In a report released last week, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs identified problems at the medical center related to surgical services and how leadership there addressed quality management concerns.

“We take allegations of oversight and misconduct seriously and have strengthened our policies and procedures to ensure consistent, high-quality care from licensed professionals,” said Terrence Hayes, the VA’s press secretary, in a Tuesday statement. “We plan to fully implement all recommendations by December.”

The Hampton facility recently confirmed it was replacing several top officials, including its director, chief of staff and chief of surgery.

The OIG launched its review following multiple complaints it received about the center in 2022.

“We got some concerns about surgical quality so we engaged with the facility trying to get some response,” said Julie Kroviak, the department’s principal deputy assistant inspector general for health care inspections. “We then sent further questions to the regional office — and after that we just became more concerned about the quality review processes.”

Kroviak said the report can get a “little bit technical” but shouldn’t be dismissed.

“I think it can be written off as ‘Oh just some detailed processes weren’t followed by clinical leaders.’ But those processes are so critical to the foundation of a patient’s safety program,” she said. “If the highest levels of leadership are not aware of them, truly not aware of them, there are so many places for things to go seriously wrong.”

For example, the report found that after concerns were raised about patient safety, facility leaders issued a summary suspension of the assistant chief of surgery’s clinical privileges in January 2023. But it says the surgeon’s clinical privileges were restored after facility leaders failed to follow required protocol. The surgeon transferred to another VA health facility in June 2023, which “precluded facility leaders from correcting the process, including initiating additional actions,” the report states.

The Hampton center serves southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. From Oct. 1, 2021, through Sept. 30, 2022, the center served more than 66,000 patients.

The report states OIG received a complaint, which included five patient case examples, in December 2022 that the assistant chief of surgery provided poor surgical care and that the chief of staff was aware of the concerns but did not address them.

After OIG requested additional information, the Veterans Integrated Service Network responded and said the facility conducted a focused clinical care review of 15 cases performed by the assistant chief of surgery. It found six cases did not meet the standard of care and four of those had intraoperative complications, including one patient who experienced a laceration of the liver and another who underwent surgery in concerningly close proximity to having received chemoradiation therapy.

The report states OIG opened its hotline inspection in May 2023. During this review, widespread failures and deficiencies were identified related to facility leaders’ responses to care concerns and subsequent privileging actions involving the assistant chief of surgery, professional practice evaluations of surgeons, surgical service quality management and institutional disclosures.

“The findings identified through this inspection highlight not only failures of facility leaders to ensure that the required processes were appropriately implemented, but also a lack of leaders’ basic understanding of the processes that support delivery of safe health care,” the report states.

The report provided a dozen recommendations, including that summary suspensions, clinical care reviews and proposed revocation of privileges are conducted in accordance with the requirements and policies of the Veterans Health Administration. It further advised the center to ensure that ongoing professional practice evaluations include documentation of all conclusionary outcomes.

In his statement, Hayes said the VA fully supported OIG’s findings.

Hayes said a new team is meeting bi-weekly to address OIG’s recommendations with a target year-end completion goal. He said the facility has introduced a new reporting tool to track clinical care metrics, suspensions, privilege changes, state board reports and ongoing evaluations. Additionally, the facility has initiated monthly patient risk meetings in surgery services.

Hayes noted Michael Harper is taking on the role of acting medical center director until Aug. 5. Harper will then be replaced by Walt Dannenberg, who currently serves as the medical center director of the Long Beach VA Medical Center in California. Hayes said the leadership changes were done to “align with the VA’s commitment to high-reliability principles” but were not directly related to the report.

The House of Representatives’ Committee on Veterans’ Affairs also recently completed an investigation into the Hampton VA Medical Center after lawmakers said they received credible complaints about patient safety concerns and medical incompetence. As a result of the investigation, the committee announced last week that the center was making a series of personnel changes.

Katie King, katie.king@virginiamedia.com

Now, the remains of a humongous ice age animal have been found near a spot that thousands of motorists drive past every day. Workers recently unearthed around a dozen pieces of a mastodon skeleton while digging at the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion project.

“This is the stuff they don’t teach in engineering school,” said Ryan Banas, project director.

Soon, residents and travelers will be able to view the bones and other artifacts at a new project visitor’s center in Norfolk.

Workers at the project got very lucky discovering the bones in the fall of 2023, Banas said. A worker noticed something odd while looking at a conveyor belt at the slurry treatment plant, which is located on the project’s South Island.

Banas said the plant moves fast, processing 16,000 gallons of slurry a minute.

“So, the fact that we had one of our staff members that was able to catch a glimpse is pretty, pretty darn impressive,” Banas said.

The bones, which are anywhere from 12,000 to 50,000 years old, include ribs, vertebrae, a tooth the size of a small hand and part of a limb, Banas said.

Back then, lower sea levels meant the land near the HRBT would have likely been a forest, said Zaborniak, making it a perfect foraging ground for the mastodons.

Very similar in appearance to wooly mammoths or modern-day elephants, the creatures spent much of their day looking for food, he said. They were anywhere from 7 to 10 feet tall with large tusks and weighed around 6 tons.

Elephants and mammoths had flat teeth built for chomping down on grass, Zaborniak said.

“Mastodons, on the other hand, have very large ridges on their teeth, which are great for browsing,” he said. “So these animals are going to be eating plants such as leaves, pine needles and fruits.”

There is some evidence of social behavior, he said, but it’s likely male mastodons were solitary creatures. The animals had a wide range across North America, he added. Early humans also would have potentially crossed paths with them, he said, but it would have taken several people to hunt one.

Other mastodon bones have been found in Hampton Roads: the Virginia Living Museum possesses much of a skeleton that was discovered in Yorktown over a period of several years, according to a previous report by The Virginian-Pilot.

The $3.9 billion HRBT expansion project will double the road’s capacity, from two to four lanes in each direction, and add two two-lane tunnels. It is scheduled for completion in 2027.

Similar construction work elsewhere in the region has also turned up interesting historical finds. In 2023, workers on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel expansion project dug up an old ship anchor buried beneath the shipping channel. Work was delayed for several months, and resumed in April, so the 10-foot anchor could be excavated.

HRBT project spokesperson Paula Miller said the mastodon discovery was not expected to delay that project’s construction timeline.

Other artifacts unearthed by the HRBT project and now housed at the visitor’s center include two Civil War-era cannonballs, a World War II-era helmet liner and pieces of an old shipwreck, Banas said. Project leaders hope to open the visitor’s center, located at 9401 4th St. in Norfolk, in September.

“These are all things that are super, super interesting, that help you appreciate what came before us,” Banas said.

Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com

The Hawaii Police Department on Monday said they matched DNA taken from Dana Ireland’s body to that of 57-year-old Albert Lauro Jr. of Hawaiian Paradise Park on the Big Island. Police Chief Ben Moszkowicz said Lauro died by suicide and was found at home.

Authorities zeroed in on Lauro in recent months and got a DNA sample from him off of a discarded fork after they watched him eat lunch. He killed himself last week after police went to his home to test the sample against a swab taken from him in person.

Attempts by the AP to reach Lauro’s relatives were unsuccessful.

The DNA work represented a major development in a case that made headlines last year when Albert “Ian” Schweitzer, who had been incarcerated for more than 20 years for the killing, was released based on new evidence. Ireland’s body was found on Christmas Eve in 1991 on Hawaii’s Big Island.

Schweitzer was one of three men who spent time behind bars over her killing, but he always maintained his innocence. A judge is expected to rule Tuesday on a motion to officially exonerate him.

Police said the DNA evidence gave them probable cause to bring rape charges against Lauro but the statute of limitations on such charges expired years ago. Murder is still within the statute of limitations for Ireland’s death but police said they didn’t have enough evidence to charge Lauro with murder.

“The presence of Lauro’s DNA at the crime scene was, in and of itself, not sufficient evidence to prove that Lauro intentionally or knowingly caused her death,” Moskowicz said at a news conference livestreamed from Hilo.

Police hope Lauro’s cellphone will provide some answers and that family and friends who knew him in 1991 and now will help police determine what happened, Moskowicz said.

Schweitzer’s attorneys took the police to task, alleging that they intentionally botched the investigation into Lauro by not taking steps to ensure that he didn’t flee or kill himself after they obtained his DNA. They suggested that because of the man’s death, the truth about what happened to Ireland will never come to light. They also demanded a federal investigation, as well as all communications related to the DNA work.

“We knew that he had a family. He had a good life,” Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck, who is assisting the Hawaii Innocence Project in Schweitzer’s case, said of Lauro. “It’s well known in law enforcement circles … if you have DNA on a guy and you know he committed the crime, that if you do not bring him into custody, there is a serious chance that the person will flee, destroy evidence or kill themself.”

Moskowicz said if police arrested Lauro without probable cause, a court wouldn’t have accepted evidence they gathered afterward.
He denied police sabotaged the case.

“That is abjectly false, 100% not true,” he said, adding the police would follow the evidence wherever it goes.

Mayor Mitch Roth, who was the Big Island’s top prosecutor when Schweitzer’s attorneys and prosecutors entered into a “conviction integrity agreement” to reinvestigate the case, said Monday that he stands behind the police and noted that the results from the swab they collected didn’t come in until after Lauro died.

Lauro hadn’t been on law enforcement’s radar when Roth was prosecutor: “I don’t recall ever seeing this person in any of the police reports when I went over the case.”
Moskowicz said Lauro was arrested once in 1987 for shoplifting when he was about 20 years old.

The push to find out who killed Ireland gained renewed traction after the January 2023 release of Schweitzer, who was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to 130 years in prison. Innocence Project lawyers who took up his case argued that he didn’t match the DNA on a T-shirt found near Ireland. The shirt didn’t belong to Ireland but was soaked with her blood and contained DNA from an unknown man.

Even though Schweitzer was released, his legal team and prosecutors have continued to quibble over whether he’s actually innocent and deserves compensation for his years behind bars.

Schweitzer’s Innocence Project attorneys tracked down a DNA match with help from Steven Kramer, a retired FBI attorney and federal prosecutor who led the genetic genealogy team that solved the Golden State Killer case in 2018. Kramer found a match, based on genetics, ancestry, age, and address history, among other factors.

Lauro, according to Innocence Project court filings filed Sunday, lived less than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from where Ireland’s body was found along a fishing trail in a remote part of the Big Island. He would have been in his mid-20s at the time and owned or had access to a pickup truck that would have left the tire marks found at the scene, the filings said.

Innocence Project attorneys looked up his Facebook page and saw that he was still an avid fisherman and would have been familiar with the trail where Ireland was found.

On Monday, the attorneys called for a federal investigation into why police didn’t arrest Lauro, saying they had probable cause to do so. In their filing, they ask for police and prosecutors turn over all communications about the decision not to seek an arrest warrant after the DNA from Lauro’s fork was tested. They also want to know why he wasn’t arrested before or after police took the DNA swab.

A 2023 petition filed in the quest to release Schweitzer, the last of the three Native Hawaiian men who remained imprisoned in the killing, outlined the case, which was one of Hawaii’s most notorious.

Ireland, who was 23 years old and visiting from Virginia, was found barely alive in the bushes along a fishing trail in Puna, a remote section of the island. She had been sexually assaulted and beaten, and later died at Hilo Medical Center. The mangled bicycle she had been riding was found several miles (kilometers) away and appeared to have been run into by a vehicle.

She grew up in Springfield, Virginia. The killing remained unsolved for years.

A man named Frank Pauline Jr., who claimed to have witnessed the attack, told police that Schweitzer and his brother, Shawn Schweitzer, attacked and killed Ireland. But he was interviewed at least seven times and gave inconsistent accounts each time, eventually incriminating himself, leading prosecutors to indict Pauline as well as the Schweitzers.

Pauline and Ian Schweitzer were convicted in 2000. Shawn Schweitzer took a deal to plead guilty to manslaughter and kidnapping — and receive credit for about a year served and five years of probation — after seeing juries convict Pauline and his brother in 2000. Pauline died in prison.

The Schweitzer brothers “are happy that this person was finally caught,” said Kenneth Lawson, co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project. “They’re disappointed in the way it happened.”

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Associated Press journalist Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report.

In a joint statement released Friday, the university and Liberty’s Board of Trustees said it has agreed to pay Falwell an undisclosed sum in authorized retirement and severance payments and agreed on the conditions under which the school will use Jerry Falwell Sr.’s name, image and likeness.

Under the agreement, the trustees and Falwell said they “each take responsibility” for their part in the “lengthy and painful” disputes and litigation between them.

“Falwell acknowledges and apologizes for the errors in judgement and mistakes made during his time of leadership. The Board of Trustees acknowledge and apologize for the errors and mistakes made on their part as well,” the statement said.

Falwell announced his resignation in August 2020 after a provocative photo and revelations of his wife’s extramarital affair sparked criticism at the school. The photo, which Falwell posted and then deleted on social media, showed him with his pants unzipped, his stomach exposed and his arm high around the waist of his wife’s pregnant assistant. Falwell said at the time that the photo was taken at a costume party during a family vacation. Critics said the photo was evidence of hypocritical behavior from the leader of a university where students must follow a strict code of conduct.

The same month, a news outlet published an interview with a man who said he had a yearslong sexual relationship with Falwell’s wife, Becki Falwell, and that Jerry Falwell participated in some of the liaisons as a voyeur. Falwell denied any participation.

Falwell’s resignation marked a fall from power for one of the country’s most visible conservative Christian leaders. His father had aspired to make Liberty University an academic and athletic leader for evangelicals. After taking over following his father’s death in 2007, Falwell succeeded in shoring up the school’s finances and increasing its enrollment.

Two months after Falwell announced his resignation, he filed a defamation lawsuit against Liberty, alleging that the school damaged his reputation in a series of public statements. Six months later, Liberty sued Falwell, alleging he crafted a “well-resourced exit strategy” from his role as president and chancellor in the form of a lucrative 2019 employment agreement while withholding damaging information about his marital scandal that was exposed the following year.

Falwell declined to comment on the settlement but told The Washington Post, “It’s an extremely happy day for everyone.”

Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said during a news conference that authorities worked hard to find the caller before the school year resumes.

“This kid’s behavior was escalating and becoming more dangerous,” Staly said. “I’m glad we got him before he escalated out of control and hurt someone.”

Swatting is slang for making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to send a SWAT team or other armed police officers to a particular place.

Flagler County emergency services initially received a bomb threat at Buddy Taylor Middle School on May 14, officials said. Additional threats were made between then and May 22. Flagler County is in central Florida on the state’s Atlantic coast.

Investigators tracked the calls to a home in Henrico County, Virginia, just outside Richmond. Local deputies searched the home this month, and the 11-year-old boy who lived there admitted to placing the Florida swatting calls, as well as a threat made to the Maryland State House, authorities said. Investigators later determined that the boy also made swatting calls in Nebraska, Kansas, Alabama, Tennessee and Alaska.

The boy faces 29 felony counts and 14 misdemeanors, officials said. He’s being held in a Virginia juvenile detention facility while Florida officials arrange for his extradition. Investigators didn’t immediately say whether the boy had a connection to Florida.

A 13-year-old boy was arrested in Florida in May, several days after the initial call, for making a copycat threat to Buddy Taylor Middle School, official said.

Meg Bryce, a psychology educator who unsuccessfully ran last year for an at-large seat on the Albemarle County school board, said Thursday at a business meeting that she was thankful that Youngkin chose her for the board, which is responsible for determining statewide curriculum standards, high school graduation requirements and qualifications for teachers.

“I have so admired what this board has already done to increase accountability and transparency and excellence in Virginia schools,” Bryce said. “Those are things that I have already fought for and it’s my honor and privilege and just a joy to be a part of those efforts going forward.”

Bryce grew up in Virginia and earned a doctorate in cognitive science from the University of Virginia. During her campaign for Albemarle school board, community members criticized Bryce for taking her children out of public schools in light of the pandemic, according to the Daily Progress. Bryce, described by a board member as a capstone mentor at the University of Virginia, has since been criticized by community leaders as being unfit for the position.

Del. Katrina Callsen, a Democrat from Albemarle, said in a Tweet that Bryce was “a failed Moms for Liberty candidate.” Teacher and Democratic Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg said on social media that Bryce had no credentials and “spent a year running for School Board embroiled in culture wars.”

James J. Fedderman, president of the Virginia Education Association, said Bryce’s appointment is “one more example in a long list of shortsighted, politically motivated decisions that serves to advance Gov. Youngkin’s anti-public education agenda while further endangering LGBTQIA+ students in the Commonwealth.”

Board President Grace Creasey, also appointed by Youngkin in 2022, said she is thrilled to have Bryce be a part of the group.

“Having an expert in psychology on the board with teaching experience is a great addition for navigating the most critical issues facing our public schools and youth today,” Creasey said, referencing mental health and other issues students face. “She is going to be a phenomenal addition to the board and a champion for students.”

Youngkin spokesman Christian Martinez said the governor was thankful Bryce would serve Virginians on the board, adding that she would be “instrumental in ensuring that every parent, student, and teacher receives the essential resources and support needed to thrive.”

Youngkin also tapped Ida Outlaw McPherson, a Hampton Roads-area attorney, to serve on the board, filling out the nine-member group after two seats opened up this month.

McPherson, a Howard University law school graduate, was previously appointed by Gov. Bob McDonnell to serve as the director of the Department of Minority Business Enterprise, now titled the Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity. She also served as the former president of the NAACP Suffolk Chapter, Creasey said.

McPherson’s community work would help her bring a critical lens to the board, Creasey said.

Fedderman said almost all of Youngkin’s appointees, including McPherson, were inexperienced with K-12 public education policy and practice, and they “lack many of the requisite credentials generally expected for a seat on that Board.”

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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston set an Oct. 21 trial date for Rui Jiang of Falls Church after holding a competency hearing Wednesday in federal court in Alexandria.

Alston had placed the case on hold earlier this year and ordered the competency hearing. The findings of his competency evaluation are under seal, but Alston ruled after Wednesday’s hearing that Jiang could stand trial.

Prosecutors say Jiang intended to shoot congregation members of the Park Valley Church in Haymarket in September 2023. He was arrested during Sunday services at the church, armed with a handgun and other weapons, after a former girlfriend called police and alerted them to disturbing social media posts he made.

According to authorities, Jiang had recently joined to the church but indicated that he was mad at God and at men for blocking him from having having romantic relationships with women. He left behind a “final letter” in which he said he intended to only shoot and kill men and apologized in advance for any women who might be “collateral damage.”

In interviews with police after his arrest, Jiang acknowledged officers he was mad at God but denied planning to kill anyone, according to court documents. He admitted he was armed inside the church but said he has a concealed carry permit and is frequently armed.

He was initially charged in state court, but federal prosecutors took over the case earlier this year. The indictment charges him with attempted obstruction of religious beliefs, transmission of interstate threats and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence.

The indictment also includes special findings that Jiang selected his victims because of their religious beliefs.

Police touted his arrest last year as an example of fast-moving interagency cooperation between at least three police departments in Maryland and Virginia to apprehend Jiang before any violence occurred. Security personnel at the church had also noticed Jiang’s odd behavior and had begun to question him.

The federal public defender’s office, which is representing Jiang, declined comment Thursday.

Police said they responded to a medical emergency shortly after 3:00 p.m. Saturday in Sandston, about 9 miles east of Richmond. Oxley, 27, was found unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities are still determining a cause of death, police said.

Oxley was on the fifth season of “16 and Pregnant,” which aired in 2014. The episode followed her pregnancy and the birth of Oxley’s son, Drake.

Officials urged people with information to contact Henrico County police.

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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Now, a new study has revealed some of the reasons why. Young people who responded say the cost of living, lack of career opportunities and housing availability are the key factors influencing a decision to leave the area.

“This is regional,” said Nancy Grden, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable, who helped commission the study. “People are taking it seriously and there are efforts underway to address it.”

The findings are based on a December online survey of 511 Hampton Roads residents that was commissioned by the Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable and the Hampton Roads Workforce Council. Of those surveyed, three out of four are planning on staying in Hampton Roads during the next five years. The rest are either unsure or plan to move away.

The study also revealed the characteristics of Hampton Roads residents who are considering leaving the area. They are usually age 35 and younger, working remotely, have moved to the area as adults, are childless and not connected to the military.

Young people have been leaving the region for years, according to previous studies. A 2023 Old Dominion University report found the number of residents ages 20-34 declined around a half of a percent from 394,728 in 2020 to 391,168 in 2022. Overall, the region’s share of the Virginia population declined from 23.6% in 1990 to 20.2% in 2022.

Grden said the new study was commissioned to learn why these young people were leaving the region.

Economic conditions are driving much of the concerns prompting residents to consider moving, according to the study. Across the United States, the price of all goods in June increased 3% compared to 12 months ago, not seasonally adjusted, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Population growth in Hampton Roads has in recent years lagged behind growth in other populous Virginia regions like Richmond and Northern Virginia. And some Hampton Roads cities have seen a decline in population since the pandemic.

Among those considering leaving the area, 39% are thinking of moving somewhere else in the United States and 20% are thinking of moving somewhere in the Mid-Atlantic, according to the study. Only 13% said they are thinking of staying in Virginia, and another 15% said they are considering another city in Hampton Roads.

Housing availability and affordability also remains a significant issue, according to the study. The median selling price of a home in Hampton Roads increased 4.35% over the past 12 months, from $345,000 in June 2023 to $360,000, according to the Real Estate Information Network multiple listing service. Average monthly asking rent costs in Hampton Roads increased nearly 27%, to $1,474 in 2023 from $1,162 five years ago, according to a March ODU report.

Security and safety also registered as a top issue for study respondents. Respondents who were likely to leave the area or unsure about staying were more likely to say they felt unsafe living in the region, according to the study.

The groups presented the study to the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission on Thursday. After the presentation, attendees discussed other reasons young people might be leaving the region. Those included a 2022 Norfolk crackdown on nightclubs after downtown shootings, lack of public transportation and the absence of a major sports team.

Grden said an Executive Roundtable group is also looking into how to address some of the key study findings.

Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com

“I will do everything in my power to deliver Virginia for Vice President Harris,” state House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, said in a statement. “Just as we did last year, when we flipped the House of Delegates, we will also reject the MAGA extremist Project 2025 agenda. We will win Virginia again, and elect the first woman President in the history of the United States.”

Biden ended his bid for reelection Sunday after his debate performance last month fueled divisions within the Democratic Party about whether it was time for the 81-year-old to pass the torch to a younger candidate. Biden quickly endorsed his vice president to take on former President Donald Trump, but Harris still has to formally secure the nomination from the around 4,700 Democratic convention delegates and superdelegates.

“The Party will undertake a transparent and orderly process to move forward,” Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said Sunday. “Our delegates are prepared to take seriously their responsibility in swiftly delivering a candidate to the American people.”

More than 30 Democrats in Congress, and some major party donors, publicly called on Biden to step back as polls showed his numbers slipping against Trump, the Republican presidential nominee.

In a Monday statement, the Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus credited Biden for rescuing the nation and economy from the “darkness” of the pandemic and facilitating historic investments in American infrastructure. The caucus praised his decision to step aside.

“President Biden took the selfless action of choosing to put the future of the country and the good of the American people before any personal desire,” the statement reads. “We extend our deepest thanks to President Biden for his lifetime of service and extraordinary leadership.”

All 21 members of the caucus endorsed Harris for the presidency, including Majority Leader Scott Surovell and President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas of Portsmouth.

“Please know that I and other leaders are already hard at work ensuring that Virginia’s votes at the convention will strongly back Kamala for President,” Lucas said.

The Democratic National Convention will kick off Aug. 19 in Chicago.

Harris has also received the seal of approval from Virginia U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats.

“While there has to be an orderly process and the decision ultimately rests in the hands of the DNC delegates, I believe Vice President Harris has the experience, energy, and resolve to lead our nation,” Warner said in a statement.

Warner had sought to assemble a group of Democratic senators to push Biden to exit the race, as previously reported by The Washington Post. 

Harris is a former prosecutor and U.S. Senator from California. She is the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president.

Editorial: Virginia voters will need to hear from VP Harris on the issues

The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus announced Monday that all of its members serving as a delegate at the upcoming convention have pledged to support Harris. Several of those members are from Hampton Roads, including Scott, Lucas, Sen. Mamie Locke and Dels. Alex Askew, Jeion Ward and Michael Feggans.

The caucus praised Harris as a champion of civil rights, environmental protections and reproductive health care.

While Locke is among those endorsing Harris, the Hampton senator has also repeatedly taken to social media to scold Democrats at the national level who showed a “sheer disregard” for Biden during discussions about his bid for reelection.

“The leadership of this party has been so disrespectful to an individual who has done so much for them and this country,” she wrote this week.

Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin said it doesn’t matter which Democrat is on the ballot.

“Make no mistake,” he wrote Sunday on social media. “Whether its border czar Kamala Harris or someone else, it’s the Biden/Harris Administration’s weak leadership and resulting chaos around the world and here at home that is on the ballot this November.”

Katie King, katie.king@virginiamedia.com