Free Republic

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) announced a deal Wednesday that will add 10 more miles of express lanes to the Interstate 95 corridor, expanding the system of high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes to Fredericksburg by 2022. As part of the agreement, the private company building the lanes will give the state $277 million upfront to cover costs of a bridge over the Rappahannock River and other improvements along the corridor, Virginia transportation officials said. The deal essentially moves forward a 10-mile extension from Garrisonville Road (Route 610) in Stafford County to Route 17 in the Fredericksburg area. It also builds on...

MOUNT VERNON, Va., Feb. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- George Washington's home, Mount Vernon, celebrates our first president's birthday with three days of special events including an outdoor cooking demonstration by celebrated chefs, a new food exhibition with more than 125 objects from the Washingtons' kitchen, a surprise birthday celebration for "George Washington", book signing with PBS's A Taste of History host Chef Walter Staib, and much more! Saturday and Sunday events are included in Estate admission, and admission to all events on Monday, February 20, events are FREE in honor of George Washington's birthday! Saturday, February 18All events...

Researchers announced Wednesday that remains excavated in the last three years were those of the long-sought dwelling, on the old family farm in Virginia 50 miles south of Washington. The house stood on a terrace overlooking the Rappahannock River, where legend has it the boy threw a stone or a coin across to Fredericksburg.

The cellars held a large number of artifacts including pieces of the house's ceilings and painted walls, fragments of 18th century pottery and other ceramics, glass shards, wig curlers and toothbrush handles made of bone. Muraca said they also recovered larger objects such as pieces of a tea set that probably belonged to George's mother, Mary Ball Washington; wine bottles, knives, forks and 10 pieces of a group of small figurines that might have stood on a mantle. They also discovered a well-used pipe bowl, blackened from smoking, that was marked with a Masonic crest. Washington joined the Fredericksburg Lodge...

An American Navy ship fired on a boat in the Persian Gulf today, killing one person and injuring three others aboard the craft, U.S. naval officials told ABC News. Lt. Greg Raelson, a spokesperson for the Navy's 5th Fleet, which is based in nearby Bahrain, said that a security team aboard the oil supply ship U.S.N.S. Rappahannock fired a .50 caliber machine gun at a "small motor vessel after it disregarded warnings and rapidly approached the U.S. ship" off the coast of Jebel Ali, a city approximately 30 miles from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

SALUDA -- The Middlesex County Board of Supervisors reaffirmed its support for the biggest housing development in the county's history last night and voted to rezone the historic Rosegill Plantation. The 5-0 vote allows Northern Virginia developers to build 700 housing units on the 848-acre Rappahannock River estate that resonates with Colonial history and shelters the neighboring town of Urbanna in a cloak of picturesque farmland. The Rosegill manor house was home to two Colonial Virginia governors and parts of the house date to 1650, making it one of the oldest in the state. Residents on both sides of the...

Tuesday, December 23, 2003, 12:00 A.M. Pacific Risk of holiday terror far-flung, officials say By Seattle Times news services Al-Qaida operatives may be plotting several unrelated attacks in the United States, targeting not only major cities but also remote bulwarks of the "critical infrastructure" in an effort to cause mass casualties and major economic damage, U.S. officials said yesterday. Senior U.S. counter-terrorism officials said they have been unable to nail down specifics about a time or place for any potential attacks, despite a mad scramble to do so since receiving an alarming cache of corroborated intelligence beginning last Thursday. But...

Officials in Rappahannock County and the town of Tappahannock were put on alert over the weekend that something sounding like the names of their Virginia communities was heard among the chatter that triggered the nation's move to a higher alert for terrorism. Both are small, rural communities far from Washington. Rappahannock is in the western part of the state just past Fauquier County. Tappahannock is a town on the state's east side, about halfway between the nation's capital and Tidewater on Route 17. Rappahannock County Administrator John McCarthy said someone from the Virginia State Police called the county's sheriff Sunday...