The home goods, appliances and consumer electronics retailer is closing 70 of its 170 stores nationwide, according to its website. The closing Hampton Roads locations are:

• 1082 W. Mercury Blvd., Hampton
• 2550 Airline Blvd., Portsmouth
• 3421 Virginia Beach Blvd., Virginia Beach

The retailer is advertising a going-out-of-business sale online with 30%-50% off its e-commerce site and in-store.

Conn’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on July 23 after three years of declining sales, the Houston Chronicle reported. As of June, the company reported operating more than 550 stores, including 380 Badcock Home Furniture & more stores, across 15 states.

The 30-day grace period for the first set of new cameras ended Monday, and drivers who run past red lights at three intersections will face $50 penalties. Those include Twin Pines and Towne Point roads, Frederick Boulevard and Turnpike Road, and Victory Boulevard and Greenwood Drive.

Another six cameras will be activated later at these intersections:

• Victory Boulevard and George Washington Highway.
• Frederick and Airline boulevards.
• Airline and Victory boulevards.
• Portsmouth and Airline boulevards.
• Portsmouth Boulevard and Elmhurst Lane.
• W High Street and Cedar Lane.

Police Chief Stephen Jenkins told City Council members in Tuesday’s work session that state law limits the maximum number of red-light cameras, and Portsmouth can have up to nine. Intersections were selected based on speed zone studies, accident history and driving behavior from test cameras used to help determine the best locations, he said.

The chief also said in light of legal challenges playing out in surrounding jurisdictions for speed cameras, his department is working to recreate citations to ensure they’re the same official Virginia uniform summons that would be issued for other violations.

Citations include videos and can be contested in court. Violations are issued to vehicles, not necessarily drivers, Jenkins said.

“The goal here is to correct people’s behavior,” he said.

The new red-light cameras come months after police began enforcing more than a dozen school speed zone cameras across the city. Any excess revenue received from speed camera citations are intended for police and local schools.

As of May, the city has netted nearly $335,000 from speeding cameras since enforcement began in January, which amounts to about 40% of the overall revenue received from citations. The remaining share, about $475,000, goes to Altumint, the vendor that installed and maintains the equipment.

City Council expects to discuss revenue allocations in September.

Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com

Mixon, a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation, has lived in Hampton Roads for almost 50 years. But when her husband retired, she wasn’t old enough for Medicare and developed a severe case of vasculitis, a blood vessel inflammation. Finding and affording treatment was so difficult, she opted to stay with family and reestablish Arizona residency.

While attending the Nansemond Indian Nation’s powwow last fall, she learned about its new initiative, Fishing Point Healthcare, a network intended to provide state-of-the-art care to members of any Indigenous tribes as well as all Virginia Medicaid recipients. The clinic is also open to people without insurance who meet Medicaid criteria.

“I’m just glad that they’re here — not just for myself, but for everyone,” Mixon, 65, said Saturday at a community day to celebrate the completion of Fishing Point’s flagship clinic at 2929 London Blvd. in Portsmouth.

Behind her, dozens enjoyed the block party vibe as they danced in front of a DJ stand, stood in line at several food trucks or supervised their children in a bounce house.

The facility, including its in-house pharmacy, opened on a limited basis in February. Recently, providers there have been treating about 20 patients a day, said David “Black Feather” Darling, Fishing Point’s board chairman. Now, the rest of the facility has been fully renovated to offer dentistry, physical therapy, radiology and a lab.

A similar clinic is under construction in Newport News, with a third planned for Norfolk.

“We have a strong tradition of really being stewards of the land,” Darling said. “That’s not just the ecosystem. It’s the people who inhabit it, too.”

The Nansemond Nation finally secured federal recognition in 2018, more than 30 years after its recognition in Virginia and following almost a century of erasure. That recognition ultimately made it easier for the tribe to manage Medicaid patients than most other providers, who are in many ways disincentivized to accept them, Darling said.

The federal government makes some basic guarantees to Indigenous nations, Darling said, but under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act passed in 1975, those nations have the sovereign right to take responsibility for those services themselves and become federal contractors.

“We enjoy a different rate than a private provider would as an extension of the federal government,” Darling said.

Fishing Point Healthcare started in 2023 with a home health care service, which generated enough capital to move forward with the clinics, Darling said. He declined to provide further details about cost because Fishing Point is privately held.

Providing health care only to the Nansemond people would have been cost-prohibitive because of their low numbers, Darling said. Opening care to Medicaid recipients generates revenue, giving the Nansemond Nation a path to financial security.

Providing preventive and follow-up care to people who often have little to no other access to it should help relieve strain on local emergency departments and lower public costs, Darling said.

Visitors to Saturday’s event, from some of the clinic’s first patients to its employees and neighbors in the community, overwhelmingly agreed.

“We need this so, so bad,” said Mary Sherrod, a nurse with Sentara Health. “I see so many people that need the help.”

For more information on the Portsmouth clinic, call 757-891-9010 or visit fishingpointhc.com.

Have a health care or science story, question or concern? Contact Katrina Dix, 757-222-5155, katrina.dix@virginiamedia.com

The additional severance payouts for top employees reveal $1.02 million has been paid out to 14 top city employees since 2019. That’s up from $896,318 paid to 11 top city employees as exclusively reported by The Virginian-Pilot in June.

The incomplete disclosure was an unintentional oversight, according to city spokesperson Dana Woodson, who said in an email that it was “the City’s good faith belief that all relevant records were provided at the time.” As a result of the error, the city is now working to purchase a records management system to better track Freedom of Information Act requests.

While the city has previously told The Pilot it does not keep logs of FOIA requests received, it did not provide information in response to inquiries for this article about current FOIA tracking and response practices.

The error also prompted City Manager Steven Carter to apologize on the city’s behalf, noting the city “stumbled” in its attempt to respond to the FOIA request.

In a separate statement provided this week, Carter said the city strives to be as transparent and accountable as possible when responding to information requests.

“However, at the end of the day, we will fall short sometimes,” he said. “This was one of those times. We have learned a lot through this process and will continue to work hard to improve all of our processes in the future.”

Severance payout data was reported because of high turnover in top city positions in Portsmouth, a concern residents often raise to decision-makers, even likening city leadership to a “revolving door” at times. Over the past four years, the city has seen three city managers and four police chiefs, in addition to shakeups in the city assessor’s office.

But leaders say severance agreements are sometimes necessary in a region where surrounding municipalities frequently try to lure top talent away.

Portsmouth has paid nearly $900,000 in severance to departing employees over last 5 years

Following The Pilot’s reporting, a former employee who received a severance payout contacted the newspaper and said the information wasn’t comprehensive. After The Pilot questioned the city about the discovery, more records were provided to The Pilot by the city, disclosing four additional payouts and three other employees.

The recipient who reached out was Thomas Stallings, who served two stints as General Services Director. He told The Pilot he shared the discrepancy for the sake of transparency and accuracy. It was previously reported that Stallings received $10,803, but he’s also entitled to $22,705. Stallings held the role first from 2015 to 2022, when he was terminated by former City Manager Tonya Chapman. He was brought back in 2023 under former Interim City Manager Mimi Terry before being let go by former Interim City Manager Lydia Pettis Patton earlier this year, he said.

The employees who received the largest single payouts remain the same as previously reported: Pettis Patton and former City Attorney Solomon Ashby. But in disclosing the additional set of records, the city also corrected the payout amount for Ashby, who was entitled to $113,476, not $133,476 as previously reported. Pettis Patton received $133,436.

Pettis Patton resigned and Ashby was fired amid protests and controversy over criminal charges filed in the vandalism of a Confederate monument in 2020.

But the largest total payout amount went to Terry, who was paid twice after parting ways with the city and returning, collectively receiving $153,435.

Other employees not included in the original reporting who were authorized for severance payouts upon departure include former Chief Information Officer Daniel Jones for $25,270 and former Interim Deputy City Manager Robert Moore for $40,539, according to the city. Moore began his tenure with the city in 2016 before resigning in 2022 and previously led the city’s economic development department. Jones was hired in 2016 and also parted ways with the city in 2022.

Neither Jones nor Moore could be reached for comment.

Former City Assessor Patrick Dorris, who was terminated by a majority of Portsmouth City Council in March 2023, was granted $57,224, or about six months worth of severance. Dorris had been working for the city since 2021.

He’s since sued the city for wrongful termination, but no hearing is scheduled at this time.

City policy authorizes the city manager to offer severance agreements to department heads and deputy city managers, though it’s ultimately up to the manager’s discretion. Employees who are terminated with cause, however, aren’t entitled to severance.

City policy as of May 2023 states that payment can’t exceed more than 12 weeks of the employee’s salary and doesn’t extend to health or retirement benefits. The source of funding from the city’s budget for the severance must be identified, and severance must be coordinated with the city attorney’s office to ensure it is only granted if the employee is terminated without cause.

Woodson said current human resources and financial records are not indexed in a manner that allows a search for severance payments or severance agreements. Instead, records had to be searched manually and institutional knowledge used to identify which employees may have severance agreements or payments. Additionally, city staff used records from the Human Resources and Finance departments to manually calculate severance amounts since that pay could be included as part of a departing employee’s total pay in the following paycheck, for example.

The discrepancies and errors in providing all relevant records to The Pilot have prompted the city to seek a records management system.

“(This) particular exercise has revealed flaws in our process that we are working to swiftly mitigate,” Woodson said in an email. “These differences highlight the need for a more integrated and searchable records system that can streamline the process and enhance accuracy.”

Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com

Around 1:50 a.m., police were called to the 400 block of Effingham Street, according to a press release. Once on scene, officers found a woman who had been shot. Police did not provide information on the severity of her injuries, but said she was taken to the hospital.

Later, police were told about another gunshot victim who had walked into a local hospital, the release said. They believe the second victim was also shot on Effingham Street.

Police also did not provide any information on the second shooting victim, including information on their condition. No information about a suspect or suspects was provided.

The authorities asked drivers overnight to avoid Effingham Street northbound to reach London Blvd. and High Street.

Regulations from the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority stipulate that a minimum 45% of the total gross sales must be from food and nonalcoholic beverages, while liquor sales should comprise no more than 55%, for eateries with a mixed beverage license.

“This is an antiquated rule that does not work in today’s society,” said Bill Stanley, a state senator and attorney involved in the litigation. “We can’t use an antiquated philosophy or policy and apply it to a modern day business. It’s not right.”

The plaintiff is Fish and Slips, a bar and grill within Tidewater Yacht Marina. The lawsuit, filed in the Portsmouth Circuit Court, names Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Dale Farino, the chief executive officer of beverage control authority, as defendants, as well as the Virginia Alcohol Control Board.

The governor did not respond to a request for comment. A Virginia ABC spokesperson explained Thursday the agency was aware of the litigation but had not yet been served, and subsequently declined to comment further.

The lawsuit states the historical framework of the food-to-alcohol ratio requirements harken to the days of Prohibition.

“Today, the (Mixed Beverage Annual Review) law does not achieve the rationale of prohibiting saloons but rather it is effectively adversely impacting the ability and freedom of restaurant entrepreneurs to freely price the food and meals that they serve to their customers,” the lawsuit reads. “… For any restaurant that is maintaining the 45/55 ratio, if the ABC raises prices (for liquor), the restaurant, to maintain the required ratio and to keep its license to sell mixed beverages, has no choice but to raise its food prices.”

The Mixed Beverage Annual Review (MBAR) is the name of a report that documents the food and beverage sales of mixed-beverage licensees.

The lawsuit further asserts that it creates an unlevel playing field because exemptions have been granted to other types of businesses, such as amphitheaters and gaming facilities.

“A law passed by the General Assembly in 2022 allowed Virginia to exempt casino and gaming parlors from MBAR, enabling them to operate (24 hours a day) without the same food-to-beverage ratio requirements imposed upon Virginia restaurants, thereby giving those establishments that have a bar and restaurant facility within them a competitive advantage over restaurants that operate in the same region as the gaming establishment,” it states.

Fish and Slips is about 4 miles from Rivers Casino Portsmouth, which opened in January 2023.

The lawsuit argues the regulations are subsequently in violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the right to due process and equal protection under the law, and the state constitution, which says that no man or set of men are entitled to exclusive or separate privileges from the community.

Fish and Slips is asking the court to declare MBAR statues, ABC regulations and exemptions granted by the General Assembly as unconstitutional, and to grant temporary and permanent injunctive relief, and any other relief the court finds just.

Stanley said he believes the current rules go against “everything we believe in Virginia.”

“This comes from the belief that the MBAR structure that we have in Virginia is unconstitutional and adversely effects small businesses and small restaurant owners who are competing in a world where we are giving special advantages to things like the casinos,” he said.

Legislation that would have eased the rules around how much food Virginia bars and restaurants serving liquor must sell died in the House of Delegates this year.

Several Hampton Roads restaurant operators voiced support for the bill. But the measure faced opposition from a Richmond-based lobbying group called the Virginia Restaurant Association, made up of owners of restaurants such as The Tobacco Company Restaurant in Richmond and Northern Virginia’s Great American Restaurants group.

Similar legislation was put forth in 2019. Former state Sen. Dick Saslaw, who was among those that opposed that attempt, argued that “if you can’t meet (the current) ratio, you ain’t running a restaurant; you are flat running a bar.”

Stanley said the failed attempts at legislative reform signaled it was time to try a different route.

“When the legislature fails to act to protect its citizens,” Stanley said,” then that’s what our courts are for.”

Katie King, katie.king@virginiamedia.com

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner met with local elected officials, first responders and activists at a community center Friday to discuss solutions to the deadly problem, which he called “a cancer.” He noted 76 homicides in the region so far in 2024. The region reported 205 killings last year — 189 of them by gun.

Hampton Commonwealth’s Attorney Anton Bell said a few years ago, the city’s crime rate was “pretty high” and that the city developed a strategic plan to reduce gun violence by addressing root causes.

“We first discovered that the crime that was taking place, for the most part, were committed by a limited number of actors,” Bell said. “And the crime took place in pockets within our city. And as a result of that, we addressed the root issues that created criminality, such as poverty, such as things that go on in the home, the type of issues that are not spoken of.”

He said if these root causes are “not addressed in the home,” violence will erupt “in the streets.”

Bell said Hampton has seen a 71% decrease in homicides over the past year and that shootings have gone down 56% over the last five years.

Latiesha Handie, the executive director for Hampton’s Office of Youth and Young Adult Opportunities, shared the success of the city’s Hopeful Hampton initiative — which aims to reduce gun violence among teens and young adults by pairing them with mentors. She spoke of one young man, a former gang member who managed to turn his life around after he received help in unaddressed trauma, conflict resolution and mental health support.

Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones said the city has invested about $5 million in 36 violence-interrupting organizations over the past three years. Jones said his goal is to reduce gun violence by 15% annually. To accomplish that, the city will continue to invest in programs and individuals “doing the work” to prevent gun violence and soon launch a new office whose main purpose is to prevent gun violence.

Various speakers highlighted the need for sustained financial commitment toward gun violence prevention groups and nonprofits, stricter gun control laws, mental health resources, and investments in youth and local nonprofits.

Warner used the roundtable as an opportunity to highlight his Virginia Plan to Reduce Gun Violence, which would enact several of Virginia’s gun safety laws at the federal level. He also condemned political violence following last week’s assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

“This is the worst failure from Secret Service, probably since the attempted assassination of President Reagan,” Warner said after the roundtable.

Warner said the situation “may again be a case of someone having access to a weapon of war that had mental health issues.”

Warner, who has supported the banning of assault weapons, also said that if the shooter “had a knife instead of an AR-15,” the near-assassination “wouldn’t have happened.”

“How much more of this kind of violence do we have to see before we say ‘This doesn’t happen in other nations, and it shouldn’t in America,’” Warner said.

Josh Janney, joshua.janney@virginiamedia.com

City Council members voted unanimously at the July 9 meeting to approve two separate use permits to operate shipping container and chassis storage yards — one at 0 Coast Guard Boulevard in the Churchland area and one at 0 Syer Road near the Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway.

The yard at 0 Coast Guard Boulevard was requested by Matt Mader and Ken Rodman, who wish to operate on a 30-acre parcel in an industrial zoning district. The property is owned by Virginia Holding Company. It will accommodate 310 truck parking spaces and container laydown spaces.

Chris Gullickson, director of development and transportation policy at the Virginia Port Authority, said at the council meeting the storage yard would operate in conjunction with the port and aid transportation of the domestic supply chain.

One speaker discussed potential noise and the presence of hazardous materials. Rodman, on behalf of VHB civil engineering firm in Virginia Beach, said most containers would be empty on their way back from the Port of Virginia and that noise shouldn’t be a major concern since there are no immediate neighbors. A representative from the adjacent U.S. Coast Guard base previously indicated he wasn’t opposed to the project but expressed concern for potential safety and security issues, including continuous and uninhibited entrance and exit points via Coast Guard Boulevard and protection from nearby ammunition storage.

The project was approved with conditions, including agreements applicants made to mitigate the Coast Guard’s concerns. Applicants will install surveillance cameras, additional fencing, emergency access to the Coast Guard base and a left-turn lane on Coast Guard Boulevard. Applicants also agreed to suspend parking during Coast Guard training exercises.

The other approved yard would operate on a 7-acre portion of a 96.5-acre parcel at 0 Syer Road near the Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway in an industrial-zoned area. The request was made by Paul Tschiderer of AES Consulting on behalf of CSX Transportation, Inc., which owns the irregularly shaped parcel bounded to the north by an existing CSX railway, bounded south by 1420 and 1400 Columbus Avenue, located east of the northern dead-end of South Street and west of the Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway.

The site would accommodate the storage of roughly 200 chassis with containers. On behalf of the applicant, Randy Marcus of CSX said the containers would not store hazardous or flammable materials. Following concerns raised from neighboring Murro Chemical Co. about traffic and proximity to a hydrogen tank, the applicants agreed to a few changes, including an increase in the fence height, additional signage for entrance, restricted access points and additional buffer to protect the Martin Luther King bridge piers that overpass the site. Instead of installing surveillance cameras, operators will rely on CSX railroad police services.

Council member Mark Whitaker expressed concern for traffic congestion at the on-ramp near I.C. Norcom High School in the mornings, but a report from city staff noted the project isn’t expected to negatively affect existing traffic.

Both projects received unanimous support from Planning Commission and approval from city planning staff. It’s not known at this time how much tax revenue the city would expect to draw from the properties.

Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com

Officers were dispatched to the 1400 block of Maple Avenue for reports of the shooting around 7:20 p.m. At the scene, emergency services found Carlton Jermaine Sherrod Jr., 23, with gunshot wounds. He was taken to the hospital, where he later died.

Anyone with information about the shooting is encouraged to contact the Portsmouth Police Investigations Bureau at 757–393–8536. Police have not released any information about potential suspects or what may have led to the shooting.

Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com