First Black combatant to fire at Confederate troops and more Va. headlines

The State Capitol. (Ned Oliver/ Virginia Mercury)

• Democrats in the Virginia Senate blocked numerous tough-on-crime proposals backed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin and other Republicans, including a bill that would have allowed prosecutors to charge drug dealers with felony homicide if their drugs led to a fatal overdose.—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• Ford announced plans to build a $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Michigan after Youngkin took Virginia out of the running for the project over its ties to China.—New York Times

• A man believed to be the first Black combatant to fire at Confederate troops during the Civil War will be honored with a new marker being put up near Leesburg as part of Black History Month.—WTOP

• A bill to make Roanoke’s Virginia Museum of Transportation an official state agency failed for the second year in a row.—Roanoke Times

• The Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs are named for a Virginia-raised man who was not Native American but got the nickname “The Chief” while serving as a Boy Scout leader and two-term mayor of Kansas City.—Richmond Times-Dispatch

by Staff Report, Virginia Mercury

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