Press Rewind podcast
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The week’s top stories
-The passenger bus that crashed in Stafford County on May 29, killing five and injuring dozens, travelled for nearly a half-mile after first contacting a line of vehicles stopped for a work zone, according to a preliminary report on the wreck released by the National Transportation Safety Board last week.
-Caroline officials are preparing for solar and battery-storage facilities. Neither kind of energy business is operating in the county now, but the Caroline Planning Commission voted recently to recommend the Board of Supervisors adopt new regulations for solar farms and battery-storage operations that capture and store power. The matter is coming up because a bill becomes law July 1 that permits battery storage by right when accompanied by an approved solar project. Taft Coghill Jr. has the story.
-The Fredericksburg area’s median housing price in May was $492,750, a new high for the region. The 558 homes that sold last month spent an average of 26 days on the market before receiving a ratified contract. Bill Freehling has more on this and other business news in the Biz Beat newsletter.
-Don’t worry, soccer fans: When the World Cup is over, you’ll have another option for enjoying the sport. And it will be here at home. The Fredericksburg City Soccer Club, or Fred City, is scheduled to begin playing in the United Soccer League Two next year. The organization will feature a men’s and a women’s team playing under the same name when the season begins in May, Coghill writes.
-Political scientist Stephen Farnsworth is retiring from the classroom after three decades in higher education, mostly at the University of Mary Washington. It’s a loss for students, who won’t get to take his courses. But they’ll still get to hear his comments on Virginia politics on TV and radio, and read his analysis on this website. Your Press Rewind writer, incidentally, has been talking to the professor off and on for almost 30 years.
Go figures (numbers in the news)
32 — Number of countries represented at the Fredericksburg Film Festival. Lindley Estes has the scoop on this event happening next weekend. Her story is in our arts and entertainment newsletter, Free Time.
What they’re saying
“I don’t know if they’re going to have pumpkins at the data centers or not, but maybe we can figure that out.” -Philip Harding, 7th District GOP congressional hopeful. He was speaking at a candidates’ forum about hearing Belvedere Plantation in Spotsylvania County could be replaced by data centers.
Special Sunday report
-Local radiology group Virginia Medical Imaging has filed a lawsuit against Mary Washington Healthcare, its partner in the company Medical Imaging of Fredericksburg, alleging that the healthcare system engaged in “self-dealing and harmful conduct” against MIF. Adele Uphaus has the details.
Pressing on (a look at the week ahead)
-The Stafford Board of Supervisors will talk money Tuesday, with a presentation on possibly instituting a business-license tax and two more looking at the future of data centers in the county.
