Virginia launched a program last year to help communities prepare for increasingly severe flooding.

Within the first two rounds of grants, southeastern Virginia received more than $22 million — about 70% of the total doled out — to aid planning and projects.

But the source of help may soon go away.

Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin announced last month in Hampton Roads that he plans to withdraw Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multi-state program that takes a market-based approach to reducing carbon emissions.

That would cut off the Community Flood Preparedness Fund, which receives just under half of the commonwealth’s earnings from the initiative. Unless provided new backing, the fund would end when it runs out of money.

Read more in the Sunday Main News section

Even before the arrival of omicron, everyone in public schools knew the 2021-22 school year was going to be difficult.

School officials had long since decided classes would be in-person, but the ever-changing environment with COVID-19 has made this more difficult for staff and students.

Public school educators have said district’s already had issues to address — student achievement gaps, staffing, teachers’ pay, among others — before March 2020. But over the past 21 months some of those challenges have been magnified.

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Once again, Hampton Roads Verizon Fios customers are losing out in a contract dispute with a broadcast station owner.

Fios TV customers lost access to WVEC, the Hampton-based ABC affiliate, on Tuesday evening after a Verizon agreement with station owner Tegna expired.

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Police are investigating social media comments directed at Chesapeake School Board members that alluded to violence.

The comments were posted on Instagram after a special meeting Dec. 31 at which the board reinstated a mask mandate in schools.

“We take these matters seriously and we appreciate when our students, parents, staff, and community members bring this type of information to our attention. The safety of our students and staff is our number one concern,” Chris Vail, the district’s spokesperson said in an email to The Virginian-Pilot.

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Adrienne Warren was 5 in 1992, when she began performing with the Norfolk-based Hurrah Players.

She was always on time, and just as happy playing minor roles as she was major ones like Annie in “Annie” and Dorothy in “The Wiz,” said Hugh Copeland, Hurrah’s founder and artistic director.

Warren, who grew up in Chesapeake, was intent on learning her songs and steps; Copeland remembers how her face took on a serious look when she concentrated.

“If you gave her direction, you knew she was going to digest and absorb it and you’d see results,” he said.

That commitment earned Warren, 34, a Tony Award last year for her lead in “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” and she was named Breakthrough Entertainer of the Year in December by The Associated Press. Her latest project, ABC’s six-part television series “Women of the Movement,” was scheduled to debut Jan. 6.

Read more in the Sunday Break section

Irish and British people commonly refer to their favorite fish and chip shop as a “chipper.”

And in Hampton Roads, The Chipper is where locals can stop in for beer-battered fish and thick-cut french fries called chips.

The name, referencing the slang, was fitting when Patrick O’Carroll, who hails from Dublin, Ireland, opened his restaurant in the summer of 2018 at 5619 George Washington Memorial Highway in York County featuring his homeland’s fancied fare.

“The name has as much of a recognition, say, as 7-Eleven over here,” O’Carroll said.

After continual coaxing by a loyal following of customers who drove to the Peninsula restaurant, O’Carroll acquiesced and expanded with a second location in South Hampton Roads. The newest Chipper restaurant opened Nov. 10 at 5604 Princess Anne Road in Virginia Beach’s Arrowhead neighborhood.

Read more in the Sunday Work & Money section

The Christmas season was very good to Hampton University football head coach Robert Prunty.

His early present was junior wide receiver Jadakis Bonds’ decision to return for his senior season. Bonds, the Pirates’ only player on the All-Big South Conference first team — thanks to 54 receptions for 773 yards and six touchdowns in 10 games — was the standout on an offense that led the league with 410.7 yards per game and was second at 28 points per contest.

“The NFL scouts I’ve talked to say that Jadakis checks all the boxes,” Prunty said. “He’s 6-foot-4 and more than 200 pounds now, is fast, agile, athletic and has unbelievable hand-eye coordination and hand placement.

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Robert Jones longs for a simpler time.

The ninth-year Norfolk State men’s basketball coach remembers looking at his team’s schedule, making travel arrangements, going over a scouting report and getting on a plane to go face an opponent.

“It was a beautiful thing, man,” Jones said. “You just go and prepare for the game that you love and play the game that you love and coach the game that you love. The only thing you had to worry about was making some shots and was the other team going to play good.”

How things have changed. The Spartans, like Old Dominion and other teams around the country, have become beholden to the whims of the increasingly ubiquitous omicron variant of COVID-19.

Ten members of NSU’s program have tested positive and gone through COVID protocols in recent weeks, causing a non-conference postponement and a delay to the start of the MEAC season.

Read more in the Sunday Sports section

Courtney Cox

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