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Spotsylvania water park to open sooner than expected
In the 16 months since work started on the former Thornburg farmland between U.S. 1 and Interstate 95 the landscape has been gradually morphing into what will eventually be the Kalahari Resorts & Conventions water park. The 135-acre Spotsylvania County site is now a complex with roadways, heavy equipment, cement silos, trailers, along with rising buildings and cranes that dominate the skyline. ... On a sunny Wednesday afternoon, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and the family owners of Kalahari resorts gathered on a stage at the site with a large under-construction building as the backdrop.
A Virginia museum found 4 Confederate soldiers’ remains. It’s trying to identify them
Archaeologists in Virginia were excavating the grounds of a building that stored gunpowder during the American Revolution when they uncovered the eye sockets of a human skull. The team carefully unearthed four skeletons, including one with a bullet in the spine, and three amputated legs. They quickly surmised the bones were actually from the Civil War, when a makeshift hospital operated nearby and treated gravely wounded Confederate soldiers. The archaeologists work at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a museum that owns the land and focuses on the city’s 18th century history. They’re now trying to identify human remains from the 19th century, a rare endeavor that will include searching for living descendants and requesting swabs of DNA.
Several NASA programs tied to Va.’s Wallops Flight Facility at risk for funding loss amid massive cuts to federal agency
Several scientific and research efforts tied to NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore are at risk, following President Trump's new budget proposal aiming to cut roughly a quarter of the agency's funding. Wallops Island, Virginia's lone NASA flight facility, is a regional pillar and dubbed "Virginia’s Proven Portal to Air and Space." The budget framework for 2026 introduced by the Trump administration aims to cut roughly $6 billion from the federal agency, roughly 24% of its operations. It would bring the agency's budget to a level not seen since 2015.
VCU Health seeks approval for its first Chesterfield hospital
VCU Health continues to map out a larger presence in Chesterfield with a proposal to build its first hospital in the county. The health system is seeking regulatory approval to open a 66-bed hospital at 7220 Beach Road near the county’s government complex, according to a letter of intent recently submitted to the state health department. The facility would also have six operating rooms and a cardiac catheterization lab as well as CT and MRI units, the filing shows.
Petersburg residents ask City Council for transparency on Sycamore Grove project
Residents asked for more transparency from city officials during Petersburg’s June 3 City Council meeting following last month’s abrupt termination of the Sycamore Grove development agreement — a high-profile project once heralded as a key piece of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s “Partnership for Petersburg” initiative. Petersburg resident Barb Rudolph took to the podium during the public comment period to express frustration over what she called a lack of communication from the city ...
Stafford officially recognizes LGBTQ diversity
Stafford County’s government is officially recognizing Pride Month, though some will take exception to that move. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday night voted 4-1 with one abstention in favor of a proclamation that recognizes June as a time supporting those of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities in the county. The proclamation was board Chairman Deuntay Diggs’ idea. Diggs, the first openly gay supervisor to serve as chairman, said that, in his leadership role, he gets to see all the proclamations the county issues, and he thought: why not Pride Month? “Right?” he said. “Why do we recognize any community? Because they’ve been marginalized.”
Fauquier County supervisor to sell land for data center
Fauquier County Supervisor Daron Culbertson is seeking to sell land he owns in Fauquier County to a data center developer. The new data center project was pitched this week for 204 acres of land between the Bealeton and Remington service districts. Applicant Ron Meyer, acting on behalf of SDC Capital Partners LLC, proposed to Fauquier County Community Development a seven building data center campus between Remington Road and Falling Creek Drive. Culbertson, who could not be reached for comment, owns part of a 39.5-acre parcel of the land the project would be built on, according to the project’s page on the county’s land development online portal.
Will the Republican statewide ticket appear together this election cycle?
It's been more than a month since the Republican Party officially nominated all three of their statewide candidates. The party’s candidate for governor does not appear to have plans for a unity event any time soon. Back in April, the Republican Party locked in their statewide ticket: Winsome Earle-Sears for governor, John Reid for lieutenant governor and Jason Miyares for attorney general. But the candidates have yet to appear on stage together.
NASA Langley workforce slashed by 40% in Trump budget plan
NASA Langley Research Center will lose funding for several projects and cut its workforce by 672 civil servants under the Trump administration’s proposal to slash about $163 billion in federal spending next fiscal year. The White House budget proposal is a starting point, and ultimately Congress must approve it. But the technical supplement to the proposed budget released Friday includes new details about how the administration would seek to reduce federal spending levels.
Youngkin administration has missed deadline to set AI rules for state police
Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration and state Attorney General Jason Miyares are seven months behind a deadline set by the governor to outline standards for Virginia State Police’s use of artificial intelligence. Youngkin signed an executive order in January 2024 implementing AI guidelines for state agencies, including standards “for the ethical use of AI” and a mandatory approval process to use the technology. The order directed Miyares and Terry Cole, Virginia’s public safety and homeland security secretary, to develop rules for AI use “applicable to all executive branch law enforcement agencies and personnel” within nine months. That deadline passed on Oct. 18, 2024, and specific rules for law enforcement are still not in place.