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Here’s a recap of the top stories on the morning of Thursday, November 11, 2021:
In the week leading up to Election Day, a mysterious group sent out mailers promoting third-party candidate Princess Blanding for governor and attacking Democrat Terry McAuliffe. As Ben Paviour reports, loopholes in Virginia’s campaign finance law mean we may never know who was behind the ads.
Negotiations between Diversity Richmond employees and administrators continued last night, after multiple days of protests against working conditions at the historic LGBTQ+ nonprofit and community center. Jeremey Stumps is a truck driver at Diversity’s thrift store and one of the organizers of the strike. He says employees won’t return to work until the rest of their demands are met. So far, the executive committee has agreed to increase employees’ base pay to $15 an hour. They also plan to hire an HR representative and mandate sexual harassment training.
The Hanover County School Board narrowly rejected a proposed policy change around bathroom access this week. The policy would have permitted transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity. Megan Pauly reports.
An individual housed in the Riverside Regional Jail has died from a suspected suicide, according the Richmond Times Dispatch. They are the fifth person to die while in Riverside’s custody this year and the third to die by suicide. Suicide is the leading cause of death for people in jails, according to data from the U.S. Department of Justice. This comes just five weeks after a state board voted to allow the facility to remain open under a two-year agreement. It was put in place after an investigation of three deaths between 2019 and 2020.
The sirens around the North Anna and Surry nuclear stations will soon fall silent. Dominion Energy has announced plans to transition to wireless emergency alerts that will arrive via cell phone. The company says it’s making the change in order to provide more real-time information on what to do in case of an emergency. Dominion’s Ken Holt says no action is needed by the power plant’s neighbors; if there’s trouble, they’ll get the alerts automatically. The system was designed by FEMA, and is expected to be in place by March 1, 2022.
Service members will be honored in a ceremony at the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond today. The annual Veterans Day ceremony recognizes and celebrates those who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces from the Revolutionary War to today. Kathleen Jabs, Virginia’s Acting Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs, will be the keynote speaker. The ceremony starts at 11 a.m. The event is free to the public. It will also be broadcast live on CBS6 and streamed on Facebook.
