FREDLINES
Claire Marshall Watkins, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
The Free Lance-Star
Stafford data center on Tuesday’s Supervisors’ agenda (paywalled)
By Scott Shenk 10/05/2026
A public hearing for a proposed data center campus is on Tuesday’s Stafford County Board of Supervisors agenda.
The proposed Accokeek Center project includes two two-story data centers totaling 590,000 square feet, along with a power substation on site.
Spotsylvania teen killed in car crash (paywalled)
By Keith Epps 10/05/2026
Spotsylvania teenager was killed Friday night in a single-vehicle crash in the county, police said.
Yousaf Chaudhry, 18, was pronounced dead at the scene. The Traffic Reconstruction Unit of the sheriff’s office is investigating.
Woman pleads guilty to child porn charges in Spotsylvania (paywalled)
By Keith Epps 10/05/2026
A Spotsylvania woman whose child pornography collection included videos of her own child pleaded guilty to 12 felony offenses Monday.
Ashley Elizabeth Kriesten, 38, was convicted in Spotsylvania Circuit Court of five counts of possessing child pornography, five counts of reproducing child pornography and two counts of aggravated sexual battery. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 15.
Spotsylvania school worker accused of shoving down an autistic child (paywalled)
By Keith Epps 10/05/2026
Kimberly Anne Smith, 43, was a paraprofessional at Wilderness Elementary School when the incident took place on Aug. 25, Sheriff’s Maj. Liz Scott said. She is charged with assault and battery, a Class 1 misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
Smith was arrested on Thursday and released from the Rappahannock Regional Jail on bond. Her current status with the school system was unclear Monday evening.
Public hearing set for Spotsylvania comprehensive plan (paywalled)
By Scott Shenk 10/05/2026
Spotsylvania County is moving forward with the regular five-year update to its Comprehensive Plan, which guides the county’s approach to future development.
A public hearing is scheduled for the draft version of the updated county comprehensive plan during Tuesday’s Planning Commission meeting, which starts at 6 p.m. at the Holbert Building.
ADVANCE READS
Dewey Turner, Hank Silverberg, Phil Huber
Critical Stafford Vote on Accokeek Creek This Week: Data Center Developments
Complied by Dewey Turner, ADVANCE WRITER
On the Radar:
The Board of Supervisors will be holding a Public Hearing on the Crossroads Technology Campus sometime in October or November. We will post once we have a date for the hearing. Crossroads is a 555 acre data center development in the Lee Hill District. More information about Crossroads can be found at: www.safeguardspotsy.org.
The Scarlet Energy Battery Storage Facility will be coming up for a vote at the Planning Commission in the next couple of weeks. We will post once we have a date for the public hearing. Find more information about that project here: www.safeguardspotsy.org.
Speed Cameras Rake in Millions
Hank Silverberg, ADVANCE CORRESPONDENT
If you travel anywhere near a school in the Fredericksburg area, there’s a good chance you will pass by one of many speed cameras designed to slow down traffic in school zones. There are ten cameras in Spotsylvania across five school zones, and six cameras in Fredericksburg across four zones.
The school zones, though marked with signs and flashing lights during school hours, come up on you fast, often dropping the speed limit from 45 to 25 mph very quickly. It happened to me last month. I confess I was speeding to pick up my grandchild at school in Caroline County and forgot to slow down near Battlefield Middle school on Leavells Road.
The Battlefield Changes Before the Briefing Does
Phil Huber, ADVANCE COLUMNIST
In 1971–72, I flew Army helicopters in Vietnam. We had been taught to fly at 1,500 feet or higher to reduce the danger from small-arms fire. Then North Vietnamese forces began using shoulder-fired missiles against helicopters. The altitude that had helped protect us from one threat could expose us to another.
We adapted by flying close to the terrain. But nap-of-the-earth flying brought its own hazards, and it was not the flying our training had prepared us to do. After 30 years in the Army, that lesson has stayed with me: A battlefield can change faster than an institution changes its training.
That is why Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Sept. 30 announcement of Project Meridian caught my attention. The 120-day study, co-led by Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey, and Newt Gingrich, will examine how warfare may change, identify gaps in military capabilities and propose ways to develop and field solutions. Its scope extends from underground operations to space near the Moon.
STATE OF THE STATE
VaNews/VIRGINIA PUBLIC ACCESS PROJECT
NextEra must produce some documents about Florida investigations, SCC rules
By DAVE RESS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)
NextEra Energy must produce an internal report on an investigation it conducted in 2021 into allegations that it secretly used company money to influence elections in Florida, in its pending application to acquire Dominion Energy. The $67 billion deal can’t go ahead unless the State Corporation Commission approves. A SCC hearing examiner ruled that producing the report is “reasonably calculated to lead to evidence that could verify or impeach … representations regarding the historic managerial fitness of the entities for which the merger is proposed.”
Virginia localities weigh 1% sales tax for school construction as voters decide on expansion
By NATHANIEL CLINE, Virginia Mercury
Six years ago, the city of Danville in Virginia’s Southside region struggled to raise funds for school construction and modernization across 15 schools, with nearly a quarter of its population, around 42,000, living in poverty. But since the state authorized the city to levy an additional sales and use tax of up to 1% for school rehabilitation and voters agreed to the measure seven years ago, the future has changed for students, staff and local leaders. “It’s been great so far,” said Michael Adkins, Danville’s assistant city manager and chief financial officer. “Based on the receipts we’re getting each month, we’re easily able to take care of the debt service on those 20-year bonds,” he added.
First bill of 2027 aims to protect people with autism, other disabilities
By DAVE RESS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)
The first new bill filed for the 2027 General Assembly is a replay of an idea to make sure people with intellectual or developmental disability don’t end up in prison because they said something they didn’t understand they were saying to police. The measure, Senate Bill 837, says statements made by individuals with those disabilities should not be admissible in court in most cases.
Gordonsville police quietly resumed working with ICE a month ago. The town council didn’t know.
By ANDRA LANDI, Charlottesville Tomorrow
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has signed more than 2,600 287(g) agreements across the country as of October 2, deputizing local police officers to act as immigration agents in counties and towns across America. Gordonsville, with a population of roughly 1,500 on the southeastern edge of Orange County, Virginia, is one of them. Four and a half months after Gordonsville’s chief of police, Chris Votaw, signed a contract that took a news report to become public knowledge, almost no one in town government can say with certainty what the 287(g) program is or isn’t doing, including the mayor. And interviews show that the Gordonsville police department’s cooperation with federal immigration agents is based largely on relationships and private meetings that are not documented in writing or available to the public.
New data shows lifetime return on investment of Virginia degree programs
By MEGAN PAULY, VPM
Prospective Virginia college students and their families now have access to additional data to help evaluate four-year degree programs: return on investment (ROI). Earlier this year, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia released a new data dashboard to show the average lifetime earnings of graduates from public institutions across the commonwealth compared to earnings for those without a degree. The calculation attempts to determine whether specific majors are “worth it” from a financial standpoint, and whether students were able to pay off their student loans and earn more than a Virginia high school graduate does on average by the time they turn 67.
No job after college? JMU will let struggling grads come back for free
By ERIC KOLENICH, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)
Many students are questioning the value of a college degree. With a new program, James Madison University says it will show it stands behind the graduates it sends into the workplace. On Friday, the university announced an initiative in which graduates can return to school for free classes and training if they have not found a job or other next step one year after college.
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