Potomac Local News

Uriah Kiser
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Join Uriah Kiser, founder and publisher of Potomac Local News, for straightforward conversations about the issues that matter most to families and communities in Fredericksburg, Manassas, Woodbridge, Stafford, and across Northern Virginia. We feature in-depth interviews with local newsmakers — elected officials, community leaders, nonprofit directors, educators, and everyday residents — plus clear analysis of the headlines shaping your daily life. From local government budgets and taxes, to data centers and development, schools, elections, redistricting, crime, transportation, historic preservation, and community events, we cut through the noise to deliver real context and straight facts. No corporate spin. Just independent journalism focused on the places you live, work, and raise your family. Whether you want to stay informed on the latest board meetings, understand how policy decisions affect your wallet and neighborhood, or hear directly from the people making decisions in our region, the Potomac Local Podcast keeps you connected to your community. New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app, and never miss the stories that matter in Fredericksburg, Manassas, Woodbridge, and beyond. www.potomaclocal.com

  1. 6d ago

    UMW No. 1 in Virginia for Internships: What It Means

    The University of Mary Washington just took the No. 1 spot in Virginia for internships. Michael Dunn, who runs the career center, says that ranking is a floor, not a finish line. Princeton Review’s Best Value Colleges for 2027 put Mary Washington No. 1 in Virginia for internships and No. 5 among public universities nationally. The Fredericksburg campus also landed No. 4 among public schools for Making an Impact, climbing 13 spots on internships and seven on impact from the 2025 lists. Potomac Local News reported the ranking this week. On this episode, Uriah Kiser asks Dunn what employers in Fredericksburg, Stafford, and Northern Virginia should do with it. Dunn has led the Center for Career and Professional Development since 2025. He walked into a campus already built around Life After Mary Washington, the push to get students thinking about postgraduate life from day one. Employers, he says, now care more about skills than major or GPA. Internships are the cleanest way to prove those skills, whether the seat is at a defense contractor, a congressional office on Capitol Hill or in a district office, the National Park Service, a Fredericksburg museum, or on campus. More than 30 percent of UMW students finish with an internship. Dunn wants the other 70 percent in the pipeline. Paid internships track with more job offers by graduation. The career center uses Handshake, coaches students onto LinkedIn and Indeed, and offers internship grants so unpaid or lower-paid placements are not limited to students who already have a car and a network. Virginia also has programs that help small businesses and government agencies pay interns. Dunn’s line for employers who think they cannot afford one: the state can help, and his office can help design the job so it is mentorship, not a body in a seat. The AI section is the sharpest part of the tape. Dunn calls this an “AI slop” moment: generated resumes, generated cover letters, screened by generated software. Cover letters, he says, may go the way of the dinosaurs. Portfolios and proof of work may replace them. Liberal-arts skills — judgment, communication, adaptability — get more valuable as software eats the baseline tasks interns used to do. Kiser’s counter is the phone call, the meeting, and walking up to the mayor. A career fair last week drew almost 300 students and more than 40 employers. Employers ready to post or rebuild an internship: email ccpd@umw.edu or call 540-654-5646. Career center: https://www.umw.edu/careercenter/ Like this video, leave a comment if you hire interns in Fredericksburg or Northern Virginia, subscribe, and turn on notifications. Support Potomac Local News Become a Member → https://potomaclocal.memberful.com/join Sources: Potomac Local News → https://www.potomaclocal.com/2026/10/07/mary-washington-ranks-no-1-in-virginia-for-internships/ UMW news → https://www.umw.edu/news/2026/09/29/umw-soars-into-national-top-5-ranks-no-1-in-virginia-for-internships/ Career center → https://www.umw.edu/careercenter/

    UMW No. 1 in Virginia for Internships: What It Means

  2. Oct 8

    Factory of Fear: Outbreak takes over downtown Manassas

    A zombie outbreak just took over a historic building in downtown Manassas, and you have to open the door yourself. Factory of Fear: Outbreak is back at ARTfactory, 9419 Battle Street, for six nights in October 2026. Potomac Local publisher Uriah Kiser talks with Lissa Unrue and Jimmy from ARTfactory about the haunt, the building, and why this year’s walk-through is not a straight line. ARTfactory is the nonprofit creative arts center in historic downtown Manassas, in the former Hopkins Candy Factory. The rest of the year it runs classes, theater, gallery shows, workshops, and community programs, including work with Didlake. Factory of Fear is the organization’s biggest fundraiser. This year the theme is Outbreak: a fictional AF Labs cure goes wrong, and a zombie outbreak takes the building. The story runs from the basement through the gallery, the education wing, the theater, and the makeup room. Guests move through a city, then a lab, and have to open doors without knowing what is on the other side, a beat the team borrowed from Resident Evil. It is not a traditional escape room. There are stops where the group has to figure out what happens next. Tickets are $25, sold in half-hour time slots. Buy ahead. A standby line may be open at the door if the night is not capped. Arrive about 15 minutes early for check-in. Thursday nights are $3 off with the code THURSDAYSCARIES. Groups of 10 or more buying together get 10 percent off. Dates: Thursday, Oct. 15 and Oct. 22, 7 to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 16, 17, 23, and 24, 7 to 10:45 p.m. Lore and tickets: virginiaartfactory.org/factory-of-fear/ If you have done Factory of Fear before, tell us how this year’s outbreak compares. Like, share, hit the bell, and subscribe so the next Potomac Local News podcast shows up in your feed. Subscribe to the free Potomac Local newsletter: https://www.potomaclocal.com/email-subscription/ Tickets and lore: • Factory of Fear → https://virginiaartfactory.org/factory-of-fear/ • Tickets → https://virginiaartfactory.org/tickets/ • Earlier PLN report → https://www.potomaclocal.com/2026/09/24/artfactory-factory-of-fear-outbreak-manassas-2026/ Follow Potomac Local News: • Site → https://www.potomaclocal.com • X → https://x.com/PotomacLocal

    Factory of Fear: Outbreak takes over downtown Manassas

  3. Oct 6

    Victor Angry on reimagining Prince William: data centers, the Parkway, and the grid

    Neabsco Supervisor Victor Angry joins Uriah Kiser ahead of Prince William County's Reimagining Prince William community conversations. The first session was Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, 6:30 to 8 p.m., at Woodbridge Elementary School, 1550 Prince William Parkway, with Chair Deshundra Jefferson and Woodbridge Supervisor Jeannie LaCroix. The next is Wednesday, Oct. 7, same hours, at the James J. McCoart Building, 1 County Complex Court, with Occoquan Supervisor Kenny Boddye and Chair Jefferson. No votes are taken. A survey is up for residents who cannot attend. Angry, on the board since a 2019 special election to finish the late John Jenkins's term, says the talks are a check on what residents asked for at the 2019 charrette at the Hylton Performing Arts Center: parks, green space, and roads. He points to the Prince William Parkway at Minnieville Road interchange in Neabsco, an about $81 million single-point urban interchange that puts the Parkway under Minnieville and drops the signal. County officials have called it a game changer for the east end. Target completion is spring 2028. It is tied to the Quartz District, a mixed-use project at the northwest corner that is set to bring Prince William's first Whole Foods. He also cites Neabsco Greenway and Andrew Leitch Park as green-space wins, and says more homes are coming because the county has been short on housing. On data centers, Angry says the board ended the by-right Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay because it had become a brush fire. The overlay dates to 2016-2017 and was expanded in the Digital Gateway era, including along Pageland near Manassas National Battlefield. The Digital Gateway is dead. The Sept. 22, 2026 vote cut the overlay sharply and moved new data centers outside what remains to a special-use permit, with a 90-day filing window. Angry says his remaining concern is the grid: Dominion transmission lines and substations, and communities the county cannot power. He says the real-estate tax rate has fallen from $1.21 per $100 in 2019 to 85.5 cents, and that the commercial tax base was meant to take pressure off homeowners. An indoor sports complex near Interstate 95 and Potomac Mills, floated in the 2019 bond talks, is still on his list. He says the board never had five votes. He distinguishes that project from the Sharon Baucom Recreational Center, which Dale City residents taxed themselves to build. He supports the school division's decision not to build a 14th high school, citing falling enrollment, and says older buyers and basement rentals are creating parking and overcrowding problems the county still has to solve. Support Potomac Local News. Become a Member: https://potomaclocal.memberful.com/join Follow Potomac Local News: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@PotomacLocal X https://x.com/PotomacLocal Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PotomacLocal TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@thepotomaclocal

    Victor Angry on reimagining Prince William: data centers, the Parkway, and the grid

  4. Sep 29

    Manassas Gets a Hometown Paper Again — Six Weeks In

    Manassas used to have a newspaper you could hold. Then the presses went quiet. A volunteer crew is trying to put one back in people’s hands. Uriah Kiser sits down with Amalfi Arias, six weeks into resurrecting The Manassas Journal — the name that was, for generations, the record of the city and western Prince William. Kiser learned the business at the old Manassas Journal Messenger. That paper and Woodbridge’s Potomac News were merged; the combined News & Messenger printed its last edition in 2012 after Warren Buffett’s company bought the chain and closed this one. Kiser launched Potomac Local in 2010 when the layoffs and press shutdowns were already obvious. The old Smoketown Road bunker across from Potomac Mills is a doctor’s office now. Arias wants the record back: city council, school board, and the little committees — trash, sewer, beautification — where a handful of people make decisions most residents never hear. He also covers Unity Reed, Brentsville, Patriot, and Manassas Park because that is one set of roads and schools. The paper is not profitable. A weekly print subscription is $100 a year, which he says basically covers printing. Volunteer drivers are handing copies to neighbors they have not seen in decades. Advertisers have asked. Follow-up is still thin. For-profit or nonprofit is a question for a later interview. Like this video, comment, subscribe, and turn on notifications for the next conversation from Manassas, Woodbridge, and Fredericksburg. Support Potomac Local News Become a Member → https://potomaclocal.memberful.com/join The Manassas Journal → https://manassasjournal.com/ PLN: Manassas pauses October First Friday → https://www.potomaclocal.com/2026/09/14/manassas-pauses-october-first-friday-after-teen-killed-at-packed-downtown-event/ WTOP: News & Messenger final edition, 2012 → https://wtop.com/news/2012/12/manassas-news-messenger-prints-final-edition/ Publisher’s Post: Journal Messenger nostalgia → https://www.potomaclocal.com/2024/02/08/publishers-post-tailors-gift-sparks-nostalgia-for-this-former-newspaper-man/ Follow Potomac Local News: • YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@PotomacLocal • X → https://x.com/PotomacLocal • Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/PotomacLocal • TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@thepotomaclocal

    Manassas Gets a Hometown Paper Again — Six Weeks In

  5. Sep 29

    Manassas mayor seat is open. Greene says fill it with someone off the ballot

    Manassas just lost its mayor months earlier than advertised — and the nameplate on the dais already said Parks. Uriah Kiser sits down with Lynn Forkell Greene, the former councilwoman running again for Manassas City Council on Nov. 3, the morning after Michelle Davis-Younger’s last meeting. The mayor said in February she would leave at year’s end. The city later confirmed she is out Sept. 30 after the Sept. 28 session. Greene spotted the plate first: Davis-Younger is now Parks, after her marriage to Micron executive Delbert Parks. Greene calls the exit the mayor’s choice, not one she would have made. She served with Davis-Younger when the then-councilwoman was managing a sick husband. She also says the mayor should not have signed a city letter tied to Parks while they were linked. White House visits, Kiser notes, stopped when Joe Biden left office. The vacuum is immediate. Vice Mayor Mark Wolfe and Councilman Tom Osina both want the job. Greene wants council to appoint someone who is not on a ballot, keep Wolfe and Osina in the seats voters already filled, and push a special election rather than wait until next November. Next date: a special meeting Oct. 5 at City Hall. Residents can speak. Then the land. The city owns the Mathis Avenue shopping center; tenants pay the EDA rent while plans point to high-rise apartments over street retail. The Mythco / MIFCO site next to City Hall, wrapping the historic Meredith House, is teed for an October rezoning vote. Greene puts it at 162 luxury units, about five affordable apartments, and 62 to 64 feet at the peak — taller than Messenger Place even with setbacks. She wants it shorter if public land is in the deal. Residents, she says, bounce from ARB to Planning Commission to council and never feel heard. Like this video, subscribe, and turn on notifications. Free daily newsletter, including Manassas Mondays, at PotomacLocal.com. Support Potomac Local News Become a Member → https://potomaclocal.memberful.com/join Lynn Forkell Greene Campaign site → https://www.lynnformanassascity.com/ Email → lynn4council@gmail.com City of Manassas mayor transition → https://www.manassascity.org/news_detail_T11_R416.php PLN: Davis-Younger out Sept. 30 → https://www.potomaclocal.com/2026/08/21/breaking-manassas-mayor-michelle-davis-younger-to-vacate-office-sept-30/ PLN: Fall Jubilee Oct. 3 → https://www.potomaclocal.com/2026/09/28/manassas-fall-jubilee-returns-saturday-oct-3-2026/ PLN: October First Friday paused → https://www.potomaclocal.com/2026/09/14/manassas-pauses-october-first-friday-after-teen-killed-at-packed-downtown-event/ Historic Manassas Fall Jubilee → https://historicmanassas.org/event/43rd-annual-manassas-fall-jubilee/

    Manassas mayor seat is open. Greene says fill it with someone off the ballot

  6. Sep 18

    Sweeney Todd Hits Riverside Center Through Oct. 25

    Dessert is over. Then the razors come out. Uriah Kiser sits down with the cast of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts, the Stafford County dinner theater at 95 Riverside Parkway in Fredericksburg. The Sondheim musical thriller runs Sept. 9 through Oct. 25. Christopher Sanders, playing Sweeney for the fourth time and in his fifth Riverside show, talks revenge, the “Epiphany” breakdown he now walks into the house to deliver, and the trapdoor that stays open for the entire second act. Elizabeth C. Butler (Beggar Woman / Lucy Barker), Madison Cox (Johanna), John Sheldon (Tobias Ragg), and Marco Giacona (Anthony Hope) break down the asylum sheet scene, the ensemble’s brutal score, and why Mrs. Lovett — played by Nancy Anderson — gets the laughs while pulling the strings. Kiser had never seen Sweeney Todd on stage or in the Johnny Depp film. The takeaway he brought to the table: if you set out for revenge, dig two graves. Sanders refuses to play Sweeney as a stock villain. He calls him a man wronged, pushed far enough that the lyric “they all deserve to die” becomes the jump-off. The cast says the show is almost sung-through, closer to opera than a conventional book musical, and that the people with the hardest job are the ensemble — more music, tighter harmonies, bigger range than the leads. Cox calls Johanna a dream role. Giacona and Sheldon are new blood in a house Butler has worked nearly 30 times. This is Halloween-season theater for Northern Virginia, Fredericksburg, and Stafford: blood, meat pies, a demon drink, and a barber chair that dumps actors down a slide on a music cue. Tickets and dinner are a two-step buy at RiversideDT.com. Show tickets start at $67 for adults ($62 seniors and military, $55 kids 3–17, $35 same-day rush). Add dinner for $25 plus tax. Evenings are 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; matinees are Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Box office: 540-370-4300. If you want more conversations about Fredericksburg, Stafford, Manassas, and Woodbridge, like this video, drop a comment, subscribe, and turn on notifications. Support Potomac Local News Become a Member → https://potomaclocal.memberful.com/join Tickets and venue • Sweeney Todd at Riverside Center → https://riversidedt.com/show/sweeney-todd/ • Riverside Center home → https://riversidedt.com/ • Address: 95 Riverside Parkway, Fredericksburg, VA 22406

    Sweeney Todd Hits Riverside Center Through Oct. 25

  7. Sep 14

    Manassas School Board Settles Brescia Suit, Drops Investigation

    Manassas City School Board member Sara Brescia sued the board she sits on. Last week they settled. No money changed hands. Nobody admitted fault. The investigation order is gone — and she says colleagues had already talked about pulling her daughters out of Baldwin Elementary. Uriah Kiser sits down with Brescia, first elected in 2022 and running at-large again on the November 3 ballot, about how a June conversation at Baldwin turned into a TikTok, a police review, texts among board members, an August 6 email from colleague Diana Brown, and a lawsuit filed August 11. Brescia says sitting chair Jill Spall urged Superintendent Dr. Kevin Newman to open an investigation based on allegations from Baldwin family liaison Michael Gramajo — the partner of her election opponent, Marcus Still. She says an August 3 closed session left the employee topic and became a warning that her children’s school placement was a courtesy the board could take away. The settlement does three things: it rescinds the investigation order, bars the board from reviving that probe on the same allegations, and restates student-placement policy. Brescia calls the suit self-defense and a FOIA case about voting by text and phone instead of in public. Dayna-Marie Miles is the only sitting member who told Potomac Local News, on the record, that she did not support investigating Brescia. While the board spent August in court, the latest Virginia Standards of Learning results put Manassas City 17 points behind the state in reading, 18 in math, and 26 in science. Brescia blames a culture of complacency, points to a new K-12 math curriculum, and says the board still resists basic oversight — including tighter public comment and AI guidance. She compares herself to a porcupine: quiet until threatened. After November, she says she will keep asking score questions on the dais or off it. Campaign site and newsletter: https://www.bresciaforschoolboard.com/ This is Brescia’s account. Other board members, Gramajo, and Still have largely declined detailed on-the-record answers. Watch, then decide what you think the Manassas school board was doing in August — and what it should be doing now. If this kind of local reporting matters, like the video, leave a comment, subscribe to Potomac Local News, and turn on notifications so you do not miss the next interview. Support Potomac Local News Become a Member → https://potomaclocal.memberful.com/join Sources and prior reporting: Sara Brescia campaign — https://www.bresciaforschoolboard.com/ Potomac Local: settlement — https://www.potomaclocal.com/2026/09/09/school-board-war-ends-in-secret-deal-no-court-no-dollars-no-apology/ Potomac Local: closed session / Baldwin — https://www.potomaclocal.com/2026/08/26/brescia-says-manassas-board-used-a-closed-session-to-discuss-pulling-her-kids-from-baldwin/

    Manassas School Board Settles Brescia Suit, Drops Investigation

  8. Sep 11

    Stafford BPOL Tax Explained: What $2 Million Threshold Really Means

    Stafford County is the largest locality in Virginia without a BPOL tax. The Board of Supervisors just scheduled a public hearing to bring it back. On this episode of the Potomac Local News Podcast, Uriah Kiser sits down with two people at the center of the fight: Commissioner of the Revenue Scott Mayausky, who would have to collect the tax, and former supervisor and former Del. Paul Milde, who helped repeal it nearly 20 years ago and now runs NoBPOLStafford.org. Mayausky walks through the structure he presented to the board: a $2 million gross-receipts threshold modeled on Spotsylvania, a first-year flat 16-cent rate so Stafford does not have to classify thousands of businesses overnight, and why that threshold is not a write-off. Cross $2 million and you pay on dollar one. He estimates BPOL could bring in roughly $3.5 to $4 million before the county gives up about $1.1 million in merchants’ capital tax. Data centers are not exempt. The revenue numbers, he says, are still a guess until businesses are required to report. Milde argues Stafford already piled on property-tax increases, meals tax, hotel tax, and commercial impact fees, with a one-cent sales-tax referendum still ahead in November. He says a high threshold does not solve the problem that killed BPOL last time, and that stacking another gross-receipts tax makes it harder to land restaurants, retail, and high-paying jobs. This week the Fredericksburg Area Association of Realtors and the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce formally opposed the proposal. Public hearing: Tuesday, September 15, 6:30 p.m., Stafford Government Center. If you live, work, or own a business in Stafford, this is the briefing before that meeting. Like, comment with where you stand, subscribe to Potomac Local News, and turn on notifications so you don’t miss the hearing coverage. Support Potomac Local News

    Stafford BPOL Tax Explained: What $2 Million Threshold Really Means
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About

Join Uriah Kiser, founder and publisher of Potomac Local News, for straightforward conversations about the issues that matter most to families and communities in Fredericksburg, Manassas, Woodbridge, Stafford, and across Northern Virginia. We feature in-depth interviews with local newsmakers — elected officials, community leaders, nonprofit directors, educators, and everyday residents — plus clear analysis of the headlines shaping your daily life. From local government budgets and taxes, to data centers and development, schools, elections, redistricting, crime, transportation, historic preservation, and community events, we cut through the noise to deliver real context and straight facts. No corporate spin. Just independent journalism focused on the places you live, work, and raise your family. Whether you want to stay informed on the latest board meetings, understand how policy decisions affect your wallet and neighborhood, or hear directly from the people making decisions in our region, the Potomac Local Podcast keeps you connected to your community. New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app, and never miss the stories that matter in Fredericksburg, Manassas, Woodbridge, and beyond. www.potomaclocal.com

Information

  • Creator
    Uriah Kiser
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    39
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Northern Virginia Local, LLC 2026
  • Show Website
    Potomac Local News