This one’s for the people who really care about local news.
Locals Only members get deeper reporting, more context, and fewer shortcuts.
Think that’s you?
👉 Join Locals Only
Already a member? Sign in
Gov. Abigail Spanberger rolled out a statewide data center accountability package, Manassas holds a public work session today on the future of First Friday, a Fredericksburg councilor is preparing a House of Delegates run, and the 7th District debate at Mary Washington moved to Tuesday.
According to the Office of the Governor, Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Friday unveiled what her office called the nation’s most comprehensive data center accountability effort and signed Executive Order 22 to start putting pieces of it in motion. The framework is built around transparency, environmental standards, energy costs, grid and clean-energy rules, and workforce conditions. The order also creates a state AI task force on workforce displacement, privacy and cybersecurity.
Add to Calendar
Good Afternoon
The American Legion Post #28 (Buck Keyes) in Triangle, Virginia is celebrating 100 years of comradery and community service to the state of Virginia and the United States of America. The Post will be hosting a Centennial celebration on October 10th, 2026, from 12 noon until 6 pm. Free food and fun for all! Please publish our invitation to the public as you possibly can. Thank you. The address and the Point of Contact are as follows:
Editor’s note: This is Part 2 of a two-part series. Part 1 ran Sept. 10 and walked the Prince William County file: a felon on probation, a February gun case, and a form saying the prosecutor’s office agreed to let him walk without cash. Read it here: Prosecutor said yes: Bond, a dead girl, and a silent CA’s office.
This kind of journalism is important to the community, and it costs money to produce. Members get 100 percent access — thank you for becoming a member and supporting our journalism.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Manassas officials canceled October’s First Friday after a downtown killing. The letter below is from Dan Maillard of Manassas. The views are the writer’s.
Although happy to see that the City of Manassas has some shred of dignity left, per usual, it seems not enough. I am speaking of the terrible death of Ashley, but worse, the seemingly lost leadership of this town and even the Commonwealth.
At Riverside Center for the Performing Arts, the plates are still on the tables when the razors come out.
Uriah Kiser put that problem to the cast of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street the morning after he sat through Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s musical thriller in a Stafford County dinner house. What happens, he asked, when the bloodiest show in the American musical catalog shares a room with dessert?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Rod Hall, chairman of the Washington Manassas Airport Commission and a former head of Legislative Affairs at the Federal Aviation Administration, submitted the commentary below. The views are the writer’s. Potomac Local has not independently confirmed every figure in the letter.
Aviation is often discussed in terms of destinations—where an aircraft is going and when it will arrive. But airports are much more than points of departure and arrival. They are economic-development engines that connect businesses to markets, attract investment, support high-quality jobs and strengthen surrounding communities.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The commentary below is from Stafford County Public Schools Superintendent Daniel W. Smith. Stafford supervisors have raised taxes on homeowners by a cumulative 56 percent since 2021 and failed to pass a new BPOL tax on businesses this week after overwhelming community opposition. The views in the letter are the writer’s.
National Voter Registration Day, observed September 15, offered a reminder that civic participation begins well before Election Day. This November, Stafford County voters will consider a referendum on whether the Board of Supervisors should have the authority to levy an additional local sales and use tax of up to 1% for eligible school capital projects.
Prince William County police said a 21-year-old Manassas Park man died Sept. 17 after a crash on Hansen Farm Road in Bristow. Officers identified the driver as Sayed Mohammad Hamed Shams and said he crossed double yellow lines while trying to pass a vehicle turning onto Wellingford Road, lost control and struck a parked, unoccupied tractor-trailer. Speed is believed to be a factor.
The same day’s county report said detectives arrested Edgar Jose Mendoza, 34, of Manassas, on a rape charge after investigating a March 15 sexual assault on Breeden Hall Court in Bristow involving a victim who was 16 at the time.