Stafford County is participating in studies with the Virginia Department of Transportation dedicated to improving two major roadways.
As part of its update on its 2040 strategic plan, the agencies are studying Route 17 (Warrenton Road) to find safety gaps for commuters and pedestrians. The study is also looking for opportunities to provide additional bike paths, walkways, and other connections.
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Maquan Omari McCray, 28, is charged with murder and iht use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, police said. McCray turned himself in at the county jail, they added.
Smoot and a family member, whom police said once had a relationship with McCray, went to meet him at an apartment in the 8100 block of Cobden Court, near a Costco warehouse outside Manassas, and was shot to death about 10 a.m. Monday, January 17.
No one else was injured.
McCray is due in court on April 5.
Caleb Max, 24, of Loudoun County will seek the 10th District seat currently held by Democrat Jennifer Wexton since 2017. After founding a landscaping business in his teenage years that continues to operate in the region, Max bought a cattle farm and later purchased a small deli at the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Max made fighting the genocide of the Uyghur Muslims in China a campaign and recently was recognized by the Virginia Muslim Association for his assistance to the Afghan refugee and Muslim community after President Biden’s order to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
Max enters a crowded field of candidates seeking the 10th District seat. Jeanine Lawson, who represents Brentsville on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, leads the pack in fundraising with over $330,000 — most of the four other Republicans who entered the race.
However, Jennifer Wexton outraised all of them so far, with more than $2.4 million cash on hand.
In December 2021, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled to redistrict the 10th District, which includes the western half of Prince William County, making it a more competitive seat for Republicans.
Barbara Comstock, a Republican succeeded Wolf, who did not seek reelection in 2014, and held the seat for two years.
Max outlines his bid for office in a press release: Read More
High speed: Stafford and Comcast have partnered on a $5.7 million project to bring high-speed internet to more than 600 unserved or underserved homes in the western part of Stafford County. [Press release]
Sikh center: The Sikh Center of Virginia can move forward with plans to expand its current facility outside Manassas by more than five times its current size following unanimous approval Tuesday from the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. [Prince William Times]
Planners in Prince William will hold a meeting Thursday to discuss expanding the county’s data center overlay. The district is where officials will allow large, power-hungry data hubs that power the internet to be constructed.
In recent months, the County Board of Supervisors has attracted the interest of those who want to build new data centers to the region, aiming to compete with neighboring Loudoun County, which has the highest concentration of data centers globally.
Developers seek to build in western Prince William, near the Manassas National Battlefield Park, where the Civil War began. Some homeowners who stand to benefit from selling their properties to developers say it’s time to develop the county’s last rural areas, build more data centers, and increase its commercial tax base.
Conservation groups like the National Parks Conservation Association, Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, and the Prince William Conservation Alliance oppose expanding the data center district. Many have argued that visitors to the battlefield don’t want to see large buildings on the horizon and the overhead powerlines required to provide electricity.
The Prince William County Planning Department will hold the first of two public meetings to get feedback about proposals to expand the data center overlay district and build a new data center alley near the Battlefield on Thursday, January 20, and Thursday, January 27, respectively.
The meeting on January 20 will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the George Mason University Science and Technology Campus Beacon Hall Conference Center, at 10900 University Boulevard near Manassas. Those who want to attend the meeting need to pre-register and submit an online self-health screening to the university.
Planners will also host an online option and stream a video of the meeting in real-time. “We’re going to post all materials online organized by station,” said county planning director Rebecca Horner. “This will be the meeting we have to answer questions before policy development [on the possible expansion of the data center district].”
During a County Board of Supervisors meeting, Brentsville District Supervisor Jeanine Lawson asked to postpone the meeting by at least a month, citing the recent surge of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. Lawson said the meeting topic is contentious, will draw many poeple to the meeting, making things uncomfortable for seniors and others susceptible to the virus, said Lawson.
“A lot of people will show up Thursday night for public input meeting… for a meeting that is not time-sensitive to the continuity of government,” said Lawson.
Lawson’s colleagues on the Board — Chair At-large Ann Wheeler, Margaret Franklin, Andrea Bailey, and Victor Angry voted to stop the push for postponement.
Additionally, Acting County Executive Elijah Johnson warned supervisors he would work with his staff and explore other capacity restrictions on county government meetings should the Board vote to postpone the meeting due to the virus.
Initially, the county limited the number of residents who could attend public meetings in person. However, for most of 2021, the county rolled back capacity restrictions at its public meetings. Today, the county holds its hybrid meetings with in-person and virtual options.
Virginia reported 57,000 confirmed coronavirus cases on January 16, noting 23,000 fewer than the week before. It’s the first decline since cases surged in October 2021.
The 10th Marine Corps 17.15K is an 11-mile run through the National Park and Route 234 near Dumfries. Finishers get automatic entry to the Marine Corps Marathon on October 30, 2022.
Registration for the event began at noon.
The event will occur at 7 a.m. Saturday, March 26, and marks the first time organizers will hold the 17.75K run since 2019.
More than 2,900 runners finished the 17.75K run in 2019 and received automatic access to the Marine Corps Marathon, said spokeswoman Kristen Loflin.
The event is one of seven in a series of annual events that lead up to the Marine Corps Marathon, held in Arlington and Washington, D.C.
Registration is $65 for runners ages 10 and older. Participants will receive a medal in addition to automatic entry into the Marine Corps Marathon.
Here’s the full press release announcing the event:
Registration for the 10th Marine Corps 17.75K opens today at noon EST at marinemarathon.com.
The 11.03 mile event begins at 7 a.m. along Dumfries Road/Route 234 in Prince William County on March 26. All live finishers will receive a guaranteed entry or ‘Access Granted’ to the 47th Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) in October.
This year marks the return of the run to Prince William County, Virginia. After being canceled in 2020, the Marine Corps 17.75K returned to live and in person running in 2021 with a scaled down event aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico due to COVID-19 guidelines.
“We are pleased to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the 17.75K by returning to Prince William Forest Park,” said Rick Nealis, director of the Marine Corps Marathon Organization (MCMO). “After these last two years, we are hoping to bring a bit of normalcy back to our running community by kicking off our live 2022 event lineup with this popular event in a safe manner, while allowing us to still salute the year our beloved Corps was established.”
Registration for this sought-after event is $65 for runners ages ten and above. Participants will receive a standout finisher’s medal, specially designed technical shirt, bib and ‘Access Granted’ to the 47th MCM.
To receive ‘Access Granted,’ runners must be 14 and older on MCM event day of October 30, 2022.
The Federal Government began distributing 500 million home coronavirus tests kits Tuesday, January 18. The Biden administration ordered the kits to make testing more available and equitable, said Virginia Senator Tim Kaine.
Citizens may go to covidtests.org, where they can get to get up to four free tests per household. Users that provide their name and address will have the tests shipped.
With coronavirus cases in the latest Omnicron wave now decreasing, the demand for test kits remains high.
On January 11, residents flooded the Downtown Fredericksburg Branch Central Rappahannock Library, snapping up 2,000 test kits. Libraries have been distributing test kits since last fall, and it will be weeks before the Fredericksburg library gets more, said Library System Deputy Director Rebecca Purdy.
During a recent conference call, Senator Tim Kaine (Va.-D) briefly discussed efforts he is participating in to get more free coronavirus testing to Virginia residents.
“It’s been disturbing, depressing to feel like we’ve turned a corner on COVID last summer only to see first the delta, and then the omicron variant pose significant challenges,” said Kaine.
Virginia reported 57,000 confirmed coronavirus cases on January 16, 23,000 fewer than the week before. It’s the first decline since cases began in October 2021.
Kaine caught the virus early on in the pandemic calling the situation “not a joke when you get it,” he said.
The senator recommended continuing to promote vaccination and boosting. Kaine repeated statistics he had received from Dr. Anthony Fauci, of the CDC, who stated that those who remain unvaccinated are 10 times more likely to be infected with the virus, 17 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 20 times more likely to die from the virus than those who are vaccinated.
Kaine also talked about making available more rapid and affordable testing for the virus so people can test themselves before meeting with others or traveling. The senator mentioned that while most of the world has access to cheap testing, the U.S. has fallen behind, said Kaine. He told a story of family members who live in Germany who can easily get home-based testing from local pharmacies for a low price.
Kaine says he is one of the multiple politicians to push the Biden administration to ship out the free tests to citizens.
Palmer Denny, 17, a Junior at Colgan Senior High School, recently performed a study at his school. He wore the hat with the words "Trump 2024: Take America Back." He spoke about the study at the January 12 School Board meeting.
He received multiple responses from his peers in school -- everything from nasty comments to death threats. He logged each one as part of his research.
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According to the National Weather Service, rain will spread across the region after 4 a.m Thursday, with temperatures hovering about 32 degrees.
As the sun rises, the rain and snow will continue through the morning, eventually tapering off after 1 p.m. The weather service states that the storm should leave behind about an inch of snow.
Thursday night, the snow threat is with us once again, mainly before 1 a.m. Gusty winds and brutally cold temperatures will affect the region, hovering around 18 degrees.
This morning, the Virginia Department of Transportation announced it would begin to apply salt brine to major routes like Interstate 95. The brine helps prevent ice from bonding to the pavement during winter weather, which can reduce the risk of hazardous travel conditions and assists crews with snow and ice removal.
On I-95, crews will have a mobile pretreatment operation underway after 9 a.m. between exit 98 at Kings Dominion exit 150 Joplin Road at Quantico.
Thursday marks the first in a series of snowstorms to affect our region over the next two days. There are snow chances in the forecast on Friday, accompanied by high temperatures that won’t climb too far above 30 degrees.
Forecasters disagree on how much snow our area could see. They’re watching a storm that will move to the east coast from the Great Lakes region. The track of this storm will affect how much snow we will see.
Forecasters posted this message to Washington, D.C. forecast page:
Depending on how far the trough descends southward, it could interact with the stalled boundary over the Carolinas to generate a coastal low which would track northeastward along the Eastern Seaboard. If the low tracks close enough along the coast, our region could see some decent snowfall especially considering the cold air mass that will build into the region Friday into Saturday. Some guidance has been suggesting the potential for a major snow storm affecting our region late Friday night into Saturday, but confidence remains low.
