A Virginia judge has signed off on a prosecutor's request to withdraw charges against five more people in connection with the 2023 death of Irvo Otieno, a young man who was pinned to the floor for about 11 minutes while being admitted to a state psychiatric hospital.

Now that early primary voting has started across Virginia, Republicans are encouraging their voters to get to the polls, even though many of them oppose 45 days of early voting.

A Virginia House committee chaired by Henrico County Delegate Rodney Willet will spend the next few months looking for ways to make health care more accessible in rural parts of the state.Emily Schabacker with Cardinal News covered the committee's first meeting in Tazewell County and spoke with Fred Echols.

When UVA students first assembled to protest Israel’s conduct in Gaza they were informed that tents could not be erected on campus. They quickly complied by taking the tents down, but when the group gathered again Friday night it was raining and the tents were pitched again. By Saturday afternoon, police in riot gear were using pepper spray on protesters and making arrests.

The pro-Palestinian demonstration has been peaceful and relatively small since it began several days earlier.

A new study by the non-profit Climate Central shows weather-related power outages are on the rise, and our region – the southeast – had the largest number of major power outages – taking a toll on at least 50,000 customers at a time. Sandy Hausman reports on changes we need to make to protect against increasingly common storms.

Following the deaths of two teenagers last fall in Blacksburg, the Montgomery County School Board voted to begin a new gun safety initiative. The effort is based on a national program, called Be SMART, focuses on educating students about gun safety, and urging parents to secure their guns.

Protests roiled college campuses this past week, and stirred up Virginia politicians too.Jeff Schapiro, political columnist at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and Michael Pope recap the week in politics and state government.

A new law signed by Governor Glenn Youngkin that allows for utilities to make customers pay for the costs of developing nuclear power facilities.

Senator Schuyler VanValkenburg says housing issues can get addressed in one of three ways in Virginia: by regulation, zoning or in the budget.