Newslinks

Fairfax County is temporarily putting crossing guards back at 11 high schools after a student was struck near South Lakes, Stafford officials are urging residents to tell the FCC whether Verizon’s plan to end traditional copper landlines would leave them without reliable phone service, and Manassas students have been invited to design the city’s official 2028 “I Voted!” sticker.

According to FFXnow, crossing guard services at 11 Fairfax County public high schools will be temporarily reinstated while county supervisors assess longer-term solutions for pedestrian safety. A Fairfax County Police Department spokesperson said Wednesday that police officers and crossing guards will provide traffic and crossing support at 11 high school locations that had previously been staffed. The move comes after the Board of Supervisors approved a May budget that eliminated funding for police crossing guards at high schools.

Prince William supervisors return this week to a data center overlay vote as Dominion’s contracted load tests the regional grid, nearby voters weigh a school-construction sales tax, and Labor Day travel rules take shape on I-95.

According to InsideNoVa, Coles District Supervisor Yesli Vega said she has not yet taken a position on how long a grace period should last if the Board of County Supervisors ends by-right data center development in the Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District. The Planning Commission will rehold its public hearing Sept. 9 after a notice problem, and the board is scheduled to consider the zoning text amendment Sept. 22; Vega called the end of litigation over the PW Digital Gateway “a sigh of relief” after QTS dropped its Virginia Supreme Court appeal and said she still supports keeping land-use decisions with local governments rather than Richmond.

A Spotsylvania jury convicted a man of second-degree murder in a teen’s death, Virginia received an overall “C” on a new infrastructure report card, Stafford County set its 25th-anniversary 9/11 ceremony, and ARTfactory will stage “Hairspray” at the Hylton Performing Arts Center.

A Spotsylvania County jury convicted Tyler Butler of second-degree murder Thursday in the May 3, 2025, shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Bosworth, a Massaponax High School senior, the Fredericksburg Free Press reported. After a three-day trial in Circuit Court, the jury also found Butler guilty of attempted second-degree murder, malicious wounding and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. A charge of maliciously shooting at an occupied dwelling was reduced to unlawfully shooting after two other homes in the River Club subdivision were struck by gunfire.

Police charged men from Woodbridge, Manassas and Stafford in an undercover child-exploitation operation, a Fairfax patient committed after killing his landlord left the country on a weekend pass, and Stafford officials said next year’s budget will be especially tight.

According to FOX 5 DC, police arrested nine men ages 21 to 48 in an undercover operation targeting suspects who initiated sexually explicit online conversations they believed were with minors. Detectives said most of the men traveled expecting a sexual encounter with a child and instead were met by investigators. The nine suspects face a combined 20 criminal charges, including solicitation of a minor, procuring a minor for prostitution and attempted indecent liberties.

COVID-19 activity is climbing again in Virginia, including high wastewater readings in Woodbridge, while nearby school divisions report lingering teacher vacancies, a national education leader visits a new Manassas campus, and Prince William and Manassas roll out new library loans and a city license plate.

According to the Prince William Times, COVID-19 activity in Virginia remains low but is increasing, the Virginia Department of Health said, with 842 cases recorded in the week ending Aug. 22. Emergency room and urgent care visits for diagnosed COVID-19 accounted for 0.6% of all such visits that week, a share that has tripled since mid-July. State officials said late-summer increases have occurred each year since 2020, though summer peaks have been lower over time.

Teens testified in the trial of a Spotsylvania man charged in a Massaponax High senior’s death as Prince William schools launched the new year, elections officials offered public tours, and other local notices and events filled the day.

According to the Fredericksburg Free Press, two surviving teenagers testified Tuesday in the Spotsylvania Circuit Court trial of Tyler Butler, who is charged with second-degree murder and related offenses in the May 3, 2025, shooting death of Massaponax High School senior Michael Bosworth. The teens said they and Bosworth had been walking through the River Club subdivision after a night of drinking, kicked a garage door as a prank roughly 600 feet from Butler’s home, then ran through backyards and scaled his fence while trying to avoid deputies already in the area.

A large-scale ICE enforcement operation in the Washington suburbs, a request to delay the trial in a deadly Stafford County bus crash, a pause in the final state court challenge to Virginia’s assault weapons restrictions, and local concerns over school funding and economic development led the day’s news across Northern Virginia.

As reported by Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, the Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that ICE carried out a large-scale operation resulting in the arrests of 1,328 people in the country illegally over a 14-day period in Virginia and Maryland. Nearly 400 of those arrested had criminal convictions or pending charges, including a Salvadoran national wanted by Richmond police on a murder warrant. Other cases involved individuals with records for attempted murder, rape, sexual battery, kidnapping, robbery and driving while intoxicated. The operation primarily focused on suburbs around Washington, D.C., in both states.

Prince William County Public Schools, the second-largest division in Virginia, opened the 2026-27 school year today while regional residents tracked water use, climate planning, student achievements, and upcoming constitutional amendments.

According to Prince William County Public Schools, Monday, August 24, 2026, marks the first day of school for the division, the second-largest in Virginia.

Northern Virginia and Prince William County developments on Thursday centered on a Fairfax homicide investigation with an ICE detainer, renewed scrutiny of data center tax policy, and local efforts to preserve rural land and expand school-based food assistance.

According to a report from FOX 5 DC, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has filed a detainer with Fairfax County for 19-year-old Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos, the Salvadoran man charged in the fatal stabbing of 42-year-old Carmen Lizet Puch near a Great Falls trail. Police said Cedillos-Campos, who worked with Puch at a restaurant and had an intimate relationship with her, offered a full confession; federal sources stated he was in the country illegally after being released at the border in El Paso, Texas, in April 2024.