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The cScreen Shot 2015-04-01 at 11.26.47 AMampaign finance reports for the three Democratic primary candidates in Virginia’s 29th Senate district – Jeremy McPike, Delegate Michael Futrell and Atif Qarni – show that the race is going to be very competitive.

“What these numbers show is, is that we are looking at a competitive race for this Democratic nomination,” said Stephen Farnsworth, professor and director at the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington.

According to the State Board of Elections website, McPike reported $50,000, Qarni reported $35,743 and Futrell reported $31,716 for this first quarter.

“All three [candidates] have shown an ability to raise roughly comparable amounts of money, which will enable them to spend roughly comparable amounts of money – yard signs, and flyers,” said Farnsworth.

Farnsworth stated that while money is typically very important in political races in Virginia, given that the race is a primary, and all three candidates have raised similar amounts – money is not the most important factor right now.

“The turn out in primaries is very, very low in Virginia. As a result, you have to spend a significant amount of energy to convince people to support you – and then after that – you have to spend a significant amount of money after spending [a lot] of energy, to get them to turn out. So it’s a doubly difficult task to win in a primary
Fundraising will intensify in the weeks ahead as more people start to think about the primaries,” said Farnsworth.

All three candidates will be taking part in a primary debate, hosted by Potomac Local, on May 18.

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The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will be holding a public hearing for the Six-Year Improvement Program (SYIP) on April 30 in Fredericksburg.

The hearing will be held at 6 p.m. at the Germanna Community College location in Fredericksburg.

The SYIP outlines road improvements that VDOT plans to support in the area from fiscal years 2016 to 2021, said a VDOT release. 

The Commonwealth Transportation Board released their draft of the SYIP on April 15, which outlines almost 3,000 transportation projects to be completed over the 6-year period – totaling $12.9 billion. 

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On May 2 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., residents will be able to enjoy the Arts Alive festival at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas – but this could be the last time.

During the initial budget draft written by County Executive Melissa Peacor, she was given the instruction to create the draft with a 1.3% tax rate increase – versus the 4% allotted in the county’s strategic plan. This then cut the funding for the Arts Council, the organization that hosts the festival. 

Over the course of the budget process, the funding for the Arts Council was re-added, and was kept in for the final budget adoption on April 21, but there are some concerns that the funding for the council may be on the chopping block again next year.

“It is absolutely correct to say that if the funding for the Arts Council fails, or goes away, or is drastically reduced, I just don’t see how we have that festival anymore,” said Sheyna Burt, the head of the Arts Council.

Burt stated that currently she feels confident about the future of the Arts Alive Festival, provided that the Prince William County Board of Supervisors continues their commitment for funding. 

“I feel pretty good about the board of county supervisors restoring our funding. As long as they [continue to] do that
the Arts Alive is the Art Council’s biggest project all year. So the vast majority of the funding we get, goes to making that happen. As long as the board of county supervisors comes through in the way that they’ve been representing that they will, then I think the festival is actually going to survive,” Burt stated. 

The Arts Council and the community group Our Prince William partnered heavily during the budgeting process to protect the arts and related community items in the county’s budget.

They plan to continue their mission by having a dialog with the board of supervisors in the coming months.

“What we’re hoping is that we can get some supervisors to sit down seriously with us, and talk about the budget process – talk about the timeline, talk about the philosophy of setting a rate before you talk about the values of the county,” said Burt.

Burt also stated that she hopes that the Arts Council can expand the festival next year, to include some activities in the eastern end of the county.

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There’s a little piece of Manassas in electronic devices around the globe.

Buddy Nicoson, a site director at Micron Technology, said that parts created on-site in their Manassas plant are used for devices and cars around the world.

“Chances are that your [mobile] device has a component in it now that’s made in Manassas. On average, there are three Micron parts in every car made globally,” said Nicoson.

Micron hosted First Lady Michelle Obama yesterday to speak about the administration’s Joining Forces initiative for hiring veterans.

Micron is one of the companies that have taken part in the initiative, which just celebrated its 4-year anniversary.

Following the drawdown in the Middle East, the Obama administration saw a huge uptick in unemployment for United States veterans.

“The year that we launched [Joining Forces] the unemployment rate for our 9/11 generation of veterans was more than 12%. And for our younger veterans – it was far worse
and so we knew we had a crisis on our hands,” Obama said.

According to Obama, President Obama challenged the private sector to hire 100,000 veterans and military spouses in 2011.

As of right now, private companies have hired more than 850,000 veterans and their families since Joining Forces was formed, said Obama.

“That number comes on top of the hiring that we’ve done on the Federal government. This is an amazing accomplishment, and I am really so grateful to everyone across this country who made it possible
we should all take a moment to sit back, and feel good about what we’ve achieved together – but we should only sit back for a moment because we know there’s so much work left to do,” Obama commented.

Tamika Carroll, a Micron employee and Army veteran, struggled to find employment after leaving the military.

“When I transitioned from the Army, I wasn’t sure of my job prospects
after seven months of applying for positions, I finally found Micron. I was actually looking for the mall. And there was a huge sign out that [said] ‘We’re hiring’ and I thought ‘good because I need to be hired’
the leadership and technical skills I learned in the Army are tangible skills you can’t learn elsewhere. And I’m able to use those skills here,” Carroll said.

There are several companies across the United States, including local companies such as the Northern Virginia Technology Council – with their Veterans Employment Initiative – and Dominion Power, which have taken on the administration’s challenged to increase the amount of veteran, hires they make.

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McAuliffe makes official rebranding of George Mason University Prince William Campus 

Governor Terry McAuliffe was on site at the George Mason University campus in Prince William to launch the Institute for Advanced Biomedical Research and to announce the campus’ new name.

The institute, which is a 75,000 square foot space that has room for more than 100 researchers and scientists, is all a part of the university’s decision to focus their Prince William Campus on the sciences and technology. 

“We’re here to officially cut the ribbon on our new institute for advanced biomedical research
We are renaming this campus, it’s no longer the Prince William George Mason University Campus – we are now renaming it the George Mason University Science and Technology Campus,” said McAuliffe. 

Researchers have already begun their work, according to George Mason University president Angel Cabrera – working on Lyme disease tests and human genome sequencing.

Cabrera stated at the ribbon cutting that the changes to the university are aimed at changing Virginia’s economy.

“The governor ran for office on a campaign on jobs – on innovation, on rebuilding the economy. And when he talked about jobs and innovation, we actually listened
it is about transforming the economy in Virginia, it’s about turning this region into one of the most innovative places – that is constantly attracting the best talent around the world,” Cabrera said. 

McAuliffe stated that Virginia is falling behind in the area of biosciences, and expressed concerns about the regional economy relying to heavily on Department of Defense and federal related jobs, which are subject to frequent cuts and sequestration over the past few years. 

“I talk a lot about building that new Virginia economy – we have to do it
it’s all about science and technology. It’s all about biosciences
and we have lagged behind in biosciences. I went to a big bioscience conference in Las Vegas last year
 and they listed the top 25 states in America for biosciences. We were not on that list folks
we can create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the bioscience space,” said McAuliffe.

Following the ceremony, McAuliffe also attended the VA BIO 2015 THRIVE conference on bioscience in Fairfax.

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The Mary G. Porter Traditional School will not be moving to the “Ferlazzo Site”, according to a letter sent out by the Prince William Superintendent of Schools Steven Walts on April 20.

The conversation about building a new school for Porter Traditional School to relocate to– on the corner of Spriggs and Minnieville Roads - began as a means to address overcrowding in the classrooms, a large amount of classroom trailers used at schools, and to expand enrollment, said Walts’ letter. 

While Walts had originally made his recommendation to move forward with the move of the traditional school, in his letter, he stated that he had reversed his recommendation. 

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In collaboration with the Prince William County Economic Development Department and George Mason University, the up and coming Virginia Serious Games Institute (VSGI) is now growing to incubate and accelerate several more game design companies in Prince William.

VSGI, located at George Mason University’s campus in Prince William, started with just an idea from the institute’s founding director Dr. Scott Martin.

“It was an idea I came up with, after a visit to the University of Coventry over in the United Kingdom
I loved the [serious game] model [there]
[to act] as an incubator and an accelerator for companies within the simulation games base,” said Martin.

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Stafford will be moving forward with a $1.5 million project to realign a section of Centreport Parkway, near Ramoth Church Road.

As part of the project, the road will be realigned at the intersection of Centreport Parkway and Ramoth Church Road, shifting it 250 feet to the west, according to the county website. Additionally, there will be new asphalt pavement that will connect the roadway.

Funding for the project came from Stafford County’s Secondary Six Year Plan and funding from the state, said Public Information Officer Shannon Howell.

“Currently, the northern most section of Centreport Parkway is located within a public access easement.  The project will reconstruct approximately 500’ of roadway onto state-owned right of way and widen Centreport Parkway to provide dedicated left and right turn lanes onto Ramoth Church Road.  A right turn lane from Ramoth Church Road onto Centreport Parkway will also be constructed as part of this project,” said Howell.

Howell also states that construction will likely be started in June, and be completed early next year. 

During construction, the parkway will remain open normally, while the realigned section is being completed. 

According to Howell, drivers may see some lane closures on Ramoth Church Road between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, while the right turn lane on Ramoth Church Road is being constructed. 

There may also be some infrequent lane closures on Centreport Parkway when the new section of the road is tied in to the existing parkway.

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