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.
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: 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.
Rain kept Fredericksburg’s Kathmandu sister-city vigil off the Downtown Library steps Thursday night and moved the candlelight gathering inside, where tea lights closed a VA250 sister-city program built around Nepal’s floods and a long diplomatic friendship.
Sue Henderson, a Stafford County resident and founding member of the Fredericksburg Sister City Association, put the night’s meaning plainly after the lectures and indoor vigil.
A Prince William judge refused another delay in the Naresh Bhatt murder trial, a Dumfries motel operator was sentenced in a federal fentanyl and commercial-sex case, Manassas is asking the public how First Friday should change, and early voting for the Nov. 3 election opens Friday.
According to InsideNoVa, Prince William Circuit Court Judge Kimberly Irving on Thursday denied a defense motion to postpone the trial of Naresh Bhatt, the Manassas Park man charged with first-degree murder in the 2024 disappearance and presumed death of his wife, Mamta Kafle Bhatt. Chief Public Defender Tracey Lenox argued the case is too complex and that the defense needed more time to review evidence; Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Sarah Sami said further delay would keep Mamta’s family, including relatives traveling from Nepal, in limbo.
