State Budget Cuts Affect MCV and Medicaid Recipients

By Chandelis Duster, Phil Karstetter, and David Preut
VCU InSight

Richmond, VA –Tough times are about to get a little tougher for state-funded services, as almost $4 billion in state spending has been cut out of the budget for the next two fiscal years.

Of that $4 billion, $800 million will be cut from healthcare funding resulting in less state spending on medicaid and academic hospitals like MCV.

Richmond Tends ‘Urban Forest’

By Kyle Horan and Juliette Delp
VCU InSight

RICHMOND, VA – Richmond is undergoing some serious changes in it’s landscape. American and Winged Elm trees are posing a danger by being too close to the city’s power lines and need to be replaced.

Luke McCall, an arborist with Richmond’s Urban Forestry Division, says the program is not only about removing the hazardous trees but encourages community members to be aware of their environment.

“This program is about education and about elevating people awareness about getting the right tree in the right place and getting proper tree underneath power lines so that they don’t present a safety or maintenance problems, which some of these trees do,” McCall said.

Radio Stations Say Perfomance Royalty Could Cost Jobs

By Stormy Holt and Chandelis Duster
VCU InSight

The issue of fair play for air play has been causing some controversy on Capitol Hill between the recording industry and radio broadcasters.

The Performance Rights Act is a new bill in Congress that if passed would make radio stations pay performers, not just song writers, when their music is played over the air. The amount the radio stations will pay will be based off of their annual revenue.

Radio stations have been paying royalties to songwriters for years. The National Association of Broadcasters opposes the bill.  Reggie Baker, Program Director and on-air host for Praise 104.7,  says if the bill goes into effect it will lead to job loss.

VCU Hosts VirginiaFIRST Robotics Competitions

By Juliette Delp
VCU InSight

RICHMOND, Va – Battling Robot’s were the main event at VCU’s Verizon Wireless Center on March 19th and 20th.

VirginiaFIRST combined the best of sporting and technology when they held their annual Robotics Competition with participants from more than 60 Virginia High Schools.

Pattie Cook, the Executive Director of VirginiaFIRST, spoke with VCU Insight during an in-studio interview.

Commonwealth ‘Pothole Blitz” A Success

By David Preut
VCU InSight

March was pothole “blitz” month in Virginia after Gov. Bob McDonnell ordered the Virginia Department of Transportation to focus on repairing the thousands of potholes pocketing the Commonwealth’s roads.

A record-setting winter left Virginia’s roadways in particularly bad shape this spring. After the first few weeks, V-DOT reported having repaired more than 43,000 potholes statewide, with over 4,000 fixed in Richmond alone.

Richmond Searches for Missing VCU Student

By Juliette Delp and Curt Dozier
VCU InSight

RICHMOND, Va – Word that a British exchange student went missing spread fast around VCU and the Richmond community. Now, weeks later, there are still no answers.

Jonny Dorey, a 22-year old geography student, was last seen March 2nd.

With only a thousand VCU students being international, few can identify with the culture shock. But, Andrew Shipley, senior Health and Physical Education major, can relate to Dorey.

Shipley left his hometown in England to come to VCU in 2007.

“It was pretty hard since I…first time I had actually really been away from my family, like all my family was in England and there’s me, I’m by myself, taking everything in,” said Shipley.

VCU Student Wins ‘Who’s Who’ Award

By Asia Stormy Holt
VCU InSight

RICHMOND, Va.–Tiffany Jones , a Fashion Design senior,  is one of the winners for the “Who’s Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities.”

To be nominated, students had to be in good academic standing, were involved on campus and in the community.

VCU Fashion Week

By Asia Holt
VCU InSight

VCU’s student organization STRUT welcomed students back from spring with the annual fashion week on April 5.

With the theme of Alice and Wonderland, STRUT brought fashion and fun to students by allowing them create their own fashion pieces through competitions and games.  The events were held in VCU’s student commons and included activities like the mad hat and make-up competition, a potato sack race, and a character dress alike contest.

Feedmore Manager Outlines Community Efforts

By Phil Karstetter
VCU InSight

RICHMOND, Va. – During an in-studio interview Rick Holzbach, the Central Virginia Foodbank’s Food Resource Manager, spoke about FeedMore, an umbrella organization for the Central Virginia Food Bank, Meals on Wheels Serving Central Virginia, and The Community Kitchen.

The three programs are responsible for providing free food services to three key demographics: children, families and seniors.

Although the food services are open to everyone, Holzbach says the majority of recipients are the working poor who work during the day but because of one reason or another, still can’t make enough to support themselves.