FREDLINES
Eve Evans, EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Fredericksburg Free Press
Biz Beat Roundup: Fire-damaged section of Eagle Village coming back to life
By Bill Freehling 9/2/26
Tenants have started moving back in two years after a fire in late 2024, to include Lee’s Cleaners, Goodwill, a laundromat, and Automation Personnel Services. Play It Again Sports won’t re-open there. Meanwhile, Stafford’s Board of Supervisors approved a $2.25 million incentive deal over the next ten years for a new Publix supermarket off U.S. 17.
Free Lance-Star
Bus driver trial continued to next year in Stafford (Paywalled)
By Keith Epps 9/2/26
The trial for the bus driver accused of killing five people in an accident back in May has now been pushed back to March. It had been scheduled to start in early October. The defense attorney filed a motion for delay due to the amount of evidence in the case for which he needed more time to prepare.
Local food community steps up to help after SNAP reductions (Paywalled)
Pilar Davis, 9/2/26
Local organizations are scrambling to respond to a significant decline in federal food support for low-income families, most of them veterans returning to civilian life, senior citizens, and families with children.
ADVANCE READS
Hugh Lessig, Donnie Johnston, Bruce Saller
Sen. Kaine: Keep WWII Hero’s Name on Aircraft Carrier. Trump Can Wait
By Hugh Lessig, ADVANCE MILITARY CORRESPONDENT
A backlash from veterans and other groups is growing in the wake of reports that the future U.S. Navy aircraft carrier to be named for WWII Doris “Dorie” Miller will be renamed instead for President Trump.
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine says he’s a hard no on the change.
Who Needs People Anyway?
By Donnie Johnston, ADVANCE COLUMNIST
AI. That’s all you hear these days. It is what supposedly will rule our future economy.
On Wall Street, AI is the latest strategy to send Stock Market prices into the stratosphere and make us all rich. On Main Street, it is the evil that is fueling the incessant rise of data centers in every neighborhood.
President Donald Trump uses AI to create cute little cartoons that he uses to promote his direct connection to God, and Trump’s critics create their own little AI cartoons in an attempt to make him the laughingstock of the entire world.
Energy Supply (and Cost) Worries? Three Ways to Cut At-Home Demand
Bruce Saller, ADVANCE CONTRIBUTOR
Electric hot water heaters use 18 percent of residential electricity. Since the average customer uses 12,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, that is 2,160 kilowatt hours. A heat pump hot water heater uses 75 percent less energy than a traditional resistive water heater, so you can save 1,620 kilowatt hours, or $291.60 a year by switching over.
STATE OF THE STATE
VaNews/VIRGINIA PUBLIC ACCESS PROJECT
Dominion ratepayers on hook again as give turns into take
By ELIZABETH MCGOWAN, Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism
Dominion Energy’s inability to accurately predict its annual fuel budget in three of the past five years burdens its Virginia customers with billions—with a b—in surprise add-ons to their electric bills. Its latest forecasting shortfall rang in at $922 million for the year between July 2025 and June. Recovering that sum over one year, as is customary in the industry, would saddle the average residential ratepayer with a $21 monthly charge—or $252 annually. That alone would more than cancel out the shareholder-funded bill credit rebate Dominion is now touting as an affordability measure if Florida-based NextEra’s $67 billion bid to buy the Virginia utility is greenlighted.
Wilder blasts Spanberger on data centers
By DAVE RESS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)
Two former governors — Democrat Doug Wilder and Republican Jim Gilmore — took what was billed as a look at Virginia’s democratic legacy and decided to attack Gov. Abigail Spanberger as out of touch on data centers. “I’ve not heard the governor yet deliver the kind of message that’s necessary to be delivered,” Wilder told the annual Wilder Symposium at Virginia Commonwealth University’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs.
Political donors are favoring Va. constitutional changes
By DAVE RESS, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)
Political players are putting their money in favor of three amendments to the state Constitution, campaign finance data shows. Advocates for amending the state Constitution have raised far more than opponents, a Times-Dispatch analysis of state Department of Elections filings shows. Those proposed amendments would ensure access to abortions and other reproductive healthcare, recognize same sex couples have a right to marry, and provide for automatic restoration of voting rights after people have served sentences for felonies.
State senator wants to make Flock, other similar cameras illegal in Virginia
By TYLER ENGLANDER, WRIC-TV
Republican state Sen. Glen Sturtevant (R-Colonial Heights) said he’ll introduce legislation during next year’s General Assembly session to make Flock and similar automatic license plate reader cameras illegal in Virginia. “Virginia should not become a surveillance state,” Sturtevant told 8News. The cameras capture images of vehicles and license plates and put them into a searchable database.
Data shows 94,000 Virginians have dropped their ACA insurance since last year
By CHARLOTTE RENE WOODS, Virginia Mercury
Of an estimated 100,000 people whom state health leaders predicted were vulnerable to losing their Affordable Care Act insurance in Virginia, 94,000 have dropped it so far this year, according to new numbers from the State Health Benefit Exchange. There were 389,000 enrollees in 2025 and 295,000 enrollees as of this week. The reduction is attributed in part to the expiration of subsidies that had helped expand the ACA marketplace to people whose incomes are further below the federal poverty level. Debate over the issue triggered a government shutdown last year and Congress ultimately elected to let the subsidies lapse.
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