FREDLINES
Claire Marshall Watkins, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Fredericksburg Free Press
Drug testing for new school hires lands on Spotsylvania’s legislative wish list
By Adele Uphaus 10/02/2026
The Spotsylvania County School Board is asking its state legislators to support legislation allowing local school boards to petition for authority to implement pre-employment, suspicionless drug testing for new hires and rehires.
At a work session Monday, the board voted to include this request — among other legislative priorities — in communications with state senators and delegates.
Armed with study, Protect Stafford making noise about potential data center decibel levels
By Jonathan Hunley 10/02/2026
Noise from proposed data centers could impact Stafford residents even if it met the letter of the law in terms of county regulations, according to a study Protect Stafford is releasing Friday.
The grassroots group, which says it’s committed to responsible data center development, commissioned the study by the Massachusetts firm Noise Control Engineering LLC. It found that Stafford’s ordinance allows data center noise that is much louder than the sounds residents hear and experience currently.
Germans to be shepherded around Fredericksburg as part of sister city program
By Rick Horner 10/02/2026
Located in the state of Baden-Württemberg, the city of Schwetzingen has been a sister city to Fredericksburg since 2010, when then-Mayor Tom Tomzak signed a letter of intent to pursue the relationship while on a visit to the German city. Schwetzingen is one of five cities worldwide that have such a relationship with Fredericksburg. The others are Este in Italy, Princes Town in Ghana, Fréjus in France and Kathmandu in Nepal.
No more left turns at Fall Hill Avenue and Bridgewater Street
By FPP Staff 10/02/2026
Drivers traveling along Fall Hill Avenue can no longer turn left onto or from Bridgewater Street following a change at the intersection.
The City of Fredericksburg installed yellow reflective delineator posts Oct. 1 to mark the new traffic configuration at Fall Hill Avenue and Bridgewater Street. The intersection is now set up as right-in, right-out, meaning drivers can turn right from Fall Hill Avenue onto Bridgewater Street and right from Bridgewater Street onto Fall Hill Avenue. Left turns are no longer allowed.
The Free Lance-Star
Teen convicted in Fredericksburg for violent group assault (paywalled)
By Keith Epps 10/02/2026
A teenager who lured his former friend to a brutal beating earlier this year in Fredericksburg was convicted of serious felony offenses Thursday.
Roberto A. Castro-Elvir, 17, was found guilty in Fredericksburg Circuit Court of aggravated malicious wounding, robbery with serious injury and conspiracy. Judge Joseph Ellis acquitted Castro-Elvir of a second conspiracy charge. Castro-Elvir, who was tried as an adult, faces the possibility of up to life in prison when he is sentenced Nov. 30.
Bridge inspections set for Falmouth Bridge next week (paywalled)
By Scott Shenk 10/02/2026
Lane closures are scheduled for the Falmouth Bridge next week to allow for a routine inspection.
The inspection is scheduled to start Monday and run through Friday, with alternating lane closures between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., the Virginia Department of Transportation said Friday.
Local Walmart sued over alleged failure to provide ASL (paywalled)
By Keith Epps 10/02/2026
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Thursday announced the suit involving the store at 125 Washington Square Plaza in southern Stafford. The suit was filed on behalf of Linwood Canada, a deaf employee who has worked as a stocker at the store since 2020.
According to court records, Canada has repeatedly requested American Sign Language services to assist him during daily meetings, which generally last between 15 and 30 minutes. The meetings are used to confirm attendance, communicate tasks and assignments and provide other information related to job expectations and safety issues.
Broken bones prompt felony child abuse charges in Stafford (paywalled)
By Keith Epps 10/02/2026
A young Stafford couple is facing felony charges as a result of their 2-month-old daughter being brought to a county hospital this summer with multiple broken bones, court records show.
Aiden Matthew Herebia and Cianna Herebia, both 21, are each charged with child abuse, a Class 4 felony that carries the possibility of up to 10 years in prison. Both suspects were arrested last month and are currently free on bond.
Potomac Local News
Stafford Education Foundation and Amazon award 24 teaching grants
By PLN News 10/02/2026
The Stafford Education Foundation, Amazon, and Stafford County Public Schools marked the first year of a teaching-grant partnership on Oct. 1, naming 24 projects. Sandra Osborn, the division’s chief communications officer, sent the announcement Thursday evening.
Teachers filed more than 90 applications, about $500,000 in proposed work. The release says the 24 projects should reach nearly 13,000 students. It does not say how much of Amazon’s three-year teaching-grant pool went to this first class.
ADVANCE READS
Dewey Turner, Hugh Lessig, Steve Rabson, Phil Huber
Staffing Shortages at Local Veterans Center Make National News in CNN Special Report
Dewey Turner and Hugh Lessig, ADVANCE WRITERS
An Air Force veteran recently spoke to the FXBG Advance about the challenges in finding primary care at the local VA.
The veteran, who wanted to be identified only as Tim, said he tried to sign up for primary care at the Fredericksburg center after attending a recent veterans roundtable with Rep. Eugene Vindman and Sen. Tim Kaine.
He said a VA staff member told him by phone that it would be three to six months before he could see someone.
“She was very nice, very respectful, but said, ‘Our primary care doctors are overbooked so we can’t give you an appointment, but we can farm you out to community care,’” Tim said.
The VA hasn’t responded to Advance questions about Tim’s experience and what he says he was told about three-to-six-month wait times for appointments.
Religion. What the Hell?
Steve Rabson, GUEST COLUMNIST
I first learned about hell at age five. I was playing on the swing in our backyard with Tommy, one of my neighbors. My hands slipped when I tried to climb onto the seat and I yelled “Damn it,” which was what I’d heard my father say when something went wrong. Tommy got a horrified look on his face and put his hand up over his mouth. “Don’t you know,” he said, “every time you say a bad word, a mark goes on your chest and when you die, God counts the marks. If there are too many, you go to hell.” He then proceeded to describe hell.
In those days I was frightened hearing people talk about death, though one of our family friends had tried to convince me that it was just like going to sleep. But the idea that there was something even worse after death sent me into a panic.
A Citizen’s Job in the Podcast Age
Phil Huber, ADVANCE COLUMNIST
The Wall Street Journal’s analysis of conservative podcasts earlier this week offered an interesting political story: Some online personalities who helped Donald Trump reach voters in 2024 may be talking about him less often now.
The civic lesson is that in the age of podcasts, influencers, algorithmic feeds, and political clips passed from phone to phone, we have more responsibility for deciding what deserves our trust.
I say that as a 79-year-old bro.
STATE OF THE STATE
VaNews/VIRGINIA PUBLIC ACCESS PROJECT
By MATT BUSSE, Cardinal News
Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Thursday unveiled her administration’s energy plan, outlining multiple ways that she said Virginia’s power sector could achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 while keeping electricity affordable and reliable. The nearly 200-page plan describes different outcomes for Virginia having no energy policy, continuing its current policies or pursuing one of three new paths that emphasize distributed resources such as rooftop solar and having large customers such as data centers reduce or shift their energy consumption during peak times, which is known as demand flexibility.
Albemarle registrar sends out mail-in ballots without required postage
By DAVID VELAZQUEZ, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Albemarle County’s registrar has sent out multiple mail-in ballots without the necessary postage for them to be returned ahead of Election Day. The news is concerning for a variety of reasons. Chief among them: Early voting is already underway in Albemarle, the largest locality in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, and Virginia is notoriously the worst in the nation for on-time mail delivery. “This is our office that made an error and then we corrected it as quickly and as best as we know how,” Albemarle County Registrar Jonell McFadden told The Daily Progress on Tuesday. Of the 7,400 ballots McFadden’s office has sent out to voters since early voting began Sept. 18, she could not say how many did not include postage.
Prince Edward visits George Washington’s Mount Vernon for 250th
By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)
Six months after King Charles III visited Virginia to honor the 250th anniversary of the United States’ independence from his own Great Britain, his youngest brother quietly paid respect to the man who helped transform the 13 colonies into a nation. Prince Edward, accompanied by the British ambassador to the U.S., laid a ceremonial wreath at the tomb of President George Washington on Thursday, echoing a gesture 166 years ago by a future king to help heal the rupture between the two nations.
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