Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Good Morning! On this day in 1607, the ships Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery landed with approximately 144 settlers and sailors, founding the first permanent English colony in North America, which they named Jamestown.

The Virginia Flyover is following a big building project that will improve everyone’s access to small bricks. Find out more in Top Stories. In Around Virginia, see how one driver turned a parking lot into a demolition derby.

Do you love Virginia? So do our 95,000 readers. Advertise in The Virginia Flyover and connect your business with passionate locals. Learn more.

We’re sponsored today by IotaComm, offering an investment opportunity in a nationwide wireless network.

Lego Builds in Virginia

The LEGO Group plans to build a 2 million-square-foot warehouse and distribution center in Prince George County.

The project is expected to cost $366 million and create more than 300 jobs. It will complement the factory LEGO is building in Chesterfield, which is expected to create 1,700 jobs.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin approved a $2.53 million grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to help the county support the new project.

Both facilities are expected to be operational in 2027.

Making Assessments Count

Beginning in 2026, the Commonwealth will change its grading policies so that its Standards of Learning assessment tests count for 10% of each student’s final grade, a step policymakers hope will make the exams more meaningful.

Standards of Learning exams will also be given at the end of the school year instead of several weeks earlier, as they are now.

The assessment tests will be graded on a traditional 1-100 scale, replacing the current 600-point scale, which will make it easier for students and parents to understand the grade.

“I think this makes Virginia a leader in delivering a world-class education for families across the Commonwealth,” said Del. Dan Helmer, D-Fairfax, who sponsored legislation containing the changes.

Hurricane Preparedness Week

This is Virginia Hurricane Preparedness Week, an opportunity for all residents to prepare for the start of Atlantic hurricane season on June 1.

“You need to plan to be able to be self-sufficient up to 72 hours after a storm,” advised Jess Whitehead of the Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience.

State officials are urging Virginians to assemble an emergency kit, including food, water, and flashlights; to develop a plan to stay in touch with family members; and to review their insurance coverage.

Finally, officials encourage everyone to pay close attention to weather warnings and be prepared to evacuate quickly if necessary.

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The $1.5T Tech Upgrade Our Cities Have Been Waiting For

Wi-Fi alone can’t handle the technologies connecting businesses, schools, and major institutions.

That’s why brands like Crayola are tapping into IotaComm’s nationwide wireless network. It’s less costly than Wi-Fi but powerful enough to help build “smarter” operations across entire cities and towns.

IotaComm’s cutting-edge IoT platform, Delphi360, can help to improve air quality, energy usage, and traffic—and is planning to integrate AI in its next product release.

Here’s why it’s such a game-changer:

IotaComm owns a nationwide portfolio of scarce FCC-licensed spectrum
It’s a $1.5T Internet of Things market opportunity
Potential to reduce energy usage by up to 30%

But there’s even better news…

IotaComm is giving investors a chance to participate in their growth. Learn more about becoming an IotaComm shareholder here.

➤ Richmond: Several students who took part in campus protests last month at Virginia Commonwealth will have their degrees withheld while the university investigates the incident. “The conferral of a degree is contingent upon … the resolution of any outstanding disciplinary matters,” VCU explained. (Details)

➤ Statewide: The “SUN Bucks” program administered by the USDA will be available again this summer to provide qualifying families $120 to buy groceries while children are out of school. (More)

➤ Portsmouth: Virginia House Speaker Don Scott will join the board of directors of the national Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, even as he seeks to maintain a Democratic majority in the state House of Delegates this fall. (Details)

➤ Virginia Beach: The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art faces a shortfall of almost $33,000 after a federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services was retroactively terminated. Virginia MOCA said the grant money has already been spent. (More)

➤ Sterling: Relatives of volunteer firefighter Trevor Brown, who was killed when a house exploded last year, are suing the utility company Southern States for $100 million. (Details)

➤ Henrico: A woman has been charged with reckless driving after she lost control of her rental car in the parking lot of a townhouse complex. She smashed into four parked vehicles before coming to a stop near a resident’s front door. (Watch Video)

➤ The Washington Capitals were pounded on the road at Carolina 5-2. The Caps host game 5 of the Stanley Cup playoff series on Thursday, with the Hurricanes up 3-1. (Series Update)

➤ Virginia Tech, Liberty, and UVA earned bids to the NCAA softball championship tournament. The Hokies face Belmont in the first round, while the Flames play Marist, and the Cavs play North Florida. (Bracket)

➤ George Mason visits UVA in baseball today. The Cavaliers, coming off a sweep of Miami, have won six straight. (Schedule)

➤ Changes in name, image, and likeness policies are driving the future of college sports. Sign up for NIL Wire to know what’s happening.

➤ Yesterday’s results: MLB | NBA | NHL | Soccer

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➤ The average price of gas dropped 6.2 cents per gallon in the past week, reaching $2.95 yesterday, according to GasBuddy. That’s down 9.7 cents from April and 49.1 cents from last May. (Details)

➤ Dominion Energy has been given until December to develop a virtual power plant pilot program that uses residential, commercial, and industrial customers, as well as batteries, to deliver as much as 450 megawatts of capacity. (More)

➤ CoStar, a real estate company based in Arlington, will purchase Australian property listings platform Domain for $1.92 billion. (Details)

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Crayola Advances Manufacturing Excellence with Hidden Tech

One of America’s most iconic brands is using cutting-edge technology to improve manufacturing quality and help reduce energy consumption by up to 30%.

But they’re just one of several major brands leveraging IotaComm’s cutting-edge Internet of Things (IoT) platform to improve their business operations.

Wifi alone has proven to be too costly for IoT tech, but IotaComm is quietly building a nationwide wireless network to make strong, secure, and low-cost connectivity possible in powering their commercial applications.

They’re setting the foundations of a more connected world, which amounts to $1.5T in market potential.

Learn how you can become an IotaComm shareholder.

This is a paid advertisement for IotaComm’s Regulation CF Offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.iotacomm.com.

➤ Central Virginia is so short of caregivers for elderly patients that the Alzheimer’s Association warns the region could be considered a “dementia desert.” In a new report, the group says the Commonwealth needs to add more than 1,000 geriatricians by 2050. (Details)

➤ Virginia is struggling to reduce its population of the invasive blue catfish, in part because some recreational anglers prefer to keep reeling in trophy-sized specimens of the fish rather than see commercial fishing reduce its numbers. (More)

➤ Fauquier County Sheriff’s deputies used tools to create a small hole and rescue a kitten that was trapped behind the concrete wall of a garage. (Details)

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