So long, 2020
A look back at the year in news from Hampton Roads
It’s been a year unlike any other. The coronavirus pandemic has swept across the globe, killing close to 2 million people, bringing economic hardship to millions more and fundamentally changing our day-to-day lives. Protests of police officers’ use of deadly force against Black people erupted throughout the nation, including Virginia, and confederate monuments became a focal point of many of these protests.
In compiling the list of 2020’s biggest stories in Hampton Roads, we’ve given it a twist from most years. We have divided it into the biggest pandemic stories of the year, and then the rest. (And if you’re wondering why we didn’t include the elections, that’s because locally, there were no surprises.) Here are the major Hampton Road stories of the year:
The virus rocks local economy
The economy of Hampton Roads has undergone a seismic shift since March. Many businesses, some forced to shut
down to stem the virus’ spread, have shuttered their doors for good. Others pivoted to online or to a different product or service. The fortunate ones got a federal grant or forgivable loan.
Record numbers of laid-off workers filed for unemployment benefits — 10 times more than in 2019. Many of those lucky enough to keep their jobs adjusted to working from home.
Sports sidelined
Senior seasons were ruined. Dreams of playing at the next level in jeopardy.
Public high school athletic teams haven’t taken the field since March. Local universities including Old Dominion and Norfolk State canceled fall sports seasons. Local minor league professional teams hit pause, too.
Apart from the Peninsula Pilots baseball team playing in Hampton, nothing took place until college basketball tipped off in November. Even so, the sports landscape in Hampton Roads is far from returning to normal.
There’s Nothing in the Water
Live audiences became a thing of the past as theaters and performing venues shut down. Artists turned to streaming performances, and museum tours went virtual. The highly anticipated Something in the Water was called off.
Patrons stepped up to help keep things afloat by purchasing season tickets anyway.
But reduced crowd capacity mandates still in place may mean another season in which the arts and entertainment scene is curtailed.
Students learning from home
Some students haven’t set foot in a classroom since March. And it’s not clear when they will.
It’s been a roller coaster for everyone involved — students, teachers, parents and school officials. Teachers lauded in the spring for their quick pivots and creativity were lambasted over the summer and fall for expressing reservations about returning to in-person learning. Districts left to their own to decide when to reopen schools have faced protests from all sides.
As many as 5,000 COVID deaths in Virginia
In early March, a Virginia Beach couple who had traveled on an Egyptian cruise became the first known cases of the coronavirus in Hampton Roads.
Gov. Ralph Northam issued a stay-at-home order March 30 to prevent infections from spreading too fast and overwhelming hospitals. Still, medical staff struggled to obtain enough personal protective equipment at the onset of the pandemic.
As 2020 ends, there have been about 290,000 confirmed cases in Virginia, and nearly 5,000 suspected deaths.
No mask, no service
Masks became an essential piece of outerwear. Everything from shopping for necessities to in-person health care and eating out became stressors. For a stretch, the hunt for toilet paper became an act of desperation.
Restaurants pivoted to takeout and outdoor dining. Working from home — for those who could — became the norm. Virtual meeting platforms and live streaming are now standards, even for worship services.
Protests and political strife in Portsmouth
Following the death of George Floyd and a renewed push for police reforms, demonstrators in Portsmouth damaged and defaced the city’s Confederate Monument. Two months later, the city removed it.
Around the same time, a group of mostly Black elected and community leaders were charged with a slew of crimes. They accused the police of racism; all the charges were later dismissed. Meanwhile, after the city council forced out several Black city officials, voters responded by electing a nearly all-Black council.
Some local protests end with arrests and tear gas
Protesters in Hampton Roads joined activists across the country in calling for police reform and the removal of Confederate monuments.
Demonstrators closed major roads in several cities, including blocking Interstate 64 before the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel in Hampton. While most of the protests in the region ended without injury or incident, some ended with arrests and tear gas.
State lawmakers create strip search laws after Pilot probe
State legislators enacted four laws designed to rein in the state Department of Corrections strip search practices after a Virginian-Pilot investigation. The new laws prevent DOC officials from strip searching children and from banning visitors who refuse to submit to a strip search.
Officials had strip searched an 8-year-old girl, several women who were menstruating and an 83-year-old man, among others. All were threatened with a permanent ban from seeing their loved ones in state prisons had they refused.
Newport News police officers charged in killing
In November, a Newport News grand jury indicted two city police officers in the killing of a man they were trying to arrest on a misdemeanor charge.
Sgt. Albin T. Pearson is charged with second-degree murder and other charges in the killing of Henry K. “Hank” Berry III during a struggle over a Taser on Dec. 27, 2019. Officer Dwight A. Pitterson, 31, is charged with malicious wounding and other charges.
The officers were trying to arrest the 43-year-old on a charge of abusing the city’s 911 system.
Newport News officer dies in line of duty
Newport News mourned the loss of Katherine “Katie” Thyne — the department’s first officer to die in the line of duty in more than 25 years.
Thyne, 24, was questioning motorist Vernon E. Green II and a woman on the suspicion that the pair were smoking marijuana in a parked car in January. Green is accused of driving off, trapping Thyne between the driver’s door and the frame of the vehicle.
Green, 39, pleaded guilty to federal gun and drug charges and is facing charges out of Newport News including felony homicide.