How Loudoun County data centers are linked to power flickering across half the U.S. & SUPPORT VIRGINIA DATA CENTER MORATORIUM 24&30JUL26

 WEDNESDAY was a warning of what is to come if we continue to allow data centers to be built without addressing the over consumption of power and water and all the other issues that have developed with the ai / data center boom. Virginia Commonwealth Senator Glen Sturtevant has sent Gov Spanberger a proposal asking her to issue an executive order declaring a moratorium on data centers. My e mail to Gov Spanberger follows this report from NBC4 Washington and after my e mail is the moratorium proposal by Sen Sturtevant....

How Loudoun County data centers are linked to power flickering across half the U.S.

“This is what experts are worried about, right? The data centers are such a big load on the grid that they can have detrimental impact on the surrounding grid,” an engineer said.

By Drew Wilder • Published July 24, 2026 • Updated on July 25, 2026 at 12:39 pm

Just before 8 a.m. Wednesday, electricity flickered on and off for about 10 minutes. An engineer’s data says it happened throughout the Eastern half of the U.S., from Chicago, to Boston and Miami.

He ties the problem to Data Center Alley in Ashburn, Virginia, and says the seemingly small blip is a sign our infrastructure is in danger.

Experts say cracks in our infrastructure grid are starting to show as the data center industry consumes electricity at a rate the world has never experienced. On Wednesday, a crack became visible to millions of Americans in their homes and businesses.

“This is what experts are worried about, right? The data centers are such a big load on the grid that they can have detrimental impact on the surrounding grid,” said Bob Marshall with Ting Labs.

The company sells a device to plug into your wall to monitor your home's electricity and alert you if something's awry, to try to prevent an electrical fire.

“You plug it in, connect it to Wi-Fi. It takes 30 million electric measurements every second,” Marshall explained.

Power drops and spikes in the data: ‘This is what experts are worried about’

With millions of these devices in homes across the U.S., Marshall's data collection saw something he flagged as a concern: At 7:56 a.m. Wednesday, electricity throughout the Eastern half of the U.S. dropped, spiked, dropped, spiked and then leveled off.

Marshall said it happened a few more times over the next 10 minutes.

“This one event, serving either one building or whatever that data center complex is, impacted the entire region here, and this is what experts are worried about,” he said.

Here’s what Dominion Energy says happened

News4 reached out to Dominion Energy about the power glitch. The power company said a piece of equipment on one of its high-voltage transmission lines that serves data centers failed, knocking it out of service. As a result, the data centers systems switched to backup power.

In a statement to News4, a Dominion Energy spokesperson said, “Dominion Energy did not disconnect area data centers from the grid; the data centers’ own control systems transferred them to backup power for a very short period of time.”

Think of ripples in a puddle when a rock is thrown: The data centers switching their power source is the rock. When that change impacted the water – or the power grid in this case – the major swing in a data center switching off sent ripples through the electric current across half the country.

Ting Labs

Ting Labs

Ting Labs provided News4 with a graphic showing the scale of the service disruption.

Ting Labs provided News4 with a graphic showing the scale of the service disruption. The company said orange is really bad and red is worse. Those colors cover more than half of the U.S.

Ting Labs

Ting Labs

Ting Labs provided News4 with a graphic showing the scale of the service disruption.

Marshall explained.

“People working on regulations around this, they're concerned that one of these events in the future could cause the grid to become unstable, and it does not come back to normal in a few minutes or 10 minutes, and we're dealing with a real big problem,” he said.

That problem could be a blackout.

‘The whole industry is facing things they've never faced before’

In this case, Dominion Energy's safety equipment kicked in, worked as intended and mitigated the issue. But in a county with more than 200 data centers, engineers and leaders say this could be a glimpse of how major the impact could be if just a couple of data centers need to switch their power source.

“The whole industry is facing things they've never faced before, and they are doing their best to figure out what's going on and to do preemptive measures. And I think for the most part, they've been able to do that,” said Michael Turner, vice chair of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.

Marshall, with Ting Labs, said that while there's clear correlation to the data center industry, he stopped short of drawing causation. But Marshall said these types of events are happening more regularly than ever before.

MY E MAIL TO GOV SPANBERGER

I sent this e mail to Gov Spanberger ( abigail.spanberger@governor.virginia.gov ) and encourage all to make the time to e mail her also.....VA Commonwealth Senator Glen Sturtevant requested on 30 JULY 2026 that you issue an Executive Order declaring a Data Center moratorium in Virginia. This pause in the planning and development / construction of data centers is necessary to allow the necessary studies regarding energy requirements, availability, and transmission, high voltage transmission line health affects, backup power systems and their air and noise pollution health affects, water consumption, quality, closed (recycled) water cooling systems and the affect on water availability for residential customers, and making sure utility rates for data centers are not subsidized by residential, school district, and local government customers. The issues and concerns regarding reports about the Virginia DEQ of seemingly deliberately minimizing the air pollution levels and health risk of the Vantage Data Center in Sterling also need to be investigated and addressed. There are already 600+ data centers in Virginia straining our energy and natural resources and communities to the breaking point. We, the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia are asking you and expect you to honor this request for an immediate moratorium on data centers until the mentioned issues are studied and addressed and regulations are established protecting and benefiting all of us.

POST ON FACEBOOK GROUP ASHBURN VILLAGE RESIDENTS & FRIENDS AGAINST DATA CENTER DEVELOPMENT

Spotsylvania's top prosecutor tells why he won't enforce tighter gun laws 27MAI26

 I sent this comment to News4 after watching and reading their report on Virginia's new gun laws. I sent it as suggested follow-up to this report...

" Quoting the Spotsylvania Commonwealth Attorney “It’s fundamentally opposed to a free society, a society where liberty reigns," Spotsylvania County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ryan Mehaffey said." Is his office in a government building ( 9111 Courthouse Road, Spotsylvania, VA 22553 ) that prohibits private citizens from bringing their guns into the building? If it is that seems to be very hypocritical considering his views on a free society where liberty reigns. I would like to hear a reporter ask all these commonwealth attorneys if their offices are in secured buildings or if they face the same exposure of possible gun violence as the rest of us wherever we are. And as public employees how are these people able to decide what laws they will and will not enforce. How many of us are able to tell our employers which of our job task we will and will not do? I suggest these people exercise their freedoms and liberties and resign and find new jobs in our free society."

Spotsylvania's top prosecutor tells why he won't enforce tighter gun laws

“It’s fundamentally opposed to a free society, a society where liberty reigns," Spotsylvania County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ryan Mehaffey said.

By Drew Wilder • Published May 26, 2026 • Updated on May 27, 2026 at 11:01 am

New Virginia laws banning the sale and transfer of assault weapons go into effect in about five weeks. But at least five conservative prosecutors say they won’t enforce them.

Spotsylvania County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ryan Mehaffey said he believes the laws violate the Constitution.

“The Second Amendment is alive and well in Spotsylvania County,” he told News4.

The commonwealth will ban the sale and manufacture of certain semi-automatic weapons, shifting gun laws to more closely align with states such as California and Illinois. But as Virginia teeters from purple to blue and back again, some elected officials are making clear that the new laws won't be enforced in their counties.

Attorney General Jay Jones said in a statement: “Commonwealth’s Attorneys are elected to enforce our laws, which is what we expect them to do when these laws take effect on July 1.”

The law will make it a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine for people to buy, sell, transfer, import, or manufacture an assault firearm.

Mehaffey said the law is in direct conflict with the Second Amendment.

“It’s fundamentally opposed to a free society, a society where liberty reigns. And this is the moment in time where the Second Amendment was drafted and enacted, where the government couldn't take the right of the people to defend themselves away,” he said.

Eleven other states and D.C. already have versions of their own assault weapons ban. The details and laws vary and they've been challenged in the courts. In fact, several lawsuits have already been filed against Virginia's new ban.

“Every assault weapons ban that has gone before a federal court in this country has been upheld, including, most importantly, Maryland's,” said Mary Kenah of Everytown for Gun Safety.

She said Maryland's ban is considered more restrictive than Virginia's and was upheld by the same court that presides over Virginia. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up this case, so Maryland's assault weapon ban remains in place.

“The people of Virginia showed that their priority is gun-violence prevention. They elected a former Moms Demand Action volunteer as their governor,” Kenah said.

In places such a Spotsylvania County, they've elected Mehaffey as their prosecutor. It’s a county that surprised a lot of people in November when it voted blue, in favor of Gov. Abigail Spanberger.

Despite that shift, Mehaffey said he's confident that his position against the new assault weapons ban is what his constituents want.

Other prosecutors who have said they won’t enforce Virginia’s assault weapons ban are from Powhatan, Pulaski, Scott and Smyth counties.

VirginiaApr 14

Virginia Gov. Spanberger signs, makes amendments to gun safety laws

VirginiaMay 16

New Virginia law banning `assault firearms' prompts quick lawsuits from gun-rights groups

Virginia PoliticsMay 20

Lawmakers, advocates express frustration over some of Gov. Spanberger's vetoes

Spanberger veto sparks debate over ICE enforcement in courthouses 25MAI26

 I had my doubts about spanberger when she was running for governor of Virginia, I just did not get a good feeling from her, definitely not that she was a champion for the poor, working class and middle class of the Commonwealth and I was right. I am glad I didn't waste any time or money on her campaign, I didn't even have one of her bumper stickers on my Jeep. I did vote for her as a lesser of two evils, the gop / greed over people-republican candidate, winsome earle-sears, was and probably still is a voluntarily ignorant trumper, stupid and evil to the core. We are stuck with Gov spanberger for 4 years and will just have to keep on top of her and the assembly in Richmond to keep her damage to a minimum. This on one of her betrayals and I honestly hope she sometime experiences the same kind of abuse from "law enforcement" that she is willing to allow others to suffer. From WRIC.....

Spanberger veto sparks debate over ICE enforcement in courthouses

by: Sara Molina

Posted: May 25, 2026 / 09:23 PM EDT

Updated: May 25, 2026 / 09:23 PM EDT

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) has vetoed legislation that would have limited certain warrantless ICE arrests inside Virginia courthouses, known as HB650 and SB351, according to the ACLU of Virginia.

“Since January of 2025, we’ve seen a huge surge in ICE showing up in Virginia courthouses without judicial warrants, picking people up who are just there to do their business,” said Chris Kaiser, policy director for the ACLU of Virginia.

Kaiser said the situation is already having an impact on court participation.

“It’s had a serious deterrent effect on people coming to court seeking help – not to mention a threat to Virginia’s authority to run its own judicial system,” Kaiser said.

In explaining her veto, Spanberger said she shares concerns over “dangerous and unchecked federal immigration enforcement actions,” but said House Bill 650 would not achieve its intended purpose.

Instead, she pointed to her Executive Order 16, which directs state entities, public institutions and agencies across the Commonwealth to develop guidelines for how to handle ICE encounters in those locations.

Kaiser said the executive order does not provide the same protections as the rejected legislation.

“They’re doing two totally different things,” Kaiser said. “Nothing in the executive order suggests those workgroups will come up with guidance restricting warrantless arrests like the bills would have.”