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William & Mary names first black dean to run its law school

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — William & Mary has named the first African American dean to run its law school.

The university in Williamsburg, Virginia, said in a statement on Monday that the new dean will be A. Benjamin Spencer.

The school says that Spencer is a nationally renowned civil procedure and federal courts expert.

He is currently a law professor at the University of Virginia. William & Mary says that Spencer is the first African-American dean of any school at the university.

Spencer graduated from Harvard Law School. He holds a master’s degree from the London School of Economics.

He got his bachelor’s at Morehouse College.

Va. health dept. improves nursing home inspection backlog, reforms sanction criteria for facilities

Stories of neglect in care or unsanitary living situations have plagued several of Virginia’s nursing home facilities in recent years and data backs up a lapse in oversight by state agencies.  With reform efforts underway, the Virginia Department of Health officials said they aim to adopt sanction criteria by the end of the year to rein in bad actors and get troubled facilities back on track.  As of July, 58% of Virginia’s nursing homes were overdue for inspections and 68 of Virginia’s 289 nursing homes were found to have serious deficiencies, according to ProPublica. Several of the state’s flagged facilities with numerous deficiencies also had high staffing turnover rates.  The issue has been salient among various healthcare spaces, including VDH. 
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