VPM News

Medicaid cuts, Virginia's natural lakes and parole reform proposals

VPM | By VPM News

Published July 5, 2025 at 6:00 AM EDT

People walk in and out of Sovah Health — Sovah Health's hospital in Danville is seen on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. Rural hospitals like the ones Sovah operates in Danville and Martinsville could be hit particularly hard by Medicaid cuts as a result of the budget bill the US Senate passed Tuesday.

Take a look at this week's top VPM News stories.

Statewide GOP candidates campaign together for the first time

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, second from right, joined the Republican candidates for statewide office — Attorney General Jason Miyares, left; Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, center; and John Reid, right — on stage during a campaign rally on Tuesday, July 1, 2025 in Vienna, Virginia.

Virginia’s full slate of 2025 Republican statewide candidates — Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, John Reid and Attorney General Jason Miyares — appeared together for the first time at a Tuesday event in Fairfax County.

The candidates, joined on stage by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, urged unity and voting a straight GOP ticket in November, but questions remain about potential lingering friction between Earle-Sears, who is running for governor, and Reid, a former Richmond talk radio host who is running to succeed her in the commonwealth’s No. 2 job.

In April, Youngkin indirectly called on Reid, Virginia’s first openly gay candidate for statewide office, to step down in the wake of reports that a social media account with sexually explicit images could be linked to him.

BizSense Beat: Back next week!

BizSense Beat is a weekly collaboration between VPM News and Richmond BizSense that recaps the region’s top business stories … except when it coincides with a holiday weekend.

Host Lyndon German will be back with more business news next week; in the meantime, you can catch up on the BizSense Beat archive here.

This week in VPM News Shorts: UVA runs with Jim; RVA's Got Issues preview

Two people are seen embracing each other on the Lawn at UVA. — Outgoing UVA President Jim Ryan hugs Theresa Carroll, senior assistant dean for advising and student success, on Saturday, June 28, 2025 in Charlottesville. The UVA community honored Ryan with a "Run for Jim" after the US Department of Justice pressured President Ryan to resign over an investigation into UVA's diversity practices.

What happened this week in VPM News Shorts?

In our only News Short of the week, Hannah Davis-Reid reported on University of Virginia students honoring outgoing president Jim Ryan with a “Run for Jim” after he unexpectedly resigned amid a federal pressure campaign.

Still hungry for more short-form video from the VPM team? The RVA’s Got Issues podcast is taking a summer break after wrapping its second season, but host Rich Meagher checked in to give a sneak peek at RGI’s third season — which kicks off in September!

Don’t forget, you can watch all our Shorts on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.