The Mercury’s top 10 most-read stories this year reflect our readers’ interests in a range of issues that most affect them and communities across the commonwealth. Since January, over 2.7 million people have visited our site and read our stories on state politics and government, local, congressional and presidential elections, Virginia’s environment and evolving energy needs, education and public health policy, how the state is handling housing challenges, and much more. Dozens of media outlets republished our stories, too, which helped us reach new readers inside and outside the state.
This year, our readers were especially hungry to learn more about blue catfish and the invasive species’ culinary potential, the state’s most stately trees and why preserving them is vital, a local school board that made history as the first in the nation to re-name schools after Confederate figures and another that sued a special needs student’s parent for $600,000. Here’s a recap of those stories and our other most-read reports and commentary of 2024.
Number 1: Documenting and preserving Virginia’s largest, most revered trees
By freelance contributor Evan Visconti, published May 20
From the story: Virginia is home to nearly 80 national champion big trees, consistently placing the commonwealth in the top five states with the most documented champion trees, or trees that have grown to be the largest specimens of their particular species. Read more.
Number 2: Virginia school board files $600K lawsuit against father of special needs student
By former Sr. Reporter Graham Moomaw, published April 22
From the story: The Bedford County School Board filed a lawsuit seeking $600,000 in damages from the father of a special needs student, claiming the man’s abrasive communications with school staff about his son’s treatment over the last three years amounts to illegal intimidation and harassment. Read more.
Number 3: Daughter of former Supreme Court justice appointed to Virginia Board of Education
By Education and Transportation Reporter Nathaniel Cline, published July 24
From the story: Meg Bryce, a daughter of the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, has been appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin to serve as the newest member of the Virginia Board of Education. The governor has yet to fill the second seat on the nine-member board after two seats became available earlier this month. Read more.
Number 4: It’s Super Tuesday in Virginia. Here’s how to vote in the presidential primaries.
By former Sr. Reporter Graham Moomaw, published March 5
From the story: There may not be much drama left in the presidential primaries, but Virginia voters will once again head to the polls today to cast their votes on who the Republican and Democratic standard-bearers should be in 2024. Read more.
Number 5: Virginia school board restores Confederate names
By Education and Transportation Reporter Nathaniel Cline, published May 20.
From the story: Proud and satisfied, or sad and embarrassed. However citizens of the commonwealth view Shenandoah County School Board’s recent decision, Virginia appears to be the first in the nation to restore Confederate school names, after years of vigorous community engagement, a controversial renaming process, and a change in board priorities related to race, diversity and inclusion. Read more.
Number 6: Nearly 500,000 Virginians in Medicaid have been disenrolled
By Health and Housing Reporter Charlotte Rene Woods, published Aug. 16
From the story: Of the roughly 2 million Virginians who’d been enrolled in Medicaid before the COVID-19 pandemic, over 480,000 of them have been disenrolled as of this August. Typically eligibility determinations are made annually, but they’d been on pause nationwide amid the pandemic due to federal policy. That’s changed over the past year in what’s colloquially referred to as “Medicaid Unwinding” as provisions of federal law have expired. Read more.
Number 7: Blue catfish are invasive in Virginia. The state is paying to get more of them on people’s tables.
By Energy & Environment Reporter Charlie Paullin, published Feb. 5
From the story: Gov. Glenn Youngkin has awarded the first round of funds to help Virginia eat its way out of the problem of too many invasive blue catfish in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Last Monday, Youngkin awarded a $250,000 grant to Sea Farms, a family-owned and -operated aquaculture and seafood processing business with operations in Gloucester and Mathews counties, that among other uses will pay for a blast freezer that will increase the amount of blue catfish the company can buy and sell. Read more.
Number 8: More districts leave Virginia School Board Association
By Education and Transportation Reporter Nathaniel Cline, published June 17
From the story: A handful of Virginia school boards are exiting the Virginia School Board Association, the longest-running organization dedicated to supporting school boards in the commonwealth, over claims that it has failed to meet their needs and doesn’t align with their conservative values. Read more.
Number 9: Virginia to host world’s first fusion power plant
By Energy and Environment Reporter Charlie Paullin, published Dec. 18
- (Courtesy of Commonwealth Fusion Systems)
From the story: Virginia could soon make history as the home of the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant, state officials and private sector leaders announced Tuesday. Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a fusion power company founded in 2018 in Cambridge, Mass., unveiled plans to build the groundbreaking facility on a 100-acre site at James River Industrial Park in Chesterfield County. The plant, expected to generate 400 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 150,000 homes — could be operational by the early 2030s. Read more.
Number 10: Data centers approved, solar farms rejected: What is going on in rural Virginia (commentary)
By columnist Ivy Main, published Dec. 3
From the column: Data centers are making the transition (to zero-carbon energy sources) harder, but so is local resistance to building solar. General Assembly members mostly understand the connection, leading to a lively debate in last year’s legislative session over whether to override some local permit denials for solar projects – and if so, how to ensure the localities still have some say. Though none of the legislative proposals moved forward last year, the topic has become a central one for the recently revamped Commission on Electric Utility Regulation (CEUR). Read more.
Which of The Mercury’s stories stood out most to you this year? What local stories should we cover in 2025? Let us know: [email protected]
