Jeff Goettman, Yesli Vega, Meg Bryce and Ken Marcus were among the appointees blocked.

When these appointments made it to the full Senate floor Friday afternoon, the debate lasted hours.


“We need collective bargaining and we need it now,” Harry Szabo, an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University said at a press conference on Friday.

Currently, public workers are allowed to join a union, but they can’t collectively bargain for higher wages or better working conditions unless collective bargaining has been approved by their locality.


Traffic disruptions and lane reductions are set to begin on northbound I-495 (Capital Beltway Inner Loop) near Tysons, Virginia, as part of the 495 NEXT project’s Big Beam Weekend. The impacts will start tonight, Friday, January 24, at 9 p.m., and continue through 5 a.m. Monday, January 27. Motorists are strongly advised to avoid the area and plan alternate routes, as significant delays and backups are anticipated.

What to Expect


House Bill 1716, introduced by Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News, passed the House of Delegates on Thursday, while a companion bill from Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, cleared the Senate Education and Health Committee.

Last year, similar bills passed both chambers with bipartisan support but were ultimately vetoed by Youngkin.


The Manassas City Council began its three-day retreat on Thursday at James Madison’s historic Montpelier, located over 80 miles south of the city. The event quickly raised concerns about public access after members of the public who traveled to attend the meeting discovered the venue was locked and inaccessible.

Virginia law mandates that government meetings remain open to the public unless they are specifically classified as legal closed-door sessions. According to Virginia’s open meetings laws, the Council’s work session and retreat did not qualify as a closed-door meeting, raising questions about compliance.


(The Center Square) – Changing the name of Dulles International Airport to Donald J. Trump International Airport has been proposed by freshman Congressman Addison McDowell, a Republican from North Carolina.

Rep. McDowell, 31, who represents the 6th Congressional District, introduced the bill alongside Reps. Brian Jack (R-Ga.), Riley Moore (R-W.Va.), Brandon Gill (R-Texas), and Guy Resand Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.).


Sen. Danica Roem, D-Manassas, and Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, D-Alexandria, are leading the charge after a similar effort fell short last year. Bennett-Parker’s bill was shelved by the House Appropriations Committee due to competing priorities while Roem’s Senate bill was following an amendment by Gov. Glenn Youngkin directing a work group to evaluate the program’s potential impact.


“The water crisis should never have happened and was completely avoidable,” wrote an official with the Virginia Department of Health’s Office of Drinking Water in a notice of alleged violation issued Thursday. “The City of Richmond could have prevented the crisis with better preparation.”


Rather, it’s the terms and timetable governing said pursuit that comprised most of their questions asked during a joint meeting of the Planning Commission and City Council.

More than one speaker noted that adjacent jurisdictions, such as Stafford County, have taken up to six months from initiating the public process to voting for a data center. By contrast, Fredericksburg’s city council first discussed a Technology Overlay District in detail on Dec. 10 and could vote on related resolutions and ordinances as early as its Feb. 25 meeting.


On Thursday, January 23, 2025, the Fredericksburg Fire Department responded to a fire at 227 Germania Street in the Mill District. Firefighters arrived within minutes to find smoke coming from the basement of a one-story building housing a barber shop and beauty salon on the first floor and apartments in the basement.

Crews extinguished a kitchen fire within five minutes, searched the building, and found no occupants. Three cats were located unharmed. Two residents were displaced as Dominion Energy disconnected the power for safety. No injuries were reported. Due to icy conditions, City Public Works sent a sand truck to treat the street after the fire.


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