FREDLINES
Claire Marshall Watkins, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Fredericksburg Free Press
Amazon moving forward with Birchwood data center after reaching settlement with King George
By Taft Coghill Jr. 09/29/2026
A King George County Circuit Court judge was ready to hear arguments in Amazon Web Services’ lawsuit against the county’s board of supervisors, with a trial set to begin this past Monday.
But prior to the trial, the two parties reached a settlement that will allow Amazon to move forward with its plans to construct a data center campus on the Birchwood Power property on Kings Highway (State Route 3).
Amazon is planning to invest $6 billion in the project, including $10 million to the new King George County Career and Technical Education School.
The Free Lance-Star
Spotsylvania man faces charges after third robbery attempt (paywalled)
By Keith Epps 09/29/2026
Spotsylvania man has been arrested and accused of robbing the same county business twice earlier this year and attempting to rob it a third time.
Elijah T.T. Deane, 22, is also charged in connection with a recent incident in Stafford County during which a suspect pepper-sprayed employees at a massage parlor and stole money. Detectives have since determined that he stole money from that business on multiple other occasions.
2019 bond referendum funding millions in Stafford road work (paywalled)
By Scott Shenk 09/29/2026
Working with the Virginia Department of Transportation, the county has four active road projects totaling more than $56 million.
Another four projects, costing a combined $72.798 million, are in the right-of-way procurement phase.
Eight more projects are in the design phase. The cost for those projects tops $102 million.
Potomac Local News
Stafford voters to weigh 1 percent school sales tax
By Saniaa Purdie 09/29/2026
Stafford County voters will decide Nov. 3 whether the county may levy an additional local retail sales-and-use tax of up to 1 percent, to be used only for construction of new schools or major renovations of schools serving Stafford.
The official ballot question reads: “Shall Stafford County, Virginia levy a local retail sales tax not to exceed one percent (1%) to provide revenue that can only be used for construction of new schools or major renovation of schools serving Stafford County, with such tax ending (1) upon repayment of any bonds or loans issued for the projects, or (2) if the projects are not funded by bonds or loans, on June 30, 2046?”
ADVANCE READS
Rebecca R. Rubin, Phil Huber
DIM THE LIGHTS
Rebecca R. Rubin, SPECIAL TO THE ADVANCE
Would you believe the U.S. Marine Corps led one of the most successful dark sky campaigns in the United States? It was called Operation Dim the Lights and launched in 2008 in California’s Morongo Basin, home of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms.
Pristine dark skies are a critical operational requirement for realistic night-time training exercises in the military services. At Twentynine Palms, more still was at stake: community partnerships. The City of Twentynine Palms and San Bernardino County had already established strict lighting ordinances. Nearby Joshua Tree National Park is an International Dark Sky Park. Together with these partners and the Morongo Basin Dark Skies Alliance, the town of Yucca Valley, and the Sky’s the Limit Observatory, a coalition was born to bring back the night sky.
The Military Cannot Run on Slogans
Phil Huber, ADVANCE COLUMNIST
A year ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called hundreds of generals and admirals to Quantico. What they heard was less a war council than a televised lecture with more brass in the room.
The message was clear enough. The military would be tougher, fitter, less “woke,” and more focused on warfighting. Hegseth announced tougher physical standards, tighter grooming rules, and less mandatory administrative training. President Trump followed with a wide-ranging speech that wandered through domestic politics and suggested American cities could serve as “training grounds” for the military.
STATE OF THE STATE
VaNews/VIRGINIA PUBLIC ACCESS PROJECT
State attorney general launches investigation of cellphone-tracking firm used by Richmond City Hall
By SAMUEL B. PARKER, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)
Attorney General Jay Jones has launched an investigation into Placer.ai — a U.S.- and Israel-based location analytics company that has sold cellphone location data to City Hall. Placer.ai purchases geolocation data on roughly 30 million cellphones across the U.S., bundles that data and then sells it to corporate and government clients alike. In July, the Times-Dispatch reported that city officials had partnered with Placer.ai to determine how many people have visited Richmond parks, and to build profiles for those visitors.
Virginia education board approves new rules for local student assessments
By NATHANIEL CLINE, Virginia Mercury
The Virginia Board of Education has approved new rules for assessing student learning in subjects without statewide Standards of Learning tests, giving schools another way to measure whether students have mastered the required material. Last year, state lawmakers overhauled the state’s testing system to improve how SOL tests are administered and used to evaluate what students should know at the end of each grade or course, setting the stage for the new guidelines. Local Alternative Assessments, or LAAs, give students opportunities to use critical thinking skills instead of rote memorization. Some education leaders have told The Mercury that LAAs need basic standards to ensure they are high-quality and administered properly.
Wittman-Taylor race drives early voting boost in 1st District
By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)
Early voting in the 1st Congressional District leads the state for turnout, as the race between Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st, and Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor emerges as a major battle in a national political showdown over control of the U.S. House of Representatives midway through President Donald Trump’s term. The Virginia Political Access Project showed 25,744 early votes cast in the 1st District through Monday morning, reflecting more than a week of early voting, both in person and absentee. Most of those early voters — 17,471 — showed up in person ...
Griffith seeks a ninth term in the 9th District. This time, he faces a cattle farmer from Bedford County.
By ANDREW KERLEY, Cardinal News
U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, will duke it out at the ballot box this November with Democrat Joy Powers, a fourth-generation cattle farmer from Bedford County, to represent Virginia’s 9th Congressional District, which covers the vast majority of Southwest Virginia. While Powers has blamed rising costs on Griffith’s party and attacked him, saying he has been unavailable to his constituents, Griffith is running on his record of protecting “conservative family values.” The district has been reliably Republican since 2010, when Griffith ousted former Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher, who had held the seat for 28 years. Now, Griffith is asking voters to give him his ninth term in the “Fightin’ Ninth.”
VPAP Visual School Construction Tax Drives Record Number of Referenda
The Virginia Public Access Project
A record high 67 referenda will be on Virginia ballots this year, primarily due to the 47 localities voting on whether to add a 1 percent sales tax to fund school construction projects. In 2019, Halifax County was given the authority to hold a referendum to raise sales taxes to fund school construction. From 2020 to 2021, nine more localities were given individual authority to put the same tax to a vote. It was successful in eight of those localities (Mecklenburg has not yet held a referendum). A new law passed in 2026 gave all Virginia localities the option to hold a referendum to raise sales taxes by 1 percent to fund school infrastructure.
Earle-Sears on ‘moral’ campaign to defeat gay marriage, abortion amendments
By DAVID VELAZQUEZ, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
This time last year, then-Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears was on a political campaign, running to be Virginia’s next governor. She failed. Today, she’s on a new campaign, what she describes as a “moral” one, to defeat two ballot measures that would enshrine the right to abortion and same-sex marriage in the Virginia Constitution. “I am not framing it as a political issue. I am trying to reach out to whoever will listen: If you’re a Republican, if you’re a Democrat, if you’re a Libertarian, if you’re anything in between,” Earle-Sears told The Daily Progress.
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