The week’s top stories
-A federal judge has ordered former Spotsylvania schools Superintendent Mark Taylor and the county School Board to settle a dispute later this year. Taylor filed suit against School Board members Nicole Cole, Lorita Daniels, Megan Jackson, Carol Medawar and Belen Rodas after they voted to fire him last year, Taft Coghill Jr. reports.
–Richard T. McGrath, chief judge of the 15th Judicial District of Virginia, which includes the Fredericksburg region, was indicted Monday on a Class 4 felony charge of bribery of a public official. The official in question was not identified, but the alleged incident occurred on July 15, 2024, according to court records.
–Kalahari Resorts’ $900 million indoor waterpark is ahead of schedule and will open in November 2026, officials announced last week at a celebration in Thornburg that was attended by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Coghill has the details.
-Some Fredericksburg-area residents could feel the effects if President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” becomes law because it includes a more than 20 percent cut to Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Rep. Eugene Vindman, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and Del. Joshua Cole recently held local roundtable discussions on food insecurity.
-Fredericksburg residents, city leaders and Virginia Department of Transportation representatives gathered recently to discuss the planned Dixon Park Connector Trail. Construction on the paved portion of the path, which will span about a half-mile from lower Caroline Street to an area behind Dixon Park, could begin as early as 2028, Joey LoMonaco reports.
Go figures (Numbers that made the news)
-7, number of homes in the region that sold for more than $1 million in the most recent weekly figures from the Fredericksburg Area Association of Realtors. notes that milestone and other economic news in the Biz Beat Roundup.
What they’re saying
-“When are we going to party about this?” –Malvina Rollins Kay, Ward 4 representative on the Fredericksburg City School Board. She was talking about the city’s significant progress in special education.
Pressing on (a look at the week ahead)
-Six candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor and two hopefuls seek the party’s nod for state attorney general in a primary election June 17. The Free Press will examine the races before voters decide their picks for the two jobs.
Sunday long read
–As school divisions in the Fredericksburg area rely more on technology, traditional student lockers are becoming outdated. Lockers have been removed from some schools, and some interesting things were found recently when the storage compartments were taken out at Caroline High. Taft Coghill Jr. has the story.
From the editor’s desk
Just about every day in this job, I learn just how much I don’t know. Rarely are those lessons more pronounced than at professional conferences like INN Days, hosted by the Institute for Nonprofit News. For two days in Minneapolis last week, I went to school on everything from AI to public policy to influencers, exchanging ideas with some visionary folks. And I plan on using all of it to elevate what we do here at the Free Press, serving this region.
-Joey LoMonaco
