Newport News to Hold Digital Infrastructure Town Hall
CNU student wins music documentary award; Genesis funding for JLab; Holly days at Mariners' Museum
The City of Newport News will hold a Digital Infrastructure Readiness Town Hall on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Denbigh Community Center, 15198 Warwick Blvd., according to the city’s event listing. The discussion, facilitated by Vice Mayor Curtis D. Bethany III and Ms. Amanda Doughty, will cover data infrastructure and governance in Newport News and will feature community leaders, residents, and stakeholders. Admission is free, and residents may submit questions in advance by email to be considered during the Town Hall Q&A.
Jefferson Lab Receives Funding for Seven Genesis Mission Projects The U.S. Department of Energy announced Phase I Request for Application funding awards on July 22, 2026, for small interdisciplinary teams addressing Genesis Mission National Science and Technology Challenges, according to DOE’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Virginia. Jefferson Lab is a partner on seven funded projects, led by institutions including The Catholic University of America, Old Dominion University, William & Mary, the University of New Hampshire, and DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. Project teams will design and demonstrate research workflows integrating AI with scientific investigation, evaluating whether the approaches can accelerate discovery, improve predictive capabilities, or generate new scientific insights.
Education
CNU Student’s Soundscapes Documentary Wins National Award Christopher Newport University student Sara Murray has earned a 2026 Communicator Award of Distinction for her documentary on Newport News Public Schools’ Soundscapes music program, according to NNPS-TV. Murray produced, directed, and edited the film, titled “CNU Presents Soundscapes: Music for All Ages,” as a project for her “Documentary Film and the Community” class taught by NNPS-TV Station Manager Jim Anklam. The under-10-minute documentary features Greenwood Elementary School students and CNU mentors involved in Soundscapes, which has operated at the school for more than 16 years.
Business
Virginia Peninsula Chamber to host family business seminar August 5 The Virginia Peninsula Chamber announces registration is open for “The Business of Family Businesses,” a seminar in the Start, Grow, Thrive small business series. The event takes place Wednesday, August 5, 2026, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at the chamber office located at 11850 Merchants Walk, Suite 110 in Newport News.
Community & Services
Literacy for Life Seeks Volunteer Tutors for Newport News Adults Literacy for Life is actively recruiting volunteer tutors to work with adult learners throughout Newport News and the greater Williamsburg area. The nonprofit organization has spent more than 50 years providing free instruction in reading, writing, math, English language learning, computer skills, workforce preparation, financial literacy, GED preparation, and more.
Mariners’ Park to Plant Yaupon Holly Under Conservation Grant The Mariners’ Park team is planting yaupon holly, or Ilex vomitoria, to replace the invasive Chinese privet shrub at sites across Mariners’ Park in Newport News, according to a blog post by Dylan Reilly published July 15, 2026. The work is funded through Chesapeake WILD, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant program supporting habitat conservation, and made possible by a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation WILD grant. Yaupon holly provides food and cover for birds and insects. Visitors can look for the shrub’s evergreen leaves and red berries while walking the Park.
Riverside Health to Launch Centralized Nurse Float Pool Riverside Health is developing a centralized float pool of Riverside-employed Registered Nurses to serve acute care hospitals across its service area, Chief Nurse Executive Frankye Myers wrote in a July 22, 2026 posting. The pool, based at Riverside’s Integrated Care Command Center, will allow real-time deployment of nurses to hospitals and units with the highest staffing need, reducing reliance on outside agencies and travel nurses. It will include roughly 28 equivalent RNs divided into three divisions, with one prioritizing Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital. The pool is expected to go live in late fall, ahead of the winter patient surge season.
Riverside Health, UVA Health Launch Joint Breast Cancer Trial Riverside Health and UVA Health announced on July 21, 2026, a partnership to bring the POWER II breast cancer clinical trial to Eastern Virginia, marking their first collaborative cancer study, according to Riverside Health. The randomized phase III trial, in which Riverside Regional Medical Center will participate through UVA Health’s statewide clinical trials network, is studying women 65 and older with early-stage, estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer to inform decisions on radiation therapy after surgery. Participants will be followed for two years after surgery. Those interested in eligibility and referral information are encouraged to visit Riverside’s website.
Public Safety
Newport News Police Officer McGhee Shares Career Journey in Ride Along The Newport News Police Department shared a video about Officer McGhee’s experience as a police officer with the department. Through a ride-along format, McGhee provides perspective on her three-year career path and the varied reasons people choose law enforcement as a profession.
Newport News Police Chief Addresses Community in July 2026 Chat Newport News Police Department hosted a community chat with the Police Chief in July 2026. The session provided an opportunity for residents to hear directly from leadership about departmental initiatives and ongoing public safety efforts in Newport News.
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