Taylor takes aim at private equity in healthcare

Good morning from the Mercury.

By Charlotte Rene Woods

Shannon Taylor, the Democratic nominee for Virginia’s 1st Congressional District representative, wants to restore healthcare funding and resources slashed by the Republican-controlled Congress over the past year, she said at a roundtable alongside care workers and union leaders in Henrico Monday afternoon.

Taylor, who was first elected to her current role as Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney in 2011 and who is vying to unseat longtime Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, said she would also explore ways to more tightly regulate private equity in healthcare, if elected. 

By Nathaniel Cline

Federal lawmakers will consider a proposal to reduce congestion around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, one of the busiest aviation hubs in the nation.

Virginia’s U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, announced the DCA Air Safety Act on Thursday, after the completion of the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation of the deadly 2025 crash near the airport between an American Airlines Bombardier jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River.

By Anna Claire Vollers

Cerina Fairfax, a Virginia dentist and mother of two, spent nearly two years living in the same house as her husband while she was trying to divorce him.

Virginia state law required couples with children, like the Fairfaxes, to wait a year before being allowed to file for divorce. Cerina’s husband, former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, had also tried different legal tactics to prolong the process.

In March of this year, a judge granted Cerina sole custody of their children and ordered Justin to move out.

A few weeks later, with just days left before his move-out deadline, Justin fatally shot Cerina and then himself, police say, while their two teens were also in the house.

The tragedy focused national attention on state divorce laws, which have remained mostly static since 2010, when New York became the last state to allow no-fault divorce. In the years since, most of the states that have tweaked their divorce laws have made it easier, not harder, to get one. Virginia, for example, relaxed some of its requirements just days before Cerina Fairfax’s death.

By Jacob Fischler

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday kept in place a lower court’s order blocking President Donald Trump’s embattled plan to place new restrictions on mail ballots for this year’s midterm elections.

The unsigned, one-paragraph order upheld a Massachusetts federal court’s injunction on a U.S. Postal Service rule until after Nov. 3 and did not decide whether the rule itself was lawful. But a majority of the court said the Democratic state officials and voting rights groups challenging the rule were likely to succeed.

By Markus Schmidt

Virginia’s general fund revenues rose by $58 million in August compared with the same month last year, keeping collections slightly ahead of the state’s forecast despite signs of weakness in Virginia’s labor market. 

Collections increased 2.8% for the month and totaled nearly $4.61 billion during the first two months of fiscal 2027, according to the August revenue report released by Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s administration on Friday. 

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