The week’s top stories
-Spotsylvania school board member Nicole Cole claims it would take $100,000 to repair her image from the damage done by two of her colleagues who prosecuted her for an alleged assault in May. She recently announced a lawsuit seeking $1 million in damages from Lisa Phelps and April Gillespie,Taft Coghill Jr. reports.
-Black students in Spotsylvania County have reported receiving a version of the racist text messages that have circulated nationally in the to past two weeks. The school division is aware and working with the sheriff’s department, Taft Coghill Jr. reports.
-Data centers are proliferating across the Commonwealth. One of their harshest legislative critics is Sen. Richard Stuart (R-Westmoreland), who recently criticized a permit that would allow Caroline County to withdraw water from the Rappahannock River.
-A builder has proposed tearing down a portion of Fredericksburg’s Greenbrier Shopping Center to construct 173 townhomes, Bill Freehling reports.
-Getting a ride to the polls can be a problem for college students. On Election Day, UMW Votes, a nonpartisan organization, helped solve it for 295 UMW students. Joey LoMonaco hopped aboard the democracy trolley.
What they’re saying
-“No prince charming is coming riding to the rescue to help us buy the electric buses we need to meet our 2035 zero carbon goals.” -Fredericksburg city councilor Will Mackintosh, on how data centers could, somewhat counterintuitively, help the city meet its environmental goals.
Go figures (numbers in the news)
20- The number of students who graduated from the inaugural cohort of AWS Information Infrastructure, a new pre-apprenticeship program at Germanna Community College.
Worth 1,000 words
PHOTOS: Fredericksburg Veterans Day procession and commemoration
Pressing on (a look at the week ahead)
-On Friday night, a group of policy and change makers gathered to discuss an important civil rights issue in the Commonwealth and share what’s being pursued legislatively and in the community. The Free Press was there.
