Illustration by Jamie Douglas
The Race Against COVID
A site for flu shots in the past, Richmond Raceway took things to the next level in January, serving as a COVID-19 vaccination clinic for thousands of people each day, sometimes featuring performances by musicians from the Richmond Philharmonic Orchestra. The site, which had administered its 100,000th shot by early April, closed on May 27, as the state shifted its strategy toward more targeted efforts. In October, Richmond Raceway rejoined the fight against COVID, offering booster shots alongside the standard course of vaccines.
Republican Reprimand
State Sen. Amanda Chase, a Republican legislator who calls herself “Trump in heels,” was reprimanded by colleagues and her party for her comments about the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. After calling those rioters “patriots” and repeating Trump’s false claims of a fraudulent presidential election, Chase was censured by the Virginia Senate, and Republican leaders removed her from committee assignments. She later lost her bid to become the Republican candidate for governor to Glenn Youngkin. This likely won’t be the last we’ll hear from her.
Sentenced to Life
On March 24, Gov. Ralph Northam signed a bill abolishing the death penalty in the commonwealth, making Virginia the 23rd state — and the first Southern state — to do so. Following decades of efforts by activists, it’s hard to cite one particular deciding factor, but Democratic control of the General...
A newly unsealed whistleblower lawsuit accuses Novartis and Genentech of being at the center of a decades-long kickback scheme to promote their immunology med Xolair across dozens of states. Whist...