FREDLINES
Claire Marshall Watkins, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Fredericksburg Free Press
Crowd in Stafford County decries Accockeek data center campus, but supervisors OK it
By Jonathan Hunley 10/08/2026
The vote was held after a public hearing in which more than 30 people spoke, most of them against the project. They criticized it on environmental grounds, on the notion that it could harm residents’ wells, on the idea that it didn’t follow the Comprehensive Plan — a blueprint for development — and on other bases.
Spotsylvania planning commissioner comes out in support of data center watchdog organization
By Taft Coghill Jr. 10/08/2026
Spotsylvania County Planning Commission Chair Tim Gronau’s choice of attire during a meeting on Wednesday night could certainly raise the attention of data center developers.
Gronau wore a Safeguard Spotsy T-shirt in support of the organization whose website states is a “group of community residents banding together to fight data centers coming to our county.”
The Free Lance-Star
Stafford board approves Accokeek Creek data center project (paywalled)
By Scott Shenk 10/08/2026
After a lengthy public hearing that dragged into the early morning hours on Thursday, the Stafford County Board of Supervisors approved a proposed data center project
The board voted 4-3 to approve rezoning for the Accokeek Creek data center project, which includes two two-story data centers totaling 590,000 square feet, along with a power substation on the site.
Spotsylvania man gets 10 years for attack in convenience store bathroom (paywalled)
By Keith Epps 10/08/2026
24-year-old Austin Wayne Wilson of Spotsylvania, was ordered Thursday to serve 10 years in prison. He previously pleaded guilty in Spotsylvania Circuit Court to armed burglary, abduction by force and assault and battery.
The evidence showed that [Marisol] Moreno was in the women’s bathroom when Wilson climbed over from an adjacent stall and confronted her with a large pocket knife. He pulled his pants down and gestured for her to do the same. Moreno doesn’t speak English, and Wilson doesn’t speak Spanish.
Motorcycle breakdown results in fatality on busy highway (paywalled)
By Keith Epps 10/09/2026
A motorcyclist was killed early Thursday in Stafford County after the motorcycle broke down and was struck by a vehicle, police said.
Stafford Sheriff’s spokesman Jackson Arnold said the accident took place about 4:50 a.m. at the intersection of Village Parkway and Warrenton Road (U.S. 17). Arnold said the motorcycle had broken down in the left through lane of the busy highway when it was struck by another motorist.
Potomac Local News
Stafford teacher named in jail-roster record after sheriff arrest
By PLN News
A Stafford County teacher is listed in a public jail roster record as booked at the Rappahannock Regional Jail after an arrest by the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office.
The record names Mayada Khadr, 38, booked at 6:17 p.m. October 6 on two counts of endangerment, cruelty or injuries to children, and says bond was denied. The listing is from a site that says it pulls the jail roster. The Sheriff’s Office has not confirmed the booking. Potomac Local asked the sheriff’s office, the jail, and Stafford County Public Schools for comment.
ADVANCE READS
Hailey Waurio, Jake Pearson, Phil Huber
Chemistry Lessons
Hailey Waurio, ADVANCE CONTRIBUTOR
When I first began high school, I pictured my experience being just like the movies: Fighting over lunch tables, getting bullied for my glasses, maybe even bickering with my teammates. But in reality, it’s not all that simple. On Wednesdays, we might not wear pink, but there’s definitely a standard.
The clique culture of Chancellor High isn’t always in plain sight. If I walked into the cafeteria for lunch, I wouldn’t exactly think I’d been recast in Mean Girls.
Now, don’t get me wrong, school has a rulebook; whether it’s about who sits where or who talks to whom, we as students try to stick to it. Truthfully, I don’t always notice the divisions among our student body, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. Regardless if it’s band kids or the football team, the divide maybe overlooked, but the tension stays just as steady.
I Deliberately Bet Like a Problem Gambler. DraftKings Made Me a VIP. PART III.
Jake Pearson, ProPublica
By late May, according to my expert panel, I was enthusiastically waving all the red flags of a compulsive gambler. Loss chasing? Check. Regular depositing? Yup. Exotic betting products? Lots of ’em. Long hours on the app and bets of increasing size and frequency? Yes and yes.
Yet the only pushback I got from DraftKings came in the form of responsible gaming prompts that required me to opt in to the app’s tools. The company told me it sent a total of 32 such notices over my 10 weeks of gambling, including emails that every DraftKings customer gets. By my count, I got in-app notifications about my betting on 14 of the 71 days I gambled.
Trump’s Report Card—and Congress’s
Phil Huber, ADVANCE COLUMNIST
Approval measures how people feel today. It goes up and down with prices, jobs, wars and the daily news. It matters. But it does not tell us everything we need to know: Is the president making the country safer? Is he using power wisely? Is he leaving the country better than he found it?
That is what presidential rankings try to measure.
Siena College Research Institute last published its Survey of U.S. Presidents in 2022. It was the seventh Siena survey since 1982 and is still the latest one. A new survey would be useful now, in 2026, although Siena has not said when one is coming.
STATE OF THE STATE
VaNews/VIRGINIA PUBLIC ACCESS PROJECT
State jail board blasted for lack of action on mental health
By DAVE RESS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)
The state board that oversees local and regional jails has not acted in seven years on a General Assembly directive to set standards for what happens to inmates with mental illness. Lack of care for deeply troubled inmates has been an issue in jails for years. That prompted the General Assembly’s 2019 directive telling the Board of Local and Regional Jails to write regulations. ... But no regulations have come from the board.
‘Monstrous towers and lines’: With Campbell County’s vote, localities unite against Valley Link
By MATT BUSSE, Cardinal News
Eight counties in the proposed path of a massive “extra-high-voltage” electric transmission line are now united in opposing the project. The last locality to formally voice its opposition was Campbell County, where the board of supervisors on Tuesday voted 4-3 to approve a resolution against the proposed line, called Joshua Falls to Yeat. Valley Link, the developer behind the $1 billion transmission line proposal, says the line is needed to move electricity into Northern Virginia to support data centers, increasing population, manufacturing and other growth factors, as well as to support electric grid reliability. They have compared it to interstate highways in terms of its importance as an infrastructure project. Opponents say the transmission line, with steel towers up to 160 feet tall and cleared rights-of-way 200 feet wide, would harm Central Virginia property values, residents’ health and the environment.
VPAP Visual New Voter Registrations: October 2026
The Virginia Public Access Project
After peaking in April around Virginia’s redistricting referendum, monthly new voter registrations this year have fallen below the same months in 2018, the most recent high for a mid-term election year.
Spanberger extols General Assembly’s 250 years with message of unity
By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)
The Virginia General Assembly looks remarkably different than it did when it met for the first time 250 years ago in an independent commonwealth. But Gov. Abigail Spanberger reminded the legislators crammed into the old House of Burgesses Chamber in the Colonial Capitol in Williamsburg on Wednesday that the challenges and duties of governing aren’t so different now than they were then.
Eastern Shore oyster farm loses entire harvest in harmful algal bloom
By MAGGIE ALLWEIN, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Oyster grower Alex Lambert had one day’s notice that an algal bloom was heading toward his 4,000-basket farm. It could be years before scientists know why. A local grower messaged Lambert on Sept. 17, telling him discolored water was spotted in nearby creeks with suspicion it could be harmful to sea life like his oysters. Lambert tried not to panic. He’d learned from other farmers that larger oysters tend to survive the type of bloom. But the next morning, on Lambert’s birthday, an intense smell ruminated from the Lambert Shellfish farm. The water was still, thick and brown, and dead fish floated along the shore.
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