Talk of the Town
Patrick County voted to pass a resolution barring its registrar from administering early voting for the redistricting referendum. Spotsylvania did the same Thursday night, and Lynchburg is expected to join in the same.
The effort comes down to when early voting can commence. Registrars say March 6, others say the state constitution points to April 16. The ultimate intent is to force the matter to the Supreme Court.
(NEW YORK) — As a deep freeze continued Tuesday from the Northeast to the Southeast, Southern California and other parts of the West are expected to see another day of balmy weather.
Some areas in the West are poised to break daily high temperature records. Burbank, California, is expected to hit 87 on Tuesday and Long Beach could hit 89.
Other parts of the West, including San Diego, Portland, Oregon, and Great Falls, Montana, could also surpass daily record-high temperature records on Tuesday.
On Monday, several cities in the West set new daily high temperature records, including Escondido, California, which hit 92 degrees, and Phoenix, Arizona, which saw temperatures climb to 85.
The warm weather in the West is expected to continue on Wednesday. While not expected to see a record-breaking daily temperature, Los Angeles is forecast to reach 89 degrees.
Wind advisories are in place for parts of Southern California, especially along the mountain ranges from southeast Los Angeles down to the Mexico border. San Bernardino, Riverside, Corona and Anaheim are expected to see gusts up to 45 mph and isolated gusts of up to 55 mph from 4 a.m. Pacific time on Wednesday through noon on Thursday.
The warm weather in the West will slowly spread through the middle of the country next week.
Meanwhile, some areas of Florida will get a break from the cold before cooler temperatures return on Thursday and Friday. Orlando is forecast to top 70 on Wednesday.
Much of Florida remained under a freeze warning on Tuesday morning. A cold weather advisory was also in place for Miami.
On Monday, several cities throughout the Southeast set daily low temperature records, including Gainesville, Florida, which recorded a low of 22; Fayetteville, Arkansas, which saw the temperature plummet to 12; and Greensboro, North Carolina, which got down to 3.
Freezing temperatures are expected to continue in other parts of the East and Northeast this week as another cold blast is expected on Wednesday, Thursday and into the weekend.
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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, delivered the Democrats’ response Tuesday night to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address,
In her roughly 12-minute speech, delivered live in front of a crowd in colonial Williamsburg, Spanberger focused on affordability and made pointed remarks about Trump’s hardline immigration policies.
“Let me ask you, the American people watching at home, three questions,” Spanberger said. “Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family? Is the president working to keep Americans safe both at home and abroad? Is the president working for you?”
Spanberger, who was inaugurated in January after serving three terms in the House of Representatives, hit on key issues of affordability, including lowering the persistently high costs of housing, health care, energy and groceries despite the Trump administration’s insistence that some of these costs have come down.
“Democrats across the country are laser focused on affordability in our nation’s capital and in state capitols and communities across America,” Spanberger said.
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, also criticized the Trump for his role on the world stage, saying he is contributing to greater worldwide uncertainty, saying, “Our president has endangered the long and storied history of the United States of America, being a force for good.”
A former federal law enforcement officer who worked on narcotics and money-laundering cases for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Spanberger also addressed what critics call the chaos caused by the Trump administration, which continues its immigration enforcement efforts that Americans are seeing in their communities.
“Our president has sent poorly trained federal agents into our cities where they have arrested and detained American citizens and people who aspire to be Americans,” Spanberger said in her speech. She referred to mothers being taken away from their babies and children — including “a little boy in a blue bunny hat” –being sent to “far-off detention centers.”
She added: “Our broken immigration system is something to be fixed not an excuse for unaccountable agents to terrorize our communities.”
The governor gave 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.
“In his speech tonight, the president did what he always does,” Spanberger said. He “lied, he scapegoated, and he distracted. And he offered no real solutions to our nation’s pressing challenges, so many of which he is actively making worse.”
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 were at least two major counter events that several Democrats planned 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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At a special meeting on Friday, the Patrick County Board of Supervisors voted on a resolution objecting to the date…