Curated News from The Virginia Council 7/19/26

Virginia Government updates:

Six months with Spanberger By Molly Manning

Spanberger as Editor-in-Chief - by David M. Poole

Webert: Show your work, governor - Cardinal News By Michael Webert

Montgomery County court to decide if Spanberger’s removal of Virginia Tech board member was lawful • Virginia Mercury By Nathaniel Cline

Spanberger: "I do not want us to need mandatory practices to conserve water" | WVTF By Nick Gilmore

NRA calls 3rd Circuit ruling on New Jersey semiautomatic weapons ban 'historic' | Fox News By Jasmine Baehr

Clock starts for state regulators to review proposed Dominion-NextEra merger • Virginia Mercury By Shannon Heckt

Va. education department says failed proposal to delay cut scores stemmed from legislative mandates • Virginia Mercury By Nathaniel Cline

LCPS Diversity Chief on Leave | Education | loudounnow.com By Patrick Lewis

School Daze By Joe Thomas

U.Va. releases third compliance report to DOJ outlining changes in hiring practices - The Cavalier Daily - University of Virginia's Student Newspaper By Lauren Seeliger

How Va. leaders are working to strengthen and depoliticize public college governing boards • Virginia Mercury By Nathaniel Cline

Arlington’s top prosecutor questioned by Congress after criticism by Rep. Jim Jordan – NBC4 Washington By Drew Wilder

Virginia Department of Social Services office evacuated after staff receive threats | WRIC ABC 8News By Jessie Nguyen

Busch Gardens Williamsburg owes nearly $22M in taxes, James City County says | WAVY.com By Brett Hall

Data Center Forum:

Taxpayers group: Data center myths holding Virginia back - Cardinal News By Ross Marchand

Piedmont Environmental Council: The governor and General Assembly’s data center budget 'solution' doesn’t fix anything - Cardinal News By Chris Miller

Inside the Left’s Anti-Data Center Movement By Stu Smith

SCC considers making data centers shoulder more of the cost of transmission lines • Virginia Mercury By Shannon Heckt

Data Centers Aren't Raising Your Power Bill. Bad Policies Are. By Shawn Regan

Left hand, right hand: Virginia cools on data centers even as state policy promotes the AI that requires them - Cardinal News By Dwayne Yancey

Virginians Challenge Power-Hungry Data Centers' Expansion By Rich Tucker

Power crunch keeps data centers in the dark | Localnews | princewilliamtimes.com By Peter Cary

(5) Debunking the Doomers: Data Centers, Jobs, and the Fight for AI's Future — Guest: Nathan Leamer

Who pays for data center power lines? Virginia hearing could change the answer | wusa9.com By Eric Flack & Ruth Morton

The New American Industrial Revolution Runs on Data Centers › American Greatness By Jordan Schactel

‘Enough is enough’: Virginia’s ‘immovable’ power broker says data centers aren’t unstoppable - POLITICO By Adam Aton

Kevin Bass on X: "U.S. data centers require: 30x less water than U.S. golf courses. 100x less than California almonds. 200x less than U.S. home lawns. 2,500x less than U.S. crop irrigation. Who is protesting almonds? Golf courses? Lawns? Nobody. China does not feel threatened by your lawn. https://t.co/xY1G77BSip" / X

Articles, News, & Quotes:

My Warning To Congress: Another Border Crisis Is Looming By Richmond Forum speaker Julio Rosas

U.S. Hosts First Ever International Summit on Radical Leftist Violence with Richmond Forum speaker Andy Ngo

Exposing the SPLC Grift - Tyler O'Neil - The Brownstone Show, Episode 24 The SPLC indictment: Klan informants, Charlottesville funding, and shell companies

GOP trio from Fairfax County vying for chance to unseat U.S. Sen. Mark Warner - Fredericksburg Free Press By Jonathan Hunley

Charlottesville Police announce arrest in rape reported in homeless encampment By Chris Graham

ACPS hides McCauley’s settlement agreement | Schilling Show By Schilling

Youngkin takes chairman role at Red Cell Partners - Virginia Business By Beth JoJack

Major Richmond apartment operator hit with multistate fair housing complaint By Sarah Vogelsong

Richmond remembers teen lemonade entrepreneur Aubrie 'Breezzy' Green By WTVR CBS 6 Web staff

World-famous AI artist unveils video installation at CoStar grand opening By Michael Phillips

The Navy’s oldest carrier arrived in Norfolk after what is expected to be its last full deployment By Steve Walsh

Legislative updates:

Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism Will A New Virginia Law Boost Energy Storage? By Elizabeth McGowan

Virginia joins rooftop solar initiative to help residents trim electric bills • Virginia Mercury By Shannon Heckt

Bill Amends Charter of Daughters of the American Revolution By Tyler O'Neil

History, Tradition, & the 250th Anniversary of the United States of America:

Lee statue re-imagined

Swords Into Plowshares | MASS

Thomas Jefferson's boyhood home in Goochland lists for $17M - Axios Richmond By Karri Peifer

Is America Collapsing as It Celebrates 250 Years? Victor Davis Hanson Responds

How radical leftists took over the Smithsonian By Brooke Brandtjen

Heritage Expert on New Smithsonian Report: The National Museum of American History Has Become Wholly Un-American | The Heritage Foundation

(6) Heritage Foundation on X: "🔥 EXCLUSIVE: Heritage has uncovered video exposing how the Smithsonian's top leadership is working to redefine the American story through a radical and racialized lens. This is the agenda shaping one of the nation's most influential cultural institutions. This isn't a https://t.co/vHy4tQAQOE" / X

New Presidential Library Shows How The Left Has Captured Our Cultural Imagination By Chris Bray

WATCH: Excavation sheds light on Colonial Virginia's frontier - Fredericksburg Free Press By Ted Schubel

Biz Beat Clips: New HQ, executive for Washington Heritage Museums - Fredericksburg Free Press By Bill Freehling

Virginia Holocaust Museum launching portrait series By Phil Liles & Kimberly Strother

Virginia tribes reclaim ancestral land – The Virginian-Pilot By David Macaulay

Southside land gifted for future public park By Richmonder Staff

Virginia Beach teens want to recognize, preserve historic places in Hampton Roads By Ashley White

The Right Needs To Stop Lionizing Leftist Dupe Teddy Roosevelt By Glenn Beck

Dispatch from 1776: Four events have made us independent - Cardinal News By Dwayne Yancey

Woke Washington woman arrested after mistaking fishermen statue's rope for noose By Chris Nesi

The Constitution, Bill of Rights, & Liberty:

(11) Krzysztof Szczawinski 🇵🇱 on X: "How smart do you need to be to understand Liberty? 🗽 Freedom is pretty easy – people instinctively understand that they don’t want to be constrained. But Liberty implies a system. And to understand that a system based on liberty works best is pretty rare. It is a" / X

▶︎Supporters and critics rally in Greene over Sheriff Smith’s ICE partnership - The Piedmont Journal Recorder By Chuck Jackson

Evidence mounts of noncitizens reaching voter rolls, casting ballots as DOJ speeds crackdown | Just The News By John Solomon

Huge Win for Second Amendment — Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down New Jersey’s Unconstitutional Semi-Automatic Rifle Ban and Magazine Limit * The Gateway Pundit * by Jim Hᴏft

Mullin Announces Major Steps for Election Security Following China Revelations - The Daily Signal By Fred Lucas

(7) Jon Herold on X: "During the FBI's 2020 Muskegon/GBI Strategies investigation into fraudulent voter registration, the FBI did a database check of just "20 randomly selected voter registration applications" from the roughly 10,000 that were flagged as "potentially fraudulent" 65% of the randomly https://t.co/BHA7rzHuuw" / X

Idaho is the 4th state with abortion rights on the 2026 ballot | AP News By Geoff Mulvihill