FREDLINES

Claire Marshall Watkins, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Fredericksburg Free Press

Stafford officials celebrate a new nature preserve in Widewater

By Jonathan Hunley 09/25/2026

The Northern Virginia Conservation Trust worked with county officials and the Marine Corps to purchase the land from property owner Joyce Arndt so it wouldn’t be developed.

Arndt agreed to sell the tract for $159,000, its assessed value, even though she had offers from developers for twice that price, and the trust raised $205,000 to pay for the purchase and to prepare it as a preserve protected by easement.

Rock Out Knock Out Homelessness drive returns for 15th year in Spotsylvania

By Adele Uphaus 09/25/2026

The event takes place Oct. 2 and 3, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Southpoint Walmart. Members of the public can either shop at the store on those days and then donate the items, or bring items from elsewhere.

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The Free Lance-Star

Spotsylvania teacher cleared of wrongdoing in incident (paywalled)

Massaponax High School teacher has been cleared of any wrongdoing following an investigation that began earlier this month after she reported receiving sexually explicit images from a juvenile student.

According to court records, the teacher received images and a video showing the teen masturbating. She also reported receiving calls and messages on her phone from the boy. Her phone and laptop are connected, so messages sent to the phone also showed up on the laptop, court records state.

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Potomac Local News

Rapes on Plank Road prompt Fredericksburg review of massage-parlor rules

By Potomac Local News 09/25/2026

At-Large Councilor Dr. Will B. Mackintosh thanked her. He said illegitimate massage businesses have been tied to sexual assault and rape reports in the community and noted that his husband is a licensed massage therapist.

Mackintosh asked City Manager Timothy J. Baroody and City Attorney Kelly Lackey to review options. He said Spotsylvania requires criminal background checks for every practitioner and Fredericksburg does not, calling that possible low-hanging fruit.

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ADVANCE READS

Phil Huber, Steve Watkins

If Data Centers Want a Green Light, Start with Community Compatibility

Phil Huber, ADVANCE COLUMNIST

Virginia helped build the modern data-center industry. Northern Virginia became a global internet hub because the Commonwealth and its localities welcomed an industry that brought investment, jobs and tax revenue.

But success has come with growing strains: enormous demand for electricity, new power lines and substations, pressure on water systems, generator noise and emissions, more traffic and the conversion of land near homes, schools and historic places. Too often, neighbors learn the full scale of a project only after key decisions have been made.

READ ON

A Pound of Water

Steve Watkins, ADVANCE EDITOR

A few days ago I did a Don Draper and announced that The FXBG Advance will no longer take money from data centers or anyone who represents them. The post was headlined FXBG Advance Retreating on Data Centers, and you might want to pause here and read it if you haven’t already.

After explaining why we made the decision, I pivoted to the broader issue of funding, and wrote,

THE ADVANCE still needs money—

READ ON

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STATE OF THE STATE

VaNews/VIRGINIA PUBLIC ACCESS PROJECT

Trump officials sideline Va., D.C. historians in arch review

By IAN M. STEVENSON AND HEATHER RICHARDS, Politico

An independent federal council helmed by Trump appointees on Thursday abruptly cut off historic reviews with local governments for the president’s planned 250-foot tall arch along the Potomac River. The rarely used move comes after historians for the District of Columbia and Virginia refused to sign off on the National Park Service’s attempt to finalize a plan mitigating the arch’s expected harm to historic properties. The historians pressed to hold off on the plan until the project’s impacts are better understood.

Nearly 235K Virginians should never have been disenfranchised, state says

By DEAN MIRSHAHI AND JAHD KHALIL, VPM

Nearly 235,000 Virginians are being notified that their felony convictions should have never kept them from voting and they can now register in time for the 2026 general election, according to the Department of Elections (ELECT). ELECT told VPM News mailers were sent out to 234,852 people after a landmark federal court ruling mostly struck down Virginia’s automatic disenfranchisement rule for anyone convicted of a felony. The notifications come after months of confusion on who are now eligible voters, and as early voting is underway in the 2026 general election.

Virginia health committee considers mandating licensed nurses in every school

By NATHANIEL CLINE, Virginia Mercury

Virginia schools could be required to have a licensed nurse in every building starting in 2028, under a legislative proposal introduced Wednesday. The measure is designed to close healthcare gaps by placing experts in schools to manage complex medical conditions. Virginia permits school divisions to employ nurses, but state law doesn’t require it. About 8% of Virginia’s schools operate without a nurse. At the School Health Services Committee’s Wednesday meeting, speakers and committee members supported the proposal. As written, it offers districts facing nurse shortages two-year waivers if they can show they made a good-faith effort to hire.

Va. advocates say Trump administration’s proposed changes to Head Start will lead to lower-quality services

By ELIZABETH BEYER, Cardinal News

As a young, single mother, Kira Lowe had struggled to find childcare for the first of her three daughters. She was in her early 20s when she had her first child, Keri, and Lowe relied on her grandmother for childcare so that she could work to support her daughter. But after her grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, Lowe had to seek help elsewhere. She had a difficult time finding care for Keri because the little girl was not yet potty trained. Then she learned about Head Start, a free program that provides childcare and other services for low-income families. That program was crucial for Lowe in her ability to support Keri, now 8, and her second daughter, Brooklyn, now 5. ... The Trump administration announced in August an effort to cut federal costs for Head Start and free up childcare slots in the program, but advocates in Virginia fear those changes could lead to a decrease in services in rural areas.

Friday Read A Black Jefferson Descendant Is Buried at Monticello for the First Time

By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER, New York Times (Metered Paywall - 1 to 2 articles a month)

One Saturday this month, three people gathered in the cemetery at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s hilltop estate in Virginia. After opening up the earth, they placed a container of ashes into the ground, along with family mementos and a photograph of a baby cradled in his mother’s arms. It was a simple, poignant burial for Cedric Jessup Jr. of Washington, who died in 2020 from complications of Covid-19. But it was also a historic moment: the first burial of a Black descendant in the Jefferson family graveyard. Jessup was not a descendant of Sally Hemings, the enslaved woman whose relationship with Jefferson has been a subject of debate for more than 200 years. He was descended via a great-great-grandson. But the burial comes as new DNA research from the Smithsonian Institution offers what its researchers say is “extraordinary proof” that Jefferson fathered children with Hemings.

***

Articles from newspapers throughout the Commonwealth and Washington D.C. Firewalls will block you from reading some, but you’ll at least have some idea about what’s going on from the headlines and summaries. CLICK HERE.

This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”

CONTACT ME

A few days ago I did a Don Draper and announced that The FXBG Advance will no longer take money from data centers or anyone who represents them. The post was headlined FXBG Advance Retreating on Data Centers, and you might want to pause here and read it if you haven’t already.

After explaining why we made the decision, I pivoted to the broader issue of funding, and wrote,

THE ADVANCE still needs money—

—to stay in operation, minus the corporate sponsors, who despite what they promise, always want, and always get, their pound of flesh.

I felt good for a couple of hours—clever, virtuous, though on the likely road to bankruptcy—until a short email showed up in my inbox from a certain cousin-in-law and friend who happens to be Jewish:

“to stay in operation, minus the corporate sponsors, who despite what they promise, always want, and always get, their pound of flesh.”

I am not one to see antisemitic invective frequently, but...

I was floored, but responded immediately by seeking reassurance from my wife Janet and my friend Kirk (who’s also Jewish) that I’m a decent human being, anything but anti-Semitic, and besides, isn’t “pound of flesh” a common idiom so no big deal?

They agreed, then asked if I knew where the expression came from. I answered, though maybe not in these exact words, “Well, now that I think about it, the Jewish money-lender Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, described by another character in Act IV, Scene 1 as ‘A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch uncapable of pity, void and empty from any dram of mercy.’”

To which they replied, “Oh.”

I wrote back to my cousin-in-law:

Interesting. I’ve always heard it used as a generic term. From Merchant of Venice, and Shylock, but in broader contexts not usually considered offensive in that way. Clearly you see it differently. Have you any suggestions?

To which he colorfully replied:

No worries.

I asked AI (since we want to support regional power use at data centers, right?):

The phrase “pound of flesh” is a literary idiom that comes from William Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice. In the play, the Jewish moneylender Shylock demands a literal pound of flesh from a Christian debtor who cannot repay his loan. Because the idiom directly originates from a famous character who has historically been viewed as an antisemitic caricature, using it can sometimes carry undertones of antisemitic tropes—specifically those related to greed, ruthless financial dealings, and malicious intent. However, whether the comment itself is antisemitic depends on context, intent, and modern usage:

Why it might not be intended as antisemitic: In modern English, “a pound of flesh” has become a very common, secular idiom used to describe anyone—regardless of background—who ruthlessly demands what they are owed, even if it causes suffering. In your example, the target is corporate sponsors (large business entities), not Jewish people.

Why it can cause concern: Because of the historical connection to Shylock, using financial or debt-related metaphors alongside phrases rooted in anti-Jewish literary history can inadvertently echo harmful stereotypes about secret manipulation and corporate greed.

In short, the comment targets corporate entities rather than a religious or ethnic group, so it is likely intended as a critique of corporate capitalism. However, because of the phrase’s origins, it can understandably raise red flags or feel uncomfortable to some readers.

Now [my cousin-in-law continued], if all the data centers were being built for Google and Meta, since they have Jewish founders, then I might be more sensitive. Amazon is the big kahuna around here. Bezos is not a [Jewish person]. Although he kinda looks like one of us.

It would be interesting to find out who the major investors are behind the land purchases and rezoning of the data centers in our area.

My lame suggestion since you asked: “Corporate sponsors (of data centers) always get their megawatt and pound of water.”

***

I’d say “Done and done,” but I did a deeper dive and some reading around and came across an essay on Medium by a London academic, Adam Roberts, who wasn’t inclined to let me or Shakespeare or anybody else off that easily for “a pound of flesh.”

”It’s an anti-Semitic slur, linked to the ‘blood libel,’” Roberts posted in “Shylock’s Pound of Flesh”—“the mendacious claim by which Christians justified persecuting and indeed killing Jews, because Jews allegedly killed Christian babies, drained their blood and used it to make [unleavened matzah]….

“The idea that Jews are vampires, feeding on the blood of Christians, is an ancient, wicked, though tenacious lie, one that has had ghastly material consequences for Jews in the world. The Merchant of Venice is part of that discourse. Why does Shylock insist upon his pound of flesh even when he is offered his monetary loan back with interest?”

The question answers itself.

***

Post Script

A holy-shit story this week in the New York Times. Headline: “Google Takes the A.I. Data Center Race to Outer Space.”

Drop head: “Next Thursday, Google is sending an experimental satellite into orbit that will have enough computing power to answer simple A.I. queries from space.”

From the article: “Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman and others have pledged support for orbital data centers, but the idea faces many challenges, including withstanding radiation in space and the costs of getting machines beyond the atmosphere. Yet as data centers grapple with terrestrial opposition and physical limits, having computing facilities float above Earth has become increasingly attractive.”

***

Steve Watkins is editor of The FXBG Advance.

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Virginia helped build the modern data-center industry. Northern Virginia became a global internet hub because the Commonwealth and its localities welcomed an industry that brought investment, jobs and tax revenue.

But success has come with growing strains: enormous demand for electricity, new power lines and substations, pressure on water systems, generator noise and emissions, more traffic and the conversion of land near homes, schools and historic places. Too often, neighbors learn the full scale of a project only after key decisions have been made.

When we speak of the data-center industry, we should mean more than the company that first seeks a rezoning or building permit. It includes the developers who choose the site and design the project; the investors and owners who finance it; the companies that operate it; the major technology customers whose computers fill it; and the utilities, builders, engineers and consultants whose work makes it possible. Each has a stake in public confidence, and each should share responsibility for a project’s effects on its neighbors.

Gov. Abigail Spanberger has recognized that Virginia’s old growth-at-any-speed approach has reached its limit. She has issued a Data Center Accountability Framework and Executive Order 22, signaling that the Commonwealth expects greater transparency, responsibility and public confidence as the industry continues to grow.

That is an important change in direction. But state action will take time, while projects are being planned and approved now. The question is whether the data-center industry will wait for every new requirement—or decide that earning community trust is simply good business.

A company can win one zoning case at a time and still lose the larger public argument. Communities that feel ignored do not forget. The result can be years of hearings, lawsuits, delays, moratoriums and distrust.

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There is a better approach: Treat a project’s fit with its community as seriously as companies treat power supply, construction costs, cybersecurity and financing.

The military learned a version of this lesson decades ago. Bases and training areas cannot operate successfully if surrounding development creates conflicts over noise, safety, traffic, water, airspace or land use. The answer was not to dictate local zoning. It was to give military leaders, local officials and residents a shared picture of potential problems early enough to prevent them—or solve them together.

Many Virginia communities have already worked with nearby military installations on just this kind of planning. They know the value of shared facts, early coordination and practical partnerships that protect both the military mission and the surrounding community. Those communities should expect—and would likely welcome—the same kind of early, disciplined collaboration from data-center companies.

I saw that work firsthand while serving in and later working with the Army and other services. The most effective approach was not an outside mandate. It was a practical process built into normal military planning processes: identify likely conflicts early, share the facts, consider alternatives while they are still possible and work with affected communities before positions harden.

Data-center companies should adopt the same principle—not copy the military’s programs or jargon but apply the lesson.

Before a company buys land, finalizes a design or seeks local approval, it should clearly answer the questions that matter to the people living nearby:

· How much electricity will the facility need, and who will pay for new power plants, substations and transmission lines?

· How will it use water, and what will that mean for local water and wastewater systems?

· What noise, emissions, traffic and construction disruption should residents expect?

· What will the project cost local government in roads, public safety or other services—and what will it contribute in return?

· Are there better sites, designs or operating practices that would reduce harm to neighborhoods, schools, historic resources and environmentally sensitive areas?

· Who remains responsible if the facility is sold or operated by a different company years later?

These are not anti-development questions. They are the questions responsible developers should want to answer before they commit millions of dollars, order equipment and enter a long public fight.

Early planning can reveal problems before they become expensive. It can reduce redesigns, repeated hearings and litigation. It can give a company a more predictable path to approval and give residents reason to believe that their concerns are being heard rather than managed.

Virginia’s data-center industry should invite local governments, utilities, universities, residents and independent technical experts to develop a voluntary guide for working with communities before major decisions are made. The state can help bring those parties together and recognize a credible, independently governed fund that gives communities access to qualified technical advice before key decisions are fixed. Local governments would retain their authority over site-specific land-use decisions.

This would not be a second permitting process, a new regulation or a demand for disclosure of customer or security information. It would be a practical guide for companies: identify major community effects early, consider workable alternatives while they are still available, make commitments in clear language and honor those commitments through design, construction, operation and any change in ownership.

The industry should also establish a Virginia Community Compatibility Fund, administered independently of any individual developer. It should provide grants for independent technical advice, impact review, planning and partnership-building before major decisions are locked in. The industry could create one statewide pooled fund, supported by participating companies, or establish project-based grants that are administered independently of the developer seeking approval. The essential safeguard is the same in either case: neither a developer nor a community opponent should control the findings. Residents and local governments should not have to rely only on developers’ consultants when they are trying to understand a project’s effect on power, water, noise, traffic or public costs.

That is not a subsidy for obstruction. It is an investment in better facts, better negotiations and better decisions.

The same partnership approach can also protect land and water before conflict occurs. The military has used voluntary agreements with landowners, local governments and conservation groups to preserve open land near bases, protect watersheds and prevent development that would later interfere with military operations or endanger nearby residents. Data-center companies and communities could use similar agreements to protect important water sources, preserve reasonable buffers and avoid a preventable mistake: approving homes, schools or other sensitive uses next to a major data-center campus, then discovering too late that they are affected by noise, generators, traffic or expanding electrical infrastructure.

Such agreements should be voluntary, transparent and locally controlled. They would not replace zoning or give a company authority over private property. They would give willing landowners, local governments and developers another tool to protect shared resources and prevent foreseeable conflicts before they become permanent.

Virginia does not have to choose between economic growth and accountable growth. But the era when an ordinary industrial-development process could adequately address a giant data-center campus is ending.

The industry now faces a choice. It can wait for stricter mandates and fight each proposal separately. Or it can earn a green light by doing the work early: tell communities what a project will require, listen before decisions are final, reduce avoidable impacts and stand behind its commitments for the life of the facility.

That is not surrender to opponents. It is the path to more predictable approvals, stronger projects and lasting public trust.

***

Phil Huber is a retired Army Reserve colonel, federal civil servant and consultant who writes on civic education. He lives in Fredericksburg.

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FREDLINES

Claire Marshall Watkins, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Fredericksburg Free Press

Spotsylvania supervisors under scrutiny for social media posts, election filings

By Taft Coghill Jr. 09/24/2026

The Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors’ agenda was light with no public hearings on Tuesday night, but there were still plenty of fireworks.

Two members of the board came under fire during the meeting for different reasons.

Courtland District Supervisor Drew Mullins apologized near the end of the meeting for posts that he made on the social media platform X. Residents also questioned recently appointed Chancellor District Supervisor Tim McLaughlin’s character and attention to detail, alleging that he used the wrong address on his application to be considered for the position; he didn’t file conflict of interest statements before he was sworn in as required by law; and he accosted a county resident with harsh language at early voting.

City to move forward with utility billing changes

By Joey LoMonaco 09/24/2026

Fredericksburg residents could begin receiving utility bills on a monthly basis as soon as November.

Currently, the city bills utilities — which includes water, sewer and trash and recycling services — on a bi-monthly basis. But several members of City Council seemed to signal support on Tuesday night for making the change.

Getting their kicks: Fans flock to Fred City Soccer Club event

By Adele Uphaus 09/24/2026

Two and a half years ago, Jason Graham and Gilberto Baez were sitting in the basement of Baez’s home, talking about whether they could bring semi-professional soccer back to Fredericksburg.

On Wednesday night, Graham and Baez shared a stage to announce Fredericksburg City Soccer Club’s first two signings: Sammy Amorose, a former Colonial Forge High School and University of Mary Washington standout who won 2025 Coast-to-Coast Offensive Player of the Year honors; and Lorenzo Baez, a 2022 Stafford High School soccer alum who has played for Stafford Soccer League and the under-20 Puerto Rican national team and participated in trials with La Liga in Spain.

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The Free Lance-Star

Planning Commission: Substations appropriate for data center (paywalled)

By Scott Shenk 09/24/2026

Before the Spotsylvania County Planning Commission held a public hearing on the proposed Crossroads Technology Campus data center at its Sept. 16 meeting, it approved a substation project related to the data center.

The Crossroads project will need three 230-kilovolt substations on the campus site.

Another data center campus coming to Spotsylvania County? (paywalled)

By Scott Shenk 09/24/2026

With the recent nod of approval from the Spotsylvania County Planning Commission, a new data center campus proposal has moved a step closer to a final decision by the county.

After a public hearing last week, the planning commission recommended approval of a special-use permit for the construction of the Crossroads Technology campus. The proposal will now go to the Board of Supervisors for approval.

Residents disagree with staff, planners on data center

Scott Shenk 09/24/2026

The public hearing for the proposed Crossroads Technology Campus data center in Spotsylvania County pitted residents against county officials.

Residents don’t want another data center built in the county. County staff and a majority of the Planning Commission said the proposal was ready to go before the Board of Supervisors.

As fall arrives, some Fredericksburg trees face final season

By Pilar Davis 09/24/2026

Oranges, reds and golden yellows begin to surround the last remnants of green on area trees as the season shifts to fall. That view is one of the more beautiful parts of living on the East Coast, and the trees that line streets in the Fredericksburg area make the city scenic year-round.

This year, the city is planting scores of new trees around town, and a few trees have reached the end of their life cycle.

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Potomac Local News

Police Blotter: Fredericksburg Stabbing on Caroline Street; Stafford Fraud Reports

By Potomac Local News 09/24/2026

On Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, at about 8:48 p.m., the Fredericksburg E-911 Center received a call for a stabbing injury in the 500 block of Caroline Street. Officers found the victim with a wound consistent with a stabbing. The victim was taken to a nearby hospital and treated for life-threatening injuries.

Joseph Crawford, 64, of Fredericksburg, was taken into custody and held without bond. He is charged with aggravated assault and public drunkenness and was taken to the Rappahannock Regional Jail for processing.

Anonymous tips: text 847-411 with FPDTip followed by the tip, or use the FPD Tip app.

Toys “R” Us holiday shop slated for Spotsylvania Towne Centre (paywalled)

By PLN News 09/24/2026

A Toys “R” Us holiday shop operated by Go! Retail Group. The Spotsylvania Towne Centre shop is planned for a 7,400-square-foot bay in the Costco Concourse, with a tentative October opening. Photo courtesy Go! Retail Group.

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ADVANCE READS

Claire Marshall Watkins, Dewey Turner

Dating Apps, Consent, and AI: Oh, My

Claire Marshall Watkins, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

“A” had confessed to using one of the photos from my profile––coincidentally, or maybe not, he left this message attached to a photo of me in a small, crocheted crop top––and uploading it into a generative AI server without my consent.

A few things occurred to me.

One: It could have been so much worse. He could have made a deepfake, but to my knowledge, he didn’t.

Two: If he hadn’t told me he had done this, I would never have known. Anyone can take any photo from a dating app and upload it into ChatGPT or similar platform and do whatever they want with it. I hadn’t realized that was something that could happen; I’d never thought about it. Nor, I assume, has any other decent, rational person.

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Press Release Release: UMW Top 10 Again, City Rakes in the Dough, and More

Compiled by Dewey Turner, ADVANCE CONTRIBUTOR

Top 10 Again: UMW Among the Best Public Liberal Arts Colleges in U.S. News

The University of Mary Washington has once again earned a place among the nation’s top 10 public liberal arts colleges in U.S. News & World Report’s annual college rankings, coming in at number nine. UMW has ranked among the top 10 for four consecutive years, reinforcing Mary Washington’s place among the nation’s leading public liberal arts and sciences institutions.

UMW is also part of a standout showing for the Commonwealth. Three Virginia institutions rank among the nation’s top 10 public liberal arts colleges in the U.S. News “2027 Best Colleges” report, making Virginia one of only two states with three schools represented in the top tier.

READ ON

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STATE OF THE STATE

VaNews/VIRGINIA PUBLIC ACCESS PROJECT

Virginia legislators debate Trump’s SNAP penalties as judge blocks some enforcement

By BRAD KUTNER, WVTF-FM

In a ruling touted Wednesday by Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, a federal judge blocked some of President Donald Trump’s efforts to penalize states for SNAP error rates. The move from the court comes as Virginia faces record food insecurity and legislators debated the president’s changes to the program Wednesday morning. Oregon U.S. District Mustafa T. Kasubhai wasn’t subtle when nixing part of the Trump administration’s SNAP cuts for working outside of administrative norms. ... Only moments earlier, Virginia Health Secretary Marvin Figueroa was explaining the penalty program to the Senate Finance committee at the General Assembly building.

High diesel prices strain Virginia school divisions

By ANNA BRYSON, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)

Just weeks into the school year, the high price of diesel fuel is putting a strain on Virginia school divisions, which largely use diesel to fill up the school buses that bring children to and from school every day. Some school systems are preparing to seek additional local funding or make cuts elsewhere if fuel costs remain high. The average price of diesel fuel in Virginia was $6.39 a gallon as of Wednesday, up 18 cents from the week prior and nearly $3 higher than a year ago, before the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran that has disrupted oil supplies from the Persian Gulf. The pressure is particularly intense in large, rural school divisions, where buses travel thousands of miles each day and regular routes cannot easily be reduced.

For hundreds of thousands, Virginia offers help with Obamacare bills

By DAVE RESS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)

State funds to make up for the loss of enhanced federal Obamacare credits could mean more than 159,000 Virginians will see minimal bills for coverage next year. The General Assembly this year set $150 million for an Affordable Care Act subsidy program to offset President Donald Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which refused to extend enhanced credits.

Virginia and Maryland lawmakers fight proposed federal pay freeze

By TOM FITZGERALD, Fox 5

A fight over federal pay is heating up on Capitol Hill as lawmakers from Virginia and Maryland warn that a proposed pay freeze could hit thousands of federal workers across the DMV region. Over 100 members of Congress are calling on their colleagues to approve a 4.1% raise for federal employees in 2027 as opposed to enacting a pay plan proposed by the Trump administration that would prevent most civilian workers from getting an increase in their base pay next year. Nearly a quarter of a million federal employees work in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia region.

Federal cuts have deeply impacted residents of D.C. area, new survey shows

By GARY FIELDS AND LINLEY SANDERS, Associated Press

Sam Trumbull once wrote public assistance policy to help people receiving food assistance, then needed public assistance for her family. Amanda Nataro won’t take personal effects to her new job, after being crushed by the sudden end of her last one. Nicoletta Barbera and her husband are considering leaving the area because of rising costs and lower salaries than they once had. The women are among the thousands of federal workers and contract employees in the Washington region whose lives were upended when the Trump administration and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency overhauled the federal workforce last year, cutting jobs and grants. A new survey released Thursday by Gallup and the Greater Washington Community Foundation shows the far-reaching impact on the nation’s capital.

How the fate of a rural hospital could help flip the House

By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Pastor Eric Majette was so worried that his congregation is losing access to health care that he had a blood pressure machine installed outside the church sanctuary and set up heart-health counseling once a month. It’s not much, but anything helps as the [Franklin, Va.] community barrels toward the potential closure of its struggling local hospital. Here in one of the most competitive House districts in the country, health care is an urgent part of the affordability topic driving political campaigns everywhere ahead of this fall’s midterm elections.

***

Articles from newspapers throughout the Commonwealth and Washington D.C. Firewalls will block you from reading some, but you’ll at least have some idea about what’s going on from the headlines and summaries. CLICK HERE.

This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”

Top 10 Again: UMW Among the Best Public Liberal Arts Colleges in U.S. News

The University of Mary Washington has once again earned a place among the nation’s top 10 public liberal arts colleges in U.S. News & World Report’s annual college rankings, coming in at number nine. UMW has ranked among the top 10 for four consecutive years, reinforcing Mary Washington’s place among the nation’s leading public liberal arts and sciences institutions.

UMW is also part of a standout showing for the Commonwealth. Three Virginia institutions rank among the nation’s top 10 public liberal arts colleges in the U.S. News “2027 Best Colleges” report, making Virginia one of only two states with three schools represented in the top tier.

In the broader National Liberal Arts Colleges category, which includes both public and private institutions, Mary Washington is tied at No. 128, moving up three places from the previous year.

UMW’s recognition extends beyond the University-wide rankings. Undergraduate programs in psychology, business and computer science each earned national recognition, while Mary Washington’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program made a significant jump, rising more than 100 places to No. 336. UMW also earned a No. 174 ranking for social mobility among National Liberal Arts Colleges.

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Fredericksburg’s Visitor Economy Reaches $183 Million in 2025; Region leading 40 percent growth since 2021

Direct visitor spending in the City’s tourism-related sectors reached more than $183 million in 2025, a 7.3 percent increase from the previous year.

This spending directly supported 1,657 jobs, including part-time and seasonal work. Local wages, salaries, proprietor income, and benefits supported by direct tourism spending also grew to $57 million, a 5.2 percent increase.

“These numbers are exciting, but what they really show is the impact visitors have throughout Fredericksburg,” said Danelle Rose, tourism marketing and communications manager for the City of Fredericksburg. “When someone comes for a weekend, attends an event, visits one of our historic sites, shops downtown or grabs dinner at a local restaurant, that spending stays right here in our community. Our goal is to keep giving people new reasons to visit Fredericksburg, stay a little longer and, hopefully, start planning their next trip before they even leave.”

According to the Virginia Tourism Corporation, tourism in Virginia generated a record-high $36.2 billion in visitor spending in 2025. Visitor spending increased 3.1 percent, or $1.1 billion, over the previous year, marking the fourth consecutive year of growth in visitor spending.

Tourism directly generated more than $2.6 billion in state and local tax revenue over the previous year. Including tourism’s full ripple effect across Virginia’s economy, visitors saved the average Virginia household $1,020 in state and local taxes while helping fund schools, public safety, transportation, and other essential local services. Virginia’s tourism industry directly supported nearly 232,000 jobs, an increase of more than 2,700 jobs over the previous year and generated $10.6 billion in wages and salaries for Virginians.

UMW Reports More Than $14 Million in Gifts and Pledges Contributed in 2025-26

The University of Mary Washington wrapped up its 2025-26 fundraising year June 30, announcing that 5,434 donors contributed $14,081,090 from 10,912 gifts and pledges.

Their collective generosity helps UMW uphold its commitment to providing students with a transformative liberal arts and sciences education filled with meaningful learning experiences. These include undergraduate research, internships, study abroad and participation in arts and athletics, as well as service and leadership activities on campus and in the community.

“We’re deeply grateful to our new and longtime supporters for their continued investment in the future of the University,” said Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Engagement Katie Turcotte, who also serves as executive director of the UMW Foundation. “You’re helping students discover their purpose, seek new opportunities, find their voices and develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to make a difference in the world.”

UMW’s endowment reached $132.6 million, with donors contributing to a permanent source of support to strengthen scholarships, academic excellence, faculty innovation and the student experience.

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League of Women Voters of the Fredericksburg Area Marks a Decade Of Community Engagement

The League of Women Voters of the Fredericksburg Area is marking ten years since its reconstitution in June 2016—a decade spent bringing neighbors together, helping voters participate with confidence, and strengthening civic life throughout the region.

First organized locally in the 1970s and reconstituted in 2016, the nonpartisan League serves the City of Fredericksburg and Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania, and Stafford counties.

Over the past decade, League members have registered and educated voters, organized candidate forums, provided reliable election information, published voter resources, studied issues affecting the region, advocated on adopted League positions, and created opportunities for residents to learn about government and engage with one another.

“Although our members bring different backgrounds, experiences, interests, and perspectives to this work, we are united by a common purpose: empowering voters and defending democracy,” said Theodore Blackwell, president of the League of Women Voters of the Fredericksburg Area. “The League is not simply an organization. It is a community of neighbors and friends who believe that democracy is strongest when people have the information, access, and encouragement they need to take part.”

Open House Options at Mary Washington This Fall

Fall might be the perfect time for a family field trip to Fredericksburg, particularly for high school students.

That’s according to Northern Virginia Magazine, which noted, “If you’ve only whizzed by Fredericksburg while heading down I-95, it’s time for a little field trip. The ‘burg comes alive on the weekends: Stroll down Caroline Street, in the heart of historic downtown, past shops with enticing window dressing… While things are oriented around the town’s historic charm, evenings in Fredericksburg often turn buoyant. That’s because it’s a college town—home of the University of Mary Washington.”

The University of Mary Washington has plenty planned this fall, from weekday campus tours and info sessions to weekend open houses, starting Saturday, Sept. 26. Students and families attending an open house learn about academics, athletics, student life and more. Sign up for a weekday campus visit or weekend Open House at Mary Washington.

“Stepping onto a college campus and taking in all that it has to offer can help solidify a college decision,” said UMW Dean of Admissions and Associate Vice President Melissa Yakabouski. “You get a taste of life on campus, including dining options, an introduction to the academic environment and the faculty who will be your mentors, and quick meetings with the classmates who will become your friends. Plus, there’s plenty of time to explore a thriving downtown that’s walkable from campus.”

Additional fall open houses happen on Saturday, Oct. 17, with an afternoon of city festivities in Fredericksburg for Quack-toberfest in Riverfront Park, and Sunday, Nov. 8, with an option to catch the matinee performance of Dear Evan Hansen at the Klein Theatre. All Open House and campus tours are free to attend, with registration required, and lunch options available to purchase in the on-campus dining hall or downtown.

New this year are Twilight Tours on Wednesday, Sept. 23, and Tuesday, Oct. 27. These evening info sessions offer a student-led campus tour and evening cheering on the Eagles under the lights at the Battleground Athletic Complex. All regular-season UMW home games are free to attend.

Downtown Greens Announces D. Janelle Kennedy as New Executive Director

The Board of Directors of Downtown Greens has announced the appointment of D. Janelle Kennedy as the organization’s new Executive Director, effective September 28, 2026.

Kennedy brings a dynamic blend of leadership experience, vision, and a deep commitment to community engagement to Downtown Greens. In her role as Executive Director, she will work closely with the Board, staff, volunteers, and local partners to oversee operations, expand fundraising initiatives, and advance the organization’s vital mission in the Fredericksburg community. Crucially, Kennedy will oversee the organization’s next steps as it brings the historic Belman Campus project to fruition, a transformative milestone that marks a major leap forward in Downtown Greens’ expansion and long-term community impact.

To launch her tenure, Kennedy is planning a series of listening sessions with community leaders, supporters, and residents. These sessions are designed to gain an authentic read on the needs of the community and gather input on how residents envision the future of the organization. “We are excited about the experience, leadership, and vision Janelle brings to Downtown Greens,” said Kimberly Cartier, Acting Board President.

“We believe she will play an important role in strengthening our impact, guiding key growth milestones like the Belman Campus, and deepening our connection to the community we serve.”

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Like many twenty-somethings, I’ve done a few stints on dating apps over the years. I’ve made a few friends this way and met a special someone once or twice, but I am also a big critic of these platforms. Dating apps, to me, are comparable to cigarettes. People who use both know these things are bad; they know it’s unhealthy, but they do it anyway. So a while after my relationship ended––as did my graduate program, and thus a major part of my social life––I downloaded Hinge to meet new people. I soon forgot I had downloaded it, and a few weeks went by before I checked it again.

I kept the Hinge app separate from my home screen in the same little bubble where I attempt to hide Instagram from myself. As I went to sneak an Instagram scroll earlier this week, I noticed Hinge also sitting there—like old leftovers in the fridge. Curious to see if it was digestible, I opened the app and saw a message from the most recent user who attempted a match. His profile didn’t have a name, just “A,” like the anonymous stalker from the teen drama Pretty Little Liars.

I read it, reported “A,” and deleted Hinge––not just the app, but my whole account. I think a lot of people go through the download-and-delete cycle when it comes to dating apps, but it’s safe to say this was my final turn-off. Here’s what “A” wrote:

Go to ChatGPT, upload one of your photos, and type a prompt like, “Can you create a Kerala wedding bride look for me?” You can see how beautiful you look in a Kerala bridal style. You can see our wedding look!

:) please check out

“A” had confessed to using one of the photos from my profile––coincidentally, or maybe not, he left this message attached to a photo of me in a small, crocheted crop top––and uploading it into a generative AI server without my consent.

A few things occurred to me.

One: It could have been so much worse. He could have made a deepfake, but to my knowledge, he didn’t.

Two: If he hadn’t told me he had done this, I would never have known. Anyone can take any photo from a dating app and upload it into ChatGPT or similar platform and do whatever they want with it. I hadn’t realized that was something that could happen; I’d never thought about it. Nor, I assume, has any other decent, rational person.

With the rise of AI and other invasive technologies, women face new, uncharted threats in their dating––and everyday––lives. Meta Glasses, which have built-in cameras to record the user’s point of view, are one major part of this. Since the start of 2026, the BBC has run several articles about women finding videos of themselves online recorded on Meta Glasses that they were unaware had even been filmed.

Deepfakes are another threat; the Metropolitan Police in London defines them as “digitally created and altered content often in the form of fake images, videos and audio recordings.” The only categories that make them illegal, however, are intimate image abuse or “revenge porn,” child sexual abuse material, hate crime, fraud, false communication, terrorist activity, stalking and harassment, and blackmail.

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So reporting “A” on Hinge was really all I could do. But of course, as I thought about the message, more scenarios occurred to me. Now that “A” has uploaded an image of me, ChatGPT has that information––what my face and body look like––to generate anything at any point. If “A” wanted to generate another image or video using my likeness, he could. A random person anywhere in the world could ask ChatGPT to generate a photo or a video of a woman, and ChatGPT could pull characteristics of mine from that photo to use.

According to the site itself: “OpenAI’s foundation models, including the models that power ChatGPT, are developed using three primary sources of information: (1) information that is publicly available on the internet, (2) information that we partner with third parties to access, and (3) information that our users, human trainers, and researchers provide or generate.”

I know that everything posted on the internet is there forever, but I certainly didn’t anticipate that fact to manifest in such a harsh, invasive manner as generative AI training itself on that material.

Most––if not all––dating apps have protocols in place to ban users for inappropriate behavior and language. They also give users the option to report inappropriate behavior and language. But they could be doing more in terms of prevention. If Snapchat can alert users when their chat, story, or photo has been screenshotted, and Netflix can block screenshots on their platform, Hinge can adopt a similar protection. I think Hinge, and all dating apps, should ban screenshots entirely to block users from doing what “A” did, or worse.

I get it; it’s fun to show your friends who you’ve found on the apps. You want their opinion or to show them a sweet or funny message. I’ve taken a screenshot or two of endearing messages to show my friends, but now that I realize what risks there are, I am happy to give up that option for the sake of safety. Blocking screenshots won’t rule out 100 percent of digital threats or deepfakes, but it would make these things a lot harder to do. I’ve given up on the apps entirely, but for those who haven’t, I say that if they want to show something to their friends, they ought to do it in person.

***

Claire Marshall Watkins is an alumna of the University of Mary Washington, and has just completed a master’s in journalism at Goldsmiths, University of London. You can read more of her writing on her Substack, Virginia Magnolia.

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FREDLINES

Claire Marshall Watkins, ADVANCE CONTRIBUTOR

Fredericksburg Free Press

Caroline Board of Supervisors approve Carmel Technology and Enterprise Center

By Taft Coghill Jr. 09/23/2026

The Caroline County Board of Supervisors and community members shared varying viewpoints when it came to a proposed massive industrial park called the Carmel Technology and Enterprise Center.

During a board public hearing on Tuesday, Western Caroline District Supervisor Jeff Black expressed concerns about increased traffic along U.S. Route 1 and the fact that no end-user has been determined for the facility.

Bowling Green District Supervisor Jeff Sili doesn’t believe the road infrastructure can handle the development, while other officials were optimistic about the economic benefits and community projects that developer Luck Stone proposed in exchange for rezoning 916 acres from Rural Preservation to Industrial in the Reedy Church magisterial district.

Stafford still working to get to a 180-day school calendar

By Adele Uphaus 09/23/2026

The Stafford School Board on Tuesday asked to look at a calendar for the 2027-28 academic year that removes all cultural or religious holidays, preserving only federal and state holidays.

The board and division staff are working to build a 180-day school year calendar as the first step in a multi-pronged plan to increase instructional time, after a committee formed to work on calendars for the next two years realized that Stafford’s students aren’t getting enough instructional time.

The Virginia Administrative Code dictates that the standard school year “shall be 180 instructional days or 990 instructional hours,” and while Stafford has met the requirement for instructional hours, it has not met the 180-day requirement since 2021. The current school year calendar is 172 days long, and last year’s was 171 days long.

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The Free Lance-Star

Stabbing reported in downtown Fredericksburg Tuesday night (paywalled)

By Scott Shenk 09/23/2026

A Fredericksburg man is in jail, and another is hospitalized following a stabbing in downtown Fredericksburg late Wednesday night.

According to the Fredericksburg Police Department, a call came in at approximately 8:48 p.m. to the Fredericksburg 911 Center “for a stabbing injury in the 500 block of Caroline Street.”

The stabbing happened near the Caroline Street Market & Deli.

The police statement said that when officers arrived, “they located the victim suffering from a wound consistent with a stabbing. The victim was transported to a nearby hospital, where they are being treated for life-threatening injuries.”

Work to start on section of Route 1 in Fredericksburg (paywalled)

By Scott Shenk 09/23/2026

A year-long project aimed at improving traffic flow and pedestrian upgrades is set to start Wednesday on a section of U.S. 1 in Fredericksburg.

The $4.7-million project will include various changes along the four-lane highway between the Stafford Avenue and the College Avenue/Eagle Village Drive intersections.

The Virginia Department of Transportation said the work will lead to periodic overnight lane closures and some daytime closures.

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ADVANCE READS

Donnie Johnston, Phil Huber

Dumb and Dumber

I have very little patience with ignorance, especially when it is treated almost as a virtue.

Despite all our diplomas and degrees, the average American is not very smart. And with the advent of artificial intelligence, we are getting dumber all the time. Many of us are very content to let a machine do the thinking for us.

These days, a degree is no reflection on a person’s intelligence. You can buy a degree. Almost anyone can earn a degree if he has the money to hang in there long enough. College has become a business, a factory to manufacture degrees, some with majors that would have made people laugh out loud 50 years ago.

READ ON

Before Voting, Demand the Receipts

Phil Huber, ADVANCE COLUMNIST

President Donald Trump will take the stage this fall to campaign for Republican candidates. He will tell voters that those candidates deserve to win because they support his agenda, protect his policies, and will keep the country moving in his direction.

He will be campaigning for them. But he will also be campaigning for himself.

The president understands the bargain. If voters elect Republicans who promise to carry his program forward, they are doing more than choosing a senator or a member of Congress. They are being asked to renew his presidency through other people.

That is why the president’s record belongs in this election.

READ ON

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STATE OF THE STATE

VaNews/VIRGINIA PUBLIC ACCESS PROJECT

Clean Virginia: NextEra’s utility takeover attempts, alleged political moves relevant to merger case

By SHANNON HECKT, Virginia Mercury

Clean Virginia, a clean energy policy advocacy group and an intervenor in the Dominion Energy-NextEra Energy merger case, told the State Corporation Commission in a Tuesday hearing that NextEra’s past political ties and attempts to acquire utilities deserve scrutiny in regulators’ review of the proposed $67 billion merger. Ahead of the evidentiary hearings beginning later this year, involved parties are working through the discovery portion of the merger case, as legal teams develop their strategy and dig up relevant information to support arguments for or against the approval of the merger. Clean Virginia insisted that the Florida-based NextEra’s past political dealings should be considered as part of that process.

RGGI allowance prices soar with Va.’s return to compact

By MAGGIE ALLWEIN, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)

In Virginia’s first auction as a renewed member of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the selling price and proceeds have more than doubled since the last time the state participated. Energy experts are split on the implications for utility customers and Virginians, but agree that the increase was expected. Energy suppliers are able to pass the cost of RGGI onto consumers, but the generated revenue in Virginia funds three priorities, including utility customer rebates for the first time.

Virginia balks at agreement on effects of Trump arch on historic sites

By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)

Virginia won’t sign an agreement with the National Park Service on how a massive “triumphal arch” proposed by President Donald Trump next to Arlington National Cemetery would harm surrounding historic resources and how to minimize the damage. Those resources include a view between the Lincoln Memorial and the former home of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, conceived more than a century ago as a symbol of reconciliation between the North and South after the Civil War. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources informed the park service on Monday that it would be “premature” for the state to sign a proposed memorandum of agreement, which it said does not adequately identify the historic resources the project could affect or how to minimize harm to them.

Spanberger presses Congress for AI guardrails

By MARKUS SCHMIDT, Virginia Mercury

Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Tuesday called on Congress to set national rules for artificial intelligence, warning that its rapid development could threaten jobs, privacy and public resources if oversight remains largely in the hands of the companies building it. In a letter to congressional leaders, the Virginia Democrat urged federal action while pledging to pursue measures within the state’s authority. She sent the letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

General Assembly panel calls for more help for the hungry

By DAVE RESS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)

As more and more Virginians struggle to pay for groceries, a General Assembly panel wants to push again to expand state help for the hungry. Cuts to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in President Donald Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” and a new survey showing half of Virginian households with children don’t have consistent access to enough food, give a new urgency to Virginia’s hunger issues, members of the General Assembly’s Commission to End Hunger said Tuesday.

Virginia Native American tribes wanted to join the Chesapeake Bay partnership. Not anymore.

By CHRISTINE CONDON, Maryland Matters

Seven federally recognized Native American tribes are ending their bid to formally join the Chesapeake Bay cleanup, saying they have been disappointed by the response from Bay Program leaders. The Virginia-based tribes began their quest last January, hoping to be added as a single signatory — the status awarded to each of the state governments surrounding the bay — when elected officials in the Chesapeake Bay region approved a new agreement for restoring the bay in December.

***

Articles from newspapers throughout the Commonwealth and Washington D.C. Firewalls will block you from reading some, but you’ll at least have some idea about what’s going on from the headlines and summaries. CLICK HERE.

This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”

President Donald Trump will take the stage this fall to campaign for Republican candidates. He will tell voters that those candidates deserve to win because they support his agenda, protect his policies, and will keep the country moving in his direction.

He will be campaigning for them. But he will also be campaigning for himself.

The president understands the bargain. If voters elect Republicans who promise to carry his program forward, they are doing more than choosing a senator or a member of Congress. They are being asked to renew his presidency through other people.

That is why the president’s record belongs in this election.

And so do the receipts.

A campaign rally is designed to make people feel good. It is built around applause lines: the border is secure; taxes are lower; energy is abundant; America is strong; Iran has been stopped.

A receipt is different. It is not what a politician wants to talk about. It is the full account of what was purchased, what it cost, and who paid.

The president will say he fixed immigration. The Republicans he is campaigning for will cheer. They should also be asked about the people caught in the machinery they funded, defended, and in too many cases allowed to operate without restraint.

The administration can claim a sharp drop in releases at the southern border. Customs and Border Protection says it has recorded 14 consecutive months in which no migrants encountered at the border were released into the country. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

That is a fact. But it is only one line of the receipt.

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Congress chose to put enormous new enforcement resources behind the administration’s program. The Republican-backed Secure America Act became law in June and provides $70 billion through fiscal year 2029 for the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and related immigration enforcement. (Congress.gov)

When a president gets that much money, he gets the ability to make sweeping choices. He can choose whom to target, whom to detain, whom to deport, and how much room due process will have in the system.

The administration has used that power far beyond people convicted of violent crimes. CBS News reported from federal data that, in July, ICE arrested more than 800 people a day who had no criminal record. People without criminal convictions made up more than half of ICE arrests that month. Many are accused of civil immigration violations, not criminal offenses. (CBS News)

That distinction is not legal trivia. It is the difference between a violent offender and someone whose status paperwork has lapsed, whose visa expired, whose protection was revoked, or whose immigration case has not been resolved.

The Trump administration has also stripped Temporary Protected Status from large groups of people who had been allowed to live and work in the United States legally under protections granted by the federal government. When that protection disappears, people who were here lawfully can become subject to removal. (The Guardian)

And this enforcement effort has reached people connected to nations and communities that helped the United States during war. In August, reporting documented the deportation to the Central African Republic of an Afghan man whose brothers had worked with the U.S. military. His lawyer and advocates said he had been granted protection in the United States. (Los Angeles Times)

People in Fredericksburg understand the moral weight of a promise made in wartime. This is a military community. We have veterans, military families, federal workers, contractors, and neighbors who served alongside people from Afghanistan and other allied nations. The United States asked local people overseas to help Americans. We should not treat our obligation to them as disposable when politics change.

A Republican candidate who campaigns with the president cannot simply say, “The border is secure.” He or she should explain whether a civil immigration violation is now to be treated as though it were a criminal conviction. He or she should explain whether a person who was legally present yesterday can be deportable tomorrow because the government rescinded the protection it granted. And he or she should explain why Congress supplied billions for detention and removal but has failed, again, to fix an immigration system that has been broken for decades.

Then the president will talk about taxes.

He will say Republicans lowered them. Some taxpayers will agree. They may have more money in their paychecks, and small-business owners may welcome lower rates and more predictable tax rules.

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But the receipt has more than one line.

The Congressional Budget Office projects a $1.9 trillion federal deficit in 2026 and projects debt held by the public to rise to $3.1 trillion by 2036, above the highest level recorded after World War II. (Congressional Budget Office)

No party has a monopoly on fiscal discipline. Both parties have spent money they did not have. Both have avoided hard choices.

But Republicans in Congress cannot run from this particular receipt. They passed the tax and spending law. The Office of Management and Budget estimated that legislation enacted in 2025 added $4.4 trillion to deficits through 2035, largely because of the reconciliation law’s tax cuts and other provisions. (Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget)

Put it plainly: they passed the bill; the country gets the bill.

Then add tariffs. Republicans call them a tool to protect American industry, push back against unfair trade, and encourage companies to build here. Those goals may be worthy. But tariffs are not paid by a foreign country in the way campaign speeches often suggest. They travel through the supply chain and land in prices paid by American businesses and consumers.

The Budget Lab at Yale estimated that the tariff policies then in place would raise prices by 0.5 percent to 0.7 percent and cost the average household roughly $760 to $940 if certain tariffs expired as scheduled. If they continued, the estimated household cost rose to roughly $1,200 to $1,500. (The Budget Lab at Yale)

That is not an economic theory for a family in the Fredericksburg area. It is a higher bill for a refrigerator, a car repair, school supplies, appliances, tools, clothes, and the goods trucked up Interstate 95 to local stores and restaurants.

The president may call that economic strength. Republican candidates may applaud. But if they want credit for tax relief, they also own the debt and the price increases that follow from their choices.

Next comes energy.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts that U.S. marketed natural-gas production will average a record 122.5 billion cubic feet per day in 2026, exceeding the prior record of 118.5 billion cubic feet per day set in 2025. (U.S. Energy Information Administration)

But energy production is not the same thing as energy affordability.

People here do not measure energy policy by the number of barrels, leases, or press releases issued in Washington. They measure it by what they pay to fill a tank, heat a home, keep the lights on, run a business, and move goods through a growing region.

The Iran war drove up fuel prices. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that, on March 30, the national average retail diesel price reached $5.40 a gallon—the highest level in real terms in more than two years—after the February 28 military action in the Middle East and the resulting disruption of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. (U.S. Energy Information Administration)

For this region, diesel is not a specialty fuel. It powers the trucks moving along I-95, delivers food and medicine to stores, runs construction equipment, supports local service businesses, and adds cost to almost everything a family buys. When diesel reaches $5.40 a gallon, that price does not stay at the pump. A restaurant pays more. A store pays more. Then every customer pays more.

This is where the president’s energy claim meets his Iran claim. You cannot boast about “energy dominance” while waging a war that drives up the fuel price paid by the people you are asking to vote for your party.

Finally, he will say he stopped Iran.

Iran is dangerous. It has supported armed groups that threaten American interests and Israel. It has pursued nuclear capabilities that threaten the region and the world. Nobody should be casual about that danger.

The American and Israeli strikes did real damage. The Arms Control Association concluded that the attacks severely damaged Iran’s operating enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow, likely leaving them unable to enrich uranium at that time. (Arms Control Association)

But the receipt does not say, “Iran stopped.” It says, “War.”

The United States and Israel began attacks on Iran on February 28. Six months later, ABC News described the conflict as a deeply unpopular stalemate. By that point, 18 U.S. service members had been killed and more than 750 had been wounded. (ABC News)

That is not a footnote in Fredericksburg. This is a community that knows the cost of war. It is measured in deployments, phone calls home, spouses carrying the burden alone, veterans who remember the last war, and families who know that “national security” can arrive at their front door.

And Congress has its own receipt.

The Constitution gives Congress—not the president alone—the power to declare war. Yet Congress did not approve a declaration of war or a specific authorization for the use of military force against Iran before the president acted. A proposed 2026 authorization itself states that Congress had not declared war or enacted a specific authorization for hostilities against Iran. (Congress.gov)

Republicans in Congress had choices. They could have demanded a vote. They could have insisted on defined objectives, a time limit, reporting requirements, limits on ground troops, and a clear strategy for ending the war. Instead, Congress stood aside while the president widened executive war powers.

That silence is not neutrality. It is a decision.

So when President Trump stands beside Republican candidates this fall, listen carefully. He will tell us what he believes he achieved. They will tell us they are the people who will continue it.

Then ask them what they will do with the receipts.

Will they defend the removal of people whose only offense is a civil immigration violation? Will they honor the commitments America made to those who helped us in war? Will they explain why tax cuts come paired with trillions more in debt and tariffs that raise costs for local families? Will they explain why a promise of lower energy costs has been followed by diesel above $5 a gallon? Will they explain why Congress stayed silent while another war expanded without its authorization?

They are not running alongside the president’s record.

Congress helped make it.

And if they want to continue it, voters are entitled to ask for the receipt.

***

Phil Huber is a retired Army Reserve colonel, federal civil servant and consultant who writes on civic education. He lives in Fredericksburg.

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I have very little patience with ignorance, especially when it is treated almost as a virtue.

Despite all our diplomas and degrees, the average American is not very smart. And with the advent of artificial intelligence, we are getting dumber all the time. Many of us are very content to let a machine do the thinking for us.

These days, a degree is no reflection on a person’s intelligence. You can buy a degree. Almost anyone can earn a degree if he has the money to hang in there long enough. College has become a business, a factory to manufacture degrees, some with majors that would have made people laugh out loud 50 years ago.

Don’t try to impress me with your college degrees. I know people with a wall full of them that are as—at least in my humble opinion—dumb as dirt.

I have always maintained that a college degree should come with the guarantee of a job in your chosen field. After all, what else are you going to fork out $200,000 for that comes with no guarantee?

You buy a house, you get a guarantee. You buy a $200,000 car, you better durn well get a guarantee. But you get yourself in a lifetime of debt for a college degree and there is no warranty. You are on your own.

But then it would be almost impossible for a college to place 200 graduates with philosophy degrees in the high-paying jobs the school promises. Philosophers do not earn big bucks in our society.

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The truth is that very few Americans really want knowledge. They simply want a degree and the high-salaried job that supposedly comes with it. Too often they graduate from high school and college with no training or actual education to function in the real world. Thank God Walmart needs employees.

These people have at least made an attempt to become educated, but there is another group that treats knowledge as if it is a plague. They absolutely refuse to learn. The most ignorant people in the world who, when faced with the possibility of gaining knowledge, flatly state, “I don’t need or want to know that!”

That makes me want to scream! I want to know and learn everything I can. I want to keep informed daily about what is going on in the world, and I want to learn any piece of information that will make me a smarter person.

But it often seems that I am alone in my quest for knowledge. The majority of the people I know are absolutely content to remain ignorant. They act as if learning is a burden, not a chance to improve your mind.

Me? I’d much rather watch a TV show that provides education than one of those stupid sitcoms that insults my intelligence. I want to learn—all I can about everything out there. I have a thirst for knowledge that cannot be quenched.

When I tell people this, many look at me like I am a fool. “Why do you want to know that? How can it possibly help you?”

I want to know it because it is there to learn. It makes me think, wonder, reason, investigate. I may never have occasion to use that knowledge, but I have the satisfaction of knowing it is there in my brain if I ever need it.

It also helps me confront ignorance. They say a good lawyer never asks a question unless he already knows the answer. You don’t want to get blindsided in public.

That has always been my motto in life. I want to know the answer before anyone asks the question. You seldom get conned if you are one step ahead of the other guy, especially if he is trying to use double-talk to bluff you.

American ignorance goes down other paths. There are those who would refute scientific evidence simply because they do not understand the concept. And there are others who just close their minds for no apparent reason. They just don’t want to learn anything new, or they fear that what they learn will conflict with their beliefs.

God gave us a brain to learn, to absorb the knowledge of the world around us. We should use it. The Bible refers to the importance of knowledge numerous times. Learning—until the day you die—is important.

We should never be satisfied with what we already know. Leaning is a lifetime quest. But to learn you must have an open mind, and we find ourselves in a close-minded culture.

Sometimes I wish I had three lifetimes to learn all there is to know. There is so much to absorb and so little time to absorb it.

I treat every moment of every day as a lesson, a chance to learn something new, to figure something out, to solve some problem.

My final thoughts before sleep are usually reflections on what I learned and accomplished that day. Because to function for 16 hours and learn nothing new is a terrible waste of precious time.

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FREDLINES

Claire Marshall Watkins, ADVANCE CONTRIBUTOR

Fredericksburg Free Press

‘You have to talk neighbor-to-neighbor about this:’ League of Women Voters holds community conversation on data centers

By Adele Uphaus 09/22/2026

That desire for knowledge and the chance to talk face-to-face with neighbors about data centers was what drove many area residents to Curitiba Art Cafe on Monday for LWV’s program.

Many said they feel like data centers have come to dominate local and national news with such speed that the average busy person hasn’t been able to catch up.

“There is so much stated information about data centers, and it only seems to come from people who are for them or against them,” said Fredericksburg resident Lawrence Lefkiewicz. “We need straightforward information.”

Spanberger presses Congress for AI guardrails as states forge ahead

By Markus Schmidt, Virginia Mercury 09/22/2026

Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Tuesday called on Congress to set national rules for artificial intelligence, warning that its rapid development could threaten jobs, privacy and public resources if oversight remains largely in the hands of the companies building it.

In a letter to congressional leaders, the Virginia Democrat urged federal action while pledging to pursue measures within the state’s authority. She sent the letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

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The Free Lance-Star

More felony charges for suspect in former stepdaughter’s disappearance (paywalled)

By Keith Epps 09/22/2026

A Spotsylvania man who has been named as the main suspect in the case of a young woman who went missing nearly 11 years ago was charged with 13 more felony counts on Monday.

James Robert Branton, 46, was indicted by a Spotsylvania grand jury on 13 counts of possessing child pornography. Branton has been in jail since April on charges that include aggravated sexual battery, indecent liberties with a child, child cruelty and indecent exposure of a child.

Teen indicted in 2 shootings in which same person was shot (paywalled)

By Keith Epps 09/22/2026

A Spotsylvania teenager was indicted on multiple charges Monday stemming from incidents in 2024 during which three homes were shot into, and the same person was shot twice.

Ja’Qualin Devon Banks, 18, is charged with two counts of malicious wounding, two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony and three counts of shooting into an occupied home. Banks was 16 at the time the offenses occurred, but is being prosecuted as an adult.

Virginia authorities indict man in human smuggling case

By Keith Epps 09/22/2026

A Spotsylvania County man is accused of forcing an undocumented woman to assist him in a human smuggling operation, court records show.

Misael Alvarez Puentes, 38, is charged with abduction, conspiracy to commit abduction, racketeering, assault and two counts of obstructing justice. He was indicted Monday by a Spotsylvania grand jury.

Criminal charges filed against three for child abuse acts (paywalled)

By Keith Epps 09/22/2026

Three people accused of having illegal sexual contact with teenagers in Spotsylvania were indicted this week by a county grand jury.

Vladimir Ortiz, 60, of Brentwood, New York, is charged with aggravated sexual battery and sodomy. He is accused of molesting a boy who was 16 when Ortiz came to Spotsylvania in February 2024 for a visit.

Pablo Enrique Rosa Garcia, 41, of Spotsylvania, was indicted on charges of object sexual penetration and indecent liberties with a child for offenses alleged to have occurred between late May and July 31 of last year.

The third suspect, 30-year-old Rachelle N. Suttles of Colonial Beach, was a counselor at a youth center in Stafford. According to court documents, Suttles is accused of touching a boy’s penis on multiple occasions during outings away from the center.

Spotsylvania County road to remain closed for pipe work (paywalled)

By Scott Shenk 09/22/2026

A section of Catharpin Road in Spotsylvania, which closed last week for drainage pipe repairs, will remain closed most of this week, the Virginia Department of Transportation said Monday.

Three pipes were repaired last week. Crews will be working on more pipes this week.

The section of road between Corbin Lane and Bluff Hill Way will be closed from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. beginning Monday and continuing through Thursday.

Driveways in the work zone will remain open for residents.

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ADVANCE READS

Ranjit Singh, Steve Watkins

That Tree

Ranjit Singh, ADVANCE ENVIRONMENTAL COLUMNIST

Many of us who hike and explore our environs share a secret relationship with a special tree. That is, a tree that has personal meaning to us.

A tree that we first met perhaps many years ago, and that we bonded with. That we return to for comfort, habit, or merely for its presence. And a tree that we therefore feel in some way partnered with, even if logic tells us that the connection runs a bit one-way.

But we’re not talking about the logical mind or rationalism here. Rather, we’re talking about a core reason why we hike and enter nature.

READ ON

FXBG Advance Retreating on Data Center Ads (and a Few More Updates)

Steve Watkins, ADVANCE EDITOR

The previous editor of The FXBG Advance solicited ads and other forms of financial support from data center companies and the minions who represent them. You may have seen their “sponsored content” on these pages in the past. Some of those ads, under long-term contract, are still running and will continue until the financial commitments end.

That said, I’m writing to let our readers know that The Advance won’t be taking any more ads from data center companies, or from anyone promoting or representing them, going forward. Our writing over the past four months about data centers’ harmful financial, environmental, and aesthetic impacts on the community should make it clear why we’ve come to this decision—most recently my Sunday, Sept. 20 post “Wedding Day.”

READ ON

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STATE OF THE STATE

VaNews/VIRGINIA PUBLIC ACCESS PROJECT

‘A different deal on the table’: AG Jay Jones asks SCC to reset the clock on Dominion-NextEra merger

By SHANNON HECKT, Virginia Mercury

Attorney General Jay Jones told state regulators Friday that they should reset the 180-day review time period for the $67 billion Dominion Energy-NextEra Energy merger proposal, after the companies unveiled expanded conditions of the deal last week. On Sept. 14, Dominion and NextEra jointly filed supplemental documents to the State Corporation Commission outlining new additions to the proposal, including extending residential customers’ bill credits to four years instead of two. The companies also pitched five-year job protections for Virginia staff working on the project, instead of 18 months, and a promise of a new office tower in downtown Richmond.

Trump administration pushes back on critics of voter probe

By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is defending its search of what it called “publicly available data” in personal voting records in Virginia and other states, even though Attorney General Jay Jones said the federal actions may violate state law. A spokesperson for the department called the “Unlawful Voter Initiative” a necessary response to prevent non-citizens from voting in U.S. elections, but did not directly address a letter that Jones sent to Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin last week to determine whether federal homeland security employees had posed as targeted voters or their authorized representatives to view personal voting records.

Could Virginia’s new law allowing 1% sales tax for school construction need a fix?

By NATHANIEL CLINE, Virginia Mercury

A new state law allowing localities to raise revenue for school construction has opened opportunities but also raised questions, with some local leaders and lawmakers asking if it could create funding shortfalls for localities that approve the measure. Right before the July 1 deadline, Virginia passed a budget that included language allowing localities, pending voter support, to raise a 1% sales tax primarily to cover school construction due to unprecedented costs.... The tax cap will last for 20 years after local leaders pass a resolution. The resolution must specify the tax’s expiration date or, if the projects are financed through bonds or loans, when the borrower must repay those obligations. This can make the timeline harder to manage when financing happens later.

VPAP Visual Early Voting by Congressional District

The Virginia Public Access Project

Early voting has begun for Virginia’s November elections. Check back for daily updates showing the number of ballots cast by congressional district. For more data, including comparisons to past years, and locality results, see VPAP’s early voting dashboard.

Va. Senate race taking place outside national spotlight

By HUGH LESSIG, Cardinal News

Several U.S. Senate races have captured national attention during the 2026 election season, but Virginia isn’t one of them, at least so far. The contest between Democratic Sen. Mark Warner and Republican challenger Bert Mizusawa has taken a back seat to political dramas in Texas, Michigan, Maine, South Carolina and a handful of other states. Warner and Mizusawa don’t care that they’re flying under the radar. It’s the one thing they have in common.

Food insecurity soars in Virginia, study shows

By DAVE RESS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)

Roughly half of Virginia families with children didn’t have consistent access to enough food for a healthy life at some point over the 12 months ended in May, a new survey found. Overall, roughly four in 10 Virginia households were food insecure, a huge jump from the 10% figure the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported last year before it stopped issuing its state food insecurity data, a survey commissioned by Virginia food banks, the state Department of Social Services and No Kid Hungry Virginia found.

Amid Cuts, Rural Diabetes Clinic Struggles to Provide Care

By KUNLE FALAYI, Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism

Dr. Dana Stallings sat at a small desk in her consultation room, looking at charts and records on a computer when her next patient, John Hoofnagle, arrived with his wife of 50 years, Joann. Once pleasantries were out of the way, Stallings looked at Hoofnagle’s blood sugar readings and quickly dipped her hand into a drawer and came out with a fistful of assorted crackers. “Start munching,” she said, in an effort to prevent the symptoms of low blood sugar like shakiness, dizziness, or weakness. “At this point, you have 3% low blood sugar. I’m not happy with that.” Moments like this are the cadence of this day in early August. Stallings, a doctor of nursing practice, opened Southside Diabetes in Franklin four years ago with a specific promise: people around this small Southside Virginia town would not have to travel hours for specialized diabetes care.

***

Articles from newspapers throughout the Commonwealth and Washington D.C. Firewalls will block you from reading some, but you’ll at least have some idea about what’s going on from the headlines and summaries. CLICK HERE.

This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”

The previous editor of The FXBG Advance solicited ads and other forms of financial support from data center companies and the minions who represent them. You may have seen their “sponsored content” on these pages in the past. Some of those ads, under long-term contract, are still running and will continue until the financial commitments end.

That said, I’m writing to let our readers know that The Advance won’t be taking any more ads from data center companies, or from anyone promoting or representing them, going forward. Our writing over the past four months about data centers’ harmful financial, environmental, and aesthetic impacts on the community should make it clear why we’ve come to this decision—most recently my Sunday, Sept. 20 post “Wedding Day.”

Plenty of folks won’t agree, and I expect we may lose a few subscribers as a result. Some have already made their displeasure known.

“The Advance should be re-named The Retreat.,” one reader wrote in response to my Sunday post. “It has devolved into an echo chamber for a preening, fear-mongering gaggle of Luddites.”

That may be so, but at least we have the English Romantic poet Lord Byron on our side. (For context, you may want to read “What the Luddites Really Fought Against,” in The Smithsonian.)

“Song for the Luddites”

By Lord George Gordon Byron

1.
As the Liberty lads o’er the sea
Bought their freedom, and cheaply, with blood,
So we, boys, we
Will die fighting, or live free,
And down with all kings but King Ludd!

2.
When the web that we weave is complete,
And the shuttle exchanged for the sword,
We will fling the winding sheet
O’er the despot at our feet,
And dye it deep in the gore he has poured.

3.
Though black as his heart its hue,
Since his veins are corrupted to mud,
Yet this is the dew
Which the tree shall renew
Of Liberty, planted by Ludd!

***

THE ADVANCE still needs money—

—to stay in operation, minus the corporate sponsors, who despite what they promise, always want, and always get, their pound of flesh.

So if you’re an unpaid Advance subscriber, maybe consider becoming a paid one at $8 a month, or $80 a year. If you’re already a paid subscriber and have the wherewithal and a large enough bank account, maybe give some thought to becoming a Founding Member. The default Founding Member amount listed is $500, but you’re welcome to pledge more (or less). You can find all the subscription options HERE.

And if you want to talk about advertising, or hand me a wad of cash in a Cava bag, give me a call at (540)842-2066 or email me at swatkins000@gmail.com.

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Here, in any event, is some of what you get in The Advance that you won’t get anywhere else around these parts:

All the news under one roof

Daily Fredlines, Virginia News headlines, and Advance Reads, Monday through Saturday: Ledes and summaries of local and state and Advance articles and posts from The Free Lance-Star, the Fredericksburg Free Press, the Potomac Local News, the Virginia Public Access Project—and us.

You don’t have to go anywhere else for your local and state news, but with links to all those other media outlets’ posts—the work of dedicated journalists working their tails off—we encourage you to read further, and make it easy for you to get there.

The Free Lance-Star, The Fredericksburg Free Press—those folks are all about the daily news, and we appreciate what they do. We cover our selective share of it too: breaking stories on threatened destruction of cherished trees in downtown Fredericksburg, a radiology group filing a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against Mary Washington Healthcare, a King George School Board’s anti-GLBTQ+ actions making national news, planned construction of a 400-foot cell phone tower next to a city school and subdivision, a majority of Fredericksburg City Council members announcing in advance that they’re opposing another data center in town.

What we also do—which they don’t—is go above and beyond, with personal essays, advocacy reporting, deep dives, offbeat features, and expert commentators weighing in on what it all means:

Our own Heather Cox Richardson

Many of our readers already subscribe to Heather Cox Richardson’s excellent and essential Letters from an American daily newsletter with updates, analysis, and historical context on national and international news. The Advance has her local counterpart, Phil Huber, a retired colonel in the U.S. Army-Reserves, Vietnam War veteran, former Military Intelligence officer, U.S. State Department Kuwaiti Oil Fires Team Leader, Deputy Civil Affairs Commander, NATO Implementation Force, and civic educator. Phil takes on a lot of the same issues and political developments as Richardson—and then some: exploring their local impact and significance and ways for us to effectively respond.

Our own Aldo Leopold

Ranjit Singh has lived his entire life on or a stone’s throw away from Crow’s Nest and Potomac Creek—except for extended forays for research and work in the Middle East. In his own substack No Lines in Nature, and as Environmental Columnist for The Advance, Ranjit brings an insightful, passionate, preservationist’s knowledge, voice, and perspective on the natural world, and what rapidly vanishing features of it we still have left in our precious, and shrinking, corner of Virginia.

And More

· Editor Steve Watkins, national award-winning author and investigative journalist whose 15 books published by Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Candlewick, the University of Georgia, and SMU Press have sold 1.5 million copies.

· Steve Farnsworth, retired professor emeritus of Political Science, former director of the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, and author of eight books, including Late Night with Trump: Political Humor and the American Presidency.

· Edie Gross, award-winning journalist, humor columnist, and child advocate.

· Lauren Bock, Preventative Cardiology P.A. and Health and Wellness Counselor.

· Drew Gallagher, humor writer, whose new essay collection Funny for Nothing prompted a near riot for copies at a recent J. Brian’s barside book signing, although it was a Friday and also Happy Hour.

Just to name a few.

Oh, yeah, and with enough funding, we’ll bring back the obits. No firewall.

***

One last thing

I’ll be hanging out at Curitiba Art Café in downtown Fredericksburg tomorrow, Wednesday, Sept. 23, from 1-3 if you want to drop by for coffee and conversation. Bring your ideas, feedback, concerns, suggestions, whatever. I’ll have a sack of my books—author comps from publishers—to give away and sign. Hope to see you there.

Share

Many of us who hike and explore our environs share a secret relationship with a special tree. That is, a tree that has personal meaning to us.

A tree that we first met perhaps many years ago, and that we bonded with. That we return to for comfort, habit, or merely for its presence. And a tree that we therefore feel in some way partnered with, even if logic tells us that the connection runs a bit one-way.

But we’re not talking about the logical mind or rationalism here. Rather, we’re talking about a core reason why we hike and enter nature.

I have such a tree. That’s it above. And here.

As you’ll immediately notice, “my” tree is long dead. It’s what’s called a snag. We know it continues to support surrounding life in many important ways. But its own life—in the conventional sense—ended some years ago. In this tree’s case, I suspect, some decades ago. It’s hard to imagine now that this stoic corpse was ever alive, much less a sapling. I certainly never knew it in that condition.

But this tree’s powerful presence drew me in from first glance. It reminded me of a recurring sense I’d felt as a child: the possibility that all the trees standing before us are themselves the root systems of a forest found in another, inverted world immediately below us. Each trunk or branch reaching towards the sky is really a taproot, anchoring the upside-down (to us) tree into our perceptual world. It was a thought-vision of an alternative world that, unbeknownst to us, existed just under our feet. Like some missing illustration from The Little Prince.

I pass by this “dead” tree regularly. It stands beside an unremarkable trail where other people see it, too. A hiker would need only 45 minutes on the trail to find it, if she were looking.

But I’ve never observed anyone else pause to take it in. Or, as I do, touch it, hug it, and say a few words of thanks. My tree ritual has by now evolved into something between a habit, a tic, a prayer, and a superstition.

And I ask this tree to take care of the people I love. After making certain no one is watching, of course. I treat it like it’s a secret. Like we’re a secret.

I would only bring a most special friend to meet my tree. If I tried to explain its significance and my “relationship” to this dead tree to most people—even fellow hikers and naturalists—I’m afraid they’d think I’ve gone bonkers. Or just look at me differently from then on.

Such presences recover the suppressed animist in all of us. There are no atheists in foxholes, they say. In the forest, we nature lovers all become mystics.

The late poet Laura Gilpin knew this, and wrote about in in her poem “Life After Death.” Here’s an excerpt:

The things I know:

how the living go on living

and how the dead go on living with them

So that in a forest

even a dead tree casts a shadow

and the leaves fall one by one

and the branches break in the wind

and the bark peels off slowly

and the trunk cracks

and the rain seeps in through the cracks

and the trunk falls to the ground

and the moss covers it

and in the spring the rabbits find it

and build their nest inside

and have their young

and their young will live safely

inside the dead tree

So that nothing is wasted in nature

or in love.

***

Ranjit Singh teaches in the Department of Political Science and International Affairs at the University of Mary Washington. He’s also an active environmentalist. His “No Lines in Nature” Substack blends history, science, and philosophy to explore our relationship with the natural world world. You can find it HERE, and an earlier version of this essay HERE.

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FREDLINES

Claire Marshall Watkins, ADVANCE CONTRIBUTOR

University of Mary Washington News

Cancelled: Sept. 22 Public Debate for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District at UMW

The public debate for challengers for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 22, at the University of Mary Washington, has been cancelled.

UMW recently learned that Republican candidate Doug Ollivant is no longer available to participate on the rescheduled date. With candidates from both major parties now unavailable, the event can no longer proceed in the format originally intended.

For additional background on the originally planned debate that is now cancelled, please see the prior news release.

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Fredericksburg Free Press

Museum of Culpeper History, partners to dedicate new marker to the Manahoac Indians

By Adele Uphaus 09/21/2026

The Museum of Culpeper History will unveil a new marker this weekend dedicated to the Manaoac Indians, the indigenous tribe that once occupied territory stretching from present-day Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania ,and Culpeper west to the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The marker will be located at the Rappahannock River Campground in eastern Culpeper County, near the confluence of the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers. This is the area where the Manahoac established a town, known as Hasinninga.

On the Marines, Strawberry Shortcake and saving a man’s life in Fredericksburg

By Jonathan Hunley 09/21/2026

As a Marine, Cpl. Harleigh Faulk is used to wearing a uniform. But she couldn’t have known that she would be called to duty in another outfit — a Strawberry Shortcake Halloween costume.

Well, OK, her task wasn’t technically part of a military operation. But it helped to save a man’s life and got her a Navy Achievement Medal last month.

Last Halloween, Faulk, a native of the Carolinas who’s stationed at the Quantico base, was with 10 or 11 other Marines at The Sky Bar in downtown Fredericksburg.

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Potomac Local News

News Links: Spanberger Unveils Data Center Rules; Manassas Weighs First Friday Today

According to the Office of the Governor, Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Friday unveiled what her office called the nation’s most comprehensive data center accountability effort and signed Executive Order 22 to start putting pieces of it in motion. The framework is built around transparency, environmental standards, energy costs, grid and clean-energy rules, and workforce conditions. The order also creates a state AI task force on workforce displacement, privacy and cybersecurity.

The plan would ban nondisclosure agreements on commercial data center projects, end by-right approval for facilities using more than 25 megawatts, require community benefits agreements, drop large projects from fast-track state permitting, and cut data centers from state site-development subsidies. The governor’s office said the package will mix immediate agency directives with legislation aimed at the 2027 General Assembly. Data center proposals have stacked up across Prince William, Stafford and the Fredericksburg region.

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ADVANCE READS

Bruce Saller, Phil Huber, Steve Watkins

Transition from Oil Heat to Bring Down Costs

Bruce Saller, ADVANCE CONTRIBUTOR

If your house has hot water heating (i.e. radiators) and you are dreading the high cost of heating oil this winter, you finally have another option: Air-to-water heat pumps are now available in our area. They are similar to traditional air-to-air heat pumps except the inside unit heats water instead of air.

The air-to-water heat pump is very efficient, and you can find systems with coefficient of performance ratings around 4 (1 kilo-watt hour of electricity provides 4 kilo-watt hours of heat). They have been used in Europe for decades and are finally being manufactured in the US. Like the air-to-air unit, the system needs to be backed up with either an electric resistance heater or an oil boiler. If desired, you should be able to use your existing boiler as the backup.

READ ON

Unnecessary Ammunition

Phil Huber, ADVANCE COLUMNIST

America faces real enemies. Iran has demonstrated that it can plan lethal operations against Americans at home and abroad. China, Russia, and North Korea continue to develop military, cyber, intelligence, and influence capabilities aimed at reducing American power and freedom of action. The intelligence community warns that these adversaries increasingly use deniable methods below the level of open war: sabotage, coercion, cyberattack, assassination, proxy violence, and influence operations. Migration itself has become a geopolitical pressure point that hostile actors and criminal networks can exploit.

That is precisely why we should be alarmed when our own government gives them gifts.

READ ON

Charlotte Street Trees—Saved Back in June—Once Again Scheduled for Execution

Steve Watkins, ADVANCE EDITOR

The stay of execution for two 30- to 40-foot willow oaks on the 500 block of Charlotte Street has turned out to be temporary. The Fredericksburg Public Works department announced this afternoon that both are on a list of 10 large heritage trees in the city targeted for removal, possibly as early as this fall.

Residents’ vigorous protests back in June managed to save the willow oaks over the summer, pending a survey documenting the” condition, sidewalk conflicts, and repair feasibility” of 46 large city trees, including the two on Charlotte.

The city arborist has now completed that survey, with 10 trees identified for removal, 14 requiring coordinated sidewalk repairs, and 33 with sidewalk damage, 28 of which are considered fixable.

READ ON

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STATE OF THE STATE

VaNews/VIRGINIA PUBLIC ACCESS PROJECT

Spanberger takes unusual step to limit data centers — up to a point

By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) announced a set of policies Friday aimed at controlling the rampant development of data centers, but stopped short of the moratorium that some in her party have sought. The plan “is about delivering a better deal for Virginians,” Spanberger said at a morning news conference, in which she promised to confront one of the thorniest policy issues she’s facing. “But it’s also about holding data center companies, developers and operators accountable.” The regulations show a shift in Spanberger’s stance toward the industry.

Spanberger rescinds Youngkin order that reduced regulation

By DAVE RESS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)

Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s directives mandating a 25% cut in state regulations are no more, under a new streamlined regulatory review process ordered by Gov. Abigail Spanberger. Spanberger’s order, in addition to ending Youngkin’s mandate for across-the-board cuts, returns the authority to make recommendations to the governor on regulations to cabinet secretaries.

Three months after child drowned, Virginia health department will toughen regulations on pools

By ERIC KOLENICH, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)

At most public pools in Virginia, there are no legal requirements for the number of lifeguards or the protocols for protecting swimmers. On Thursday, the State Board of Health moved to change that, voting to begin the process of writing a new regulation to enforce safety measures at public swimming pools.

What It’s Like to Work in One of America’s Data Centers

By OWEN TUCKER-SMITH, Wall Street Journal (Subscription Required)

Growing up, James Waddy wanted to be a professional athlete. Now he logs 30,000 steps a day roaming the halls of a million-square-foot data center in the Virginia suburbs. The 33-year-old’s rounds include sniffing for burning equipment that could indicate overheating, feeling tubes for cracks and looking for faulty lighting or broken power transformers. Waddy, a lead engineer at the center, oversees dozens of other engineers who do the same and calls himself “The General.” ... Data centers are drawing intense scrutiny as Americans grow increasingly leery of AI and the technology’s potential risks. They’re also somewhat mysterious beyond their often boxy, nondescript exteriors: What’s inside, and what are workers doing?

*** Articles from newspapers throughout the Commonwealth and Washington D.C. Firewalls will block you from reading some, but you’ll at least have some idea about what’s going on from the headlines and summaries. CLICK HERE.

This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”

The stay of execution for two 30- to 40-foot willow oaks on the 500 block of Charlotte Street has turned out to be temporary. The Fredericksburg Public Works department announced this afternoon that both are on a list of 10 large heritage trees in the city targeted for removal, possibly as early as this fall.

Residents’ vigorous protests back in June managed to save the willow oaks over the summer, pending a survey documenting the” condition, sidewalk conflicts, and repair feasibility” of 46 large city trees, including the two on Charlotte.

The city arborist has now completed that survey, with 10 trees identified for removal, 14 requiring coordinated sidewalk repairs, and 33 with sidewalk damage, 28 of which are considered fixable.

There were no health issues reported for either of the Charlotte Street oaks. The areas of concern cited—and the reasons given for “Priority tree-risk review/removal”—were “Sidewalk damage; fixable; curb damage; street damage.” It’s not clear from the report what aspect of the damage was deemed “fixable.”

Teri McNally, who lives in the neighborhood and helped launch the June protest,said she was disappointed. She was out of town when she heard the news. “Ugh,” she wrote in an email. “Should have known they were always going to do that.”

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The city hasn’t yet announced when they’ll be taking down the targeted trees, two of which are on Charlotte Street, two on Caroline, and one each on Sylvania, Moncure, Lafayette, Jackson, Winchester, and Washington Avenue.

The city also hasn’t announced when sidewalk and street repairs will begin for the other big trees evaluated in the survey.

Piper Brock, another local resident, joined McNally and dozens of others back in June to protest the then-scheduled removal of the Charlotte Street willow oaks, and to request a temporary postponement until the city could conduct an “independent arboricultural review.”

“These mature oaks provide significant canopy, environmental, and property value benefits, and I am concerned removal is being justified based on predicted future decline rather than current condition,” she said at the time.

After a deluge of emails and calls, City officials agreed at the last minute to put the temporary brakes on the removal.

“We heard the concerns raised by the community and wanted to take an extra step to better understand the condition of these trees and the impact on our sidewalks,” said Will Morris, director of Public Works, in a statement released Monday. “This survey gives us a clearer picture of where repairs can be made while preserving healthy trees and where removal may be necessary for safety. Our goal is to protect our urban forest while also maintaining safe, accessible sidewalks for our community.”

City Arborist Bicknell Robbins said the decision to remove the large heritage trees was difficult.

“As trees age, they become increasingly unstable and prone to failure,” he said. “They also have a greater tendency to damage the sidewalk and curb. The trees selected for removal were either not healthy enough to warrant the expense to make the sidewalk safe, or the repair needed cannot be completed without destabilizing the tree.”

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America faces real enemies. Iran has demonstrated that it can plan lethal operations against Americans at home and abroad. China, Russia, and North Korea continue to develop military, cyber, intelligence, and influence capabilities aimed at reducing American power and freedom of action. The intelligence community warns that these adversaries increasingly use deniable methods below the level of open war: sabotage, coercion, cyberattack, assassination, proxy violence, and influence operations. Migration itself has become a geopolitical pressure point that hostile actors and criminal networks can exploit.

That is precisely why we should be alarmed when our own government gives them gifts.

This is not an argument against border security. America has a right—and a duty—to control its borders, remove people who pose genuine threats, and dismantle cartels, traffickers, terrorist networks, and foreign intelligence operations. But national security is more than counting arrests, detentions, and deportations. It requires asking what happens next.

What does Iran see when people are detained, publicly humiliated, abruptly separated from children, or sent to countries where they have no family, language, legal status, employment, or future? What do China and Russia see when Americans are divided into categories of suspicion and communities lose trust in schools, courts, hospitals, and police? What does North Korea see when a distracted America is fighting itself while hostile actors look for cyber access, money, leverage, and political disorder?

They see opportunities.

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Not every deported person will become angry. Not every angry person will become violent. Most will not. That is not the point. Intelligence professionals do not wait until every vulnerable person becomes an operative. They identify conditions that hostile governments, cartels, traffickers, and extremists can exploit: isolation, humiliation, debt, fear, anger, lack of options, weak institutions, and broken trust.

The question is not whether an immigrant is dangerous because of a passport, a surname, religion, or immigration status. The question is whether an individual has been coerced, recruited, financed, directed, or connected to a criminal, terrorist, or foreign intelligence network. Real security follows money, communications, access, behavior, and credible evidence. It does not settle for broad labels.

Our adversaries understand this better than many of our politicians do. Federal agencies have warned that Russia, Iran, and China attempt to exacerbate divisions in American society for their own benefit. Iran has used cyber theft and influence activity to sow discord and undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions. Russian government-linked influence campaigns have used fake online personas and websites to manipulate audiences. China pursues long-term cyber access and influence operations to advance its strategic interests.

They do not need to invent every grievance. They need only amplify the grievances we create ourselves.

That includes language. When American officials speak as though immigrants are naturally criminals or entire communities are inherently suspect, they supply our competitors with ready-made propaganda. Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea can quote the speech, clip the video, remove the context, translate it, and distribute it worldwide. They can say: America lectures the world about human rights and law yet practices collective blame and treats human beings as disposable.

We should not make their work so easy.

The Administration’s expanding use of third-country deportations deserves scrutiny. CBS News, citing internal U.S. government documents, reported that over a 10-day period the United States transferred more than 100 deportees from countries including Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Nepal, Turkey, and Venezuela to eight African nations. None was from the country to which he or she was sent. Such transfers may satisfy a short-term political objective. But a responsible government should assess whether transfer to an unfamiliar country leaves people isolated, desperate, and more vulnerable to exploitation by criminal groups, traffickers, hostile services, or extremist recruiters.

That is not a prediction of violence. It is a demand for competent risk assessment. The issue is not presumed guilt. It is whether government policy creates exploitable vulnerabilities without measuring the risk.

Congress should require a public, interagency assessment before and after third-country removals. DHS, the State Department, and the intelligence community should identify the destination, the legal and practical protections available, the person’s ability to reach family or return home, and any foreseeable risk of trafficking, cartel coercion, hostile intelligence recruitment, or extremist exploitation. A government that says national security comes first should be willing to measure the security consequences of its own actions.

Strong countries do not confuse cruelty with strength. They do not confuse immigration status with intelligence. They pursue genuine criminals and hostile operatives with precision. They protect witnesses and victims. They preserve community cooperation with law enforcement. They treat allies as force multipliers. And they understand that fairness, due process, disciplined language, and basic human decency are not luxuries. They are national security assets.

America’s enemies do not need us to surrender. They need us distracted, divided, distrustful, and reckless enough to create vulnerabilities they can exploit.

We should stop giving Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea gifts. It is time for Congress to step up.

***

Phil Huber is a retired Army Reserve colonel, federal civil servant and consultant who writes on civic education. He lives in Fredericksburg.

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If your house has hot water heating (i.e. radiators) and you are dreading the high cost of heating oil this winter, you finally have another option: Air-to-water heat pumps are now available in our area. They are similar to traditional air-to-air heat pumps except the inside unit heats water instead of air.

The air-to-water heat pump is very efficient, and you can find systems with coefficient of performance ratings around 4 (1 kilo-watt hour of electricity provides 4 kilo-watt hours of heat). They have been used in Europe for decades and are finally being manufactured in the US. Like the air-to-air unit, the system needs to be backed up with either an electric resistance heater or an oil boiler. If desired, you should be able to use your existing boiler as the backup.

The cost of the system depends on the capacity of the unit and other installation factors and will typically run between $10,000 and $25,000. I haven’t found a Dominion rebate or tax credit for these systems, but some manufacturers are offering rebates.

The heat pump uses $1.59 of electricity to provide the same amount of heat as burning one gallon of fuel oil. The average price of a gallon of fuel oil in Fredericksburg is currently $5.50, so your heating costs should be 71 percent less with the air-to-water system. If you are spending $600 per month on fuel oil, you should save $420 per month.

If you have an oil-based air furnace, you have the same options. You can install a traditional heat pump with electric backup or install a dual fuel heat pump and retain your oil furnace. Either option should save you hundreds of dollars a month on your heating bills. The cost of the system should be between $5,000 and $15,000.

The payback period for switching to a heat pump will vary but should be less than 10 years.

(Here’s how the math works, for inquisitive minds: 1 gallon of fuel oil provides 138,500 British Thermal Units (BTUs). Typical older oil furnace efficiency is 87 percent. There are 3412 BTUs in a kilo-watt hour. Use a coefficient of performance of 4 and an electricity cost of $.18 per kilo-watt hour. So, the cost of the heat pump to provide the same heat as a gallon of fuel oil is 138,500 x .87 / 3412 / 4 x $.18 = $1.59.)

***

Bruce Saller is a retired systems engineer with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science.

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Claire Marshall Watkins, ADVANCE CONTRIBUTOR

Fredericksburg Free Press

Fredericksburg Councilor Holmes to run for Virginia House of Delegates

By Jonathan Hunley 09/19/2026

Jannan Holmes is ready to trade Fredericksburg City Hall for the Virginia State Capitol.

Holmes, in her first term as an at-large member of Fredericksburg City Council, announced this week her intention to run for the House of Delegates’ 65th District seat next year as a Democrat.

The 65th District, which covers Fredericksburg and parts of Spotsylvania and Stafford counties, is now represented by Democratic Del. Joshua Cole.

Gov. Abigail Spanberger announces data center ‘accountability’ act

By Jonathan Hunley 09/19/2026

Gov. Abigail Spanberger, derided during Virginia budget talks earlier this year as a “data center diva” by state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, announced Friday what she called the most comprehensive and aggressive data center accountability effort in the nation.

Spanberger, in a Richmond news conference, said her Data Center Accountability Framework will give communities transparent information and a voice in local approval, protect Virginians from higher energy bills, and enforce the country’s strongest environmental standards for data centers, which have been proposed all around the Fredericksburg area.

A dogged pursuit: Puppy’s adoption marks 10,000 rescues for Old Dominion Humane Society

By Abigail Freehling 09/20/2026

In 2013, Chrissy Hamilton had little more than a love of animals, a few jobs at veterinary clinics, and a couple of dog crates.

Thirteen years later, the Old Dominion Humane Society has become an impactful force in the Fredericksburg area, hosting popular adoption events, rescuing countless dogs from neglectful circumstances, and in turn providing unmatched loving and permanent homes for dogs in need.

Fredericksburg Area Museum names Svetlana Legetic president & CEO

By FPP Staff 09/21/2026

The Fredericksburg Area Museum has announced the appointment of Svetlana Legetic as the organization’s new president and chief executive officer, following an extensive national search led by Good Insight.

Legetic is a Fredericksburg resident who spent most of her professional life in Washington D.C. and New York City. She brings nearly two decades of leadership and engagement experience across cultural institutions and community-driven enterprises, with a career focused on organizational growth and transformation, as well as strengthening the relationship between organizations and the communities they serve.

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Free Lance-Star

Slave Dwelling Project explores Fredericksburg’s history

By Pilar Davis 09/19/2026

Voices of the Past: A Slave Dwelling Project Weekend was a series of events held last weekend in Fredericksburg to honor and educate about the lives of enslaved people in the area.

The events were part of the America 250 programs taking place across the country. Some of the programs took place at the University of Mary Washington’s Gari Melchers Home and Studio at Belmont and the James Monroe Museum.

Fredericksburg museum welcomes Green as operations manager

By Pilar Davis 09/19/2026

Some people may have seen Marnie Green dressed in colonial attire, taking visitors on historic tours. Or perhaps working at the Rising Sun Tavern, which is a part of the museum’s tours.

Now, Green is taking on a new role as operations manager for the Washington Heritage Museums.

Green is a member of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), where she volunteers at the national headquarters. She also worked as an interpreter at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. In addition to a background in finance and marketing, Green says she gained valuable skills while working around the properties in various roles.

Mimi Mitchell knows what affordable housing truly means

By Pilar Davis 09/20/2026

The old saying, “never judge a book by its cover,” is the perfect adage for Maerine “Mimi” Mitchell, the executive director of the Fredericksburg Habitat for Humanity.

Mitchell took over the position in February 2026 after leaving a pivotal role as volunteer coordinator at Volunteer Hampton Roads. Her departure was covered in an article in The Virginian-Pilot, where just years before, she’d struggled to make ends meet as an assistant.

Mitchell leads an organization that builds houses for people struggling to afford housing, but she, too, struggled with housing for much of her adulthood.

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ADVANCE READS

Steve Watkins, Drew Gallagher, Steve Rabson, Phil Huber

Wedding Day

Steve Watkins, ADVANCE EDITOR

When Amazon Web Services invited me to the groundbreaking ceremony for a $460 million wastewater treatment upgrade they’re building for Spotsylvania County—it’s a data center thing—I was expecting hard hats, work boots, and shiny new spades. Not Jeff Bezos gold-plated shovel heads, necessarily, but not Amazon Basics either.

That didn’t happen. The 100 invitation-only guests were steered instead to 87 manicured acres just off Courthouse Road and ushered inside the swanky Stevenson Ridge Lodge—a safe and sanitary 12 miles from the Massaponax Wastewater Treatment Plant.

A flock of Amazon factotums greeted us there—perfectly-coiffed young women and men plying us with nametags and drinks and Sharpies for autographing ceremonial sections of purple sewage pipe. They gave us half an hour to mill around and socialize before directing us to a self-serve lunch line for roast beef, green beans almondine, and key lime mousse.

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Mr. Rodger’s Neighborhood

Drew Gallagher, ADVANCE COLUMNIST

Another person who was not invited to the biggest wedding of the summer was Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who recently revealed his theory on why people like my wife absolutely hate him, and could be why he never got an invite to the Swift-Kelce nuptials.

Rodgers opined that people detest him with a white-hot passion not because he is a liar (he lied about getting his Covid vaccine which put opponents, teammates, and fans at risk) or because he is incapable of throwing a 15-yard out and keeping it inbounds. Rather, Rodgers says that he is largely detested because he was right about the Covid vaccine being unnecessary. To him, it was a worldwide psychological operation to see how many people would blindly follow the advice of medical professionals instead of a washed up quarterback who was smoking ayahuasca in a Costa Rican villa to learn more about self-love.

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Up South

Steve Rabson, GUEST COLUMNIST

The expression “Up South,” the title for this essay, dates from the early days of the Great Migration when African Americans found much-improved conditions in the northern states where they settled, but still encountered some of the same barriers they thought they had left behind “Down South.”

The first time I lived in a place that had segregation was Yellow Spring, Ohio, where my father was hired to teach mathematics at Antioch College in the summer of 1953. Two barbershops and one restaurant in this small village, population 3,000, refused to serve Black customers. The movie theater had only recently ended a policy of forcing Black people to sit in the last rows of seats. Black people owned homes in the village, but the local bank refused to finance their mortgages, so they had to secure loans from a bank in the nearby city of Springfield.

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Power Has a Price: What Are We Willing to Give Up?

Phil Huber, ADVANCE COLUMNIST

A reader recently challenged something I wrote about Donald Trump, Congress, and the Supreme Court. He largely agreed with my argument but thought I stopped before reaching the hardest question: What are citizens supposed to do about it?

Voting matters, he argued, but voting alone is not enough. Neither are letters to Congress, occasional demonstrations, or complaints about elected officials. He raised an even more personal question: What about relatives, friends, and neighbors who continue to support things we believe are damaging the country? Why aren’t we confronting them? And if talking, voting, and protesting are not enough, what comes next?

READ ON

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This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”

A reader recently challenged something I wrote about Donald Trump, Congress, and the Supreme Court. He largely agreed with my argument but thought I stopped before reaching the hardest question: What are citizens supposed to do about it?

Voting matters, he argued, but voting alone is not enough. Neither are letters to Congress, occasional demonstrations, or complaints about elected officials. He raised an even more personal question: What about relatives, friends, and neighbors who continue to support things we believe are damaging the country? Why aren’t we confronting them? And if talking, voting, and protesting are not enough, what comes next?

Those are fair questions. They deserve more than another list of things citizens could do. They require us to confront responsibility—our own as well as everyone else’s—and ask what one person can realistically accomplish, where individual action reaches its limits, and how citizens can combine their limited resources into something powerful enough to matter.

I have been trying to answer those questions myself.

I am not, by education or experience, an opinion writer. Most of my working life was spent in the military, federal government, and consulting, where my writing was technical: define the problem, examine the evidence, analyze alternatives, and recommend what should be done.

I wasn’t particularly political, either. That changed when Trump decided to run for president again. I began paying closer attention not only to what was happening in the country but also to what I had been doing—or not doing—as a citizen. I came to believe that my generation had helped leave behind problems we failed to solve and institutions we too often took for granted. Complaining about what others were doing no longer seemed sufficient. I needed to examine what I was doing.

In many ways, I became a babe in the political woods. Politics requires far more study than I had appreciated: history, government, the Constitution, current events, competing arguments, and conversations with people who see the world differently. The more I read, the more I realized how much I didn’t know.

Writing became part of that education and, frankly, a way of coping. I had strong feelings about what I was seeing and needed somewhere constructive to put that energy. Writing forced me to slow down, research an issue, organize my thoughts, and explain why I believed something rather than simply being angry about it.

Then I attended a briefing about the responsibilities of citizenship and had an uncomfortable realization. I had always considered myself a responsible citizen. I served in the military, worked for the federal government, paid taxes, and voted. Yet citizenship in a constitutional republic asks more of us. It requires us to remain informed, participate, question government, communicate with one another, and accept some responsibility for keeping the system working.

I had not done enough of that. I suspect many Americans haven’t.

That realization gave me something larger to write about: citizenship itself. It also raised another question. If I was going to write about politics and citizenship, what was I trying to accomplish?

My answer became persuasion.

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I have tried talking directly with relatives, friends, and neighbors whose political views differ sharply from mine. Those conversations can be painful. My experience is that direct confrontation rarely changes anyone’s mind. Eventually we tend to retreat to familiar ground: “Everyone is entitled to an opinion,” or “I’m an independent; I look at the person or the policy and make my own choice.” Sometimes nothing changes except the relationship. Two people leave believing exactly what they believed when the conversation began, but liking each other a little less.

That doesn’t mean we stop talking. It means understanding the difference between confrontation and persuasion. Persuasion is slow. One conversation may change nothing. Another may raise a question. Something someone else says may plant a doubt. An event months later may cause a person to reconsider an assumption. I may never see that change, and that’s all right. The person being persuaded ultimately decides whether to change.

My responsibility is smaller: make the best argument I can, support it with facts, respect another person’s right to disagree, and keep trying. Persuasion requires persistence.

But my reader was right about something else. Citizens are responsible for their political choices. We choose the people who govern us, and those choices have consequences. Responsibility, however, is not the same as condemnation. If I believe another citizen has made a bad political choice, humiliating him or her is unlikely to persuade him or her to make a different one next time.

The same standard applies to me. I cannot spend all my time assigning responsibility to other voters without examining my own. If I believe something is seriously wrong and my response consists of complaining, voting every few years and waiting for someone else to fix it, I have made a choice too.

That brings us back to the reader’s real challenge. What do we do?

One person can write, talk with a neighbor, vote, contribute $25, knock on a door, or register a voter. One person can plant a seed. One person cannot maintain a national legal organization, finance years of constitutional litigation, organize thousands of volunteers, or match millions of dollars in political spending.

For that, individual conviction has to become collective capacity. That is why I now work on two tracks. I continue trying to persuade as an individual. At the same time, I join organizations, contribute resources, volunteer, recruit others, and persist.

That brings us to the word at the center of this discussion: power.

Politics is about power—who has it, how it is obtained, how it is restrained, and what people without governing power can do to influence those who possess it. Losing an election means losing certain governmental powers. It does not require a political minority to become powerless. But power does not appear because we are angry or convinced we are right. It must be organized, financed and sustained.

History has already taught us this. In Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, Black residents did not control city government. After Rosa Parks was arrested, they used power they did possess: they stopped riding the buses. The Montgomery Improvement Association coordinated carpools, fundraising, meetings, and legal challenges during a boycott that lasted more than a year.

People walked. Drivers contributed cars and time. Churches and organizations raised money. Families rearranged their lives. Lawyers pursued cases. The comparison here is organizational, not historical; today’s political disputes should not casually be equated with Jim Crow. The lesson is simpler: individuals acting separately possessed limited leverage. Organized citizens acting together possessed considerably more.

The larger civil-rights legal campaign demonstrated the same principle. Charles Hamilton Houston developed a legal strategy that Thurgood Marshall and others pursued through a series of cases culminating in Brown v. Board of Education. They did not merely express opposition. They built institutions capable of making that opposition consequential.

That distinction matters. The objective is not simply to express our opposition more loudly. The objective is to make our opposition consequential.

That can take many lawful forms. Citizens can organize sustained peaceful demonstrations, support litigation, conduct lawful economic boycotts, organize voters, petition government, and campaign to change laws. Americans may advocate structural changes in government, and Article V of the Constitution provides a process for proposing and ratifying constitutional amendments. The First Amendment protects speech, peaceful assembly, and petitioning government for redress of grievances.

The important boundary is not between passive citizenship and forceful citizenship. It is between lawful and unlawful action. Citizens can be persistent, demanding, and difficult for government to ignore while remaining peaceful and within constitutional bounds.

Much of the machinery needed to do this already exists. Legal organizations have lawyers and researchers. Civic organizations have members, communications networks, and expertise. Political parties and campaigns have voter information and election experience. States possess governmental powers of their own, and state attorneys general can bring or join litigation when legal requirements are satisfied.

The organization does not even have to be local. Someone in Virginia can support litigation occurring hundreds of miles away. A person in Fredericksburg may be able to provide volunteer assistance to an organization elsewhere. Money and professional expertise travel even more easily.

Start with the mission, not the ZIP code. Find organizations already working on the issue that concerns you. Read what they actually do. Check their methods and how they use their resources. Don’t join everything. Pick a mission, find an organization whose methods you support, and strengthen it.

Then comes something else we cannot avoid: money.

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Money buys lawyers, organizers, research, advertising, technology, and time. Most citizens cannot individually compete with concentrated wealth. Organization provides another approach. Ten thousand people contributing $25 create $250,000. Those same people are also 10,000 potential volunteers, callers, canvassers, and participants.

One $25 contribution cannot hire a lawyer. Thousands of contributions can help sustain a legal organization. Three volunteer hours cannot operate a voter-registration effort. Thousands of three-hour contributions can.

Organization pools what ordinary citizens possess: money, time, expertise, labor, relationships, votes, and persistence.

And that brings us to perhaps the hardest word in this column: sacrifice.

We sometimes behave as though citizenship should fit comfortably around everything else in our lives. We volunteer if Saturday happens to be free. We contribute if money remains after everything else we wanted. We attend the meeting unless something more enjoyable comes along.

Sacrifice does not mean impoverishing ourselves or neglecting our families. It means giving up something we could have kept because we have decided something else matters more. Maybe $50 means one less dinner out. Maybe three volunteer hours mean giving up a football game. Someone with money can contribute money. Someone with time can contribute time. A lawyer has legal expertise. An accountant understands finances. A writer can communicate. A retiree may have decades of experience. A younger person may bring energy and technological skills.

Everyone does not have to contribute to the same thing. But if something matters as much as we say it does, we should be willing to ask: What am I prepared to give up for it?

At this point, however, I need to turn my own argument around.

A Trump supporter reading this may believe I have the problem exactly backwards. They may believe Trump is correcting problems rather than creating them. They may distrust institutions I want to protect, support policies I oppose, and believe his vote was a responsible decision based on his understanding of what the country needs.

Fair enough.

If I am serious about citizenship, I must acknowledge their right to reach that conclusion. Americans sharply disagree about the role of government and the institutions they trust. In fact, public confidence in government and institutions often changes substantially depending on which party controls political power.

More importantly, everything I have written about citizenship applies to that Trump supporter too. They can study the issues, test their assumptions, persuade their neighbors, vote, organize, contribute, volunteer, demonstrate peacefully, support litigation, and work to change laws. The constitutional rights I claim for my side belong equally to theirs.

That leads to a test I think all of us should apply to our politics:

Would I accept this same rule if the other side were in power?

If I defend expansive presidential authority when my candidate is president, would I grant the same authority to a president I deeply oppose? If I demand congressional oversight of the other party, will I accept it when Congress investigates mine? If I defend peaceful protest when I agree with the protesters, will I defend the same constitutional right when I disagree with them?

Citizenship cannot mean one thing when my side is out of power and something different when my side controls it. If I demand constitutional limits when the other side holds power, I must be willing to live under those same limits when my side holds it.

Underneath even our strongest disagreements must be rules we are willing to apply to everyone.

That does not require us to abandon strong political convictions. Quite the opposite. We can argue vigorously about presidents, policies, courts, immigration, taxes, government spending, abortion, guns, or any of the other issues that divide us. But we should also be careful about assuming that Americans are divided about everything.

Research by the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation suggests something more complicated. Its 2026 national surveys identified 112 policy positions supported by majorities of both Republicans and Democrats; on 88 of them, more than two-thirds of both groups supported the same position. The subjects included healthcare, housing, childcare, immigration, Social Security, taxes, abortion and birth control, energy, criminal justice, and government reform. In its public-consultation surveys, participants are given information about proposals and arguments for and against them before being asked what they recommend.

That tells me something important about persuasion. The Republican or Democrat across the table may not be as far away from us as the political labels suggest. We may disagree intensely about Trump, political parties, or particular institutions while agreeing on more specific problems and solutions than either of us realizes. Finding that common ground does not require surrendering our convictions. It may simply give us a better place to begin the conversation.

There is another choice. We can remain comfortable. We can complain from our living rooms, forward articles to people who already agree with us, and wait for somebody else to contribute the money, file the lawsuit, knock on the door, organize the boycott, attend the meeting, or spend Saturday doing the work.

That is a choice too. It means accepting that others will do the work—or accepting the status quo.

My reader wanted a harder answer. Here it is. Persuasion changes minds. Organization combines people. Money and volunteer labor provide resources. Sacrifice demonstrates commitment. Persistence sustains the effort. Together, they create power. And power is what can turn an opinion into something government and institutions must reckon with.

We can disagree about leaders, policies, institutions, and tactics. But once any of us decides that something is seriously wrong, we face a harder question than, “What do I believe?”

What am I willing to do about it?

Talk to the neighbor when conversation may help. Write to persuade. Vote. Join. Contribute. Volunteer. Organize. Participate peacefully. Support litigation when you believe the cause warrants it. Advocate changes in law through constitutional processes. Recruit others. And keep coming back.

If we are unwilling to spend some time, contribute some resources, accept some inconvenience, and surrender some comfort for what we claim to value, we should be careful about saying we have exhausted our options.

We haven’t.

We have decided not to use them.

***

Phil Huber is a retired Army Reserve colonel, federal civil servant and consultant who writes on civic education. He lives in Fredericksburg.

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I’ve been reading installments of Advance Editor Steve Watkins’ high school memoir Dead or in Jail, which he posts weekly in Pie & Chai Magazine. The fifth chapter, “Lake City”—Steve’s account of growing up in Florida where he witnessed blatant, and sometimes violent, racism—reminded me of what I saw of it too, though in my case as a teenager in the Midwest.

The expression “Up South,” the title for this essay, dates from the early days of the Great Migration when African Americans found much-improved conditions in the northern states where they settled, but still encountered some of the same barriers they thought they had left behind “Down South.”

The first time I lived in a place that had segregation was Yellow Spring, Ohio, where my father was hired to teach mathematics at Antioch College in the summer of 1953. Two barbershops and one restaurant in this small village, population 3,000, refused to serve Black customers. The movie theater had only recently ended a policy of forcing Black people to sit in the last rows of seats. Black people owned homes in the village, but the local bank refused to finance their mortgages, so they had to secure loans from a bank in the nearby city of Springfield.

My parents joined with other faculty families at Antioch to avoid patronizing these places. We ate out at other restaurants and got our haircuts at the barber shop run by by an African American, one of several Black-owned businesses in Yellow Springs. Antioch has long been known as a leading college in progressive activism for its flexible curriculum and for its many faculty and students devoted to supporting civil rights and opposing U.S. military interventions abroad. In part because a number of Antioch alumni settled in Yellow Springs and started businesses in the village, more Black people were employed and promoted in companies there than in nearby communities. They were also leaders in the village government. A Black police chief, James McKee, was appointed in 1957, and James Lawson became mayor in 1969 after serving several years on the village council.

School classes were integrated, though the first Black teacher wasn’t hired until 1956. However, the local state senator, who had earlier been mayor, spoke out publicly against interracial dating which he denounced as a result of “communist influence.” The superintendent of schools tried to ban mixed couples from the junior prom. One such couple I knew, whose parents were on the Antioch faculty, successfully defied the ban in 1959 bringing it to an early end.

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In August of that year when I was a sophomore, Doug Berley, a senior, drove Phil Lawson, an African American junior, whose father later became mayor of Yellow Springs, and me to a jazz festival in French Lick, Indiana—hometown of NBA star Larry Bird. As directed in the newspaper announcement, I sent a telegram to the local Sheraton Hotel there making reservations for us the nights of the festival. When we arrived after the long drive, I went up to the front desk explaining that we had telegrammed our reservation. The clerk looked at Phil and, without even checking the box of telegrams on the shelf behind him, said they didn’t have our reservation.

That night, exhausted and starved, we went to a diner downtown to eat. We sat at a table in a place that had very few other customers since it was well past the dinner hour and waited ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, but no one came to hand out menus or take our orders. Finally, a teenage boy emerged from the kitchen, walked over to our table, and said to Phil very politely, “I’m sorry. We can’t serve you here.” This was one year before the Greensboro sit-ins in 1960. That night we ate greasy take-out hamburgers Doug picked up at a truck stop, then parked beside a field near the festival grounds, and tried to get some sleep. This proved to be difficult with the three of us scrunched up in the seats of Doug’s car dripping sweat in the sweltering August heat and swiping futilely at relentless mosquitoes.

Performers at the jazz festival included Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. I learned later that, when musicians played in such places, they stayed in private homes as guests of the families. It seemed outrageous that segregated local businesses, such as hotels and restaurants, were profiting from their performances.

The following year, 1960, saw the start of what became a major civil rights case with nationwide news coverage. Paul Graham, a Black Antioch alumnus and Yellow Springs resident, was refused service at Gegner’s Barber Shop. He filed a complaint with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission supported by the local branch of the N.A.A.C.P.. At first Lewis Gegner, whose son Steve was our high school classmate, claimed he didn’t know how to cut African American hair, something he hadn’t been taught in barber school.

A few weeks later, David Epstein, a white professor in Antioch’s music department whose hair had the same texture, went to the barbershop and Gegner cut his hair without objection. Later, when the case went to court as Graham v. Gegner, the barber changed his claim and said he was a private businessman who had the right to choose his customers. At this point, he obtained local support from a group called the “National Association for the Advancement of White People.”

After the case dragged on for four years, local residents and Antioch students, frustrated by the many delays and referrals, organized demonstrations that included pickets and sit-ins. On March 14, 1964, 500 protestors marched along Xenia Avenue, the village’s main street, carrying signs and singing “We shall Overcome.” Around noon, squads of police arriving in patrol cars from the Greene County sheriff’s office poured into the street and rushed the demonstrators with billy clubs, tear gas, and fire hoses, arresting 108. A front-page photo of the chaotic scene in the Antioch college newspaper showed police grasping billy clubs as they approached a group of demonstrators. The caption read, “This IS the South.”

The case was scheduled to be heard by the Ohio State Supreme Court later that year, but with passage of the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act that outlawed discrimination in public accommodations, it was declared moot. Lewis Gegner retired and closed his shop.

***

Dr. Steve Rabson is a retired professor emeritus of the Department of East Asian Studies at Brown University, and currently an adjunct instructor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Mary Washington.

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Another NFL season is upon us which means that 31 teams and their respective fan bases have the dream of lifting the Lombardi Trophy on Valentine’s Day in 2027—a dream that might not be shared by significant others hoping for something more romantic than wings and stuffed crust pizza.

For those of you wondering why only 31 of the 32 NFL teams have that dream, it’s because the Cleveland Browns’ dream ended about 1:05 pm on September 13^th when their season kicked off against the Jaguars. Let the Arch Manning sweepstakes begin!

One of the storylines fans are sure to follow this season is whether Kansas City Chiefs’ kicker Harrison Butthead will talk to Mr. Taylor Swift (aka, Chiefs’ Tight End Travis Kelce) on the sidelines, since he was the only teammate not invited to Kelce’s nuptials this summer. I’m sure that when my homegirl and the future Hall of Famer sat down to go over the guest list the conversation went something like:

“But Tay Tay, kickers are people too,” said Kelce with little to no conviction.

“Oh, sweetie, I understand that and you can invite the punter, but I’d like to remind you that women are actually people, too, and not simply baby factories who are baking barefoot in the kitchen when not giving birth, as your kicker proselytized at a high school graduation that included women,” said the songwriter, who has been known to write the occasional anthem about liberated women and the power that lies within.

Another person who was not invited to the biggest wedding of the summer was Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who recently revealed his theory on why people like my wife absolutely hate him, and could be why he never got an invite to the Swift-Kelce nuptials.

Rodgers opined that people detest him with a white-hot passion not because he is a liar (he lied about getting his Covid vaccine which put opponents, teammates, and fans at risk) or because he is incapable of throwing a 15-yard out and keeping it inbounds. Rather, Rodgers says that he is largely detested because he was right about the Covid vaccine being unnecessary. To him, it was a worldwide psychological operation to see how many people would blindly follow the advice of medical professionals instead of a washed up quarterback who was smoking ayahuasca in a Costa Rican villa to learn more about self-love.

Mission accomplished. He certainly does love—and talking about—himself.

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Even though Rodgers seems to have spent a lot of time on the dark web and in dark caves to formulate his psyops theory on the pandemic, and since he cannot blame his receivers or offensive linemen for any holes in this theory, he does not provide a lot of detail. And we have questions.

What Rodgers is suggesting, I think, is that when the Coronavirus was introduced to the world in 2019 it was done intentionally just to see how many non-multi-millionaire NFL players—in plain speak, the common man—would be led to contemplate their mortality and place their faith and survival in science. More fools us.

This lemmings-to-the-cliff or sheep mentality––use your animal of choice––was just to pave the way for future psyops, according to Rodgers, even though 7.1 million people died in the so-called experiment. The coordination among nations that hate each other more than my wife hates Aaron Rodgers would seem to be nearly as impossible as an NFL quarterback uncovering this worldwide coordination while spelunking in Peru during the offseason.

By Rodgers’ theory, China and the United States would have had to agree to allow their populations to be decimated and petrified with fright at the possibility of global annihilation just to see how it goes—an off-Broadway production of The End of the World As We Know It to iron out some wrinkles before the real headliner.

Of course, China and the United States do not control everything. Elon Musk does through NDAs. So say a country like, I don’t know, Italy balked at the idea of stacking their dead like cordwood along the Appian Way for a couple of months. Doesn’t it seem likely that someone might have alerted the AP or at least NPR that the Italians were not consulted on starting a pandemic for shits and giggles?

And there is no way Putin was going to stay quiet about bragging that he got to sit at the big boys’ table without having to wear a shirt. This all seems farther fetched than Rodgers trying to muscle up on a throw to a wide-open DK Metcalf 38 yards away.

I am certain that Rodgers has a corresponding theory that the world is run by a small conglomerate of the wealthy and not governments whose leaders and presidents are merely puppets—a theory that he will likely share at some point on his weekly appearance on ESPN’s Pat McAfee program where he is paid over $1 million annually to talk about unscientific nonsense while auditioning for Fox News since no NFL pregame show will touch him once he retires.

One thing I don’t think Rodgers realizes, though, is that if the world is run by conglomerates who can control pandemics, then those conglomerates can also control the NFL and must be Ravens’ or Bengals’ fans, because both those teams have young and exciting quarterbacks who can throw a ball more than 20 yards in a tight spiral. And those conglomerates are going to continue to make myself and my fellow Steelers fans suffer through the mediocrity of Aaron Rodgers and his seemingly concussed brain for at least one more season. I wish science would develop an immunization against Aaron Rodgers. I’d be second in line for that vaccination…behind my wife.

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