All results / Stories / Michael Lee Pope
A Stark Choice: Candidates in Special Election Are on Opposite Sides of Key Issues
Voters to choose between radically different views in September.
The summer of 2012 is turning out to be the hottest political season in recent memory, and not just because of the record-breaking temperatures.
C-Section Boom in Northern Virginia
Region has some of the highest rates of cesarean-section deliveries for low-risk pregnancies.
Behind the closed doors at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church and the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, a quiet change has been taking shape over the last few decades.
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.
House Versus Senate
Conservative upper chamber undermines progressive House of Delegates.
Democrats and Republicans in the General Assembly like to see themselves as adversaries. The real enemy, they like to say, is down the hall.
Last-Minute Budgeting As City Council Members Negotiate Final Budget Agreement
Elected officials consider everything from extending library hours to increasing salaries.
Hold your wallet. The Alexandria City Council is putting the final touches on the budget for fiscal year 2013, and the long list of priorities could mean more taxes.
Replacing Baird
Three candidates vie for Democratic nomination to School Board.
Two-term School Board member Sally Baird says she will not seek another term, opening up the seat to a new generation of leadership.
Virginia Republicans Play Establishment Card
Close primary campaigns for governor and lieutenant governor send GOP candidates to November ballot.
Fairfax Supervisors to Consider Even More Cuts to Library System
In the last four years, more than $5 million has been slashed from the library budget.
Walk into the Centreville Library and one is confronted with an institution in crisis.
Smoking Opinion
Attorney general’s legal opinion casts doubt over the city’s proposed smoking ban.
Smoking Opinion
Islamic Saudi Academy Heads Toward End of its Lease on Richmond Highway
Controversial school to move next year; future of building to be determined.
July will mark the beginning of the end of the Saudi Islamic Academy’s lease on Richmond Highway, ending a long and contentious relationship with a school that opponents consider a training ground for terrorists.
Horse Stable Could Be Closed to Protect Cemetery and Historic Plantation
Widening debate on Richmond Highway creates dilemma for Federal Highway Administration.
The hill where Woodlawn Baptist Church graveyard is located offers a commanding view of an area in the midst of drastic change.
Alexandria City Council Issues 90-Day Eminent Domain Ultimatum to Boat Club
Six-to-one vote sets deadline for city officials and boat club to compromise or else.
In the clearest threat yet that members of the Alexandria City Council are willing to use the power of eminent domain to take land owned by the Old Dominion Boat Club,
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.
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.
The Strange Career of Felon Disenfranchisement
Amendment targets Jacksonian-era restriction weaponized during Jim Crow.
Felons have been prohibited from voting in Virginia since 1830, when the "right to suffrage" was denied "to any person convicted of any infamous offense." But it was during the era of Jim Crow that felon disenfranchisement became weaponized to prevent Black voters from influencing elections.
Rorschach Politics
Candidates for governor present inkblots on everything from the economy to Confederate statues.
The campaign for governor is a bit like a Rorschach test as the candidates close in on the final stretch toward Election Day. Democrat Ralph Northam and Republican Ed Gillespie are presenting a series of inkblots to voters about everything from the health of the economy to the value of Confederate statues.
Three Republicans Vie for Virginia Lieutenant Governor Nomination
Two state senators and a delegate hope to snag bid to preside over Senate sessions.
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.
Incendiary Remarks in West End Fire Investigation
No arrests yet, but fire chief says investigation puts one individual in the hot seat.
Alexandria Fire Chief Adam Thiel stopped short of calling it "arson." But the chief was clear that city officials believe that the person of interest identified by the investigation into last week's six-alarm fire on the West End started the fire on purpose.
Alexandria School Board To Get Seven New Members
One School Board incumbent ousted as voters select new direction for school system.
The past few years have been some of the most turbulent in the history of Alexandria City Public Schools, which was blasted in a recent audit as having a budget office with a “dysfunctional environment.”