Virginia
NBA Summer League: Former Virginia Tech star Keve Aluma making a strong case with the 76ers
Keve Aluma will always be remembered fondly at Virginia Tech. The former Wofford transfer followed head coach Mike Young to Blacksburg in 2019 and helped lead the Hokies to their first and only ACC championship in program history.
Before coming to Blacksburg, Aluma spent two years at Wofford, averaging around five points and five rebounds per game. After sitting out the 2019-20 season due to the NCAA transfer rules at the time, Aluma became an All-ACC presence on the inside for the Hokies over the next two years, averaging 15.5 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.
The 6-foot-9 Aluma went undrafted in the 2022 NBA draft and began his professional basketball career in Japan. In 2023, Aluma played in the Korean Basketball League. However, his sights remain firmly on making it in the NBA.
This summer, Aluma is playing for the Philadelphia 76ers’ summer league squad in Las Vegas. He’s making his case to earn an invitation to training camp this fall and a spot on the regular-season roster.
Rookie first-round pick Jared McCain (Duke) is the headliner for Philadelphia this summer, but Aluma is arguably the Sixers’ top player in the summer league team.
In one game recently, Aluma made eight of his 10 shots from the field, scoring 19 points and pulling down nine rebounds, leading Philly to a win.
Here’s the Keve Aluma sequence that basically won the game for the Sixers.
1) Hits a pick and pop three, 2) Rotates over and blocks Bobi Klintman at the rim, 3) Pump fakes the three this time and drives for an and-one layup. pic.twitter.com/E75KzLRaNy
— Dan Olinger (@dan_olinger) July 14, 2024
Aluma had another big game on Friday night for the 76ers. Here, he is showing off his passing ability, something Hokie fans know all too well.
Another former Hokie, Hunter Cattoor, is also playing this summer for the Cleveland Cavaliers. We’ll continue to monitor Aluma and Cattoor’s progress throughout the summer in their quest to make the NBA.
Virginia
LIST: How many different species of firefly can be found in Virginia?
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — There are nearly 180 documented species of firefly in the United States and Canada, and you can find almost 30 of them lighting up Virginia’s nights.
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, an international nonprofit with a focus on protecting invertebrates and their habitats, created a “Firefly Atlas” to document all things firefly.
This unique little beetle is reportedly a key member of food webs and can even be a great indicator of environmental health, according to the society.
The term “firefly” covers a few different kinds of insect — the flashing “lightningbug” many of us know, but also day-time dark fireflies who do not produce light and glow-worms.
According to the Xerces Society, the day-time fireflies use pheromones instead of light to communicate and the glow-worms’ females use light to attract males, which usually don’t light up, themselves.
Within the atlas, the Xerces Society lists all 176 species and subspecies of firefly within the U.S. and Canada. Of those 176 species and subspecies, 29 have been documented in Virginia.
Keep scrolling to learn a bit about each one.
Scientific Name
More Common Name(s)
Pyractomena dispersa
“Marsh flicker,” “wiggle dancer”
Photinus pyralis
“big dipper,” “common eastern firefly,” “J-stroke firefly”
Pyractomena angulata
“Say’s firefly,” “candle firefly,” “angled firefly”
Pyractomena borealis
“Spring treetop flasher,” “northern firefly”
Photinus consanguineus
“Double cousin”
Pyractomena marginalis
“Marginal firefly”
Lucidota atra
“Black firefly,” “woodland Lucy”
Photuris quadrifulgens
“Spring 4-flasher”
Photinus consimilis
“Cattail flash-train firefly”
Photuris lucicrescens
“July comets,” “big scaries,” “big-Lucy,” “great crescendo”
Photuris tremulans
“Christmas lights,” “confusing firefly”
Photinus corruscus
“Winter firefly”
Photinus ignitus
“Ignited firefly,” “delayed photinus firefly”
Lucidota punctata
“Dotted firefly,” “tiny Lucy”
Photuris versicolor
“Variable triple-flash firefly,” “multi-flash predator”
Pyractomena lucifera
“Marsh imp”
Photuris frontalis
“Snappy single sync firefly”
Photinus sabulosus
“Creekside tree blinkers”
Phausis reticulata
“Blue ghost,” “Appalachian glow-worm firefly”
Photuris darwini
“Darwin’s firefly”
Pyractomena similis
“Similar firefly”
Pyractomena palustris
“Marsh diver”
Pyropyga nigricans
“Black-bordered elf”
Photuris potomaca
“Potomac River firefly”
Photuris fairchildi
“Cape Breton firefly,” “Fairchild’s predator”
Pyropyga decipiens
“Sneaky elf”
Photinus scintillans
“Pale firefly,” “yellow-bellied firefly,” “pine barrens firefly”
Pollaclasis bifaria
“Branched Polly”
Photinus carolinus
“Synchronous firefly,” “Smokies synchronous firefly,” “light show”
The Firefly Atlas lists 22 of Virginia’s 29 species as flashing fireflies. Of the remaining seven, six are noted as day-time dark fireflies and there only one glow-worm type: the Phausis reticulata.
Only 33 of the total 176 species and subspecies of firefly are noted to have flightless female fireflies, with an additional five species marked as “sometimes,” “presumed yes” or “presumed no.”
Of Virginia’s 29 species of firefly, just one of them — the Photinus scintillans — is noted to have flightless female fireflies, though the Pyropyga nigricans is marked as “sometimes” having them. The Pyropyga nigricans are notably the only species in the Firefly Atlas marked as such.
If you’re interested in learning more about fireflies, or if you’d like to report a sighting of your own, you can do so on the Firefly Atlas’ website.
Virginia
When does school start for some Central Virginia students?
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — When is the first day of school for some Central Virginia students heading into the 2024-25 academic year?
School is just around the corner for some students in Central Virginia. 8News has compiled a list of dates for when students are expected to attend their first day of school.
Richmond Public Schools
According to Richmond Public Schools’ calendar, the first day of school for RPS 200 students will take place on Monday, July 22, with all other schools to start on Monday, Aug. 19.
Chesterfield County Public Schools
According to Chesterfield County Public Schools’ calendar, students in first through fifth grades at Bellwood Elementary will start school on Monday, July 22.
Prekindergarten and kindergarten students at Bellwood Elementary will start school on different days based on the letters of their last name. The following is the schedule for these students:
- Students with last names that start with A-L will attend school on Monday, July 22 and Tuesday, July 23
- Students with last names that start with M-Z will attend school Wednesday, July 24 and Thursday, July 25
- All prekindergarten and kindergarten students will attend school daily starting Friday, July 26
The first day of school for all other Chesterfield County Public Schools students in prekindergarten through 5th grades will be Monday, Aug. 19, according to the school district’s calendar.
All prekindergarten and kindergarten students will attend school during the first week, however, there will be a staggered schedule for students.
According to Chesterfield Schools, some prekindergarten and kindergarten students will attend school on Monday, Aug. 19 and Tuesday, Aug. 20, whereas others will attend on Wednesday, Aug. 21 and Thursday, Aug. 22, with schools to assign students to specific days.
Chesterfield Schools said the staggered schedule will allow students to become more familiar with their new surroundings in a smaller classroom setting. All prekindergarten and kindergarten students will report to school daily starting on Friday, Aug. 23.
The first day of school for sixth and ninth-grade students will take place on Monday, Aug. 19, with all other middle and high school students in seventh, eighth, 10th, 11th and 12th grades to start school on Tuesday, Aug. 20.
Henrico County Public Schools
According to Henrico County Public Schools’ calendar, students will attend their first day of school on Monday, Aug. 19.
Hanover County Public Schools
Kindergarten, first, sixth and ninth grade students of Hanover County Public Schools will begin school on Monday, Aug. 19, with all other students to attend school on Tuesday, Aug. 20, according to the school district’s calendar.
Petersburg City Public Schools
The first day of school for Petersburg City Public Schools students will take place on Monday, Aug. 19, according to the school district’s calendar.
Hopewell City Public Schools
According to the school district’s calendar, the first day of school for Hopewell City Public Schools students will take place on Monday, July 29.
Colonial Heights Public Schools
The first day of school for Colonial Heights Public Schools students will take place on Monday, Aug. 19, according to the school district’s calendar.
Virginia
Virginia lawmakers restore military tuition program funding, for now
Legislators met on Thursday and passed bills to repeal changes to a college financial aid program for military veterans’ families and designate $90 million towards sustaining it for at least the next two years.
The Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP) provides education benefits to children and spouses of severely injured or killed veterans. Amid the rising costs of the program in recent years, an effort to downsize it appeared in the state budget that lawmakers passed and Youngkin signed earlier this summer. That move was met with swift pushback from military families, who called for the changes to be reversed.
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A point of contention throughout the summer has been who should take the credit — or blame — for the changes, as lawmakers met several times attempting to resolve matters. Members from both parties have acknowledged a desire to fix what several deemed a “mistake,” and to study the matter further.
“Clearly, we did this in the budget and quite a few of us didn’t understand the implications,” Sen. Richard Stuart, R-King George, said during a Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee meeting earlier in the day. “We are trying to fix it.”
Enter military spouse Kayla Owen, who’s prodded lawmakers all summer to protect the program.
During public comment at the committee meeting, Owen said that she didn’t feel like the day’s proceedings should be something legislators should pat themselves on the back too much for. While speaking to the committee, she urged lawmakers to stop “sneaking contentious or highly controversial legislation through the budget.”
The statement gave Stuart and Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, pause; they both asked Owen if she’d rather they leave and not pass the bill.
Both in a rebuttal to Owen and in an interview with media after the committee meeting, Lucas stressed that the changes to the program originally stemmed from the governor’s administration.
“Nothing was tucked into my budget,” Lucas said. “The bill came out of the governor’s office. So I just want to make sure I cleared that up.”
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Curious about details leading up to the now-repealed changes to the program, Owen has sought internal communications from the governor’s office for insights into how the changes came about in the first place. Despite being a member of a task force Gov. Glenn Youngkin created to study the program and its future sustainability, Owen’s Freedom of Information Act request was denied.
After the legislature’s actions, Youngkin signed the bills and said in a statement he and lawmakers “took the necessary step to reverse and fully repeal changes to VMSDEP and provided significant new funding for the program. We will continue our work to make Virginia the best place for our military, veterans, first responders and their families to live, work, raise a family, and retire.”
Beyond the bills passed Thursday to continue funding the program for two years, Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission will conduct a study and Youngkin’s task force will analyze the program, as well.
Owen said she hopes the situation will encourage lawmakers to stop using the budget to legislate, as changes to VMSDEP done through a standalone bill originally would have been able to undergo a robust committee process. She suggested that the original VMSDEP changes were made “under the cloak of darkness.”
“Everybody’s blaming each other and it’s like that Hamilton song ‘Room Where It Happens’ — nobody else is in the room where it happens!”
With the matter resolved for now, lawmakers will have their eyes on the various groups that are analyzing VMSDEP. As the costs of the program rise, Lucas stressed that lawmakers need to figure out how to make sure it can last for future generations.
“[The passage of bills on Thursday] will allow us to have a solution while we await results from the JLARC study and other groups to ensure that the program is sustainable in the long term,” Lucas said.
When the legislature reconvenes for its 2025 session, it could take up adjustments to the program.
For Owen, who has spearheaded military families’ advocacy for keeping the program, she said Thursday’s actions are “a sigh of relief until January.”
Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on Facebook and X.
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