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Earle-Sears has faced tough races before. Her campaign for Virginia governor is no different

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — is used to facing formidable obstacles in her political campaigns, and her bid to be Virginia’s next is no exception.

The Jamaican immigrant, Marine veteran and devout Christian will first need to win the primary in June at a time when her party has been taken over by and his “Make America Great Again” movement. Then will have to woo moderate and independent voters in the November general election as Democrats look to tie her to ‘s overhaul of the , an effort that has many Virginians worried about their future.

The shifting landscape in Washington is already impacting some voters in the densely populated counties of , where if you don’t work for the government, you probably know someone who does. But Earle-Sears, who has long defied conventional wisdom on what it means to be a conservative in Virginia, says she is up to the test.

“Life is a fight,” she said in a recent interview, “and we shouldn’t be surprised by a fight.”

Still, this fight has grown more complex.

Before February, Earle-Sears was in line to face one potential GOP challenger, an outsider who had only raised $126 for his campaign, compared with more than $2 million for the lieutenant governor. Then Dave LaRock, a former state delegate, announced he would run, pledging to cull through a “Virginia Department of Government Efficiency” that mirrors ‘s DOGE in the Trump administration.

Soon ex-state Sen. Amanda Chase joined the race. At this point, however, it is unclear whether LaRock or Chase will gather enough signatures to qualify for the primary ballot by next month’s deadline.

With the Republican president staying quiet so far about his preferred candidate, Chase quickly reminded voters that Earle-Sears has kept her distance from Trump and his political movement in the past.

“Our current announced Republican nominee is a Never Trumper who has really never come out and embraced our President, President Donald J. Trump,” Chase wrote in her campaign announcement.

In case that wasn’t clear enough, she later added: “We want a Trump candidate for governor.”

The Earle-Sears campaign doesn’t seem worried: “Challengers can enter the race, but the outcome will be the same” – victory, her campaign said in a statement.

Recent history may not favor Virginia Republicans this election season. Every time a new president has been elected since 1977, the following year Virginia has voted in a governor from the opposite party.

Trump, who is praised by Earle-Sears’ rivals, has never carried Virginia in his three presidential campaigns. Virginia Democrats have begun tapping into voters’ demonstrated antipathy toward the president and are criticizing the lieutenant governor for defending Trump’s spending cuts, arguing she and other Republicans support the White House’s unilateral sweeping away of federal jobs.

But Earle-Sears is promoting herself as a politician who has overcome obstacles that some said were insurmountable.

As a Black Republican, she said, she defies misconceptions about who should belong to what party. And while Virginia’s 400-year history might cast doubt on the prospect of a Black woman holding statewide office, Earle-Sears broke that barrier.

Taped to the wall of her office, Earle-Sears had written out Biblical verses next to reminders of such determination: “Come and do the impossible, Winsome. Come and endure the impossible, Winsome. Come and believe the impossible, Winsome.” Lining the walls of her office suite are framed photos of the first African American members elected to the Virginia General Assembly during Reconstruction and of Coretta Scott King.

In some cases, the lieutenant governor’s unvarnished attitude toward politics has led her to unexpected victories. That happened, for example, when she ousted a 10-term Democrat in the House of Delegates at the outset of her political career. Earle-Sears had spent just half the amount of money in the left-leaning district. In 2021, nearly two decades after she last held political office, Earle-Sears became the first Black woman elected statewide.

She’s had setbacks, too. She was handily defeated by U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, a Democrat, in a 2004 race for Congress. When she ran for the U.S. Senate in 2018 as a write-in candidate, she got less than 1% of the vote.

“It’s definitely the case that being a Black woman makes you a double minority, and being a Black Republican woman would make you a triple minority,” said Ernest McGowen, a political science professor at the University of Richmond. He added: “You may be able to bring a kind of life experience that maybe some in the party have not had. But you also have to confront some of the misconceptions and deep-seated notions that some members of your party may have.”

Virginia is one of two states picking a new governor this year and is also one of the top states for federal jobs. Trump’s agenda will undoubtedly play a role in voter attitudes as he continues to winnow and entirely eliminate agencies. Roughly 300 federal workers and 100 government contractors already applied for unemployment during the first three weeks of February in Virginia, according to the state’s labor secretary, George “Bryan” Slater, and those numbers are expected to grow.

Still, there are some divides in the Virginia Republican Party over loyalties to Trump.

LaRock joined the “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, though he has said he did not participate in the violence at the Capitol on that day. Chase, who has described herself as “Trump in heels,” was censured by the state Senate in 2021 after she seemed to voice support for people who had rioted in the nation’s capital on Jan. 6.

Earle-Sears had not cozied up to Trump in recent years.

In 2020, she co-chaired a group called Black Americans to Re-elect President Trump. But after the 2022 midterms, she said Trump was a liability and suggested it was time for the party to move on. In her 2023 memoir, Earle-Sears commended Trump’s policies during his first term, but she said, “For the good of the nation, I do not think he should run again in 2024.” Last August, she said she would vote for him, according to Lynchburg’s News and Advance.

Trump has criticized Earle-Sears, posting on Truth Social, his social media platform, in 2022: “Never felt good about Winsome Sears. Always thought she was a phony. Now I find out she is.”

Earle-Sears says she is undeterred.

“I’m a Christian, and so that’s where I go to for guidance,” she said.

Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

 

NOVA launches initiative to help recently unemployed federal workers

Northern Virginia Community College on Wednesday announced the launch of an initiative to help recently unemployed and contractors transition to their next careers.

Known as NOVAnext (new employment, exploration and transition), the initiative is designed to help workers to explore how their skills and experience can match in-demand jobs available in the region. It also helps workers gain skills needed to start an enterprise.

“Many talented Northern Virginians are facing sudden, unexpected changes in their professional lives,” NOVA President Anne M. Kress said in a statement. “As the community’s college, NOVA is focused on advancing opportunity, and the current moment has made our mission ever more important. We are honored to play a role in connecting residents across the region to their next steps, helping to build brighter futures.”

Tens of thousands of federal workers have received pink slips under President Donald ‘s administration, although a federal judge in San Francisco on March 13 ordered the administration to rehire thousands of probationary workers — those who are new to their present jobs in federal departments and agencies — that were fired by the Office of Personnel Management. Unions and nearly two dozen states’ attorneys general have sued the government in multiple lawsuits challenging the firings of probationary staffers, which number about 200,000.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, responding to U.S. District Judge William Alsup’s order, said the Trump administration “will immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order.” In spite of the judicial order, Trump has made it plain that he expects to cut the 2.3 million federal workforce significantly, leaving about 145,000 Virginia residents who work for the concerned about their jobs.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin responded last month with the rollout of a jobs site to help connect unemployed workers with the state’s approximately 250,000 open jobs. At an appearance at Capital One’s headquarters in Tysons, Youngkin said that the new VirginiaHasJobs.com site will “stretch across every industry imaginable,” including advanced manufacturing, health care, space, and law enforcement.

For its part, NOVA says it will commit up to $1 million in scholarship aid to allow approved participants to enroll for free in one of 14 courses and access online workshops on resume-writing and job search techniques. Federal workers and federal contract workers are eligible for the program if they have been laid off on or after Feb. 1, reside within the NOVA service area, meet a residency requirement and fill out an online application reviewed by Virginia Career Works.

Students can also enroll in any other FastForward or NOVA course at regular tuition and may qualify for additional state financial aid.

Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Julie Coons said in a statement that the chamber will partner with NOVA on the initiative.

“NOVAnext is a step forward in strengthening our region’s workforce and tackling the challenge of ensuring long-term economic resilience,” Coons said. “We commend for their swift action, empowering laid-off federal employees for future opportunities.”

Wall Street rallies to its best day in months, but that’s not enough to salvage its losing week

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. rallied to their best day in months on Friday as ‘s roller coaster suddenly shot back upward. That still wasn’t enough to keep the U.S. from a fourth straight losing week, its longest such streak since August.

The jumped 2.1% a day after closing more than 10% below its record for its first “ correction ” since 2023. The last time the index shot up that much was the day after President Donald Trump’s election, when Wall Street was focusing on the upsides of ‘s return to the White House.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 674 points, or 1.7%, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.6%.

A multi-day “relief rally could be coming” after so much negativity built among investors, said Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment officer at BMO Wealth Management. Swings in sentiment don’t go full-tilt in just one direction forever, and the U.S. has been tumbling quickly since setting a record less than a month ago.

One piece of uncertainty hanging over Wall Street may be clearing after the Senate made moves to prevent a possible partial shutdown of the U.S. government.

Past shutdowns have not been a huge deal for financial markets. But any reduction of uncertainty can be helpful when so much of it has been sending the U.S. stock market on big, scary swings not just day to day but also hour to hour.

To be sure, the heaviest uncertainty remains with Trump’s escalating trade war. There, the question is how much pain Trump will let the economy endure through and other policies in order to reshape the country and world as he wants. The president has said he wants manufacturing jobs back in the United States, along with a smaller U.S. government workforce and other fundamental changes.

While may be close to finishing their reset to account for tariffs set to hit in April, Ma said concerns about how big an impact cutbacks in federal spending will have on the are “likely to remain for some time.”

U.S. households and businesses have already reported drops in confidence because of all the uncertainties created by Trump’s barrage of on -again, off -again tariff announcements and other policies. That’s raised fears about a pullback in spending that could sap energy from the economy.

Worries look to be only worsening among U.S. households, according to a preliminary survey released Friday by the University of Michigan. Its measure of consumer sentiment sank for a third straight month, mostly because of concerns about the future rather than complaints about the present. The job market and overall economy look relatively solid at the moment.

“Many consumers cited the high level of uncertainty around policy and other economic factors,” according to Joanne Hsu, direct of the survey, and “frequent gyrations in economic policies make it very difficult for consumers to plan for the future, regardless of one’s policy preferences.”

Such fears have Wall Street focused on whether companies are seeing the souring mood of consumers translating into real pain for their businesses.

Ulta Beauty jumped 13.7% after the beauty products retailer reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

The company’s forecasts for upcoming revenue and profit fell short of analysts’ targets, but Chief Financial Officer Paula Oyibo said it wanted to be cautious “as we navigate ongoing consumer uncertainty.” Analysts said the forecasts appeared better than feared.

Gains for Big Tech stocks and companies in the artificial-intelligence industry also helped support the market. Such stocks have been under the most pressure in the recent sell-off after critics said their prices shot too high in the frenzy around AI.

Nvidia rose 5.3% to trim its loss for 2025 so far below 10%. Apple climbed 1.8% to pare its loss for the week, which at one point had been on pace to be its worst since the 2020 COVID crash.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 117.42 points to 5,638.94. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 674.62 to 41,488.19, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 451.07 to 17,754.09.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

Stocks jumped 2.1% in Hong Kong and 1.8% in Shanghai after China’s National Financial Regulatory Administration issued a notice ordering financial institutions to help develop consumer finance and encourage use of credit cards, do more to aid borrowers who run into trouble and be more transparent in their practices.

Economists say China needs consumers to spend more to get the economy out of its doldrums, although most have advocated broader, more fundamental reforms.

In the bond market, Treasury yields rose to recover some of their sharp recent losses. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.31% from 4.27% late Thursday and from 4.16% at the start of last week.

Yields have been swinging since January, when the 10-year yield was approaching 4.80%. When worries worsen about the U.S. economy’s strength, yields have fallen. When those worries lessen, or when concerns about inflation rise, yields have climbed.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

Trump probes lumber, timber imports for potential tariffs; names furniture as derivative product

WASHINGTON – Does the U.S.’ reliance on imported lumber and constitute a threat to national security? That’s what the Administration aims to find out through a new executive order.

“The wood products industry – composed of timber, lumber, and their derivative products (such as paper products, , and cabinetry) – is a critical manufacturing industry essential to the national security, economic strength and industrial resilience of the United States,” the order states. “This industry plays a vital role in key downstream civilian industries, including construction.”

Specifically, the order directs Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik to investigate whether imports of timber and lumber and their derivative products threaten national security; recommend actions to mitigate such threats, including potential , export controls or incentives to increase domestic production; and recommend policies to strengthen U.S. timber and lumber production through strategic investments and “permitting reforms.”

Lutnik has until Nov. 26 to conclude his investigation.

Trump says the U.S. has ample timber resources, citing that the softwood lumber industry “has the practical production capacity to supply 95%” of the country’s 2024 softwood consumption, yet has remained a net importer since 2016.

The order goes on to define timber as wood that has not yet been processed and lumber as wood that’s been processed, including wood that’s been milled and cut into boards and planks.

The order follows a similar probe into the copper industry, as well as widespread 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, which also were implemented out of concern over national security.

FTC reverses its request for a delay in an Amazon trial, says it has resources to litigate the case

A lawyer for the has walked back his comments about a lack of resources and staff turnover interfering with the agency’s preparations for a trial involving ‘s Prime program.

lawyer Jonathan Cohen asked a federal judge during a hearing on Wednesday to delay the September trial and relax deadlines in the case, citing budgetary and staffing shortfalls. But Cohen did an about-face later in the day, telling a U.S. District judge in a brief letter that the statements he made in court were incorrect. In a statement sent to The Associated Press on Thursday, FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson also said “the attorney was wrong.”

A lawyer for the Federal Commission has walked back his comments about a lack of resources and staff turnover interfering with the agency’s preparations for a trial involving Amazon’s Prime program.

FTC lawyer Jonathan Cohen asked a federal judge during a hearing on Wednesday to delay the September trial and relax deadlines in the case, citing budgetary and staffing shortfalls.

But Cohen did an about-face later in the day, telling U.S. District Judge John Chun in a brief letter that the statements he made in court were incorrect.

“I want to clarify comments I made today: I was wrong,” Cohen wrote in the letter. “The commission does not have resource constraints and we are fully prepared to litigate this case.”

In a statement sent to The Associated Press on Thursday, FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson also said “the attorney was wrong.”

“I have made it clear since Day 1 that we will commit the resources necessary for this case,” Ferguson said, adding that the FTC “will never back down from taking on Big Tech.”

An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the agency’s reversal.

Cohen made his original comments while seeking to postpone a trial stemming from a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit that accused Amazon of enrolling consumers in its Prime program without their consent and making it difficult for them to cancel their subscriptions.

With the request coming amid the cost-cutting efforts driven by ‘s Department of Government Efficiency, or , the judge asked if budget and staff reductions at federal agencies had affected the FTC’s readiness.

Cohen said some employees chose to leave the FTC following the “Fork in the road” email sent by the administration in January. Staff members who resigned for other reasons also have not been replaced due to a government hiring freeze, he said.

He also cited restrictive rules on purchasing court documents and travel.

Completed home sales decrease in Feb. for NoVa, Hampton Roads

Housing sales in February decreased year-over-year in and . Inventory and median selling prices increased in both regions.

Northern Virginia

Closed sales in Northern Virginia decreased year-over-year in February, according to data released March 11. The median home price and active listings rose compared to the same month in 2024.

Last month, 937 sold in Northern Virginia, an 8.1% decrease from February 2024. New pending sales fell 6.7% from February 2024, to 1,098 units.

However, inventory in February sharply increased, according to .  The month’s supply of inventory (MSI) — a measure of how many months there would be homes on the if no new inventory were added — increased to 1.12, up 29% from the same month last year.

There were 1,520 active listings on the Northern Virginia market in February, up 31.8% year-over-year. New listings, though, totaled 1,207 units, a 3.83% decrease over the same month in 2024.

“The increase in active listings is an encouraging development for prospective homebuyers who have been faced with limited options in recent years,” Casey Menish, NVAR President and a Realtor with Pearson Smith Realty, stated in a news release. “A boost in inventory not only helps create a more balanced market but also opens doors for buyers who may have been sidelined by fierce competition or rising prices. This shift could provide much-needed opportunities for those eager to make their move.”

Homes spent an average of 22 days on the market last month, the same as the previous year.

The median sold price last month was $732,750, up 6.6% compared with February 2024.

A chart visualizes NoVA
February 2025 housing market statistics for Northern Virginia. Image courtesy Northern Virginia Association of Realtors

“The Northern Virginia market is adjusting to changing economic conditions, with buyers and sellers navigating shifts in affordability and inventory,” Ryan McLaughlin, CEO of NVAR, said in a statement. “While closed sales have slowed, the steady median home price suggests ongoing demand for well-priced properties.”

Leaders in the industry continue to watch to see whether in the federal workforce will affect the area’s housing market.

“While speculation continues about the impact of changes in the federal workforce on the local housing market, it remains to be seen how these shifts will fully influence demand and market trends,” McLaughlin stated. “As we continue to monitor the situation, we remain focused on broader economic factors shaping the market.”

NVAR reports home sales activity for Fairfax and Arlington counties, the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church, and the towns of Vienna, Herndon and Clifton.

Hampton Roads

Housing sales in Hampton Roads dropped year-over-year in February; however, inventory increased, according to data released March 10 by the ().

Closed home sales in the region totaled 1,551 last month, down 9.25% from the 1,709 closed sales recorded in February 2024; although, that was an increase from the 1,389 closed sales recorded in January 2025.

Graphic with details of Hampton Roads' real estate market in February 2025
February 2025 housing market data for Hampton Roads. Image courtesy Information Network

There were 1,875 pending sales February, down from 2,040 in the same month last year but up from 1,748 in January.

Active listings totaled 4,340 in February — a 21.6% increase year-over-year in homes for sale. In February 2024, there were 3,568 active listings, and in January there were 4,366 active listings. The MSI stood at 2.12, the same as it was in January. The MSI was 1.73 in February 2024.

The median sales price in Hampton Roads was $345,000 in February, up from $327,500 in February 2024 and $340,000 in January.

Homes spent a median of 28 days on the market in February, a six day increase over February 2024 and a one-day increase over January.

“The number of active listings is up nearly 22% from the same month last year,” said REIN Board President Barbara Wolcott of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services RW Towne Realty. “When consumers have more choices, they don’t feel quite as much pressure to make a quick decision.”

Founded in 1969, REIN is a regional multiple listing service that covers an area stretching from Williamsburg east to Virginia Beach and south across the North Carolina border.

Average US rate on a 30-year mortgage edges higher, ending a seven-week slide

The average rate on a 30-year in the U.S. edged higher this week, ending a seven-week slide that helped ease borrowing costs for home shoppers just in time for the spring season. The average rate rose to 6.65% from 6.63% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday, March 13.

A year ago, it averaged 6.74%. After climbing to just above 7% in mid-January, the average rate has been declining, echoing moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans. However, the pullback in hasn’t improved the affordability equation for many would-be homebuyers, keeping the housing in a sales slump.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. edged higher this week, ending a seven-week slide that helped ease borrowing costs for home shoppers leading into the spring homebuying season.

The rate averaged 6.65% this week, up from 6.63% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, it averaged 6.74%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners seeking to refinance their home loan to a lower rate, also ticked up this week. The average rate rose to 5.8% from 5.79% last week. A year ago, it averaged 6.16%, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including bond market investors’ expectations for future inflation, global demand for U.S. Treasurys and the ‘s interest rate policy decisions.

After climbing to just above 7% in mid-January, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage declined through last week, echoing moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The yield, which was approaching 4.8% in mid-January, has been mostly falling since then, reflecting worries about the ‘s growth and the fallout from the administration’s decision to impose on imported goods from many of the nation’s key partners. The yield was at 4.31% in midday trading Thursday.

Tariffs can drive inflation higher, which could translate into higher yields on the 10-year Treasury note, pushing up mortgage rates. That’s because bond investors demand higher returns as long as inflation remains elevated.

On Thursday, the Labor Department said that U.S. wholesale inflation last month was milder than economists expected. That followed a similarly encouraging report from the day before showing inflation at the consumer level slowed in February for the first time since September.

Still, the Fed, which is scheduled to give its latest interest rate policy update next Wednesday, has signaled that it intends to take a more cautious approach as it gauges where inflation is headed and what impact the Trump administration’s policies on trade, taxes and other fronts will have on the economy.

So far, the pullback in rates hasn’t improved the affordability equation for many would-be homebuyers, keeping the housing market in a sales slump.
Still, as rates have eased in recent weeks, more would-be homebuyers have been applying for a home loan.

Last week, mortgage applications jumped 11.2% from the previous week and 31% compared to a year earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. And a measure of home loan refinancing applications surged 16%, the MBA said.

While a pickup in mortgage applications is typical for this time of year, the sharp increase suggests the pullback in mortgage rates is encouraging would-be homebuyers.

Home shoppers who can afford to buy at current home loan rates or to sidestep them entirely by paying cash also stand to benefit from a wider selection of properties on the market. The inventory of for sale has risen sharply from a year ago and prices are rising more slowly nationally and declining in many metropolitan areas, such as Austin, Dallas and Tampa, Florida.

“The combination of modestly lower mortgage rates and improving inventory is a positive sign for homebuyers in this critical spring homebuying season,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

More than 50 universities face federal investigations as part of Trump’s anti-DEI campaign

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 50 are being investigated for alleged racial discrimination as part of ‘s campaign to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs that his officials say exclude white and Asian American students.

The Department announced the new investigations Friday, one month after issuing a memo warning America’s schools and colleges that they could lose federal money over “race-based preferences” in admissions, scholarships or any aspect of student life.

“Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “We will not yield on this commitment.”

Most of the new inquiries are focused on colleges’ partnerships with the PhD Project, a nonprofit that helps students from underrepresented groups get degrees in business with the goal of diversifying the business world.

Department officials said that the group limits eligibility based on race and that colleges that partner with it are “engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs.”

The group of 45 colleges facing scrutiny over ties to the PhD Project include major public universities such as Arizona State, Ohio State and Rutgers, along with prestigious private schools like Yale, Cornell, Duke and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. is the only Virginia school listed.

A statement from Ohio State said the university “does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity or any other protected class, and our PhD programs are open to all qualified applicants.”

A message sent to the PhD Project was not immediately returned.

Six other colleges are being investigated for awarding “impermissible race-based scholarships,” the department said, and another is accused of running a program that segregates students on the basis of race.

The Education Department said those schools are: Grand Valley State University, Ithaca College, the New England College of Optometry, the University of Alabama, the University of Minnesota, the University of South Florida and the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa.

An initial press release from the Education Department erroneously identified the University of Tulsa as one of the schools under investigation.

The Feb. 14 memo from ‘s administration was a sweeping expansion of a 2023 Supreme Court decision that barred colleges from using race as a factor in admissions.

That decision focused on admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, but the Education Department said it will interpret the decision to forbid race-based policies in any aspect of education, both in K-12 schools and .

In the memo, Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, had said schools’ and colleges’ diversity, equity and inclusion efforts have been “smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming and discipline.”

The memo is being challenged in federal lawsuits from the nation’s two largest teachers’ unions. The suits say the memo is too vague and violates the free speech rights of educators.

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Skanska completes offshore wind staging project at Port of Virginia

New York-based construction company announced Thursday that it has completed a $223 million redevelopment project for the , upgrading 72 acres of and 1,500 feet of wharf that now serves as an offshore wind staging .

Richmond-based will use the terminal staging port for its $10.7 billion project. According to Skanska, the terminal serves as a collection and storage site for wind turbine components, which are then transferred to installation vessels.

“We are proud to support the vital role of the Virginia Port Authority and Dominion’s work to build clean energy infrastructure, in this case enough wind energy to power 660,000 a year,” said Brook Brookshire, senior vice president of Skanska USA civil operations said in a statement. “This project strengthens vital port infrastructure while advancing sustainable energy production and benefiting local communities through job creation.”

Skanska began work on the project in 2022 and substantially completed it in March. The work involved constructing three heavy lift berths: the wind turbine generator delivery berth, the wind turbine generator load-out berth and the berth for the steel tube monopiles.

Other tasks completed included strengthening the soils and surface in the upland areas to accommodate heavy surface loadings and driving 1,335 150-foot-long piles and pouring 26,500 cubic yards of concrete. Skanska also installed high mast lighting, stormwater collection systems and other ancillary structures and systems.

Virginia Port Authority CEO and Executive Director Stephen Edwards said that Skanska delivered the project on time and on budget.

The CVOW calls for the construction of 176 wind turbines 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach by 2026. Once the project is fully constructed, it will generate up to 9.5 million megawatt-hours per year of energy, enough to power up to 660,000 homes, according to Dominion.

Once Dominion Energy completes the CVOW project, which includes assembling and installing offshore turbines, they will generate 2.6 gigawatts of energy.

Skanska USA, the U.S. subsidiary of the Swedish parent company, is headquartered in New York City with 28 offices around the country and 6,500 employees. Globally, Skanska has 27,000 employees.

Henrico County’s $2.3B GreenCity project is dead

The $2.3 billion GreenCity development in is dead, as the developers of the project failed to make more than $5 million in overdue payments by a March 13 deadline, the county said Friday.

The county previously sent two notices of default — one in regard to the property purchase agreement and one relating to the development agreement — to the developers of the planned 220-acre GreenCity mixed-use development, which was proposed in 2020 as an environmentally friendly development that would be anchored by a 17,000-seat sports and entertainment arena. It was expected to include two hotels with 600 rooms, about 2.2 million square feet of office space, 280,000 square feet of retail space, 2,100 residential units, and green space and plazas.

The developers were Michael Hallmark of Los Angeles-based Future Cities and Susan Eastridge of Falls Church-based Concord Eastridge, who head development entities Partners and Green City Development Corp. LLC. They did not immediately return calls seeking comment Friday.

Henrico County announced in a statement that it will reacquire the property from the Green City developers, saying the parties “have mutually agreed to go in a different direction, and the developers will expeditiously work to transfer the property back to the county and terminate the existing agreements.”

The county says the process will take roughly 30 days, noting that this transfer “will ultimately set the stage for the Best Products site to thrive as a large, mixed-use development anchored by a privately funded arena.”

On Feb. 15, county Manager John Vithoulkas sent the developers a notice of default on a development agreement between the county, the economic development authority and the developers, following a nonperformance notice sent in December 2024. Under the development agreement, Green City Partners had a 60-day cure period to address the nonperformance.

A March 3 default notice revealed that Green City Development Corp. failed to make the final payment on the roughly 93-acre land, the site of the former Best Products headquarters, for the planned arena. More than $5.22 million was due Feb. 28.

The purchase agreement between the county’s economic development authority and the developers included an initial payment of $500,000 due on Feb. 28, 2023, and a second payment of the same amount due Feb. 28, 2024.

GCDC had a 10-day cure period for the remaining payment from receipt of the March 3 notice. If the developers failed to make the payment by March 13, the EDA had the right to repurchase undeveloped property and has “all rights and remedies available at law and in equity.”

Henrico said Friday that once the repurchase process on the Best Products property is complete, it plans to work with interested arena operators and developers “to make the vision a reality.”

“The need is abundantly clear,” Henrico County said in its statement. “Our region remains the most underserved community along Interstate 95 in terms of a venue capable of hosting large concerts, sporting events, and other family entertainment. This economic development and tourism project will also bring more quality housing, hotels, and commercial cores to the county, making it a destination center.”

Henrico says it’s eager to move forward and will be working closely with the economic development authority and Henrico Sports & Entertainment Authority to identify “a proven, competent, and capitalized development partner or partners with both the vision and the capacity to deliver a world-class private development for our community.”

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.