Virginia News Today – October 20, 2026

Good morning, Virginia. It’s Tuesday, October 20. Gas keeps sliding a few cents a day, Manassas just canceled its final First Friday of the year, and a congressman’s office in Leesburg was evacuated over a suspicious envelope. Here’s what’s happening across the state.

VIRGINIA TOP STORIES

Gas keeps dipping — but you’re still paying $1.16 more than last fall

AAA’s latest numbers, as of Monday: Virginia drivers are paying an average of $4.06 a gallon for regular — down a penny from Sunday and a dime from a week ago. A year ago it was $2.91, so you’re still out about $1.16 more per gallon than last October.

Diesel is at $6.29, versus $3.56 a year ago, and not far from the all-time record of $6.39 set on September 22. The national average is $4.30 for regular. Down in Southside, WBTM reports Danville has the cheapest gas in the region at $4.02 a gallon.

Sources: AAA Fuel Prices (gasprices.aaa.com); WBTM (Danville).

Manassas cancels the final First Friday of 2026

Old Town won’t be hosting First Friday for the rest of the year. The City of Manassas and Historic Manassas, Inc. announced they’ve canceled the final First Friday event of 2026 — the November edition — to focus on fall and winter programming instead.

The move follows the September 4 shooting that killed Ashley Intihar, a 16-year-old Patriot High School student who police say was an uninvolved bystander. Three men were arrested and charged; all are being held without bond. The October event was already canceled, and the city spent September gathering community feedback on safety protocols at its downtown events.

What’s still on: Haunted Happenings on October 24, the Veterans Day Parade on November 7, a Fall Gallery Walk on November 14, the Holiday Market and tree lighting on December 4, and the Greater Manassas Christmas Parade on December 5. The city says it’s still taking resident feedback on how First Fridays should return in 2027.

Sources: Northern Virginia Magazine; Potomac Local News; City of Manassas press release.

Suspicious envelope empties congressman’s Leesburg office

U.S. Representative Suhas Subramanyam’s district office in Leesburg was evacuated Monday after an envelope containing a suspicious substance arrived in the mail. Leesburg Police, Loudoun County Fire and Rescue’s Hazmat team, and the U.S. Capitol Police responded. The substance hadn’t been identified as of Monday night.

“These acts of political intimidation have no place in our country,” Subramanyam said in a statement. No injuries were reported. It’s the latest scare at a Northern Virginia lawmaker’s office in a heated election season — and a reminder of the tension around public officials in the run-up to November 3.

Sources: FOX 5 DC; WJLA/ABC7.

January’s General Assembly session will take on data centers — again

Expect the data center fight to come roaring back in January. State lawmakers are drafting a slate of bills that would slow or stop data center development, including one from Sen. Russett Perry (D-Loudoun) proposing a three-year moratorium on building the high-powered digital warehouses, according to the Virginia Mercury.

It matters for your wallet: data centers are the biggest driver of the electricity demand forecasts that push up grid investment — and ultimately your power bill. Whether the moratorium gets traction in Richmond will shape what Virginia looks like, and what you pay, for years.

Sources: Virginia Mercury (via FFXnow); Appalachian Power.

VIRGINIANS / GENTE DE VIRGINIA

A small Augusta County school is two weeks from a $1 million dream

The whole of Swoope is voting with its thumbs right now. Buffalo Gap High School — the only school in Virginia still in the running — is a finalist in T-Mobile’s Friday Night 5G Lights competition, where the grand prize is a $1 million upgrade to the school’s football facilities.

The Bison already banked a $25,000 check just for reaching the finals, handed over before their October 16 game against Staunton. Now the community has to out-vote nine other schools in the East Division: fans can vote once a day through October 25 on the Friday Night 5G Lights site or the T-Life app. The school’s motto says it all — “The strength of the bison is in the herd, and the strength of the herd is in the bison.”

Sources: The News Leader; T-Mobile Friday Night 5G Lights.

U.S. News ranks Virginia’s elementary schools — NOVA and VA Beach on top

The new U.S. News 2027 elementary school rankings put Old Donation School in Virginia Beach at No. 1 in the state, followed by Haycock Elementary in Falls Church and Virginia L. Murray Elementary in Charlottesville. Arlington, Springfield, McLean, and Vienna schools fill out the rest of the top 10.

In the Valley, Thomas C. McSwain Elementary in Staunton landed at No. 23. On the charter side, Hillsboro Charter Academy in Purcellville took the top spot. Whether these lists change anyone’s mind is anyone’s guess — but if you’re house-hunting, they don’t hurt.

Source: U.S. News rankings reported by The News Leader. Note: this item is single-sourced.

REST OF VIRGINIA / EL RESTO DE VIRGINIA

Trial begins for former Nexus Services owners accused of stealing nearly $500,000

Jury selection starts today in Augusta County Circuit Court for a case four years in the making. Former Nexus Services owners Mike Donovan and Richard Moore, plus former executive Timothy Shipe, go on trial on charges including embezzlement, conspiracy, and financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult.

Prosecutors say the victim was Zachary Cruz, the younger brother of the Parkland school shooter, and that the defendants orchestrated a scheme to take nearly half a million dollars. The nine-day trial has been postponed seven times since the trio’s 2022 arrest. All three have pleaded not guilty.

Source: The News Leader. Note: this item is single-sourced.

Western Virginia’s grid gets up to $50 million from Washington

The U.S. Department of Energy announced up to $50 million for transmission upgrades across Appalachian Power’s western Virginia service area, with the utility matching the money for a total of at least $100 million.

The plan: rebuild about 14 miles of line near Lynchburg (the New London–Otter project, due by June 2029) and fit four circuits with weather-sensing devices that adjust how much power the lines can carry. DOE estimates the upgrades add roughly 290 megawatts of transmission capacity — one to four years sooner than a conventional rebuild. APCo’s president says the federal dollars reduce the share of costs passed to customers.

Sources: Appalachian Power; NewsCubby; Switchgear Magazine.

$37 million for school construction in Hampton Roads

Virginia is sending $37 million+ to four Hampton Roads school divisions through the state’s School Construction Assistance Program. The big pieces: $20 million to help Virginia Beach replace 70-year-old Princess Anne High (a project expected to cost hundreds of millions and finish in 2033), and $15 million for Suffolk — an addition at crowded Northern Shores Elementary and part of a new Elephant’s Fork Elementary.

The rest goes to Norfolk’s Lake Taylor High and Madison Alternative Center, and Franklin’s J.P. King Career and Technical Academy. The program has awarded over half a billion dollars since 2022 — and 47 Virginia localities are asking voters this cycle to approve a 1% sales tax for schools, including Norfolk, Portsmouth, Newport News, and York County.

Source: WHRO (reporting Virginia Dept. of Education grants). Note: this item is single-sourced.

WORLD TENSIONS / TENSIONES MUNDIALES

Iran conflict: Tehran is talking tougher and the waterway keeps getting hit. On Monday, IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebbi warned that “new targets will be unveiled. New weapons will be unveiled,” pointing to the seven major undersea internet cables crossing the Strait of Hormuz (The Media Line, Oct. 20). The Washington Post reports Iran is deliberately escalating attacks on commercial shipping ahead of the U.S. midterms to drive up energy prices — Iranian attacks averaged about 30 a week in September, and the UK’s maritime monitors say Iran has attacked more than 20 vessels in October, sinking one (via Newsmax, Oct. 19; note the two-step sourcing chain).

The IRGC claims two tankers hit naval mines on October 17 and a third on October 19, each carrying around 2 million barrels — but U.S. Central Command called the claim false and no vessel names have been released (TrasportoEuropa, Oct. 20). Brent crude is holding above $110 a barrel on the supply fears.

Ukraine: Russia hit Ukraine’s power grid again overnight Sunday into Monday — 16 ballistic missiles and more than 200 drones, killing 4 people and wounding 55, striking 28 substations and knocking out power for roughly 550,000 households (ISW, Oct. 19). President Zelensky said Ukraine received no early warning from partners about the first wave — and revealed U.S. intelligence sharing had gone dark for three days last week before being restored (NY Post, Oct. 19/18). On the diplomacy front, U.S. envoy Witkoff is expected to meet Zelensky in Oslo ahead of planned talks with Putin in Moscow (relay via aggregator; single-sourced).

The Virginia connection: Hampton Roads military families live this war daily, and the Hormuz disruptions keep pressing on what you pay at the pump (see above).

AROUND THE WORLD / POR EL MUNDO

• Brazil: Sunday’s presidential runoff is tightening — a Nexus/BTG poll puts Flavio Bolsonaro at 50.3% vs. Lula’s 49.7% of valid votes, while AtlasIntel/Bloomberg has it 51.1% to 48.9%. The vote is Sunday, October 25. (Thomson Reuters, Oct. 19)

• Europe: U.S. envoy Witkoff is expected to meet Ukraine’s Zelensky in Oslo before planned talks with Putin in Moscow — the latest diplomatic push as Kyiv-Washington ties strain. (via aggregator; single-sourced.)
• Asia: China’s solar exports to the Middle East and Southeast Asia surged in September, even as shipments to Europe and Latin America fell, customs data showed. (Reuters via TradingView, Oct. 20)
• Africa: Kenyan doomsday preacher Paul Mackenzie was convicted Monday of murdering 191 people — all but one of them children — by ordering his followers to starve themselves and their kids to death in the Shakahola forest cult. (The Times, Oct. 20)

Sources / Fuentes

AAA Fuel Prices (gasprices.aaa.com); WBTM (Danville); Northern Virginia Magazine; Potomac Local News; City of Manassas press release; FOX 5 DC; WJLA/ABC7; Virginia Mercury (via FFXnow); The News Leader; T-Mobile Friday Night 5G Lights; U.S. News (via The News Leader, single-sourced); Appalachian Power; NewsCubby; Switchgear Magazine; WHRO (Virginia Dept. of Education; single-sourced); The Media Line; The Washington Post (via Newsmax relay, chain noted); UKMTO; TrasportoEuropa; Institute for the Study of War; NY Post; Thomson Reuters; TradingView; The Times.

Photos: Potomac Local News (Old Town Manassas); Bloomberg via Insurance Journal (Ashburn data center); Huntington UFSD (stadium at night); reuse of previously published Virginia scene photos (gas pumps, Capitol, gavel, power lines, schools, tanker, Kyiv strikes).