Crewe Town Manager Phil Miskovic was told by two different speakers last week to look at them while they were addressing officials about problems in town. “Excuse me, sir, I would like for you to pay attention when we’re talking, because this affects you, too,” said Carla Barkley, who expressed concerns about speeding on 2nd Street. … Former Councilwoman Sue Yeatts was next to the podium, expressing her displeasure “with the fact that our Town Manager does not wear a tie to work. This is a top position in Crewe. He comes to work in shorts and a shirt, and tennis shoes and no socks. Phil, can you please look at me just like everybody else? Are you looking? You’re not going to look. I’m waiting.” Miskovic ( continued to look down while Mrs. Yeatts declared, “I’m waiting. If you could give this lady (Ms. Barkley) the courtesy, why aren’t you affording it to me?” Mrs. Yeatts then said she would wait-out the remainder of her allotted five minutes in silence just to see if Miskovic looks up. “I will continue to wait the full five until he looks at me, or chooses not to.”

No criminal charges will be filed against former Patrick County Administrator Beth Simms regarding allegations that she violated state law. In a June 9 opinion letter to Patrick County Commonwealth’s Attorney Dayna Bobbitt, Special Prosecutor and Floyd County Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Branscom said there is insufficient evidence to support criminal charges against Simms. … Branscom wrote that allegations were made by then-Electoral Board member Ed Pool that Simms illegally voted in Patrick County during the June and November 2025 elections while allegedly residing in Franklin County.

Much of the debate over the explosive growth of data centers in Virginia focuses on electricity use, noise and industry tax breaks. But there’s another equally important, largely underexamined angle to the story — the centers consume at least 2 billion gallons of water a year, two-thirds of it from drinking water supplies, and there’s inadequate testing of the chemical content of the resulting wastewater discharged into municipal and county treatment systems and waterways. … This year, the General Assembly enacted laws calling for regional and local water authorities to gather information on water usage by data centers and for data center developers to submit those details in new applications for construction. That’s a good start, but it’s not nearly enough to assist in wise water resource planning.

Five months after the demolition of the White House’s East Wing, President Donald Trump claimed that the project to construct a massive ballroom and a bunker in its place would cost up to $400 million and that private donors would pay for all of it. … But a detailed project summary prepared for the White House by the contractor more than three weeks before Trump’s comments estimated the total construction cost at $600 million — with more than half coming from taxpayers, according to a copy of the contractor estimate obtained by The Washington Post. By the time Trump made his comments in March, the federal government had already approved more than a dozen payments to the contractor overseeing the work, Clark Construction, totaling tens of millions of dollars in public funds, according to a log of the contractor’s invoices obtained by The Post.