corrections to support focused security operations,” she wrote, adding that part-time and contract juvenile correctional specialists are offered “flexible shifts.” She declined to share how many VADOC employees have worked at the Bon Air facility — or how frequently.
In the third installment of “Idleness and boredom” — VPM News’ series on the cost of staffing issues at Bon Air JCC — reporter Keyris Manzanares explores the history of the facility, and how its issues fit into a national trend of staffing problems in juvenile correctional facilities.
VCU not committed to future funding for GRTC’s free bus program
Reported by VPM News’ Dean Mirshahi
The fate of Greater Richmond’s free bus service depends on one thing: money to pay for it.
The Greater Richmond Transit Company needs $6.8 million to keep its Zero Fare policy — launched in March 2020 as a COVID-19 safety measure — going in fiscal year 2026, according to the transit system and a new report from an advocacy group. (Virginia’s fiscal years run from July 1 to June 30.)
Both GRTC officials and advocates like Faith Walker, executive director of RVA Rapid Transit, say keeping Zero Fare is a priority. Walker calls it a “lifeline” for people who rely on public transportation to get around, particularly low-income riders with ongoing financial pressures.
Zero Fare received $8 million in funding over the last three fiscal years through a state grant that required local matching funds, but that grant ends June 30. And Virginia Commonwealth University, which provided almost $4 million in funding over that period, has not committed to directly funding Zero Fare going forward.
In a statement, VCU — which has partnered with GRTC since 2018 — said it would explore other avenues to support the transit system, including buying advertising placements on GRTC buses.
News you might have missed from around the commonwealth
- Gallery: Hands Off! Richmond protest (VPM News)
- Documents show DEQ warned Hanover landfill about groundwater contamination (Richmond Times-Dispatch)*
- Charlottesville plans to put Fifth Street on 'road diet,' add protected bikeway (The Daily Progress)*
- Lynchburg GOP sues to overturn Virginia’s ‘Convention Ban Law’ (Virginia Mercury)
*This outlet utilizes a paywall.
