
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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The Virginia Redistricting Commission voted on Monday to begin drawing new legislative maps some two weeks later than expected in the latest delay in the commonwealth’s redistricting process.
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In 2019, Democratic legislators advanced campaign finance reforms to fix a system Gov. Northam called a "boondoggle." A GOP-majority shut down the proposal, but two years after Democrats flipped the state house, the system remains virtually unchanged.
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Democrats in Virginia have called for setting aside some of the more than $4 billion in federal stimulus funds to give bonuses to law enforcement officers. Republicans are pressing them to move faster and go farther, citing an urgent need to raise morale in departments across the state. Some progressive groups, meanwhile, say the raises shouldn’t happen at all.
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Democrats in the General Assembly have united behind a plan to extend a key eviction protection program that has won praise from both landlords and tenant advocates.
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There were lots of fistbumps and handshakes in Virginia’s Capitol Monday as lawmakers returned to their usual chambers in Richmond for the first time in over a year.
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VPM state politics reporter Ben Paviour breaks down the upcoming General Assembly special session with Alan Rodriguez Espinoza.
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A circuit court judge in Lynchburg tossed out a legal challenge to policies designed to protect transgender students on Tuesday. But a broader battle over the policies is likely to continue as school boards decide how to implement the protections or whether to forgo them entirely in defiance of a law passed last year.
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Top Republicans in Virginia’s House of Delegates say rank-and-file lawmakers and their constituents are being cut out of the debate over how the commonwealth spends $4.3 billion in federal stimulus funds.
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The state office charged with overseeing drinking water in Virginia uses inconsistent standards to document and enforce potential problems, according to an audit released last month.
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Republican Glenn Youngkin says he wants to build a “rip-roaring” economy, protect the Second Amendment, and bring down the cost of living. But if the devil is in the details, you won’t find much on the gubernatorial hopeful’s website, TV ads, or public appearances.