Tag: virginia

NIMBY Lawsuit Accidentally Abolishes City’s Entire Zoning Code

The comedy of errors unfolding from a lawsuit challenging Charlottesville, Virginia’s new zoning code took a surprisingly libertarian turn last week when a judge’s ruling ended up voiding all the city’s zoning regulations.

The lawsuit, filed by neighborhood activists in early 2024, challenges the Charlottesville City Council’s decision to allow apartment buildings in more areas of the city and “middle housing” development in formerly single-family-only neighborhoods.

The plaintiffs, who are alleging the city failed to coordinate the zoning changes with infrastructure planning, appeared to score a total victory last week when Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Claude Worrell ruled that, because the city missed a key filing deadline, the new code had to be scrapped.

But now, local media outlets are reporting a surprising twist. Charlottesville had to repeal its old zoning code before passing the new one. With the new code now voided and the old one off the books, the city officially now has no zoning code to speak of.

In other words, a NIMBY lawsuit challenging a slightly more liberal zoning code has resulted in complete zoning abolition.

Critics of zoning like to point out that many of the things people think they like about zoning—rules regulating the health and safety of new buildings, stormwater runoff, etc.—actually have nothing to do with zoning at all.

Charlottesville’s accidental zoning abolition is a great illustration of that point.

As Charlottesville Tomorrow reports, building codes and other related regulations remain on the books. But the zoning code’s rules about where apartments can be built, how tall they can be, how many units they can include, etc. are gone.

​​”If there’s no ordinance, then we don’t even need site plans,” Justin Shimp, the head of a local engineering firm, told Charlottesville Tomorrow. “You would simply say, I want to build an apartment building, and I would turn the building permit into the building department, and if it met the [state] building code, they would approve it, and you would build an apartment building.”

Unfortunately for zoning critics, the city is doing what it can to prevent a blossoming of new unzoned development while it scrambles to reinstitute a zoning code.

City planning staff told Charlottesville Tomorrow that they will delay any processing of building applications that “involve zoning” until they receive “further legal and procedural clarity.”

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Virginia Enacts Law To Ban Nazi Symbols, Protects Sacred Swastika From Misrepresentation

Virginia has officially enacted House Bill 2783, which criminalises the display of Nazi symbols, including Hitler’s Hakenkreuz (Hooked Cross), when used with the intent to intimidate. The law, effective from July 1, makes such acts a Class 6 felony. What makes this legislation particularly historic is a culturally sensitive amendment that clearly differentiates Hitler’s Hakenkreuz, a symbol of hate, from the sacred Swastika, an ancient symbol of peace and prosperity revered by nearly two billion Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and other communities worldwide.

The final version of the Bill marks a major victory for minority communities in Virginia, particularly after a strong advocacy effort led by the Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) and allied groups. “We are pleased to see how Virginia is tackling growing hate while being sensitive to minority groups that revere the Swastika,” said Nikunj Trivedi, President of CoHNA.

He added, “Now the need of the hour is for the media, law enforcement, and educational institutions in Virginia to update their language to reflect this critical nuance and ensure fair treatment for all.”

Evolution of HB2783

Initially, HB2783 had a major cultural oversight—wrongly referring to the Nazi symbol as the Swastika. In reality, Hitler never used the word ‘Swastika’; his symbol was the ‘Hakenkreuz’—German for ‘Hooked Cross.’ The Bill’s early wording incorrectly suggested that the Nazi emblem was “commonly known as the Swastika,” inadvertently linking a sacred symbol to one of history’s darkest ideologies.

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Virginia Man Faces 12 Months in Jail, $2,500 Fine for Drawing a Crosswalk With Chalk

After the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, denied requests to paint crosswalk lines at an intersection popular among pedestrians, Kevin Cox, a retired crossing guard, decided to take matters into his own hands by placing spray chalk lines in the shape of a crosswalk. He’s since been charged with intentional destruction of property, a Class I misdemeanor, and faces a sentence of up to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.

Cox’s temporary crosswalk was placed at the intersection of Elliott Avenue and Second Street, which is often used by pedestrians visiting the Ix Art Park but does not have any painted crosswalk lines. Although 900 residents petitioned in October 2024 for a crosswalk to enhance safety following a fatal pedestrian-car crash at a nearby intersection, city officials responded by saying that pedestrians should cross at either First Street or Sixth Street, roughly 400 or 500 feet away, respectively, where painted crosswalks already exist. 

Irritated by the city’s inaction, Cox, an outspoken pedestrian advocate, placed his chalk lines in May 2025. “There is a marked crosswalk now at Second Street and Elliot Avenue in spite of you,” he told the city manager, Sam Sanders, in an email sent that same day. “It’s chalk, not paint. Please replace it with a real one,” reported 29News, a local NBC affiliate.  

Police said they couldn’t determine if the lines were permanent paint, according to the police report Cox shared with 29News, leading the city to cover them with black paint. Cox later turned himself in to the Charlottesville Police Department. “They have provoked me,” Cox told 29News, “it’s not going to stop me.” 

Pedestrian fatalities hit a 40-year high in 2022, increasing by 50 percent from 1.55 to 2.33 per 100,000 population since 2013. While there are several contributing factors, including larger vehicles with impaired visibility and high-speed roadways, some blame distracted driving. This has led 31 states to pass laws prohibiting device usage while driving since 2010.

Other government solutions range from the innocuous, like increased lighting at intersections, to the more controversial, like California’s vetoed car speed alarm bill or a $48 million proposal for new federal regulations. Placing one’s preferred road markings is a risky choice given the potential for increasing, rather than decreasing, overall safety. 

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Troublesome School District Once Again in DOJ’s Sights After Locker Room Disaster

Four years after Loudoun County Public Schools became the national poster child for cover-ups in the name of advancing the transgender agenda, the schools are again in the news over a gender-based complaint.

In 2021, the school and its leaders were pilloried after it was revealed that school officials knew about a sexual assault in a high school girl’s bathroom by a boy wearing a skirt but didn’t disclose it for weeks.

Now, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is calling for the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education to investigate the district over “significant concerns regarding potential violations of Title IX, unlawful retaliation, and viewpoint discrimination,” according to a news release.

“The investigation reveals a disturbing misuse of authority by Loudoun County Public Schools, where students appear to have been targeted not for misconduct, but for expressing their discomfort for being forced to share a locker room with a member of the opposite sex,” Miyares said.

“Title IX was never meant to be used as a weapon against free speech or religious convictions. Every student in Virginia deserves the right to speak openly, think freely, and live according to their conscience without fear of retaliation. Protecting those rights is not political — it’s foundational to who we are as Americans.”

The release said the school retaliated against three male students at Stone Bridge High School after they objected to the school’s policy of letting gender identity determine access to bathrooms and locker rooms.

“Rather than safeguarding the constitutional rights of all students, LCPS appears to be punishing those who hold and express faith-based views,” the release said.

“Furthermore, there are persistent reports that LCPS and the School Board take adverse and potentially unlawful action against parents, teachers, and public speakers,” the release added.

WJLA-TV reported that the root cause of the issue was that a female student used a boys’ locker room and recorded the boys, prompting them to object.

“The boys indeed are the victims in this situation,” Miyares said. “There is no evidence, no corroborating evidence that we have found that they had sexually harassed anyone, that they had done anything even approaching what would be considered sex discrimination. The reality is, is that Loudoun County Schools, what we have found, have bad policy and bad judgment.”

“We’ve also seen, in our opinion, that the three students sincerely held religious beliefs, some of these students in question are Christian, some were Muslim, but they basically were told to be silent, to be quiet and not to express their sincerely held religious beliefs,” he said.

Miyares said the district is “weaponizing” Title IX.

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Trump’s Pardon for Former Virginia Sheriff Who Exchanged Badges for Cash Makes a Mockery of ‘Law and Order’

“We must maintain law and order at the highest level, or we will cease to have a country, 100 percent,” said Donald Trump, then a candidate for president, at a 2016 rally in Virginia Beach. “We will cease to have a country. I am the law and order candidate.”

It’s a theme that would continue for nearly a decade, up to the present day. “We have to get law and order back,” he said in April 2024, during his third campaign for the presidency. “We have to bring law and order back to our cities, back to our country, and we’re doing it,” he told a crowd in August of that same year. “But when I get back into the Oval Office,” he said the following month, “the madness ends, and the law and order is going to return to our country.”

If the full, unconditional pardon now-President Trump recently gave to disgraced ex-Sheriff Scott Jenkins is any indication, then the madness unfortunately has not ended.

Jenkins, formerly of the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office, was convicted last year of accepting over $75,000 in cash bribes from several businessmen in exchange for Jenkins appointing them as auxiliary deputy sheriffs, a sworn law enforcement position. He did not train or vet them; for their money, Jenkins gave the bribers badges and credentials, which recipients used in interesting ways, like to get out of traffic tickets and obtain other special privileges. 

“Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his wife Patricia, and their family have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ,” Trump posted on TruthSocial in announcing the pardon. He added that Jenkins allegedly wanted to offer additional evidence in his defense during trial, but the judge “refused to allow it, shut him down, and then went on a tirade.”

The Office of the Pardon Attorney did not respond to a request for comment clarifying what that was, but a judge improperly blocking exculpatory evidence is an issue for an appeal, not a pardon. In any case, the evidence against Jenkins was, by every measure, overwhelming. Rick Rahim, a convicted felon, testified that he bribed Jenkins with $25,000 in cash and an additional loan (which was never repaid) so he could be sworn in as an auxiliary deputy. One video shows Jenkins accepting a $5,000 check from a businessman and then adding, “I’m going to make it official with a badge.” Another photo presented at trial shows Jenkins holding a gift bag; a recording caught businessman Kevin Rychlik, an associate of Jenkins, saying, “You have cash from him in the bag.” Two undercover law enforcement officers also testified that Jenkins accepted bribes from them in exchange for being deputized.

A jury in December found Jenkins guilty on 12 counts: one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud, and seven counts of bribery. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

To argue that a pardon here is in service of “law and order”—as opposed to a rejection of it—is to pervert the meaning of that term at a fundamental level. Law and order is vital to a functioning society. If it stands for anything, it cannot exempt the very people who are charged with its application. If the rule of law only applies to the little guy, then it isn’t worth much. “With great power comes no responsibility” is not a phrase that has gained much traction throughout the ages for its wisdom.

So why pardon Jenkins, particularly when considering the stated justification—that he couldn’t offer a certain piece of evidence in his defense—strains credulity? “No MAGA left behind,” Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, whose nomination for U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia recently failed to attract enough support in the Senate, said Monday on X. “Thank you, @potus Trump, for pardoning Sheriff Jenkins!”

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Trans student faces instant karma after filming ‘sexual harassment’ in the boys’ locker room

A transgender student filmed three boys in a Virginia high school locker room who he claimed were bullying him for his gender identity. 

But his attempt to ostracize them backfired when parents of the accused tormenters and the state’s governor questioned why the three boys were being filmed secretly inside the locker room in the first place.

Earlier this month, Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) launched a Title IX investigation after the trans student recorded a friend group that was uncomfortable with a biological female being in the changing room. 

Stone Bridge High School, where the video was taken, is probing the incident as a sexual harassment case. 

The video, obtained exclusively by ABC 7 on Friday, reveals what truly transpired in the locker room. 

The families of the teens accused of harassment were allegedly denied copies of the footage at first.  

As the video depicts, the transgender boy seemingly walks into the locker room with his phone in his pocket, sparking a reaction from the teens inside, prompting them to speak among themselves.

‘There’s a girl in here? There’s a girl?’ one boy is heard asking. 

About 30 seconds later, another boy adds, ‘Why is there a girl? I’m so uncomfortable there is a girl.’

‘A female, bro, get out of here,’ someone says.

Then, the trans takes his phone out of his pocket and point it directly at the students who were making the comments.

Parents were finally able to obtain the video through the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO), which has the video because officers are investigating if the trans student committed a crime by recording minors in the dressing room. 

LCPS explicitly bans locker room recordings, but in an email to Wolfe, a representative allegedly told him the video did not compromise anyone’s privacy. 

The parents have questioned why the student behind the camera is not being penalized for violating their privacy.

‘I have a daughter that’s in high school as well, and if there was a male in there videotaping her in the locker room, I would have issues,’ Seth Wolfe, a father of one of the accused, told ABC 7. 

‘If it’s my son and there’s a female in the locker room videotaping, I have issues. Even if it was somebody of the same sex, I believe that this is an invasion of their privacy.’

Wolfe also claimed the LCPS investigator tried to grill his son into confession to something he did not do. 

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Virginia governor backs boys who were filmed by female trans teen in high school locker room over harassment claims

A Virginia public school district has launched a “sexual harassment” investigation into three teen boys who expressed discomfort with a trans-identifying girl changing in the boys’ locker room. The transgender student, who pulled out her phone to record the encounter, claimed that the boys were “bullying” her and has since made an effort to ostracize them from the community.

However, the tables have turned on the trans student after Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin expressed outrage over the investigation, claiming that the boys are the real victims in this case. He questioned why the transgender student was filming them in a private setting and ordered Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares to probe the situation.

The incident occurred earlier this month at Loudoun County Public School’s Stone Bridge High School. Video footage obtained by ABC 7 on May 16 shows the trans student entering the boys’ locker room with a phone in hand.

“There’s a girl in here? There’s a girl,” one boy could be heard asking his friends. Roughly 30 seconds later, another boy questioned, “Why is there a girl? I’m so uncomfortable, there is a girl.”

“A female, bro, get out of here,” another boy added.

The trans student recorded the altercation and filed a complaint with the Loudoun County Public Schools, which resulted in the school district launching a Title IX investigation into the matter. The teen boys are now under investigation for sexual harassment.

Parents of the boys have expressed fury over the matter, calling the recording an invasion of privacy. LCPS policy explicitly prohibits recordings in private settings, such as restrooms and changing rooms. The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office is investigating whether the trans student committed a crime by recording the minors. But Seth Wolfe, one of the accused boy’s parents, said that a school representative told him the video did not compromise anyone’s privacy.

“I have a daughter that’s in high school as well, and if there was a male in there videotaping her in the locker room, I would have issues,” Wolfe told ABC 7. “If it’s my son and there’s a female in the locker room videotaping, I have issues. Even if it was somebody of the same sex, I believe that this is an invasion of their privacy.”

Additionally, Wolfe claimed that LCPS investigators tried to interrogate his son to confess to a crime that he didn’t commit.

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Virginia’s new social media law targets teen access via parental consent, age checks

Virginia is preparing to enforce one of the nation’s most sweeping new restrictions on social media access for teens, requiring parental consent, time limits and age checks for users under 16.

The law, signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in May, takes effect Jan. 1, 2026, and applies to any platform that allows public profiles, messaging and shared content feeds.

Senate Bill 854 requires users to use a neutral age screen to determine if a user is under 16 and then secure verifiable parental consent before allowing more than one hour of daily use per service.

It also bars platforms from treating a minor’s data as if it belongs to an adult, even when shared through browser plug-ins or common devices.

Virginia joins more than a dozen states that have passed or proposed laws since 2023 to regulate children’s access to social media, including Utah, Texas, Florida, Maryland and California. While the details vary, most require age verification and parental consent for minors to create accounts or use apps beyond a time limit.

Privacy advocates say the law could have unintended consequences. Jason Kelley, associate director of digital strategy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the measure may increase data collection rather than limit it.

“Any time a company is required by law to collect more information, there are data privacy risks,” Kelley said, noting that platforms may turn to tools like geolocation, facial scans or ID verification to meet the law’s requirements.

He also raised legal concerns, pointing out that similar laws in other states have been paused or overturned in court.

“Like similar laws in other states, it’s unlikely Virginia’s law will survive judicial scrutiny,” Kelley said.

He also raised concerns that verification systems may not work for all families.

“These systems don’t necessarily take into account a large number of non-traditional families,” Kelley said. “Regardless, such restrictions are not enforcing parental authority. They are imposing governmental authority, subject only to a parental veto.”

Supporters of the law say it gives parents a stronger role in managing their children’s online habits. In a written response, Sen. Schuyler Van Valkenburg’s office said the law is enforced under the existing Consumer Protection Act and handled by the Virginia Attorney General’s Office.

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Virginia passes law to limit time teens spend on social media to one hour a day

Virginia teens under 16 will soon face limits on their social media usage after Governor Glenn Youngkin signed new legislation into law.

The law requires social media companies to set default time limits of one hour per day for users under 16 years old, with parents having the ability to adjust that time up or down.

“It’s a good first start, and it’s a good way for parents to be able to have better control over how much social media their kids are on,” said Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg (D – Henrico), who co-sponsored the legislation.

VanValkenburg, who teaches in Henrico County schools, has witnessed the impact of excessive social media use firsthand.

“You see how much it hinders their ability to do well in school, and you see how much it hinders their socialization with their friends,” VanValkenburg said.

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‘Beyond belief’: Trans athlete records students inside locker room, now all hell breaks loose

Virginia Republicans Gov. Glenn Youngkin and state Attorney General Jason Miyares launched an investigation into Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) Tuesday after several male students expressed discomfort with a female student using the boys’ locker room.

The district reportedly opened a Title IX investigation into the three boys attending Stone Bridge High School, questioning whether they perpetrated sexual harassment by complaining about the girl’s presence, according to ABC7 News.

The girl, who had allegedly used the boys locker room several times before, also purportedly filmed “the reaction of male students” during the incident, per to the AG’s press release.

“It’s deeply concerning to read reports of yet another incident in Loudoun County schools where members of the opposite sex are violating the privacy of students in locker rooms,” Youngkin said.

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