Talk of the Town
Tommy Hurley broke the land speed record at Cape Canaveral yesterday by topping the needle at 253 miles per hour, surpassing the goal of 250 set by the planners of the Virginia 250 Car Project. The Martinsville Missile was designed by Joey Arrington and driven by Ridgeway resident Tommy Hurley. The record tops the old record of 244 set in 2007 at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah by Russ Wicks, in a car with an engine also built by Arrington.
(NEW YORK) — At least 100 million Americans are on alert for dangerous cold weather in the coming days across the East as brutal, eye-watering cold winds — the coldest of the season for some — are expected across the Northeast this weekend.
Wind chills in the -20s are possible in Michigan and northern Ohio through Saturday morning, with -10s for southern Ohio and West Virginia.
Richmond, Virginia, could reach below-zero wind chills this weekend.
Extreme cold warnings are in place across much of the Northeast, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont.
New York City could reach as low as -20 this weekend, and upstate New York around Saranac Lake could reach -40. Frostbite can occur in 10 minutes on exposed skin.
Much of this extreme cold is due to strong winds gusting 30 to 50 mph this weekend, especially Saturday.
Monday morning will still be very cold across the Northeast, but the wind will be calmer, so wind chills won’t be as extreme.
Slowly through the week, a warming trend is expected across the East, with high temperatures going above freezing for New York City and Boston on Wednesday, possibly even on Tuesday.
The end of next week is looking above average across the middle of the country, while the Northeast feels seasonal mid-February winter temperatures.
The system ushering in the brutal cold also brings some snow.
Friday morning, snow was falling over Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, western Pennsylvania and western New York.
By Friday afternoon, snow will become more scattered and fall from the Appalachians of western North Carolina through upstate New York.
A few light snow showers or flurries will pass over New York City on Friday night, and much of Saturday is looking dry. A dusting up to 1 inch of snow is possible over the city on Friday night.
On Saturday, Boston and much of New England will continue to see passing snow showers.
Boston could see 2 to 4 inches of snow through Saturday evening.
The western New York I-90 corridor could see 2 to 5 inches of snow through Saturday evening, including Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo.
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(WASHINGTON) — Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a rising star in the Democratic Party who captured the governor’s office last year by a large margin, will deliver the Democrats’ response Tuesday night to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, focusing on affordability and the chaos she believes the Trump administration has caused at home and abroad, her team told reporters.
Spanberger, who was inaugurated in January after serving three terms in the House of Representatives, will discuss lowering the persistently high costs of housing, health care, energy and groceries despite the administration’s insistence that some of these costs have come down.
The daughter of a law enforcement officer and a nurse, Spanberger focused relentlessly on affordability throughout her 2025 gubernatorial campaign. Despite the economy being the top issue Trump ran on in the 2024 election, it’s been one of the issues he’s struggled with the most during his second term, as Americans still haven’t felt the “Trump boom” they were promised.
In an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, 57% of Americans disapprove of how Trump’s handling the economy, and 64% disapproved of how he’s handling tariffs on imported goods.
Spanberger, a former CIA officer, will also address how the Trump administration is contributing to greater worldwide uncertainty.
Trump and his team have spent a large portion of his second term so far focusing on foreign policy, including Trump going head-to-head with some U.S. allies and becoming more aggressive on the world stage. A former federal law enforcement officer who worked on narcotics and money-laundering cases for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Spanberger will also address what critics call the chaos caused by the Trump administration, which continues its immigration enforcement efforts that Americans are seeing in their communities.
She is also expected to challenge Republicans in Congress for not standing up to Trump.
Several Democrats have invited survivors of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to attend Trump’s address, while others plan to skip the event altogether in protest.
The governor will give her speech live from Colonial Williamsburg, the restored 18th century capital where Virginian representatives voted for its delegation to Congress to propose independence for all 13 colonies from Great Britain, and later adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights — which influenced the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.
Spanberger has been able to appeal to both Democratic and Republican voters. She won the governor election in November by more than 15% — the largest margin for a Democrat in the state since 1961 — winning counties that voted for Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024.
There are at least two major counter events that several Democrats plan to attend, including MoveOn’s People’s State of the Union, which is promoting the participation of more than 20 members of Congress; and the “State of the Swamp” event by Defiance.org that features a handful of celebrities appearing by video or in person, such as Robert De Niro.
Spanberger prepared for her remarks by watching speeches other Democrats have delivered in response to Trump’s previous addresses to Congress.
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(NEW YORK) — Some Verizon customers were experiencing a service outage on Wednesday afternoon, according to the company.
Verizon said it was not immediately clear how long the service would be down.
“We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers,” Verizon said in a statement to ABC News. “Our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience.”
Many Verizon customers said on social media that their phones showed “SOS” in place of network bars.
According to Downdetector at least 175,000 Verizon customers were affected at one point, but that number has since gone down. Downdetector, a site that tracks outages, said Verizon customers began noticing interrupted service around noon Eastern time.
New York Emergency Management (NYCEM) officials said the outage is affecting some users calling 911.
“Verizon is working to solve the issue,” NYCEM said in a statement. “If you have an emergency and cannot connect using your Verizon Wireless device, please call using a device from another carrier, a landline, or go to a police precinct or fire station to report the emergency. In the meantime, you can check the website or social media account of your cellphone carrier for updates.”
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