The University of Virginia’s football program won more games last season than any other, but for Athletic Director Carla Williams, the achievement carried a weight that no scoreboard could measure. “It was the first — and I hope the last — mass murder in college athletics,” Williams says in a new documentary about the 2022 shooting that killed three Cavalier football players. But as the film, “1 15 41 Tragedy to Triumph,” shows, that horrific loss launched a spirit of teamwork and purpose that led to a triumphant season three years later. The film closed the the 39th annual Virginia Film Festival with a screening Sunday at Charlottesville’s Paramount Theater, billed as the world premiere, followed by a panel discussion with the team’s coach, the film’s director and a key player who appears in the film. … Happy Perry, the mother of D’Sean, was swarmed by well-wishers after the screening. In advance of the premiere, she told The Daily Progress that the film offered a needed avenue for the families’ voices. … Perry has been critical of UVa’s official report on the mass shooting. Costing $1.5 million and arriving more than two years after the tragedy, the report hid the majority of its contents behind black-box redactions to protect the interests of the killer, a disgruntled former member of the UVa football team, Christopher Jones Jr., who is now serving five life sentences for his crimes.

It started, recalled Fredericksburg Vice Mayor Chuck Frye, with a panicked Sunday morning call. Fredericksburg City Schools superintendent Marceline Catlett was reaching out to community members frantically following the second fatal shooting involving teens — former FCPS students — in the first half of 2023. … One component of the city’s response was an assessment conducted by WestEd, which described its 113-page report as “a shared picture of youth violence in Fredericksburg built on local data and local voices.” The city released the report, funded by a grant from the Department of Criminal Justice Services, in September, and Tuesday’s joint work session at the Walker-Grant Center served as the first opportunity for officials to discuss it publicly.

The mystery company that wants to build a 1,200-megawatt data center in Goochland County has been revealed: Google Inc. According to filings this year by Dominion Energy, one or more companies wanted to build two new data center campuses along Route 288, near the border with Henrico County. But Goochland leaders have said they received no applications from developers. On Tuesday, Google publicly announced its interest in a set of properties in the West Creek Business Park in eastern Goochland. The search engine giant and the county signed a nondisclosure agreement in 2024, but the two sides agreed to drop the cloak of secrecy and go public. … In early 2024, Goochland and Google signed a nondisclosure agreement, the county said this week. … Then, last month, Goochland requested to be released from the nondisclosure agreement “in an effort to provide transparency,” the county said. Google also previously signed a nondisclosure agreement with leaders in Chesterfield County, which led to a series of complaints from its residents. Sen. Mike Jones, D-Richmond, said he intends to file legislation that would ban local governments from signing nondisclosure agreements that concern the body’s official duties.

Jenna Conway, the state superintendent of public instruction, has informed Albemarle County Public Schools officials that they must hire an independent consultant to review all of their policies and practices regarding the mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse. … When the School Board’s Jim Dillenbeck told parents at a late September town hall that the school division is in “crisis” with administrators sharing little information with other officials, even school board members, School Board Chair Rebecca Berlin and her colleagues on the board requested his resignation. He resigned earlier this month. … The independent consultation Conway has demanded should not be confused with the independent investigation the school division is already pursuing. Innsbrook-based law firm Harman, Claytor, Corrigan & Wellman is conducting a review of the school division’s handling of the Swiney case. Previously, it appeared the firm had been hired by the School Board under pressure from a bipartisan coalition of state and federal lawmakers, but new evidence suggests that is not the case. Rather, the school division’s insurer, Roanoke-based VAcorp, is the one that pushed for an independent investigation in order to limit the school division’s legal liability.

The Rappahannock Public Library Board of Trustees has received mostly positive feedback on the library’s potential move to Rush River Commons, according to a Rappahannock News analysis of emails sent to the board through mid-October. Of the 242 emails, 108 provided feedback on the move, with 57 supporting it and 34 opposed. The remainder were either neutral on the matter or sent by trustees. The findings are the result of a public records request submitted to the board ahead of its Thursday vote on whether to move the library to the development in the Town of Washington. … Five Rappahannock residents have appealed an August ruling by a Rappahannock Circuit Court judge who found the Rappahannock County Public Library Board of Trustees could keep its lease-negotiation documents private regarding its potential move to Rush River Commons.

The Lynchburg City Council on Tuesday voted to take the first step toward conducting an audit of pay increases given to top city staff. The review would examine every increase of $100 or more in salary and other payments for the staff members directly appointed by the council — the city manager, city attorney and clerk — along with other staff in the city manager’s office, department heads and other instances of structural pay adjustments made above general wage increases. The scope of the review would be from July 2021 forward. The vote came after a month of public discussion, spurred in part by council member Marty Misjuns, who is running for reelection, at a city council candidate debate. He is calling the validity of recent pay raise processes into question.

A CIA contractor is accused of sharing classified intelligence with his journalist girlfriend for articles published on Substack, according to federal court filings in a case involving alleged conduct in Fairfax County. Ian A. Brinksman, 42, was arrested Friday and charged with one count of unlawfully transmitting national defense information to someone not entitled to receive it. Prosecutors allege he accessed five classified reports outside the scope of his work and provided information that appeared in articles published between March 11 and Oct. 5. … An FBI affidavit describes a recurring sequence: Brinksman accessed classified reports, spoke by phone with the woman identified in the filings as “Individual 1,” and she subsequently published articles containing similar information.