Category: Virginia Mercury

WASHINGTON — U.S. acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was one step closer to permanently leading the Justice Department Tuesday, after two skeptical Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans voted to advance his nomination given Blanche’s signed promise that President Donald Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is dead. Republican Sens. John Cornyn

WASHINGTON — States do not have time before November’s midterm elections to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order mandating overhauls of their mail-in-voting systems, two dozen Democratic state officials told the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. Justices should keep a stay pausing the order in place through Election Day,

WASHINGTON — Leaders of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee announced a bipartisan deal over the weekend that would keep the federal government funded through Dec. 11 and pause the Trump administration’s effort to add controversial new criteria for federal grants. The agreement — which Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, a Maine

Virginia voters cast their ballots at a precinct inside Libbie Mill Library on Election Day, Nov. 4, 2025. (Photo by Marcus Ingram for the Virginia Mercury) Key Events Aug. 4, 2026 9:01 am Heading to the polls? Here’s what to know. Heading to the polls? Here’s what to know. By

States will have to meet a Jan. 1 deadline to implement new Medicaid work requirements, after a federal judge denied 25 Democratic-led states’ request to pause implementation of the rule. The broad tax and spending law President Donald Trump signed last summer, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, requires states

• “Democrats’ big Virginia plans were foiled, but it’s still at the center of the battle for the House.” — NBC News • “As Trump promotes critical mineral mining, a company eyes the seafloor in Coastal Virginia.” — Inside Climate News • “Former Va. House candidate sentenced in $225,000 pandemic

Virginians will head to the polls Tuesday for the 2026 primary elections, nearly two months later than usual after this year’s congressional redistricting referendum and the uncertainty over which map would govern the races delayed the state’s traditional June nomination contest.  More than 30 candidates are competing in the GOP

A Northern Virginia court in June rejected social media efforts to damage the reputation of a teacher and parent, awarding them more than $1 million in combined damages. Robert Rigby Jr., a longtime educator and advocate for LGBTQ+ students, said after the leader of conservative political action committee Virginia Project

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality released its 117-page legislative report on the state’s groundwater supply east of Interstate 95 this week, which revealed significant levels of strain on the eastern aquifers that could put clean drinking water at risk. “Groundwater supply east of I-95 is constrained, and current projections

Gov. Abigail Spanberger has restored voting and other civil rights to more than 60,000 Virginians since taking office in January, reversing the more restrictive restoration process adopted by her predecessor and reopening voting access for thousands of people with past felony convictions, her administration said Friday.  The 66,085 Virginians whose