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The Fight for Paid Leave
After effort for paid sick days falters, lawmakers move toward paid quarantine leave.
The fight for paid sick days is on hold for now, and advocates have moved to a fallback position for the special session of the Virginia General Assembly: quarantine leave.
Protecting Paychecks
Restaurants, lawyers and consultants in Alexandria receive millions in forgivable loans.
Restaurants in Alexandria received the biggest chunk of federal cash from the Paycheck Protection Program, landing more than 200 forgivable loans and saving about 4,000 jobs, according to new data released from the Small Business Administration. Lawyers, consultants and home health care workers also scored big, landing hundreds of loans and saving thousands of jobs. Ultimately, businesses in Alexandria received more than 3,000 loans and preserved more than 35,000 jobs.
Alexandria Reckoning
Police launch formal inquiry into why Black people make up majority of arrests.
Black people are 23 percent of the population in Alexandria, and yet most arrests in the city are of African Americans. Most cases when police use force are against Black people. Most drug arrests are of Black people. And almost half of the inmates at the Alexandria jail are Black people.
Alexandria’s Income Gaps
Whites make three times as much as Hispanic workers, twice as much as black workers.
White Alexandria is pulling in significantly more money than Hispanic workers and African Americans, according to numbers from the United States Census Bureau. A look at average income shows non-Hispanic whites make more than $85,000 a year. That’s more than three times the average income for Hispanic workers, $24,000, and more than twice the average income for black workers, $37,000.
Disproportionate Use of Force
African Americans are often targets of strong-arm tactics by Alexandria police.
Documents outlining use of force by the Alexandria Police Department show force is used against black males more than any other group. In the most recent report, which covers 2019, 54 percent of the instances of use of force was against African Americans. That’s significantly higher than the black population in Alexandria, which is 23 percent.
Furloughed and Waiting
Uncertainty lingers as furloughed workers hope temporary layoffs come to an end.
When Joy Phansond was furloughed from her job as sales coordinator at the Holiday Inn in Old Town, the temporary layoff was initially supposed to last until April 5. Then it was extended to May 5. Then it was extended again until June 5. She suspects that it’ll be extended again until July at least because the hotel business in Alexandria has been slammed by the collapse of tourism, trade shows and conventions.
Chirilagua in Crisis
More than half of those tested in low-income Hispanic neighborhood are positive for COVID-19.
Azucena Esquival lives in a cramped apartment in the Arlandria neighborhood of Alexandria, where the problem of community spread isn’t just theoretical. The pandemic is in her household. Earlier this month, she tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Another adult in her household paid $300 to get a test, which was also positive. They are living with two people who have not been tested. None of them are currently working, and they have no source of income.
Are Hospitals in Northern Virginia Ready?
Projections show a critical lack of hospital beds and ICU beds.
Northern Virginia’s health care system could be overwhelmed by an influx of patients infected with the novel coronavirus, according to an assessment from the Harvard Global Health Institute. The projections show hospitals in Fairfax, Arlington and Alexandria could quickly fill their available beds with patients, forcing administrators to either expand capacity or make the kind of life-and-death decisions about care that Italy has been forced into by the crisis.
Republican Requiem
Democrats take General Assembly, sweep Fairfax School Board; Republicans hold Springfield.
It wasn’t all that long ago that Northern Virginia had its own breed of Republicanism. People like U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-11), U.S. Sen. John Warner and Del. Dave Albo (R-42). Now, after a series of stunning defeats since the election of Donald Trump to the White House, Northern Virginia Republicans are a dying breed, with moderates bowing out or being voted out.
250,000+ Eligible Latino Voters in Virginia
Arlandria is home to one of the largest Salvadoran communities in the country.
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Green Late Deal in Alexandria
Broken promises and missed deadlines plague Eco-City Alexandria.
Alexandria adopted its Eco-City charter with great fanfare in 2008 along with a promise: The charter would be renewed in a decade. That deadline has now come and gone with no plans to update it. In 2009, members of the City Council approved an Eco-City action plan along with another promise: It would be renewed in five years. Once again, city officials breezed through that deadline.
A New Era for Affordable Housing in Alexandria
City moves from rehabilitating old apartment buildings to developing new affordable units.
Alexandria is falling behind its affordable housing goal, creating or preserving about half of the units that were anticipated five years ago. But now that that restaurant diners will be chipping in an extra $5 million a year, city officials are poised to move forward with an aggressive new slate of affordable housing development. Gone are the days when city officials could get their hands on a few 1940s garden apartments here and there to rehabilitate. These days the thinking at City Hall is developing new units as part of a grand strategy to build their way out of an affordable housing crisis.
Down the Drain in Alexandria
State slashes funds to fix city’s combined sewer system.
Alexandria’s plan to fix its raw sewage problem may be going down the drain, at least this year. Leaders in the House and Senate money committees slashed $20 million out of the budget that was supposed to help the city fix its antiquated combined sewer system, which floods the Potomac River with raw sewage whenever there is as little as 0.03 inches of rain.
From Medicaid to Broadband, Northern Virginia Lawmakers Prepare for Raucous Session
Democrats plan to use new numbers to accomplish wide-ranging agenda.
This year’s General Assembly will be like no other. For starters, members walking the halls of the Capitol will look different. The crop of freshman includes the first transgender woman to serve in the Virginia General Assembly, the first lesbian, the first Asian-American women and the first two Latinas. Gone are the 12 Republican members who were unseated, all white males. Also gone are the three members who got out before the bloodbath that flipped their seats from red to blue, also all white males. In their place is a diverse and young group of new members who are eager to make their mark on the commonwealth.
Shifting Political Battlefield for Virginia General Assembly
Solid blue urban areas separated by political beltway from solid red exurbs.
Northern Virginia has more competitive seats than any other part of the commonwealth, a ring of districts that forms a beltway of sorts separating the inner solid blue in Arlington and Alexandria from the solid red in rural and exurban seats in Loudoun and Prince William. That puts Fairfax County squarely in the driver’s seat this November, when Democrats hope to pick up seats in an election that has balanced local issues like schools and roads with the ongoing reaction to President Donald Trump.
Pendulum Politics in Northern Virginia
House District 34 has swung to the left, the right and back again.
Northern Virginia’s wealthiest suburbs are also some of its most hotly contested battleground precincts, the House of Delegates district surrounding Great Falls that’s swung left and right and left again in recent years. What once was the home of legendary Republican Vince Callahan has become kind of jump ball after he announced his retirement a decade ago.
A Tale of Two Immigrants
Candidates hoping to replace Dave Albo are both living the American Dream.
One is from Ecuador. The other is from Vietnam. Both are successful professional women hoping to fill the seat vacated by retiring Del. Dave Albo (R-42). But only one will prevail in November, creating one of the fiercest political contests on the ballot in Northern Virginia this year.
Fighting the System or Ineffective Leadership?
Republican Linda Schulz challenges incumbent Del. Jennifer Boysko.
Democratic incumbent Del. Jennifer Boysko (D-86) is a leading voice of the resistance to Republican leadership. But is she getting anything done in Richmond? Her Republican challenger doesn't think so.
In 86th District: Fighting the System or Ineffective?
Republican Linda Schulz challenges incumbent Del. Jennifer Boysko.
86th district