THE THURSDAY ADVANCE: FREDLINES, TODAY’S READS, and STATE of the STATE
AUGUST 6, 2026. All About the Day.
FREDLINES
Eve Evans, EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Potomac Local News
Virginia Commission Orders Dominion to Develop Data Center Cost Plan
By Uriah Kiser
08/06/2026
Virginia’s State Corporation Commission has directed Dominion Energy to return this fall with proposed changes that could shift more transmission infrastructure costs to data centers and other large electricity users. The July 31 order gives the company 90 days to file amendments to its line-extension policy and 120 days to update regulators on a broader approach for assigning those costs when large-load customers drive the need for new grid infrastructure.
The directives came as part of Dominion’s annual Rider T1 transmission cost recovery case, with approved rates set to take effect Sept. 1. Gov. Abigail Spanberger called the decision a victory for ratepayers, saying it ensures data centers pay the full cost of the transmission infrastructure their developments require
Hot, Humid Weather Continues with Rising Severe Storm Risk
By Uriah Kiser
08/06/2026
Hot, humid weather will stick around through the weekend and into next week, with afternoon highs in the upper 80s to low 90s and heat indices reaching the low 100s. The risk of strong to severe storms, capable of producing damaging winds, is expected to increase, with the highest chances Friday and Saturday. The Bermuda High will keep hot and humid conditions in place into next week, with scattered showers and thunderstorms expected each afternoon and damaging winds the main threat from the strongest storms. Sunday may bring a short dry break before heat, humidity, and daily storm chances return Monday through much of next week.
The Free Lance-Star
Fredericksburg starts citywide sewer cleaning program (paywalled)
By Scott Shenk
08/05/2026
Fredericksburg has begun preventive maintenance on its wastewater collection system, cleaning sewer lines and inspecting infrastructure to catch problems before they become bigger issues. The current phase runs into October, starting in the Mayfield neighborhood and moving west, though the broader effort will continue for several years to cover the city’s entire sewer footprint. The work follows 13 sewage overflow incidents since February that released nearly 170,000 gallons of untreated wastewater, which drew citations from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (since closed). Residents near the work may notice gurgling pipes, temporary odors, or moving water in fixtures, and the city recommends keeping toilet lids closed during nearby work.
Judge to review plea withdrawal in serious sex crimes case (paywalled)
By Keith Epps
08/05/2026
David Robert Jackson, 63, who pleaded guilty June 1 in Fredericksburg Circuit Court to raping a child under 13 (a 2017 case involving a then-12-year-old girl) and faced sentencing this week on a charge carrying up to life in prison, is now seeking to withdraw that plea after his new attorney, Jason Pelt, argued the Public Defender’s Office had an undisclosed conflict of interest; prosecutor Kia Barrett has asked the judge to deny the motion, noting the victim’s identity was available to the defense beforehand and that Jackson admitted in a police interview to having sex with the girl, with a hearing set for Aug. 14.
Deputy faces charges of reckless driving and manslaughter (paywalled)
By Keith Epps
08/05/2026
For the second week in a row, a Stafford County deputy faces serious criminal charges: Sgt. Jeremy Hurt was indicted Monday by a Prince William County grand jury on involuntary manslaughter and reckless driving charges tied to an August 16, 2025, incident involving a chase and vehicle ramming that ended in a death, and he’s due back in Prince William Circuit Court Aug. 14 while remaining free on bond and on administrative assignment with the Sheriff’s Office. The charges follow last week’s arrest of Stafford 1st Sgt. Justin Forman on a federal child pornography charge, for which he was fired and remains held without bond.
Fredericksburg Free Press
Fredericksburg, Stafford and Spotsylvania counties to receive federal public safety grants
By Johnathan Hunley
08/05/2026
Fredericksburg-area localities will receive more than $83,700 in federal funding for public safety, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced this week, part of $1.7 million awarded through the Department of Justice’s Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program to help law-enforcement agencies across Virginia through upgraded equipment, specialized training and enhanced emergency response capabilities. The breakdown includes $37,657 for the Stafford Sheriff’s Office to purchase an all-terrain vehicle along with equipment for disabled motorists and SWAT nighttime operations, $29,500 for Spotsylvania’s Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office to buy up to nine portable forensic laptops, and $16,552 for Fredericksburg to replace an all-terrain vehicle for the city’s watershed area.
ADVANCE READS
Bruce Saller, Phil Huber, Michael Aubrecht
For Better and Worse, El Niño Arrives
Bruce Saller, ADVANCE CONTRIBUTOR
The hot tropical Pacific Ocean condition El Niño returned in June bringing us warmer and wetter weather. The wetter weather of June and July (8.8 inches of rain vs. 7.6-inch average) was very welcome since we had been in an extreme drought since August 2025, having only received 13.3 inches of rain vs. our 35.2-inch average.
The warmer temperatures were not as welcome, as June was 3.3 degrees above average, and July was 3.7 degrees hotter. So be prepared for higher July bills as we used more electricity for air conditioning, and Dominion raised their rates effective July 1. On the plus side, during the last El Niño in 2023-24, the winter temperature was 3.5 degrees above average, so we should see lower heating bills this winter.
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‘Everything I Am I Owe to My Mother’
By Michael Aubrecht, ADVANCE CONTRIBUTOR
[Editor’s Note: Mary Washington Heritage Museums and local tree activists have been working for several months on renovation and landscape design at the Mary Washington Monument and Caretaker’s Lodge, including protection and care of the famous Eskridge Oak, which Tree Fredericksburg President Anne Little discusses, above, in an interview with Ted Schubel for B101.5. With all that in mind, we thought it would be a good time to ask our resident Colonial-era (and Civil War-era) historian, Michael Aubrecht, to send over a refresher essay on the mother of the father of our country. Here’s Michael’s report:]
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Before We Build AI Gods, We Need AI Rules
By Phil Huber, ADVANCE COLUMNIST
If you can envision it, you can build it. Given enough money and time, nearly every powerful invention can also be weaponized. Artificial intelligence is no exception. It is already moving through our networks, our skies, outer space, and even into the human nervous system. It can watch, predict, persuade, and act at speeds no human can match.
The ancient Greeks imagined gods who could see everything, hurl lightning, and bend human fate. For thousands of years, that remained mythology. Today, AI is bringing parts of that myth disturbingly close to reality. The real question is no longer whether these systems can be built. It is who will control them, who will be protected from them, and whether democracy can survive if too much of that power gathers in too few hands.
STATE OF THE STATE
VaNews/VIRGINIA PUBLIC ACCESS PROJECT
Spanberger op-ed: Why I’m intervening in the Dominion-NextEra merger
By ABIGAIL SPANBERGER, published in Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Virginia regulators are facing a decision that could shape energy affordability in the commonwealth for decades. NextEra Energy, a Florida-based utility company, has filed paperwork to buy Dominion Energy for about $67 billion, creating the largest regulated electric utility in the world. Virginia’s State Corporation Commission is the regulatory body tasked with reviewing the application, and the SCC’s commissioners will ultimately decide whether to approve, deny or impose new conditions on any potential merger. As a Virginian, I am deeply skeptical about whether selling our primary, state-regulated utility to an out-of-state company is good for the commonwealth. ... That is why I will be taking the legal step of “intervening” in this proposed merger, which means that as governor, I will formally request to be a party to the case.
Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin launches new conservative policy group
By OLIVIA RINALDI, CBS News
Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is launching a new conservative policy group, marking the first major move since Youngkin, a potential 2028 Republican presidential contender, left office in January. The group, called Empowering America’s Parents, will focus on expanding awareness about the Education Freedom Tax Credit, a federal scholarship tax credit that has been adopted in 30 states. Youngkin’s group plans to target the 20 remaining states that have not adopted the program with a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, according to a source familiar with internal planning. Among the targets are Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — all key battleground states that went for President Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
A Democratic civil war? Not according to Va.’s governor
By LAUREN FEDOR, Financial Times (Subscription Required)
Democrats must unite to address voter anxiety about affordability ahead of November’s midterm elections, Virginia’s governor has said, as she brushed aside suggestions of a civil war in her party. In a wide-ranging interview with the FT on Wednesday, Abigail Spanberger said Democrats needed to project a strong contrast between their party and Donald Trump and the Republicans heading into November. “The task before anyone who is now the [Democratic] nominee in their state, whether it is a Senate nominee in Michigan or any of our House nominees in Virginia, is that they have to focus on delivering for people,” Spanberger said.
Landmark DNA case is among Virginia executions being examined in review of Mary Jane Burton’s work
By DAVE CANTOR, WVTF-FM
About five years after abolishing the death penalty, Virginia has named the eight men executed between 1986 and 1998 whose cases will be reviewed as part of a broader reassessment of practices connected to former state forensic scientist Mary Jane Burton. Timothy Spencer’s convictions in multiple murder cases are among those being reconsidered. His case became the first in the country to use DNA in securing a capital murder conviction. It’s also the first instance in the U.S. of DNA being used to exonerate an individual who was wrongfully implicated when David Vasquez was cleared in one slaying.
Black lung rates in Appalachia are as high as the 1970s, with thousands of miners sick
By HOWARD BERKES AND JUSTIN HICKS, NPR
Respiratory therapist Marcy Freeman doesn’t need a research study to confirm for her a return to the dark days of coal mining. She finds evidence in a stack of more than 150 funeral programs, all for former patients at her pulmonary rehabilitation clinic in Norton, Virginia. “Each one of these represents a life that’s gone because of black lung,” Freeman explained as she flipped through the programs, recognizing names and images. “These are husbands. These are brothers. … These men were just hardworking men, and the only thing they did was go to work and provide for their families. And it cost them everything. … This is the aftermath of black lung.”
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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.
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