"The current pace of reducing agricultural pollution in the Chesapeake Bay is off track, an advocacy group said Wednesday."

"An executive order this spring by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin trumpeted efforts to boost recycling, but it also eliminated a commitment by his predecessor to phase out single-use plastics at state agencies and universities."

"Scientists on the latest dredge survey said factors like pollution, predation and a sex imbalance in the blue crab population could be among the factors contributing to the decline."

"As sea levels rise, some of Virginia’s most valuable coastal wetlands, from the Chesapeake Bay marshes to the Great Dismal Swamp, are at risk of either being lost or migrating farther inland."

"The Chesapeake Bay’s condition ticked upward in 2021 but not enough to raise its middling C grade in the latest report card from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science."

"Democrats who control the [Virginia] state Senate thwarted a Republican effort on Tuesday to revive the Cabinet bid of former Trump administration official Andrew Wheeler, leaving Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) embattled appointee in limbo."

"A state Senate committee on Tuesday rejected former Trump administration official Andrew Wheeler for Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Cabinet — a rare snub that is not likely to end the Republican governor’s efforts to install Wheeler as secretary of natural and historic resources."

"Democratic state senators in Virginia are signaling that they have the votes to block Andrew Wheeler, Donald Trump’s controversial second head of the Environmental Protection Agency and a former coal lobbyist, from becoming the state’s top environmental official."