Henrico NAACP

06/11/2026

Featured Campaign Second Look Network Ending mass incarceration requires taking a second look at extreme sentences. Learn more about our coalition of legal professionals providing direct representation to incarcerated individuals seeking relief from lengthy or unfair sentences.

06/11/2026

The “Clean Slate law” means that when hiring managers and landlords run background checks, they won’t be able to see some felony and misdemeanor convictions should a person not have new convictions in the past seven years or more for certain misdemeanors and 10 years for certain felonies.

06/11/2026

Richmond, Virginia facility leaks over a year's worth of cancer-causing pollution in less than 1.5 hours

Sterilization Servies of Virginia leaked nearly 600 pounds of ethylene oxide (EtO) into the air on April 9, drastically exceeding the facility’s legal pollution limits.

Even though 260,000 people and 100 schools/childcare centers sit within five miles of this facility, residents weren’t notified.

SSV is just one of many commercial sterilizer facilities pumping out toxic EtO across the region. It’s also one of 40 facilities nationwide granted a two-year exemption from the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2024 health standards. We're currently fighting these exemptions in federal court, but right now we need immediate local action.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is proposing a trivial $53,000 penalty for these catastrophic violations. This fine is not enough to protect our families and communities.

How you can help:

DEQ is accepting public comments through June 19. Alongside Virginia Interfaith Power & Light, we’re urging Virginians to demand accountability.

Don’t let toxic pollution be swept under the rug. Visit the link in our bio to submit your comment to urge DEQ to revoke the facility’s permit and help protect Richmond communities: https://selc.link/4vHYNzE

06/11/2026

🌡️ Cooling Center Hours This Week 🌡️

Our Cooling Center, In partnership with the City of Richmond, VA Government and Henrico County Government, will be open for adults 18+ during:

📅 Thursday, June 11: 1 – 7 PM
📅 Friday, June 12: 11 AM –7 PM
📅 Saturday, June 13: Closed
📅 Sunday, June 14: TBD

📍 1900 Chamberlayne Ave., Richmond
🧊 Air conditioning, hydration, snacks, and a safe place to cool off.

Please share with anyone who may need relief from the heat.

06/11/2026

🚨CALL TO ACTION📣✍🏽🚨

🗣️Advocate for greater protections in your community.
📝Write a letter to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to demand real accountability!

Sample letter available here:
🔗 https://bit.ly/henriconaacpDEQ

06/11/2026

06/10/2026

06/10/2026

📢 Are you ready for Virginia's new laws taking effect July 1st?
The NAACP Virginia State Conference wants YOU to be informed and empowered! Join us for Countdown to July 1st: Virginia's Game-Changing New Laws — a FREE webinar covering the key legislative changes that di
📅 Sunday, June 14, 2026
🕠 5:30 PM
💻 Zoom
🔗 Register now: https://naacp-va.org/NewLaws2026

Knowledge is power — share this with someone who needs to know! 👇

06/08/2026

⚡ NORTH CAROLINA JUST PASSED THE MOST POWERFUL DATA CENTER LAW IN AMERICA — AND 78% OF VOTERS DEMANDED IT ⚡

This happened June 3, 2026 — just four days ago.

The North Carolina House of Representatives passed a bill so comprehensive, so powerful, and so clearly on the side of regular Americans that it is already being called a national model for how states should deal with the AI data center crisis.

They called it the Ratepayer Protection Act. And what it does — for the first time in American history — is simple and revolutionary: it makes data centers pay for themselves. Instead of making you pay for them.

WHAT NORTH CAROLINA JUST DID

The North Carolina House passed Senate Bill 730 — the Ratepayer Protection Act — with a vote of 69 to 44. The bill was championed by Speaker Destin Hall who tweeted after the vote: “Today, the NC House fought back and passed the Ratepayer Protection Act to shield North Carolinians from subsidizing data centers and give citizens more control.” The bill now goes to the Senate for approval and then to the governor. 

69 to 44. Bipartisan. In North Carolina. A state not known for dramatic tech regulation.

They fought back. And they won.

Duke Energy — the giant utility that powers most of North and South Carolina — has signed 7.6 gigawatts of electric service agreements with data center customers, added another 2.7 gigawatts during the first quarter of 2026 alone, and is discussing an additional 15.4 gigawatts of potential projects. To put that in perspective — North Carolina residential electricity prices were averaging about 16 cents per kilowatt-hour in March 2026, below the U.S. average. Duke’s exploding data center pipeline threatens to change that permanently — unless somebody stops it. 

The bill stops it. Or at least — makes the data centers pay for what they consume.

WHAT THE LAW ACTUALLY REQUIRES

Under the Ratepayer Protection Act, data centers consuming more than 100 megawatts of power per month must: use closed-loop cooling systems to limit water consumption; conduct site assessments to determine the noise impact on nearby homes and businesses; and — most critically — cover the cost of their own grid infrastructure rather than passing those costs to families and small businesses. 

The measure shifts from using incentives to attract data center projects to a full cost recovery model — placing the burden of grid expansion and resource use directly on data center operators. Data centers in North Carolina would also be ineligible for state and local incentives — ending the era of billion-dollar tax breaks that have been draining state budgets from Virginia to Texas to Wisconsin. 

No more tax breaks. No more making families subsidize data center grid upgrades. No more waiving water disclosure requirements. No more ignoring the noise that makes neighbors sick.

Pay your own way. Or don’t build here.

AND THE PEOPLE DEMANDED IT — OVERWHELMINGLY

A Carolina Journal poll found that 78.2% of North Carolina voters believe data centers should generate their own energy — not force ratepayers to fund their electricity. Of those surveyed, 59.8% strongly support this position. Fewer than 10% oppose requiring data centers to provide their own electricity. 

78% of voters. In a purple state. In the American South. Demanding that data centers stop making them pay the bill.

When nearly 8 in 10 voters in a swing state agree on something — that is not a partisan issue. That is democracy speaking with one voice.

THE BOTTOM LINE

North Carolina just passed the Ratepayer Protection Act. No more tax breaks for Big Tech. No more hiding water consumption. No more noise without consequences. No more making families pay for the grid upgrades that data centers require.

78% of voters demanded it. 69 legislators voted for it. And it is now being studied by every state legislature in America as the template for what comes next.

Share this with everyone in North Carolina — and everyone in every other state that is still letting Big Tech make families pay for data center infrastructure. 👇⚡

Follow for more data center updates📰☝️

📌 Source: Carolina Journal — “NC House passes Ratepayer Protection Act” (June 3, 2026)