Liz Parker said lodging facilities across Newport News received calls from frantic families last month after an apartment complex gave tenants 30 days to vacate. âA lot of folks were having a difficult time finding a place to stay,â she said. âSome of our hotels were receiving these calls asking if we could take families in at lower prices.â As president of the Newport News Hospitality Association, Parker said she helped some families find discounted room rates, but there was only so much she could do. She wondered why tenants werenât given more notice. âFrom the humanitarian side, I thought this really isnât right,â she said. Landlords who terminate monthly leases are required to give 30 days notice in Virginia. But a bill in the General Assembly would, with some exceptions, double that time frame if a landlord was terminating a significant number of leases at once. The bill, which passed the House of Delegates and a Senate committee, now looks likely to reach Gov. Glenn Youngkinâs desk. Read more in the Sunday Main News section 
The rising costs of health services and drugs are leading ever more Americans to put off care for longer. Last year, the number of Americans who reported putting off care because of cost reached a 20-year high as almost four out of ten Americans told Gallup polling they had put off care because of the costs. Some experts and insurance companies lay the part of the blame at the concentration of hospitals and their ability to set prices in markets they dominate. Meanwhile, hospitals and industry groups identify rising prices at hospitals to be the result of low reimbursements from insurance companies â forcing the patients to make up the difference to keep the hospital doors open, as well as the result of competition for employees and increased costs to procure materials because of supply chain issues. Read more in the Sunday Main News section By the time Sharon Campbell Waters was in her late 60s, she didnât think there was anything too profound left to know about her familyâs history. Waters knew about her parentsâ roles as civil rights activists in the 1955-56 Montgomery bus boycott and their friendships with Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. Not only did she grow up hearing the stories, they were well-documented by historians; as a longtime educator and academic, Waters had spent plenty of time with her nose in this book or that. But in 2017, Waters was shown a document: A Civil War-era inventory of an Alabama plantation that listed the names of her great- and great-great grandparents with estimates of their value. âTo be honest with you,â said Waters, now 72, âit touched me viscerally.â She hadnât known that only a few generations ago her forebears had been enslaved. That information altered her perception of the words âfamilyâ and âlegacy.â The knowledge also guided her in her recent decision to auction off some of her most prized heirlooms: artifacts collected by her parents during the civil rights movement. Earlier this month, Waters sold 32 historical items through the countryâs oldest auction house, Freemanâs, in Philadelphia. The auction netted $25,137, which she will give to future generations of her family as a way to honor the past. Read more in the Sunday Break section
No place comes to mind more quickly than Norfolk when someone says âVirginiaâ and âNavy.â The annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film kicks off its 30th anniversary season Thursday with seven films, one of which examines the convergence of Virginia, the U.S. Navy and Jewish history. The documentary âThe Levys of Monticelloâ tells the story of Uriah Levy, who overcame antisemitism and rose to be the Navyâs first Jewish commodore in 1858. In 1834, Levy purchased the former home of his ideological hero Thomas Jefferson and was key to restoring what has become a popular Virginia historical site, Monticello. Read more in the Sunday Break section
A former Farm Fresh supermarket spot in Hampton will soon have a new occupant and bring more than 200 jobs to the city. Onelife Fitness is redeveloping the 60,000-square-foot building in Coliseum Marketplace. It will be the first Onelife Fitness in Hampton and the ninth location in Hampton Roads, spanning from Newport News to Virginia Beach. Farm Fresh operated at the 2190 Coliseum Drive property before closing in 2018. Kroger operated there temporarily until it built its new store in nearby Riverpointe Shopping Center in 2020. Ken Sherman, a company partner, said itâs been the goal since the gym chain started in 2009 to serve the entire Hampton Roads area. Read more in the Sunday Work & Money section
Not many people can say they are part of Black history. Kourtney Chinnery can. The Suffolk native is an assistant gymnastics coach at Fisk University, which this season became the first HBCU to field a womenâs gymnastics program. The university, located in Nashville, Tennessee, got the greenlight to start a gymnastics program on March 9, 2022. And on Jan. 6, the Bulldogs participated in their first meet when they faced North Carolina, Southern Utah and Washington at the Super 16 event in Las Vegas. On Sunday, the team will be in Williamsburg to compete against William & Mary, and the teamâs start is especially meaningful during Black History Month. Read more in the Sunday Sports section Note To Readers: A reminder that Parade magazine is now only found along with your e-edition of either The Virginian-Pilot or Daily Press each Sunday morning. Print copies of Parade magazine ceased after the November 13th issue.
Eugene Levy
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