In 1990, a Virginia writer set out to hike the Appalachian Trail, inspired by a story in National Geographic. He was 31, and it was the hardest thing he had ever done. He suffered injuries, hypothermia, exhaustion and the shocking loss of two fellow hikers who were murdered in a trailside shelter. Still, 36 years later, he decided to do it again. He spoke with Sandy Hausman about the experience and the book it inspired.
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The latest Standards of Learning test scores are in. And there have been some modest gains by Virginia’s students, along with areas of needed improvement. -
License plate readers are being used by many governments and law enforcement agencies. But details about the data are secret. -
Shankar Vedantam talks about shaping Hidden Brain from brief segments in Morning Edition to a weekly podcast, as well as adapting it for the stage. He speaks in Blacksburg on August 28. -
A Roanoke-area adult high school is preparing to start its second year of classes. -
“If you can’t take their money, eat their food and tell them no, then you need to go home,” said Virginia’s Speaker of the House Don Scott. -
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has opened up public comments on their proposal to rescind the "2001 Roadless Rule," which generally prohibits road construction and timber harvesting on nearly 60 million acres of national forest land. Conservationists are urging Virginians to weigh in. -
American Rivers and the Dan River Basin Association don’t view endangered status as a conclusion. Instead, they view it as a call to start working now, so that the river will see a healthy future. -
With medical diagnosis and treatment relying, increasingly, on technology and artificial intelligence, it could be hard to tell how well a particular treatment might work. Some companies claim, for example, that they can predict a person’s risk for injury, selling their services to college and professional teams and the U.S. military, but a professor at the University of Virginia says it isn’t so. -
One of the most vital elements in any rural community is its volunteer fire department. But financial challenges are making it harder for local fire services to safely and efficiently do their jobs. Cardinal News reporter Emma Malinak took a look at where the revenue for rural firefighters comes from and why it may not be enough. She spoke with Fred Echols. -
Hundreds of thousands of Virginians are at risk of losing their health care next year, when new Medicaid provisions go into effect.
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