Ben Paviour
Ben Paviour is reporting in Virginia as part of The New York Times’s Local Investigations Fellowship. He previously covered courts, criminal justice and state politics for VPM News — with a focus on accountability.
He previously covered politics and culture in Cambodia and lived pre-journalism lives as a tech writer at Google and a program manager for a youth job training program in Alameda County, California.
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In a tweet that has since been deleted, the “Team Youngkin” Twitter account posted a photo of a Patrick Henry High School senior alongside former Gov. Ralph Northam juxtaposed with a racist photo from Northam’s yearbook. -
Kelley Fanto Deetz had worked with a broader team aiming to tell the story of descendents of workers who once lived and worked at the site, which is the oldest continuously occupied, purpose-built governor's residence in the U.S.
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Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently launched a tip line to report teachers and schools for “inherently divisive teaching practices.”
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Historian and archeologist Kelley Fanto Deetz arrived to work at Virginia’s Executive Mansion last month to find her office had been emptied. Items in a historic kitchen in the building’s annex, which had been reimagined to tell the stories of enslaved workers to visitors, had been shoved aside, she said.
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Virginia Division of Capitol Police spokesperson Joe Macenka said authorities are investigating the confrontation involving Sen. Joe Morrissey Lafayette Jefferson, a critic of Morrissey’s plan to bring a casino to Petersburg.
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Republicans in Virginia’s House of Delegates have advanced legislation seeking to freeze a staggered minimum wage increase approved by Democrats nearly two years ago. Their efforts are likely to meet a wall of resistance in the state Senate, where Democrats have already rejected efforts to undo one of their signature accomplishments while in the majority.
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Another fight over vaccines spilled over in Virginia’s Senate on Friday as lawmakers debated whether certain workers who refuse vaccines should be eligible for workers’ compensation if they die or get disabled because of COVID-19.
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Democrats in Virginia’s Senate have dealt a blow to a major campaign promise from Attorney General Jason Miyares that would have allowed him to intervene in some local prosecutions.
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Virginia state Sen. Amanda Chase (R-Midlothian) is denying any connection to Stewart Rhodes, a far-right militia leader who appeared with her in a video hosted by her Facebook page on the eve of the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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Businessman Glenn Youngkin was sworn in as the 74th governor of Virginia on Saturday in Richmond, restoring Republicans to an office they haven't held in nearly a decade.
