FREDLINES
Claire Marshall Watkins, ADVANCE CONTRIBUTOR
Fredericksburg Free Press
Stafford commission recommends approval of James River Equipment project
By Jonathan Hunley 09/10/2026
The county Planning Commission voted unanimously Wednesday night to recommend the Board of Supervisors approve a rezoning for James River Equipment to build on 9.51 acres at the northeast corner of Wyche Road and Venture Drive.
The company, which offers customers machinery sales and service, plans to construct a 35,089-square-foot building containing an office, shop and showroom space as well as a parts warehouse and an 2,500-square-foot wash bay. It would supplement the existing James River Equipment location at 131 Wyche Road.
No shame, no shortage: This nonprofit is changing the conversation on periods
By Abigail Freehling 09/10/2026
With the new school year underway, there are many new beginnings for students: new faces, new classes and new opportunities. One thing that remains constant, however, is the Pink Flower Project’s dedication to serving the local schools, so that girls can focus on those beginnings without getting too caught up in another inevitable one.
The Pink Flower Project is a nonprofit dedicated to providing feminine hygiene products to public schools in Spotsylvania, Caroline, King George, Orange, Stafford and Fredericksburg.
Tourism spending in Spotsylvania grows for fifth straight year
By FPP Staff 09/10/2026
Spotsylvania generated $258.8 million in visitor spending in 2025, a 5.3% increase over the previous year, according to a release from the county. The growth supported 2,165 local jobs and delivered more than $12 million in county tax revenue.
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%, or $1.1 billion, over the previous year, marking the fourth consecutive year of growth in visitor spending.
Stafford students, teachers and parents defend electives
By Adele Uphaus 09/10/2026
All of the students, as well as the parents and teachers who spoke, were opposed to a proposal under consideration by the board to reduce the number of courses high school students take per year from eight to seven.
This is one of three “levers” division staff have said the school board could use to meet the Virginia Board of Education’s requirements for “clock hours of instruction for each high school credit,” as well as the requirement for a minimum of 180 days or 990 instructional hours in the school year.
The Free Lance-Star
Fredericksburg area shares memories of the Pentagon attack
For the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, The Free Lance-Star asked community members to send in their own recollections of where they were on that day. Here are their responses. Submissions have been edited for clarity and space.
ADVANCE READS
Monimala Basu, Jesse Adams, Steve Rabson
The War We Shared
Monimala Basu, SPECIAL to the ADVANCE
A few days back, I drove south on I-75 to Perry, home to the Georgia National Fairgrounds. I arrived on time, parked my car but then I hesitated. The nearly two-hour journey had filled me with memories and trepidation; I sat in my car for a full 20 minutes to compose myself.
Inside the enormous exhibition hall were men and women I had not seen in years. Two full decades, in some cases. They were soldiers in the Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Brigade Combat Team and I met many of them when they were young—and perhaps too innocent for war. They were sent to the battlegrounds of Iraq.
I had gone with them, in a sense. Not as a soldier, but as a journalist.
The Fallacies of Wetland Credits: A Mitigation Framework Gone Wrong
Jesse Adams, ADVANCE CONTRIBUTOR
The core premise of mitigation banking is that destroying a natural wetland in one location can be perfectly offset by creating, enhancing, or preserving a wetland somewhere else. An analogy I often like to use is about our local libraries where adults and children are able to read books and learn new things. If I go into the local library in Stafford County and burn or otherwise destroy 200 children’s books, it would be legally allowed as long as I pay to buy 200 children’s books at the local library in Culpeper, Virginia. We had “no net loss” of children’s books in Virginia. Unfortunately, the kids who relied on those books in Stafford are negatively impacted by the loss of the benefits those books provided to them.
America’s Gutless On-and-Off Support for the Victims of Oppressive Regimes
Steve Rabson, ADVANCE CONTRIBUTOR
Attacks carried out by the U. S. and Israel in early February proved to be limited, targeting a few government leaders and military installations. Unlike in Venezuela a month earlier, the U.S did not send in ground troops to force changes in government and take control of its finance and foreign policies. Since then, Iranian security forces have escalated their deadly assaults with shootings of protestors in the streets, arrests, and executions. The Trump administration’s ban on immigration from majority Muslim countries makes it unlikely that these Iranians will be offered asylum in the United States.
This was not the first time the U.S had urged on the citizens of another country in their organized opposition to an oppressive government—and pledged American support, only to abandon them.
STATE OF THE STATE
VaNews/VIRGINIA PUBLIC ACCESS PROJECT
Voters could move Congress to revisit H.R. 1 healthcare overhaul, Kaine and McClellan say
By CHARLOTTE RENE WOODS, Virginia Mercury
During a roundtable discussion at Feed More, a food bank in Henrico County on Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he believed there’s a growing chance Congress could adjust or undo Medicaid changes the Republican-controlled legislature enacted last summer — with or without flipping Congress to Democratic control. It would still be a long shot, he and U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, noted. But since H.R. 1 passed, every member of Congress has spent time in their districts hearing from their constituents, as voters name healthcare a chief concern.
State watchdog agency renews call to close Virginia’s youth psychiatric hospital
By DEAN MIRSHAHI, VPM
In 2023, the Virginia General Assembly’s research and oversight arm urged officials to close the only state-run psychiatric hospital for children, due to patient safety concerns and other issues at the 48-bed facility. Three years later, the Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents in Staunton is still open and the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission’s recommendation to shut it down hasn’t changed. ... “While some time has passed since the JLARC study, we don’t have reason to believe that conditions have improved significantly, if at all,” JLARC director Hal Greer told commission members on Tuesday.
After DCA collision, Virginia senators to introduce bill restricting flights
By LIAM SCOTT, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
For years, U.S. lawmakers have pushed for more flights out of Reagan National Airport, sometimes to make traveling home more convenient for them. But now, two senators are ramping up their fight for the opposite. Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) and Mark Warner (D-Virginia) are set to introduce a bill next week that would restrict flights at National, also known as DCA, in an effort to make Washington’s chronically congested airspace safer following the deadly 2025 plane crash near the airport. Kaine said he understands why it’s more convenient for lawmakers to fly in and out of National, which is in Arlington, Virginia, and is a roughly 15 minute drive from the U.S. Capitol. “But the convenience of 535 members of Congress can’t outweigh the safety of 25 million people who use that airport,” he said in an interview.
How Virginia Could Smoke Out D.C.’s Cannabis Industry
By ZARA NORMAN, The Washington Sun
Johannes Cassidy-Seyoum opened his medical cannabis business in D.C. just last year. Already, he’s bracing for a devastating blow to his customer base. Across the Potomac, Virginia lawmakers in June approved the sale of recreational cannabis beginning in July 2027. The move will upend the region’s cannabis market, which has historically seen Virginians travel to D.C. to access the city’s permissive medical program in which anyone over 21 can “self-certify” as a user. Cannabis business owners in D.C., who already took a hit when Maryland began recreational sales in 2023, fear for their livelihoods.
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