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 April 23, 2025:
Richmonders push for schools funding, employee raises at council
Reported by VPM News’ Dean Mirshahi
Dozens of people lined up at City Hall on Monday to urge Richmond City Council to get behind the budget proposals they support.
The speakers — ranging from top city officials to middle schoolers — were advocating, among other priorities, more money for Richmond Public Schools and after-school programs and pay raises for some of the city’s top earners.
But with little wiggle room for Richmond to make changes to a budget that is required to be balanced, many of their requests face long odds to make it into Mayor Danny Avula’s proposed $3 billion plan for fiscal year 2026. (FY26 starts July 1 and runs until June 30, 2026.)
One point of contention during the budget process has been proposed funding for 3.25% raises for city employees. To reduce costs, two councilors proposed cutting the pay increases for non-union employees earning at least $150,000 a year.
Several top city officials, including Police Chief Rick Edwards and Director of Public Utilities Scott Morris, spoke in support of the raises — saying failing to fund them for high-earning employees would make recruiting difficult and could drive some employees to leave in search of better pay.
Federal reports paint conflicting Virginia jobs pictures
Reported by VPM News’ Jahd Khalil
While Virginia added about 6,000 jobs in March according to one employment survey, another said 15,000 fewer Virginians were employed — more than any other state and the District of Columbia, according to US Labor Department figures released last week.
The figures are not interchangeable, though both are conducted through the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, which come from a household survey of people, said that just under 15,000 fewer people were employed in Virginia in March than in February.
While LAUS counts people with jobs, rather than the jobs themselves, the Current Employment Statistics surveys employers. It counted 6,000 more jobs in Virginia.
So far, Gov. Glenn Youngkin's administration has mostly focused on connecting laid-off federal workers with open jobs, and resisted calls to oppose the reduction of the federal bureaucracy. State Secretary of Labor Bryan Slater said 11,218 participants and 451 employers have attended the administration’s job fairs, yielding 15,596 applications for 15,364 jobs.
News you might have missed from around the commonwealth
- Republican Pat Herrity drops out of lieutenant governor race (Richmond Times-Dispatch)*
- Ad blitz emphasizes Va.’s ongoing effort to enshrine reproductive rights in the state’s constitution (Virginia Mercury)
*This outlet utilizes a paywall.
