VPM Adrienne

Students, faculty and community members gathered Saturday morning to show support for outgoing UVA President Jim Ryan.

Ryan announced his resignation last week after the school faced scrutiny from federal investigators related to its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practices.

Ryan's exit as UVA president met with surprise around the commonwealth Virginia Democrats — several of them UVA alums — publicly condemned the decision.

“They went for Columbia, and they went for Harvard, and then they came for us,” UVA Faculty Senate chair-elect Jeri Seidman told VPM News. “I think every university should now be worried about the DOJ believing that they can have a say in the administration of a university.”

UVA President Jim Ryan resigned under pressure from Trump DOJ. Read more from the rest of the @vpm.org team

UVA president Jim Ryan resigns under pressure from Trump administration The Justice Department has been investigating UVA over its diversity practices.

BREAKING: UVA President Jim Ryan resigned Friday, according to news reports.

More than 1/3 of Virginia's hospitals are operating "in the red." Providers worry that federal cuts would hurt the already-struggling health care system. Here's @vpmadrienne.bsky.social in the latest VPM News Short.

City audit finds Richmond Retirement System paid $550K to dead people The review identified inadequate operating procedures last updated in 2014.

“RRS improperly paid $554,661.50 in benefits to 44 deceased retirees, with $415,660.76 unrecovered due to ineffective controls in preventing, detecting, and recovering payments to ineligible recipients,” the audit states.

Danville residents worry Medicaid cuts could lead to homelessness, death Data shows federal health cuts will harm rural communities nationwide.

Data analyzed by Georgetown Univ. found people living in rural Virginia are more reliant on Medicaid and Medicare and would be disproportionately impacted by cuts to those programs. I spoke to two Danville women, worrying cuts could leave them w/o resources they need.

www.vpm.org/news/2025-04...

Federal cuts could inhibit progress on developmental disability care Virginia has expanded care for the community, but Medicaid cuts could lead to setbacks.

Federal cuts also threaten the state's progress in clearing the developmental disability waiver waitlist.

Right now, there are about 17,000 people with developmental disability waivers in Virginia and another 15,550 on the waiver waitlist.

More from @vpmadrienne.bsky.social:

Ex-VDH Commissioner: Federal cuts may lead to ‘horrific consequences’ Dr. Norman Oliver says the cuts would damage state efforts to upgrade technology systems, and reduce opioid use and STIs.

The convo I had with former VDH head Dr. Norman Oliver, who led Virginia's health dept. during COVID.

We talked about HHS's decision to cut billions in federal funding related to COVID, and the broader implications he says that decision will have for public health.
www.vpm.org/news/2025-03...

Watch: Central Virginia Medicaid recipients advocate for program Congress considers $880 billion in cuts that could impact health care.

Meet two Central Virginia area Medicaid recipients who are advocating to protect the program from federal cuts.

www.vpm.org/news/2025-03...

Medicaid expansion trigger law left untouched during General Assembly State lawmakers wait on congressional budget negotiations.

An update on Medicaid expansion & what can happen in Virginia if Congress changes federal funding. The GA considered but did not include a budget amendment that would have specifically addressed the trigger law that immediately removes ~630k people from coverage. www.vpm.org/news/2025-02...

Funding fears persist for ‘locked out’ community health centers The federal system Virginia’s centers rely on is having “technical issues.”

An update on a story I've been covering this week. HHS says "technical issues" caused errors in payment system that forced three Richmond community health centers to close this week.

www.vpm.org/news/2025-02...

Judge denies city of Richmond’s dismissal motion in whistleblower lawsuit Connie Clay claims retaliation after disclosing potential FOIA violations.

A circuit court judge denied Richmond's bid to dismiss a whistleblower lawsuit by Connie Clay, the former employee who alleges that Petula Burks (then the city's communications director) told her to violate FOIA — then retaliated against her for disclosing the potential violations.

There are still unanswered questions about why 16 of the states 31 Federally Qualified Health Clinics have been unable to access their federal grants for more than a week.

What has stopping their funding?
Why?
How long will the pause in funding last?