A developer is proposing to build an advanced nuclear energy project in Amherst County that would provide up to 650 megawatts of power. Representatives with Charlotte, North Carolina-based Geenex Power briefly appeared at Tuesday’s meeting of the Amherst County Board of Supervisors to announce the Beck Creek Energy project and its informational website, BeckCreekEnergy.com. … When company representatives Delany Bolton and Chris Hallameyer appeared Tuesday afternoon before the board of supervisors, they weren’t on the board’s agenda. Instead, they gave their overview during a regular open comment period, in which anyone can speak for up to three minutes. Hallameyer said in the interview that it marked the first time that Geenex told the board about the project, and that was a deliberate choice. “We wanted to make sure that we introduced ourselves at the same time to the board and to the people,” Hallameyer said. “We thought that was the best way to go about doing it.” After Bolton and Hallameyer concluded their remarks, none of the supervisors commented or asked questions. Supervisor Tom Martin, who represents District 1, did not respond to an email late Tuesday from Cardinal News seeking comment.

Newport News police officers and sheriff’s deputies rushed to Richneck Elementary School after a 6-year-old student shot his teacher on Jan. 6, 2023. Abby Zwerner and 16 students had fled Classroom 11. The teacher collapsed in the school office. The boy, identified in court only as J.T., was still in the first-grade classroom. Reading specialist Amy Kovac was holding him. Body camera footage from Officer Brian Torrez, obtained by The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press, shows the boy cursing at Kovac and the officers as police entered a classroom adorned with the alphabet and colorful decorations. … “Both y’all want a f—ing piece of me, b—?!” the boy tells the officers. “Stop!” Kovac says as she holds him from behind in a bear hug. “F— you, b—,” he says. … In June, the Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot filed a motion to unseal the video, contending Circuit Court Judge Rebecca M. Robinson’s sealing order violated First Amendment case law on access to court records. At a court hearing in July, assistant principal Ebony Parker’s lawyers asked that the video remain sealed. But Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Joshua Jenkins, the prosecutor, said Virginia law “does not support continued sealing.” In the end, Robinson ordered the video unsealed so long as the child’s face is blurred in the footage.

At Monday’s meeting, the Fredericksburg City School Board officially received a report from certified public accounting firm Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates on a review of School Board travel and reimbursement procedures. The accounting firm reviewed all school board travel expenditures for the period of July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025. Based on its findings, the firm recommends several actions that the division should take to strengthen internal controls. … The introductory paragraph of the final report clarifies that the review was “related to the travel expenditures of the School Board members of Fredericksburg City Public Schools.” The draft report stated more broadly that the review was of travel expenditures for “Fredericksburg City Public Schools.”

Virginia State Police have completed their investigation of an in-custody death earlier this year at Riverside Smithfield Hospital, which the state medical examiner has deemed a homicide. Isle of Wight County Commonwealth’s Attorney Georgette Phillips said on Sept. 23 she had received the investigative file from VSP and her office is reviewing the report. As the county’s elected prosecutor, Phillips will decide whether criminal charges are warranted. … The Times, on May 8, submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to both the Sheriff’s Office and State Police for body camera footage of the incident, but did not receive the requested footage or a formal denial from either agency. The Times resubmitted its request to State Police on July 21 and received a response July 23 acknowledging the existence of body camera footage but denying the request on grounds that the record is “part of an active criminal investigative file of the Virginia Department of State Police” and “exempt from the production requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act pursuant to Virginia Code § 2.2-3706.1 (C).”