Virginia: The Old Dominion

In April 2023, AeroFarms, a vertical farming operation, transferred its New Jersey commercial production to its commercial farm at Cane Creek Centre, a joint industrial park for the city of Danville and Pittsylvania County, in Ringgold. A few months later, AeroFarms filed for voluntary protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code; however, the company pledged to keep up its efforts in Southern Virginia.

Putting all their eggs in the Danville-area basket, however, doesn’t seem to have worked out. In a letter to the to the state’s Department of Workforce Development and Advancement, aka Virginia Works, dated Dec. 11, Carlos Nunez, vice president of human resources for AeroFarms, explained that New AeroFarms, an entity formed in Virginia in 2023 connected to a Cane Creek Centre address, and AeroFarms Danville Farming Co., an entity formed in 2024 in Virginia connected to the same address, plans to end operations Friday at the Ringgold facility. The letter states 173 employees will lose their jobs. Of those, 127 workers live in Virginia.

Virginia’s Shenandoah Rail Trail will connect towns from Broadway to Front Royal with almost 50 miles of trail alongside the North Fork of the Shenandoah River and the Massanutten Mountain range.

I just found out about this! Similar to the W&OD trail in Northern VA.

Also looks like it's being threatened unfortunately:

We had a BIG surprise this week (not in a good way) that threatens the future of the Shenandoah Rail Trail. A new proposal was presented at the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) meeting on December 9, leaving all of us shocked and frustrated. More recently, VDOT’s Rail-With-Trail assessment looked at restoring rail service alongside a trail. Their cost estimates indicate that attempting to rebuild the railroad and add a trail alongside it would cost roughly four times more than building a standalone trail.

Democrats in the House of Delegates released a handful of their first prefiled bills Monday, ahead of the 2026 General Assembly session, with a focus on the cost of living.

The bill topics range from a minimum wage increase to upgrades for electric utilities to weatherization to paid sick leave. Constitutional amendments regarding abortion access, same-sex marriage, restoration of voting rights for formerly incarcerated people and a new congressional redistricting effort were also included in the slate of legislation.

Virginia Elections are over and we have results:

• Governor
  • Spanberger - 57.24%
  • Earle-Sears - 42.56%
• Lieutenant Governor
  • Hashmi - 55.32%
  • Reid - 44.42%
• Attorney General
  • Jones - 52.82%
  • Miyares - 46.78%

All 100 House Districts are also in the results. On a quick count, it looks like the House will be:
64 D - 36 R

In person voting is Today - Tuesday November 4.

You can find your polling location:
here
Remember to bring an acceptable for of ID. If you are unsure what those are, you can look it up:
here.

This election is for State level offices, but will have major implications for the control of the government of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Elections this year:

• Governor
• Lieutenant Governor
• Attorney General
• All 100 Seats of the House of Representatives

You may also have local elections or ballot measures. Those can be looked up:
here.

NPR's live results app can be used to follow results of the Governor's Race as they come in:
here

A few pics from the protest this morning. Easily the largest one yet at this spot. I’d estimate 1,000-1,500 people at peak. It’s hard to capture the size but we were spread over about 3 blocks on both sides of the road.

We had a few inflatable suits but no Antifa Frog sadly.

If you live in VA make sure you vote Nov 4th.

A federal judge ruled this week that Virginia law can't bar Spotsylvania County resident Melissa Brown from working with people who suffer from addiction.

Even though she was allowed to earn her state certification as a substance-abuse counselor, the 51-year-old was told seven years ago she couldn't work directly with patients because of her past.

She later learned about Virginia's barrier crime law, which prevents those found guilty of 176 various crimes from working directly with patients in state-regulated facilities.

“The government should never stop people from working because of irrelevant criminal convictions,” said Andrew War, senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, which worked with Brown to challenge the state law. “We’re thrilled the court recognized that."

Early voting in Virginia began September 19 and runs through November 1.
In person voting is November 4.
The link provided can help you find your early voting location.

This election is for State level offices, but will have major implications for the control of the government of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Elections this year:

• Governor
• Lieutenant Governor
• Attorney General
• All 100 Seats of the House of Representatives

The Supreme Court of Virginia says there’s no reversible error in a lower court’s ruling that the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office must release the names of its police officers in response to a public records request.

In Hanover Circuit Court, a lawyer for Hines argued that any employee could one day become an undercover officer. Disclosing their names would jeopardize future undercover operations. Unlike payroll, the specifics of an undercover operation can be withheld under Virginia public records laws.

Hanover Circuit Court Judge Patricia Kelly agreed with Hines, finding that it was lawful to withhold 90% of the department’s deputies’ names.

Minium and Bodoh appealed the ruling, which was overturned at the Court of Appeals in February. A three-judge panel found that Hines’ argument “flies in the face of the stated and clear purpose” of Virginia public records law.

Judges wrote that hypothetical future operations don’t justify secrecy. The county did not prove that a hypothetical operation tomorrow would be jeopardized by the knowledge of an officer’s name today, the judges said.

In declining to take up the case, the Supreme Court of Virginia did not offer a detailed explanation but rather provided a boilerplate response stating that the appeal had no merit.

“The Court is of the opinion there is no reversible error in the judgment complained of,” read the denial letter in the case.

Fairfax Board of Supervisors member James Walkinshaw handily defeated his Republican opponent in a special election to represent Virginia’s 11th congressional district, winning about 75% of the vote. The Associated Press called the race just 30 minutes after the polls closed.

Tomorrow (2025-09-09) is the special election for Virginia's 11th District for the U.S. House of Representatives. This seat was left vacant by the death of Representative Gerry Connolly.

• District Map
• Candidates:
  • James Walkinshaw (D) - website
  • Stewart Whitson (R) - website

It’s been three years since the spotted lanternfly popped up at Bluemont and other vineyards across Loudoun County and Northern Virginia. The invasive insect had already devastated other areas of the country. Winemakers in the D.C. region are increasingly concerned about what the insects could do to their vineyards.

The spotted lanternfly’s landfall in the United States can be traced back to a shipment of stone from China that arrived in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 2014, according to experts. The insect goes through a single life cycle — going from eggs to nymphs to adults — in a single year. Despite being non-native, the lanternfly can feast on more than 70 plant species in the Mid-Atlantic region in the nymph stage, propagating large numbers. As adults, lanternflies love to feed on grapevines

Probably about 150 or so people at peak crowd size. Not nearly as much as No Kings which must have been close to 500 people but I was honestly expecting way less considering I didn’t hear about this till last week.

According to the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, Vice Mayor Carl "Ben" Nett and Town Manager Kwasi Fraser were indicted by a grand jury Wednesday.

A spokesperson for VSP issued the following statement to WUSA9.

“Following a Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation Fairfax Field Office Investigation, a grand jury charged Carl B. Nett, Purcellville Vice-Mayor, with six felony counts: four involving violations regarding the Virginia Criminal Information Network and two related to bid rigging and conspiracy.

In addition, the grand jury also charged Kwasi Fraser, Purcellville Town Manager, on two felony counts related to bid rigging and conspiracy.”

In Due Course is a selection of legislation passed by the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly that is likely to affect the daily lives of the citizens of Virginia. The [included] legislation has been signed by the Governor and for the most part will go into effect on July 1, 2025.

Per the Virginia State Constitution:

"All laws enacted at a regular session, ... excluding a general appropriation law, shall take effect on the first day of July following the adjournment of the session of the General Assembly at which it has been enacted."
Constitution of Virginia, Article IV, Section 13

The linked PDF contains a list prepared by the Division of Legislative Services of some of the new laws taking effect on Tuesday, July 1.

Today is the day designated for 2025 Primary contests. You can find out who is on your ballot here.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/40143092

BOTH CANDIDATES FOR Virginia attorney general in Tuesday’s Democratic primary have much in common. They’ve both promised, for instance, to fight against Donald Trump and DOGE, and to protect abortion rights.

When it comes to who is funding their campaigns, though, there’s one source of cash that marks a striking difference between the candidates: Dominion Energy, the Fortune 500 utility company that has long thrown around huge sums to shape politics in Virginia.

In the attorney general primary this year, local prosecutor Shannon Taylor has accepted $650,000 in donations from Dominion, while former state delegate Jay Jones has not taken any from the company.

And that cash has made a difference: Jones had a significant fundraising lead this year — until Dominion began sending checks to Taylor.

In newly signed legislation in Virginia, social media companies are required to restrict use to only one hour per day for kids younger than 16 years old.

On one hand, great, kids need less social media. We're seeing how absolutely toxic it is. On the other, this shouldn't be the states call to make.

The report by Wood MacKenzie, an energy research firm, examined 20 large power users. In almost all of those cases, the firm found, the money that large energy users paid to electric utilities would not be enough to cover the cost of the equipment needed to serve them. The rest of the costs would be borne by other utility customers or the utility itself.

The D.C. public transportation system is set to expand dramatically over the next 20 years. But aside from the long-delayed Purple Line, new train tracks aren’t part of the plan. Leaders in and around the Metro system are putting their energy behind the less-loved side of transit: the bus.

In June, Metro rolls out its new “Better Bus Network,” remaking the existing system with fewer stops and promises of faster service. Northern Virginia leaders just proposed 28 new bus routes, five of which are already in the works.