Welcome to Monday! Here are the news highlights from across Virginia.
Report: More than half of Southwest Virginians struggle to pay basic expenses – Roanoke Times
by Tonia Moxley
Anew report finds that in 2018 more than half of Southwest Virginia households struggled to pay their basic bills, and the worsening global pandemic threatens to push more people into financial trouble.
Commissioned every two years by the Abingdon-based United Way of Southwest Virginia, the ALICE Report gives a snapshot of the financial health of 21 localities across the region, including some in the New River Valley. Released last week, the most recent data shows the Southwest region falling behind the rest of the commonwealth.
Northam administration work group outlines path toward marijuana legalization – Richmond Times-Dispatch
By Mel Leonor
Large investments in robust data collection, new regulation and public education should precede the legalization of recreational marijuana in Virginia — a landscape that “cannot be created quickly.”
Those are some of the recommendations in a report published Monday by a work group that studied marijuana legalization in Virginia at the request of legislators. The group included high-ranking officials in Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration and stakeholders in public health and law enforcement, but no civil rights groups.
With offshore wind, Virginia hopes a 21st-century manufacturing boom will offset a hefty price tag – Virginia Mercury
by Sarah Vogelsong
Maybe, if you squint really hard and the skies are clear, you might be able to convince yourself that you see them, out on the horizon: two turbines spinning far offshore of Virginia Beach.
You can’t, of course — the distance to the Dominion Energy-owned offshore wind outpost is too great. Bill Murray, a senior executive with Dominion, describes it this way: Imagine, he says, that the USS Wisconsin, a World War II-era battleship now docked at Norfolk, were to be beached at Sandbridge and from there fire its 16-inch guns, capable of traveling 21 miles. “Those guns could not hit these turbines,” said Murray.
An autistic Virginia Beach boy loved to shop. When the pandemic forced changes, a Cub Scout stepped up – Virginian-Pilot
By Jane Harper
The Virginia Beach teen, who is severely autistic and has Down Syndrome, likes each day to be the same. He doesn’t understand, or cope well, when his routine isn’t followed. Without question, the activity he looks forward to most is a ride to the thrift store to pick out a book or video. It’s been a reward system of sorts for years, his mother, Michelle, said.
His parents tried taking him to the library, but Ethan had such a hard time returning the books and videos, they decided to take him to the thrift store instead. Besides, it’s not watching the videos or reading the books that Ethan enjoys most. He likes collecting, sorting and categorizing them.
Moderna to apply today for FDA authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine – CNN
by Elizabeth Cohen
Pharmaceutical company Moderna intends to apply Monday to the US Food and Drug Administration for authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine.
The company will ask the FDA to review an expanded data set showing the vaccine is 94.1% effective at preventing Covid-19 and 100% effective at preventing severe cases of the disease.
“This is striking,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee. “These are amazing data.”
A tale of two test results shows complicated, sometimes confusing, aspects of COVID-19 – Freelance-Star
by Cathy Dyson
As if COVID-19 isn’t perplexing enough—with its ability to infect people with myriad symptoms and allow those who don’t even know they have the illness to pass it along to others—some local residents have discovered that getting an accurate test result can be equally complicated.
For instance, Cheryl Sutton of Fredericksburg tested negative for COVID-19, then developed such extreme fatigue that she “would sit around, stare into space and try not to pass out.”
The application for citizens to join the redistricting commission is now live.
UVA’s Tony Bennett speaks after losing to San Francisco
It was hard to miss the fact that UVA lost to the San Francisco Dons on Friday. The Dons are a virtually unknown team, and UVA is the 4th team in the nation and they are also the last team to win a national championship in college basketball. (Last season’s tournament was canceled, and UVA won in 2019.)
Virginia’s mastermind on the sideline spoke to the media the day after the loss.
“Look at it in the mirror, grow from it,” said Bennett of his message to the team following the game. “Forget about it. If you at all think ‘oh we won the first game handily and look at our ranking’, I mean we’ve all been down that road. That means nothing to start.
“We have to keep being as good as we can be, and that’s just not coaches speak. We got to kind of harden up, we got to get gritty, we got to be tougher to score against and be the best version of ourselves. Nothing is assumed, just because of what’s on the front of your jersey.
“You just work and I think some of the concerns or question marks we had shown and they didn’t get answered. Wo we now go to work and say, ‘What can we do to be better’. And use this in the best way possible, and that’s all I know how to do.”
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