Originals - Page 92 of 431 - Potomac Local News

Constitutional officers in Manassas are getting a pay raise

Published May 4, 2021 at 6:32PM | Updated June 30, 2022 at 12:01AM

Manassas City Hall at 9027 Center Street.

The Manassas City Council moved to increase the pay of two of the city’s constitutional officers — the City Treasurer and the Commissioner of the Revenue.

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FredNats take the field for the first time tonight

By Uriah Kiser

Published May 4, 2021 at 6:06PM | Updated May 4, 2021 at 6:48PM

It’s finally time to play ball.

The Fredericksburg Nationals take the field for the first time since leaving Woodbridge in 2019 at 6:30 p.m. They face off in the first of 24 matchups this season with the Lynchburg Hillcats.

Changes to Prince William rural area to be considered Tuesday

By Uriah Kiser

Published May 3, 2021 at 6:55PM | Updated June 30, 2022 at 12:05AM

The McCoart Building at the Prince William County Government Center in Woodbridge.

Prince William County leaders on Tuesday will be asked to make changes to the long-established Rural Crescent, a 117,000-acre tract of land consuming more than half of the county, where new development is limited to a minimum of 10-acre lots and water and sewer lines or banned.

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Democrats shut out from running for Virginia House of Delegates

By Rick Horner

Published May 3, 2021 at 3:50PM | Updated June 30, 2022 at 12:05AM

Neville

Several Democratic candidates were recently disqualified from running for state offices in Virginia.

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Pleickhardt wins GOP primary in Manassas

By Rick Horner

Published May 3, 2021 at 2:57PM | Updated June 30, 2022 at 12:06AM

Dr. Steve Pleickhardt, a dentist residing and practicing in Manassas, will be the GOP's candidate to take on incumbent Lee Carter (D-50, Bristow, Manassas) -- Virginia's first self-avowed socialist -- in November.

Pleickhardt won a firehouse primary on Saturday, May 1, running against Mike Allers Jr., a Loudoun County school teacher who also lives in Manassas. The primary, which was held at Metz Middle School in Manassas, saw Pleickhardt take the win in the overall election with 266 votes to Allers' 169 votes.

Allers had taken the majority of votes from Manassas City with 124 to Pleickhardt's 116. But it was in Prince William County itself where Pleickhardt picked up the lion's share of support receiving 150 votes to Allers' 45.

In a video on the Committee's Facebook page, Allers conceded and congratulated Pleickhardt for his victory in the primary. Allers caused some consternation in the local GOP in the week leading up to the Primary Election by sending out a flyer that insinuated that Pleickhardt had "foreign ties" which could make him vulnerable to outside influence as well as mentioning the doctor's personal financial woes from back in 2017.

Allers' concession also included a pledge to support Pleickhardt in his campaign against Carter.

Pleickhardt's opponent for the seat of the 50th District in the House of Delegates with bt incumbent Lee Carter who will be running for his third consecutive term in office. Carter has found himself at odds not only with Republicans but also with police as last May Carter was teargassed during a protest near Manassas. Carter confronted police, refusing to leave the protest area, following a riot that saw several businesses damaged, four police officers injured, and five people arrested. The charges on all five individuals were later dropped.

"The big issue is we have to defeat Socialism, we have to defeat Lee Carter, and even if it's not Lee Carter, his policies. So that's what's going to be important in the fall," said Milke Allers Jr. in his concession video.

Pleickhardt and Carter will face off in the General Election on Tuesday, November 2 to see who will represent the 50th District in the Virginia House of Delegates.

In addition to running to keep his seat in the House of Delegates, Carter has also mounted a campaign for Virginia Governor. Democrats will have their say in a statewide Primary Election on Tuesday, June 8, as to who their candidate will be.

So far, former Virginia Terry McAuliffe, who's making his second bid to be state governor, is leading the race, topping Jennifer Carroll Foy, who represented residents in Virginia's 2nd House District (North Stafford, Woodbridge) until she stepped down from the office in December to concentrate on her gubenatorial campaign.

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Quantico leading cyber defense, building new wargaming center to open in 2023

By Rick Horner

Published May 3, 2021 at 10:06AM | Updated June 30, 2022 at 12:06AM

Photo: The National Museum of the Marine Corps Facebook page

The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command in Washington D.C. has just awarded a construction contract to create a wargaming facility at the Quantico Marine Corps base. The U.S. Marine Corps had publicized its intention to create this new facility back in late 2020.

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VR Gaming event coming to Fredericksburg in June

By Rick Horner

Published April 30, 2021 at 11:28AM | Updated June 30, 2022 at 12:06AM

Redshift, an online virtual reality sports group, will be holding its first Contender Series event in the Fredericksburg area in late June.

VR Gaming, which has been on the rise in popularity over the last year, differs from traditional eSports. Where eSports requires one to sit in front of a desktop or laptop, VR Gaming requires bodily coordination just like any physical sport, which translates into the virtual realm.

Event organizer Avram Ibanez, who works online under the name Sputnik Kobra, says that there is ten times the number of VR Gaming players as there was the year before. Ibanez says that rising sales in VR headsets such as the Oculus Quest 2 have risen and are used by one out of four VR players.

"The community has to throw these events and set the stage for the future, and it's a cool project, and by making this possible, we can grow events like these and stage larger future events," says Ibanez.

Ibanez allowed Potomac Local News to come and experience a VR game for ourselves which is a very immersive world where physicality is just as important as hand-eye coordination typically is in gaming. The three-dimensional game where one floats and flies in a virtual arena to play a game that's very similar to ultimate frisbee but very different.

An element of the game that is very unique is an aspect called grabbing. This aspect allows a player to gain speed by yanking themselves directly through teammates to get in front of other players in a fashion similar to roller-derby. One player will pull another in front of them to gain more speed.

The game will be set up as a double-elimination tournament of up to 12 teams. The event itself will follow pandemic protocols which will include a four-by-four playing area that will be spaced six feet from each other and will have competitors wearing masks as they play. While the Redshift crew is following their due diligence with regards to the pandemic, they want to make sure everyone is going to have fun.

"Everybody's got cabin fever and ready to get back out into life, and we're ready to get back involved in that and give people opportunities to get back into real life, and things like this could get the appetite warm and ready to get back out there and back to normalcy," says Ibanez's fellow organizer and announcer who asks to be referred to by his online name Sir Dimwi.

The event will occur at the Hampton Inn and Suites at 4800 Market Street near Fredericksburg on June 25-27. Tickets will be available at redshiftvr.online/contender-series.