The week’s top stories
-Del. Joshua Cole (D-Fredericksburg) and state Sen. Tara Durant (R-Stafford) talked about legislative wins recently. They were able to get bills passed spanning topics from campaign-finance reform to breast-cancer screenings.
-The data center applications keep coming. A recent proposal calls for a 1.1-million-square-foot campus on a 205-acre property on State Route 3 in Stafford County, just north of the Rappahannock River, Biz Beat’s Bill Freehling reports.
-Stafford County schools Superintendent Daniel Smith sat down with reporters last week for a discussion that touched on matters including education funding, DEI and his general philosophies on teaching.
-Spotsylvania County School Board member Lorita Daniels faced skepticism when she announced her candidacy in 2019. But that didn’t stop her, she told the crowd at the recent Women in Politics event at the University of Mary Washington. The event panel also featured UMW political science professor Rosalyn Cooperman and Fredericksburg Mayor Kerry Devine.
-Stafford County supervisors intensely questioned the developers of the proposed Enon Road Community Solar Preserve last week before voting 5-2 in favor of the solar farm that will be in the Hartwood District.
Go figures (Numbers that made the news)
–15, number of home runs the New York Yankees hit in a three-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers to open the Major League Baseball season, tying a hardball record. Many of them were struck with the new “torpedo bat,” which was designed by a Yankees’ employee with a Ph.D. in physics from MIT. Now, the question becomes: Will we see the fancy bat in an upcoming Fredericksburg Nationals game?
What they’re saying
“I’d like to enter an existential scream into the record for what we’re facing right now. I want the record to show that we’re staring into the abyss and screaming. Picture me like one of those Renaissance paintings.”–Will Mackintosh, Fredericksburg city councilman. His comment came during a meeting about the municipality’s budget for the next fiscal year.
Pressing on (a look at news in the week ahead)
At least two Fredericksburg-area localities will discuss their upcoming budgets this week, and we’ll be there to gather all of the details.
Special Sunday package
Free Press managing editor Joey LoMonaco went to Fredericksburg’s version of the national “Hands Off” protest Saturday and was still thinking about it later in the day. also captured the event in photos.
