FREDLINES
Claire Marshall Watkins, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Fredericksburg Free Press
Caroline School Board, supervisors remain at impasse
By Taft Coghill Jr. 10/22/2026
The school board believes it has a temporary solution to relieve the overcrowding in the building. But first, it needs the board of supervisors to release nearly $1 million in Fiscal Year 2025 reversion funds so it can install trailers, like it did to relieve a similar issue at Bowling Green Elementary last school year.
Police find Stafford man taking sledgehammer to Quantico monument
By Trevor Baratko 10/22/2026
Around 10:13 p.m. Wednesday, Prince William County police officers responded to the statue near Richmond Highway and Fuller Road in Quantico, just outside Marine Corps Base Quantico. Officers found a man – later identified as 27-year-old Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano – “actively damaging the statue with a sledgehammer,” according to a police news release. Officers quickly detained Maldonado Soriano.
The Free Lance-Star
Colonial Beach man killed in King George crash, police say (paywalled)
By Keith Epps 10/22/2026
Harold Edwin Love was driving east on Kings Highway (State Route 3) in a 2011 Ford Focus when he collided with a van about 12:09 p.m., Virginia State Police Sgt. Jessica Shehan said. Shehan said the van entered Route 3 from Ridgeway Drive at a stop sign and drove into the path of the Focus. Other police sources said the van was driven by an Amazon delivery driver.
UMW’s ‘Roots to Renewal’ turns campus trees into campus furniture (paywalled)
By Pilar Davis 10/22/2026
UMW says nearly 60 trees were uprooted to make room for UMW's new theater, and while some schools might have hauled them off, UMW wanted to honor their history on the campus. A crew rolled a large portable sawmill into the parking lot of the UMW Tennis Center to mill a large poplar and red oak tree into slabs of wood that will be reimagined into various types of furniture for the campus.
Input sought on Stafford County intersection upgrades (paywalled)
By Scott Shenk 10/22/2026
etails for proposed changes to a Stafford County intersection will be available next week.
A public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 28, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Falmouth Elementary School. Plans for the $14.3-million proposal, which includes various changes on Layhill Road and U.S. 1, will be on display.
Potomac Local News
Fredericksburg EDA explores its own social presence. Counsel raises legal question
By PLN News 10/22/2026
Members of the city’s Economic Development Authority spent part of their Oct. 5 retreat discussing whether the authority should build its own social-media presence and run short influencer campaigns aimed at people who might live or work in the city, not only visitors. No vote was taken and no contract was awarded.
Culpeper sheriff seeks help identifying two suspects in data center copper and tool thefts
By PLN News 10/22/2026
The Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help identifying two suspects in a series of thefts at a data center construction site in the Germanna Highway area.
The first incident occurred overnight between September 22 and September 23, when suspects cut a padlock on the site’s front gate and removed a large quantity of copper piping from locked storage areas. The copper is valued at more than $200,000.
Patient First opens second Fredericksburg center Oct. 29
By PLN News 10/22/2026
Patient First will open its second Fredericksburg medical center Thursday, Oct. 29, at 1313 Alum Spring Road. The center will be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day of the year.
ADVANCE READS
Steve Watkins, Drew Gallagher, Phil Huber
OB/Gyn Clinics at MWHC Didn’t Pathogen-Test Instrument Sterilizers for Two Years. Should Past Patients Be Notified?
Steve Watkins, ADVANCE EDITOR
The discovery was made at least three months ago—along with other safety lapses—but MWHC never informed the thousands of patients on whom, and in whom, healthcare workers had used the gynecological instruments during that time, potentially exposing them to severe bacterial and viral infections.
In a limited statement last Thursday, the hospital corporation told The Advance that in addition to their own investigation, they had consulted with “Infection Prevention, Infectious Disease and external sterilization experts” before deciding not to notify patients or the Virginia Department of Health about the years-long testing failure.
MWHC would not identify any of those experts for verification, however.
Ghosted
Drew Gallagher, ADVANCE COLUMNIST
Halloween is upon us—a time noted in the ancient Celtic calendar as the day when we mark the passing of summer into a new year by drinking beer with our neighbors in the driveway while giving out candy to teenagers holding pillowcases. It’s also a day when the line between the living and the dead is blurred, and spirits reach out from beyond the grave to screw us over.
Just like my friend Chris Kilmartin.
Chris was a retired Mary Washington College professor and friend of mine for nearly 40 years who passed away unexpectedly a few months ago. I encounter many reminders of Chris and our friendship as I go on living my day-to-day existence. This is the world we all inhabit as we try to cope with loss and sorrow.
Political Courage Only Counts If It Comes Before You’re Out the Door
Phil Huber, ADVANCE COLUMNIST
I am frustrated by politicians who wait until they leave office—or decide not to run again—to tell us what they really believe. I want that honesty while they still have the power to act, not afterward in a memoir or farewell interview.
Locally, I have more opportunities to talk with elected officials and candidates, ask questions and hear their explanations. I have fewer opportunities with state representatives and very little direct access to members of Congress. With congressional seats on the ballot, their public statements, votes and campaign conduct have become especially important to me.
STATE OF THE STATE
VaNews/VIRGINIA PUBLIC ACCESS PROJECT
Va. Sen. Louise Lucas, six others indicted in federal cannabis corruption case
By MARKUS SCHMIDT, Virginia Mercury
State Sen. Louise Lucas of Portsmouth, one of Virginia’s most powerful Democrats, was indicted on federal racketeering, marijuana distribution and money laundering conspiracy charges, with prosecutors alleging she used her legislative influence to protect and enrich a cannabis business she co-owns.
Lucas, 82, surrendered to authorities, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said during a news conference in Norfolk Thursday. Six others, including family members and close associates, were also in custody in connection with the alleged scheme.
The eight-count indictment, unsealed Thursday morning, charges Lucas with racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and maintaining drug-involved premises.
The indictment also includes firearms and wire fraud charges against other defendants.
Early voting surges in Virginia
By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)
Early voting is surging across Virginia as Democrats seek advantage in the pending congressional midterm elections by showing up to vote in person to avoid potential problems with mail-in ballots or other obstacles on Election Day. Early voter turnout through Wednesday morning was 9% higher statewide than early voting at this time last fall — when Democrats swept Virginia’s three statewide elections and picked up a near supermajority in the House of Delegates — according to State Navigate, a Virginia-based nonprofit organization that tracks state election data.
Early Voting 2026: In-person vs. Mail
The Virginia Public Access Project
Mail and early in-person voting patterns shift in the lead-up to Election Day, with in-person votes usually accelerating closer to the election as satellite voting locations and weekend voting become available. See how these types of early voting have evolved this cycle, compared to recent November elections.
Elections chief says Virginia is ready for midterms, potential federal interference
By MARKUS SCHMIDT, Virginia Mercury
Virginia’s top elections official says voters can have confidence in both the integrity of the Nov. 3 midterms and the results, even if President Donald Trump or his allies challenge Republican losses or attempt to interfere with the election process. “I think Virginia voters should be very confident in the level of preparation and experience that their local election officials have in administering elections,” Steve Koski, the state’s new elections commissioner, said in a lengthy interview with The Mercury. Appointed by Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger after she took office in January, Koski said election officials have prepared for potential disruptions but would not speculate about how the Trump administration might respond if Democrats capture congressional seats now held by Republicans.
Spanberger wants secret memo revealed before any Dominion-NextEra merger
By CHRIS HORNE, WAVY-TV
Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) wants full public disclosure of a years-old internal memo from NextEra Energy that reportedly describes how the company manipulated Florida political races and financial markets in the past. NextEra, headquartered in Juno Beach, Fla. and already the largest electric utility holding company in the world, wants to acquire Dominion Energy in a deal worth an estimated $67 billion. Florida media have investigated for years what came to be known as the “Robo Memo,” named for a former NextEra CEO, purportedly detailing how NextEra propped up “ghost candidates” in Florida political races and manipulated financial markets.
Two legislators suggest building code changes to encourage more affordable housing
By DAVE RESS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)
Virginia’s housing regulators should make six changes to the state building code to encourage more of the affordable housing the state so badly needs, two legislators said Wednesday. The revisions would allow more flexibility in housing design, reduce construction costs and delays, and facilitate housing production, state Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, and Del. Adele McClure, D-Arlington, told the Department of Housing and Community Development, which is currently conducting a review of Virginia’s Uniform Statewide Building Code.
Albemarle school division concedes it is in ‘crisis’
By DAVID VELAZQUEZ, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Albemarle County Public Schools has conceded for the first time it is in “crisis” after officials spent months claiming otherwise and the School Board ousted one of its own after he said as much. The about-face comes after the county Board of Supervisors sent the School Board a lengthy list of requests last Thursday seeking to restore public trust in the body in the midst of a child sex scandal that has rocked the school division this year.
By VICTORIA A. IFATUSIN, The Richmonder
For more than 20 years, the playground at Mary Munford Elementary School has not only served its students, but also members of the public. Students dangle from gymnastic rings or run after classmates in playful games of tag both during and after school hours. Adjacent to the park are two sets of pickleball courts where grown-ups can work on their underhand serves. But just across the river is a playground at another Richmond elementary school that’s much smaller and in need of repairs. ... Part of the difference? The existence of a parent-teacher association.
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