| Ryan Suit tries to keep a close eye on marijuana legislation. As the co-owner of a Virginia Beach shop that sells cannabinoid products, he doesnât want to be caught off guard by any new rules or regulations. Yet even Suit was shocked to learn that buried within the stateâs recently unveiled budget proposal is a provision that would create a new criminal misdemeanor for marijuana possession. âThey essentially weaponized the budget proposal against cannabis,â he said. Suit said he was unaware the budget conference committee was even considering the measure in the budget â and he isnât the only one who was blindsided. Read more in the Sunday Main News section
When bulldozers start rolling on a sprawling and brambly tract in York County, the move will be more than just development. It will also be redemption. Whatâs coming to the onetime Commonwealth of Virginia Emergency Fuel Storage Facility â ground that regulators once deemed environmentally unsafe â is a light industrial site called Kings Creek Commerce Center and a Dominion Energy solar farm. The hope is to start the project later this year or early the next. Stakeholders in the project, including six Hampton Roads municipalities and Dominion, are eager to repurpose the land that has intersected with history at numerous pivotal points and paid a price for it. Government reports have described the 432-acre property, which is tucked between a creek, National Park Service land and a military base, in no uncertain terms: âGroundwater contamination was found in the uppermost aquifer in five discreet areas,â claimed a 1996 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report. âThe sediments in two ravines and a pond at the facility are heavily contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons and the aquatic habitat on-site has been impacted,â said another in 2015. The site was abandoned in the late 1980s, but regulators have since given the property the all clear, with provisions such as prohibitions on using groundwater. But its next life marks a new chapter in an eventful timeline. Read more in the Sunday Break section Donât expect elegant images of queens, peacocks or Victorian gardens on Roberto Lugoâs ceramics. He decorates pottery with his life and those who have been most influential in it: His mother teaching her granddaughter how to make pasteles, a Puerto Rican dish, is the center of a dinner plate. Rapper Biggie Smallsâ face is splashed on a decorative urn. Lugoâs teapots have spouts and handles that look like guns, images he was more familiar with growing up in Philadelphia. His work has won prestigious honors and has been showcased in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. His âBefore Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Roomâ exhibition is on view at the Met. More than 50 of his pieces will be on view at the Hermitage Museum and Gardens in the âRoberto Lugo: Pottery with Purposeâ exhibition, which opened this weekend. It highlights how his work reflects his multicultural experience and celebrates current and historic figures who have made an impact in social justice and race relations. Read more in the Sunday Break section Fifty-six years ago, Pembroke Mall became the first enclosed mall in Hampton Roads. Now, the aging center is taking on a new look and purpose. Mall owner Pembroke Square Associates is teaming up with Charlottesville-based Castle Development Partners to break ground in March 2023 on a 12-story apartment complex above the former Stein Mart. The project will include 322 one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 550 square feet to 1,800 square feet. Read more in the Sunday Work & Money section
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