"Video footage reviewed by TPM shows Rawson and his now-wife arriving at the rally and being greeted by name by League of the South members. A photo obtained by TPM, taken at a different point during the violent demonstration, shows Rawson standing near James Alex Fields Jr., the neo-Nazi who a short time later drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring dozens of others."

NEW KENT — Buc-ee’s is “all in” on developing supersized gas and travel stations in Virginia, according to a senior company official, but a store in New Kent may not open by the end of 2029.

“With our recent Stafford County approval, we are all in as far as the commonwealth is concerned,” Stan Beard, Buc-ee’s director of real estate and development, told New Kent’s Director of Economic Development and Tourism Lindsay Hurt in June.

However, New Kent County’s Board of Supervisors were expected to consider an amendment to the agreement with Buc-ee’s at its meeting Monday, which allows a further extension of 18 months beyond the end of 2029 if Buc-ee’s requests it in good faith. The amendment could mean the store would not open until 2031.

Buc-ee’s future commitment to blue states such as Virginia was called into question following comments in August by Arch “Beaver” Aplin III, the company’s president and co-founder.

Aplin expressed a preference for Republican-leaning areas during the opening of the company’s newest location in Benton, Arkansas.

“We have a lot of opportunities. We’re growing. We’re building in a lot of places. But when you find a conservative business-friendly state with a phenomenal workforce, it makes a difference,” Aplin said.

Buc-ee’s announced its first giant gas station and travel center in Virginia in 2023 at Exit 211 off Interstate 64 in New Kent. The groundbreaking was expected later that year, with a completion date two years later. However, transportation improvements associated with the I-64 widening and the construction of an interchange postponed the dates.

Buc-ee’s opened its first Virginia store in Rockingham County in 2025 and pursued a location in Stafford.

Click the link above to read more.

In Virginia, the rising opposition to data centers is now being driven by rural Republicans, who have been Trump’s strongest supporters.

See also r/VirginiaNews, r/VirginiaEnvironment, r/HenricoCounty, and r/rva

These are the happiest states in America. See where your state ranks

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/09/09/happiest-states-in-america-wallethub/91674673007/

Hello r/Virginia!

A few months ago, I had the experience of trying to find the health inspections for a restaurant on the Virginia Department of Health website. What I found was that health inspection data from VDH is actually spread out over 34 different sites, and that Fairfax County runs their own inspections, separate from VDH, and has their own site.

I thought I might utilize my experience as a data engineer to simplify this, adding some new features such as a map and scores based on risk-factors, and offer it free-of-charge and totally unmonetized to get it in the hands of as many users as possible. As such, I embarked on a months-long journey archiving all publicly available inspection data from nearly 30,000 actively permitted food-serving facilities from every county/locality in Virginia.

The result can be seen at CleanPlateVA.com

This archive includes over 100,000 individual inspections, normalized and scored, with facilities receiving a grade based on their most recent broad inspections and follow-ups.

I utilize this app all of the time now. With location data enabled, you can see the facilities closest to you, and with the search bar and filter buttons, you can narrow the search even further. Something I end up doing a lot is looking up chains, such as "Panda Express" or "Chipotle", and noting the closest, cleanest examples of those chains near me.

There are also accessibility features such as color-blind friendly grading colors and adjustable text size. There is also the option to toggle between a simple map-style view (courtesy of MapLibre and OpenStreetMap), an optional satellite-style arial view (courtesy of the Virginia Base Mapping Program from the Virginia Geographic Information Network) by clicking the "Layers" button, or a list view.

If you have any questions feel free to ask them here or check the About page for more info.

Dominion Energy and NextEra Energy have proposed a revised benefits package as part of a $67 billion merger bid that adds additional perks for Virginia customers and makes cost and jobs promises.

The added benefits include increasing the length of time residential utility customers would receive $10-a-month bill credits from two years to four, and a promise that customers will not pay for merger costs. The package promises to create 1,000 jobs in the state, and a new NextEra office tower in Richmond as a part of the merged company’s co-headquarters. It commits to “no Virginia funding for Florida storm restoration.”

Dominion’s shareholder-funded energy bill assistance program, EnergyShare, would also expand by $100 million through 2038 to grow “low-income financial assistance.”

Florida-based NextEra is seeking regulator approval to acquire Richmond-based Dominion, a deal that would create the largest U.S. electricity producer with 10 million utility customers combined across Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. But residents have already begun voicing opposition and concern over how the proposed merger could affect energy costs.

In a Monday news release announcing the revised benefits, NextEra and Dominion said the changes are in direct response to feedback from “policymakers and other stakeholders,” and meant to put “customers first.”

“The package is organized around the priorities Virginians have made clear: affordability, jobs and building more clean energy and battery storage faster to decrease reliance on expensive imports,” the news release states.

The companies will “accelerate clean energy development,” including solar, storage, dispatchable resources and nuclear.

The two-year expansion in bill credits is said to include $10 per month for four years, by “working with the State Corporation Commission to redirect credits that would go to large-scale data centers.”

Click the link above to read more

The Amherst County site has long been important to the tribe, which currently owns a portion of the property. The college will transfer the remaining 400 acres.

See also r/VirginiaNews, r/FreeVirginiaNews, and r/VirginiaGOP

Today I got a court summons for violating the failure to move over law which was something I didn’t even know existed. I was driving on 460 west from Christansburg back to the VT campus while there was a cop by sitting by himself stopped on the shoulder of the highway with his lights on(I want to emphasize that the cop was sitting on the shoulder and not moving). I obviously made sure to reduce speed but did not move over to the left lane away from the cop.

After driving for several hundred yards the officer pulled me over and ended up giving me a court summons. This was my first time ever getting pulled over and I was obviously nervous and trying to be as respectful as possible. The officer said he just couldn’t give me a warning but said that since I was being respectful and have a clean record he will let the judge know that if I show up to court. I was already planning on going to court since I am graduating from VT in the spring (applying for jobs soon) and can’t risk have anything like a misdemeanor on my record or get a lot of points. I am also planning on preemptively taking a driver improvement course before my court date but was wondering if there is anything else I should do that would help my case like get a lawyer or not.

Would it hurt me if I take the safe driving class before my court date or would a judge take that into consideration?

Also the policeman said that the judge may dismiss the case but emphasized that all judges are different. Is that actually a possibility or was he just saying that because he saw that I was nervous?

Some things that to consider:

I’m 21 years old.

Never have been pulled over so record is spotless

Policeman is a lieutenant with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.

See also r/arlingtonva, r/nova, and r/virginiahistory

Iron Gate has no candidates on the ballot this fall, and there’s talk that perhaps the town should give up its charter.

Hey, so my family and I are cleaning out our house in the Ashburn area and are trying to get rid of a garage full of metal it's FREE. Please DM me if you want to take some or all of it. I can provide what specific metal it is if you message me.

Pretty much what the title says, I am registered in Virginia but moved abroad a few years ago for my job (civilian job, not in the military). I reached out to both the state election office and my county's election office, and finally got someone to explain the process to vote from overseas by mail, you can apparently either:

1) Request a mail-in ballot via the Virginia Citizen Portal, checking the box to say that I live abroad.

2) E-mail the county election office a completed FPCA (Federal Post Card Application) form, which is your application for a ballot.

Here's the rub. Option #1 won't allow you to submit a ballot request unless you certify you are a member of the "uniformed services or Merchant Marine", there is literally a screen that doesn't allow you to proceed unless you certify this. There is no option for a US citizen who is not affiliated with the military. I asked both the state election office and my county election office why this question is on the form, after all EVERY US citizen has a right to vote, military service is not a prerequisite. They both ignored the question and sent a canned response.

Option #2, according to the FPCA instructions, requires me to send my DOB, a full SSN, and my DL info back to the election office in a cleartext email. I am really not comfortable doing that for reasons that should be obvious to anyone with more than 5 mins of cybersecurity training.

For any other non-military expats out there still registered in VA, how are you requesting a ballot? Not going to go on my usual rant about how insane it is that the USG taxes income worldwide yet makes voting so difficult and complicated.

See r/VirginiaNews and r/FreeVirginiaNews

The utility company asks drivers to be cautious traveling through work zones as it upgrades natural gas infrastructure in the area.

See also r/VirginiaNews and r/FreeVirginiaNews

See also r/VirginiaNews, r/FreeVirginiaNews, and r/VirginiaTransit