by Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The week just past saw readers wrestling with heating and cooling costs, a bruhaha over mail, Stafford maintenance getting a shot in the arm, King George shadowboxing with Amazon, and the Stafford Board of Supervisors stonewalling the School Board. Plus, an Easter surprise, data center surprises, and no surprises when it comes to Donald Trump.
Number 5: Environmental Cents: Home Heating and Cooling
Heating and cooling our homes is the source of our greatest energy use according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Some practical tips for reducing your costs, improving your efficiency, and possibly claiming a major tax credit.
Number 4: Problems at Regional Processing and Distribution Center in Richmond
Virginia’s Senate and House representatives set aside their policy disputes to issue a statement on Monday about the recently completed audit of the Richmond, Virginia, Regional Processing and Distribution Center (RP&DC). The audit is significant for several reasons. As part of its 10-year effort to update its mail and package processing system, the U.S. Postal Service plans to develop 60 RP&DCs across the county for creating a “modernized network based around [RPDCs], local processing centers, and sorting and delivery centers.” Richmond was the first to become an RP&DC in July 2023.
Number 3: Stafford Supervisors Approve Increased Funding for School Major Maintenance
Stafford supervisors on Tuesday approved a budget for the upcoming fiscal year that will provide about $15 million to the school division for critical systems maintenance and repair, replacement, and renovation, or “3R” projects.
Number 2: King George and Amazon at Odds Over Whether Performance Agreement Signed in December is in Effect
The Amazon Data Services project in King George County can be “resurrected” if the company is willing to “entertain discussion” on four items, interim County Attorney Richard Stuart wrote in a March 15 letter to Charlie Payne, the attorney representing ADS.
Number 1: Stafford Board of Supervisors Can’t, or Won’t, Answer School Board Questions
The Stafford County Board of Supervisors indicated this week that it could not, or would not, answer most of the questions posed earlier this month by the School Board, several weeks after the questions were sent and almost a month after the school division answered a series of budget-related questions from supervisors.
ANALYSIS: What’s It Like to Visit a Data Center
Data centers are both hailed as regions’ financial saviors, and spurned for their impact on local environments as well as their ever-growing real-estate footprints. Perhaps more than any other industry, however, they also sit at the nexus of what may prove to be a revolution not unsimilar to the First Agricultural Revolution 5,000 years ago, the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, and the development of the personal computer in the 1990s.
COMMENTARY: Easter Sunday and the Search for Peace
My Lenten traditions start with a tiny little book I keep above the fireplace consisting of a hardback edition of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Lenten Reflections. These reflections begin right about the time when winter is getting old, long after Christmas and January and ice storms and snowstorms. At least in Virginia, everything is cold and wet and dreary. And then Lent begins.
HUMOR – The Good Book(s)
How does one shoehorn the Beatle’s ‘Rocky Racoon,’ Rivery Books, and the Card Cellar into one column about Donald Trump’s illiteracy on Easter Sunday? You give Drew Gallagher a column!
