Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

How the Virginia Department of Health is healing internal issues amid federal funding cuts

By Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

Published October 20, 2025 at 5:25AM | Updated October 20, 2025 at 5:52AM

Virginia Department of Health offices in Richmond. (Photo by Parker Michels-Boyce for The Virginia Mercury)

This article, Part One of the Mercury’s Pulse Check series, was produced as a project for the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2025 Impact Fund for Reporting on Health Equity and Health Systems.

In late March of this year the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) was notified that three COVID-19-era grants were being prematurely cancelled. This resulted in a loss of $219 million dollars the state had used to support public health initiatives, the layoff of hundreds of employees around Virginia and the compounding of existing challenges, including a $33 million deficit and burned-out staff.

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Jones text scandal reshapes Virginia’s attorney general race — and tests Spanberger’s ticket

By Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

Published October 15, 2025 at 5:21AM | Updated October 15, 2025 at 6:06AM

Democrat Jay Jones speaks in Richmond during his 2024 campaign kickoff for attorney general. Jones is now facing bipartisan backlash over newly surfaced text messages containing violent remarks about a former Republican House speaker. (Photo by Markus Schmidt/Virginia Mercury)

When Virginia’s two attorney general candidates are set to meet Thursday at the University of Richmond for what is expected to be their only debate before Election Day, the focus will almost certainly fall on one thing — the scandal over Democrat Jay Jones’s recently leaked text messages to Republican Del. Carrie Coyner that sent shockwaves through Virginia’s 2025 election cycle.

Jones, a former state delegate from Norfolk, has apologized for sending messages that referenced shooting former House Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah — comments that have upended the race and now threaten to define it.

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Virginia Democrats and some Republicans want to extend ACA tax credits as shutdown looms

By Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

Published September 23, 2025 at 5:15AM | Updated September 23, 2025 at 5:46AM

Patient rooms at Inova Health Center - Oakville (staff photo by James Cullum)

Several members of Virginia’s Democratic congressional delegation met virtually Monday morning to discuss their efforts to extend special tax credits that help people purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. The credits will expire at the end of the year unless Congress renews them.

About 400,000 Virginians purchase health insurance through the state’s exchange, and some of those people qualify for Enhanced Premium Tax Credits, which were established in 2021, extended in 2022 and apply to people that earn between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level. About 100,000 Virginians are expected to lose marketplace coverage, the state exchange’s director said.

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Virginia researchers link housing and education, offer policy insights through new website

By Nathaniel Cline, Virginia Mercury and Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

Published September 18, 2025 at 5:20AM | Updated September 18, 2025 at 6:03AM

An aerial view of Project: HOMES' Bermuda Estates community in Chester in Chestefield County, south of Richmond. (Courtesy of Project:HOMES)

Over the summer, the University of Richmond launched the Live and Learn website, a new feature of a study examining the connection between housing segregation and educational inequality in Richmond and its surrounding areas released last year.

The new interactive site will help inform educators, experts, and policymakers about the local links between housing and education.

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Debating the debates: Spanberger, Earle-Sears to face off Oct. 9

By Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

Published August 18, 2025 at 4:28PM | Updated August 19, 2025 at 6:25AM

Virginia gubernatorial candidates Abigail Spanberger (left) and Winsome Earle-Sears (right). (Photos by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury)

In Virginia’s governor’s race, the candidates aren’t just preparing to debate — they’ve been debating whether to debate.

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger announced Monday that she has accepted a debate set for Oct. 9, hosted by Norfolk State University and WAVY-TV.

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Senator Mark Warner spearheads bipartisan efforts to boost U.S. housing supply

By Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

Published August 4, 2025 at 5:23AM | Updated August 4, 2025 at 7:31AM

Senator Mark Warner during media availability on Thursday, July 31.

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, recalls how over the years, he and colleagues in Congress used to say “we’re gonna get to housing next, we’re gonna get to housing next.” But it never really came, he said, and now “housing shortages are a real crisis.”

Last week, he called himself and his colleagues out for “kicking the can on housing” since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Though he and others had introduced proposals, the proposals haven’t always succeeded. But he’s encouraged this year, as a package of housing bills he helped craft advanced unanimously through the Senate’s Banking Committee.

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Youngkin signs several maternal health bills, tweaks another on unconscious bias training

By Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

Published March 27, 2025 at 1:00PM | Updated March 27, 2025 at 2:52PM

Gov. Glenn Youngkin. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury)

Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed several bills aimed at improving maternal health in the commonwealth, building on promises both he and Democratic leadership made to support parents and health care workers.

Dubbed the “Momnibus” package, the Democrat-led bills stem from a Black Maternal Health Summit hosted last year in the state Capitol that brought medical professionals, advocates and lawmakers from across the state and beyond for roundtable discussions and panels. Alongside these conversations, a rural health committee spent months touring Virginia, gathering firsthand accounts of maternal care gaps in underserved communities.