Before you vote
Virginia
The year since Election Day 2025
GovBrief tagged 110 stories to Virginia since Election Day 2025. Here are 20 worth remembering, 10 of them from Virginia.
25days until Election Day, Nov. 3In Virginia
10 storiesDHS whistleblower says leaders ordered agents to enter state voter-record sites under false pretenses and clear five cases an hour hunting noncitizen voters before the midterms.
Naturalized citizens wrongly flagged as noncitizens
Arlington, Virginia, man left with a brain hemorrhage after an August ICE arrest files a $35 million claim against DHS, the first step toward suing.
DHS calls it "necessary force"
Former senior CIA official pleads guilty to stealing about $194 million through fake government entities, buying 298 gold bars and luxury real estate.
Caught by CIA's internal investigation
OPM finalizes rule converting roughly 50,000 career federal workers to at-will status, reviving the Schedule F policy Biden repealed in 2021.
Net loss of 242,260 federal workers since inauguration
Gov. Spanberger signs Virginia Democrats' proposed congressional map favoring 10 of 11 seats, sending it to an April referendum still blocked by a state court judge.
Tazewell County judge blocked it twice
The FBI arrests five men in four states over an alleged plot to use explosive drones against the White House UFC fights.
Cited Epstein files, data center grievances
Justice Department tells a federal court it won't proceed with Trump's $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund while urging the judge not to block it.
Could pay January 6 rioters
FBI fires five analysts behind retracted 2023 Catholic-extremism memo, latest purge under Director Kash Patel.
Reviews found no malicious intent
CBP detains pregnant Ghanaian woman and her 4-year-old son at Dulles for over a week after she arrived on a tourist visa for the boy's medical care.
Honest fear answer voided her visa
Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool repainting cost balloons from Trump's promised $1.5M to $13.1M, all to a no-bid Virginia contractor who works at his golf club.
Company has never held federal contract
Across the country
6 storiesTrump family crypto venture World Liberty Financial applies for national banking charter, months after Trump pardoned Binance founder whose exchange bought $2 billion in its stablecoin.
Family stablecoin worth $3.4 billion
Commerce Department imposes export controls on Anthropic's two newest AI models, forcing the company to shut them off for all users days after launch.
Verbal evidence of narrow jailbreak
DOJ creates $1.776 billion fund to pay anyone "weaponized" by past administrations as Trump drops his $10 billion IRS suit.
Drawn from federal Judgment Fund
Trump nominates Project 2025 workforce-section coauthor Dennis Kirk as Interior's inspector general, the office fielding five congressional requests including the Reflecting Pool review.
Watchdog seat vacant 18 months
ProPublica review finds immigration agents detained 506 US citizens since January 2025, including at least 70 children, as DHS denies arresting citizens by mistake.
About a dozen citizens deported
Documents show Homeland Security bought five planes for $304 million from then-Secretary Noem's donor on her last morning, including a $108 million luxury 737.
Gulfstreams marked up $11 million apiece
Fighting back
3 storiesVirginia legislature sends reproductive rights amendment to November ballot, becoming the first Southern state to let voters enshrine abortion access.
Party-line vote, every Republican opposed
Virginia defends its July 1 bans on masked federal agents and local ICE cooperation as the Justice Department sues to overturn them.
Signed by former federal officer
Virginia voters approve mid-decade redistricting referendum 51-49, potentially flipping four Republican House seats after GOP states redrew maps for Trump.
State Supreme Court challenge still pending
Written overnight. In your inbox by morning.
610+ straight nights.
Not one missed.
One simple email every morning. 9,400+ stories since January 2025, every one linked to its source.
Free. Unsubscribe anytime.
