Across Virginia
Virginia Lottery players are now able to purchase tickets wherever they may be within the state – without visiting a retailer. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
NEWS RELEASE: The Virginia Lottery has begun selling tickets to many of its most popular games online. As of July 1, games like Mega Millions, Powerball, and Cash4Life® can be played on your device, along with all-new, instant-win games.
The games are available at www.valottery.com and can be played anywhere within Virginia.
“This new way of enjoying Virginia Lottery games reflects where consumers are today and where they expect to find us,” said Virginia Lottery Executive Director Kevin Hall. “Now customers can play anytime they want, anywhere they are, as well as in the traditional way at more than 5,000 licensed retail businesses across Virginia.”
Online Lottery sales were made possible by legislation passed by the Virginia General Assembly in its 2020 session. The Lottery began online sales on the morning of July 1, the first day the new law took effect.
Online Lottery includes secure financial transactions, robust age and identity checks through registered accounts, and also provides a range of responsible gaming protections for players to limit their lottery play if they choose. You must be at least 18 years of age to play any Virginia Lottery games.
“Online play provides convenience for consumers who enjoy lottery products and appreciate that we provide good fun for a great cause,” said Hall. “Whether customers play online or purchase lottery products at a retail counter, all of our profits benefit K-12 public schools across the Commonwealth.”
Instant-win games have exciting digital game features, mechanics and bonus rounds. New instant-win games will be added every few weeks, and popular daily draw games such as Pick 3, Pick 4, and Cash 5 will be added within the first year.
SPRINGFIELD, Va. (AP) — An 11-month-old girl has died after being inadvertently left unattended in a vehicle for “an extended period of time,” police in northern Virginia said Saturday.
Officers responded Friday around 5 p.m. to a report of an unresponsive child left in a vehicle, the Fairfax County Police Department said in a news release.
A preliminary investigation found the girl’s father placed her in the back seat of an SUV at his home and “inadvertently” left her while he used another car to run errands, police said. Temperature readings in the area on Friday climbed into the high 80s and low 90s, according to records from the National Weather Service.
“After returning home, he then drove the SUV to an in-home daycare to pick up another child when he realized the 11-month-old was still in the back seat,” the news release said.
Detectives have consulted with the Fairfax County Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney, and no charges are expected in the case, police said.
Neither the girl nor her father were identified.
HENRICO, Va. (AP) — A circuit judge in Virginia this week dismissed Twitter from a lawsuit filed by Republican U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes of California against the social media platform and several of its users.
Henrico County Circuit Judge John Marshall on Wednesday ruled Twitter is not liable for allegedly slanderous tweets about Nunes that were posted anonymously, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Thursday. Marshall cited a federal law that provides internet services with immunity from liability for material posted by their users.
Nunes “seeks to have the court treat Twitter as the publisher or speaker of the content provided by others based on its allowing or not allowing certain content to be on its internet platform,” Marshall said in his ruling. “The court refuses to do so.”
Nunes had accused Twitter of “knowingly hosting and monetizing content that is clearly abusive, hateful and defamatory.”
The newspaper reported that a Republican strategist and two anonymous parody accounts, “Devin Nunes’ Mom” and “Devin Nunes’ Cow,” are still defendants in the case.
Nunes’ attorney and his congressional office did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment.
Gov. Ralph Northam
Governor Northam says weeks of nighttime violence and vandalism in Richmond should not continue. Northam says there have been close to 500 demonstrations across Virginia since George Floyd died, and they have focused attention on racial justice — and injustice — but he says what has happened since in Richmond is a different matter. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more:
Virginia Lottery sales took a hit when the coronavirus first arrived, but lottery officials say it did not take long for the numbers to rebound — May sales were 9% higher than the year before — and the lottery expects to meet its budgeted goal of providing more than $600 million to Virginia K-12 education in the fiscal year that ends next week. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
According to the latest numbers released this morning by the Virginia Department of Health there are 45 new confirmed or probable coronavirus cases being attributed to the Roanoke Valley. State health officials are reporting 19 new cases in Roanoke City, 18 new cases in Roanoke County, and 8 new cases in Botetourt County. Coronavirus numbers in Salem remain the same. There are no new deaths related to coronavirus being reported in the Roanoke Valley.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Police in Virginia’s capital declared an unlawful assembly and broke up a gathering of protestors accused of attempting to pull down another Confederate monument along a prominent avenue on Sunday night.
Richmond police declared the gathering near the statue of Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart unlawful and ordered demonstrators to leave the area along Monument Avenue at around 9:30 p.m., news outlets reported.
Protestors had climbed atop the statue and tied ropes around it before authorities intervened, Virginia State Police said in a statement. The agency said it responded to dispel the protesters after some began throwing bottles at officers.
Multiple Confederate monuments in Richmond have been rallying points and sites of confrontations with police during demonstrations in the weeks since George Floyd died in Minneapolis police custody.
Statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham as well as of Christopher Columbus were toppled. A massive statue to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee remains on its pedestal along Monument Avenue for now, as lawsuits seek to block its removal.
Sunday night’s encounter came less than a week after mayor Levar Stoney accepted the resignation of the city’s police chief, saying Richmond needed “a new approach” to public safety after repeated violent clashes between police and protesters.
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Five graduating seniors at a Virginia high school who attended a modified commencement ceremony at the school have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Fredericksburg City Schools Superintendent Marceline Catlett said Friday that the five students at James Monroe High School tested positive for COVID-19, and all five attended graduation ceremonies at he school on Monday.
She said the school has been working with the local health department and “the overall risk of exposure to the majority of students and staff at the event is considered low.”
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has announced that a company will invest more than $3 million to establish the state’s first large-scale facility to process hemp and to extract CBD oil.
The governor’s office said in a statement Thursday that the project will create 22 new jobs and that the company has committed to buying 90 percent of its hemp from growers in Virginia.
Company BRD Extraction, LLC will do business under the name Blue Ribbon Extraction. It will be located in the Town of South Boston in Halifax County, which is outside of Danville and near the North Carolina border.
The company’s founders and primary investors are Richmond residents Rick Gregory and Sterling Edmunds. They are both natives of Halifax County .
Short for cannabidiol, CBD is a non-intoxicating molecule found in hemp and marijuana. Both are cannabis plants, but only marijuana has enough of the compound THC to get users high. The vast majority of CBD products come from hemp, which has less than 0.3% THC.
CBD has garnered a devoted following among people who swear by it for everything from stress reduction to better sleep.
Governor Northam today outlined how Phase 3 of his reopening executive orders will impact Virginia, but he says it is too soon to set a specific date for its implementation. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more:
Social gatherings will be permitted up 250 people. Retail stores and restaurants will be permitted to resume operations at 100% permitted capacity, but physical distancing guidelines will still have to be followed. Gyms and fitness centers will be permitted to operate at 75% capacity. Entertainment venues like museums, zoos and other outdoor venues will be able to open at 50% of capacity with a maximum of 1,000 people. Child care facilities will be permitted to open, but overnight summer camps will remain closed.
As for a start date, Northam said Thursday he was not yet prepared to set one: