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Select D.C. area transit nearing pre-pandemic numbers | Virginia

Published

14 hours ago

April 29, 2025

www.thecentersquare.com – By Sarah Roderick-Fitch | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-29 15:07:00

(The Center Square) – Transit numbers in the Washington metropolitan area are ticking back up, some nearing prepandemic levels following a return-to-office mandate for federal workers.

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Agency, which operates Metro trains and buses, reported to The Center Square that ridership increased by 37% between January and April of this year compared to the same timeframe a year ago.

Metrorail ridership is reporting that service has returned to about 89% of where it was in March 2019; however, Metrobus ridership was about 2% higher in March of this year than March 2019.

WMATA added that the agency has had increases across all lines but didn’t identify any specific lines that have seen significant increases. On June 22, WMATA said it will be adding rail service on the Red and Silver lines “to meet increased demand.”

The Virginia Railway Express operates commuter rail lines between Fredericksburg and D.C., and Manassas and D.C. The VRE reported to The Center Square that the average daily ridership in March was up 85% compared to July-December 2024.

Between January and February 2020, the VRE reported daily ridership averaged about 18,250 compared to March 2025, which averaged 11,466. However, before federal workers were required to return to their offices in late March, the daily ridership in February averaged 8,046 – up from January’s daily average ridership of 5,594. In April 2024, VRE reported a daily average ridership of 6,961.

Notably, VRE reports a shift in the rate of passenger returns between the Fredericksburg and Manassas lines. Before the pandemic, 55% rode the Fredericksburg line compared to Manassas at 45%. The gap has since expanded to 61% on the Fredericksburg lines versus 39% on the Manassas line.

The changes could possibly be attributed to the expansion of the Metro’s Silver Line, which extended rail service to Loudoun County, opening in November 2022. In addition, in September 2022, high occupancy vehicle lanes were expanded for east and west-bound traffic along I-66, extending from the Beltway to Gainesville.

The only significant transportation addition to the I-95 corridor was the expansion of the high occupancy vehicle lanes extending from the Beltway to the Rappahannock River between Stafford County and the city of Fredericksburg. Unlike the I-66 HOV lanes, the I-95 lanes are reversible, serving one direction during different parts of the day.

One of the chief complaints from Republican and Democratic leaders in D.C. and Virginia regarding the high volume of federal worker telecommuting was the cost of maintaining transportation.

In December 2023, Gov. Glenn Youngkin wrote to the Biden administration asking to end remote work to boost public transit ridership, which took a major hit since the pandemic.

As previously reported by The Center Square, the WMATA has been bogged with a $750 million budget shortfall.

“Prior to the pandemic, federal workers contributed over $100 million in annual fare revenue and 40% of the ridership to WMATA,” Youngkin wrote in a letter to Kiran Ahuja, director of the Office of Personnel Management.

Despite federal workers returning to the office, WMATA described the increased fare revenue as “good news.” However, the agency explained the revenue only represents “a small part of Metro’s overall budget.” Adding that a majority of the funding comes from “local jurisdictional subsidies.”

VRE noted that monthly fare revenues have increased by 60% to $2 million, compared to $1.3 million on average per month between July and December 2024. The current fare revenues are dwarfed by the average monthly pre-pandemic revenue of $3.5 million.

Soon after swearing in for his second term, President Donald Trump issued the executive order mandating federal workers return to the office. The mandate appears to be popular among Americans as well.

A new poll by The Center Square found 43% of people support the return-to-office mandate for all government workers, while 27% support a mandate to send “essential” government employees back to the office. Combined, 70% of voters support requiring at least some federal workers to return to the office. Only 16% oppose the mandate, followed closely by 14% who are unsure.

The Center Square was unsuccessful getting comment before publication from the Maryland Department of Transportation, which operates the Maryland Area Rail Commuter.

The post Select D.C. area transit nearing pre-pandemic numbers | Virginia appeared first on www.thecentersquare.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

The article primarily reports on transit ridership data and the impacts of federal return-to-office mandates on public transportation. It presents factual information with some inclusion of perspectives from Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin and former President Donald Trump, both of whom have promoted ending remote work. The language is mostly neutral; however, referencing the Biden administration in the context of criticisms about remote work and highlighting Trump’s executive order and popular support for return-to-office mandates can suggest a subtle lean toward a center-right viewpoint. This framing emphasizes concerns about government spending and workforce productivity, issues more commonly highlighted by center-right sources. Overall, the article reports data and political stances without overt advocacy but shows a modest center-right slant through selection and emphasis of details.

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House approves telecom legislation aimed at foreign ties | Virginia

News from the South - Virginia News Feed

House approves telecom legislation aimed at foreign ties | Virginia

Published

19 hours ago

April 29, 2025

Staff Editor

www.thecentersquare.com – By Shirleen Guerra | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-29 10:31:00

(The Center Square) – A Virginia congressman’s plan to uncover foreign ownership in U.S. telecommunications networks passed the U.S. House of Representatives this week with bipartisan support.

Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., introduced the Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency Act in January. The bill would require the Federal Communications Commission to publish a list of companies that hold FCC licenses and are partly owned or controlled by foreign governments considered hostile to the United States.

The proposal is part of a larger push in Congress to address national security concerns tied to foreign access to U.S. communications infrastructure. Lawmakers have pointed to companies linked to the Chinese Communist Party and other adversaries as potential threats to American data and network security.

“This legislation is a critical step toward exposing the CCP’s malign influence,” Wittman said in a statement following the vote.

In remarks on the House floor, Wittman said the bill would “shine a light on this malign influence” and called it “the first step towards a stronger action to defend our communications infrastructure.” He added that companies like Huawei and ZTE should not be allowed “unfettered access to our telecommunications infrastructure” and warned that hostile governments are using “covert equity or voting interests” to gain control of U.S. tech assets.

He added that adversarial governments are “infiltrating our telecommunications networks, our technology sectors, for the sole purpose of doing harm to the United States and its friends.”

Under the FACT Act, the FCC would have 18 months to create rules for identifying affected companies and publish them in a public database. The agency would also be required to keep the list up to date as ownership changes.

Until now, there has been no mandated public disclosure of companies with said ties, despite concerns that entities linked to adversarial governments continue to operate within U.S. telecommunications networks.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the measure by voice vote on April 8.

Wittman’s bill was co-sponsored by Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.; Ro Khanna, D-Calif.; Thomas Kean Jr., R-N.J.; and Kathy Castor, D-Fla. It passed the House earlier this week and now heads to the Senate for consideration.

The post House approves telecom legislation aimed at foreign ties | Virginia appeared first on www.thecentersquare.com

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

This article primarily reports on the legislative action surrounding the Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency Act, introduced by Rep. Rob Wittman. It provides factual details about the bill’s passage in the House, its bipartisan support, and the goals of the legislation without taking a specific ideological stance. The language is neutral, focusing on the bill’s objectives related to national security and foreign influence in U.S. telecommunications. The article highlights the positions of both Republican and Democratic co-sponsors, further reinforcing its impartial nature. There is no evident bias in presenting the facts, with the focus being on the procedural aspects of the bill rather than promoting any specific ideological viewpoint.

News from the South - Virginia News Feed

Trump border czar defends removal of U.S. citizen children

Published

1 day ago

April 29, 2025

Staff Editor

virginiamercury.com – Ariana Figueroa – 2025-04-29 04:49:00

by Ariana Figueroa, Virginia Mercury
April 29, 2025

WASHINGTON — White House border czar Tom Homan on Monday blamed the parents of U.S. citizen children the Trump administration sent to Honduras over the weekend.

At a Monday morning press conference, Homan defended the government’s actions to remove three young children from two different families alongside their mothers who were in the country without legal authorization but participated in a program that allows otherwise law-abiding migrants to stay in their communities.

“If you enter this country illegally, it’s a crime,” Homan said. “Knowing you’re in this country illegally, you put yourself in that position. You put your family in that position.”

The children, all under the age of 10, were placed on deportation flights to Honduras on Friday after their mothers checked in with a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in New Orleans as part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, which allows immigrants to stay in their communities while undergoing immigration court proceedings.

An attorney for one of the children, Gracie Willis at the National Immigration Project, said the 4-year-old U.S. citizen with Stage 4 cancer was deported without access to his medication.

Homan has argued the mothers requested to be deported with their children, but attorneys for the families argue they were “denied access to legal counsel, and swiftly deported without due process.”

Due process concerns

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, whom Trump appointed to a seat on the Louisiana federal bench in 2018, expressed concern that a 2-year-old U.S. citizen had been deported, despite her father’s wishes she remain in the U.S., according to court filings.

Doughty scheduled a May 16 hearing because of his “strong suspicion that the government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process.”

“The government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her,” Doughty wrote in his order. “But the court doesn’t know that.”

Willis, from the National Immigration Project, raised concerns about a lack of due process and how the deportations have separated families.

“What we saw from ICE over the last several days is horrifying and baffling,” she said in a statement. “These mothers had no opportunity to speak with their co-parents to make the kinds of choices that parents are entitled to make for their children, the kinds of decisions that millions of parents make every day: ‘what is best for our child?’”

Homan has argued the children were deported at the request of the mothers and that the Trump administration was “keeping families together.”

“What we did is remove children with their mothers who requested their children depart with them,” he said. “When a parent says, ‘I want my 2-year-old baby to go with me,’ we made that happen. They weren’t deported. We don’t deport U.S. citizens. The parents made that decision, not the United States government.”

Wisconsin judge

Monday’s remarks from Homan come the day before President Donald Trump will mark the 100th day of his second term. His early days in office have centered on carrying out his campaign promise of mass deportations of millions of people in the U.S. without permanent legal status.

Trump will sign two executive orders on immigration late Monday: one relating to border security and another to require the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security to publicly list so-called sanctuary cities that do not coordinate with federal immigration law enforcement.

Homan also stood by the Trump administration’s decision to arrest a federal judge in Wisconsin on the grounds she obstructed immigration officials from detaining a man attending his court hearing. It marked an escalation between the Trump administration and the judiciary branch, raising concerns from Democrats.

The arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan was highly publicized after she was handcuffed in public and FBI Director Kash Patel bragged about the arrest on social media.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Fox News that the Trump administration was going to continue to go after judges who “think they’re above the law.”

“When you cross that line to impediment or knowingly harboring, concealing an illegal alien from ICE, you will be prosecuted, judge or not,” Homan said.

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com.

The post Trump border czar defends removal of U.S. citizen children appeared first on virginiamercury.com

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

The content presents a primarily center-right perspective, as it highlights the Trump administration’s strict immigration policies and defends actions such as the deportation of children along with their mothers. It emphasizes law enforcement’s rationale for these actions and includes comments from Trump-appointed officials, reinforcing a conservative viewpoint. However, the article also includes substantial criticism from legal experts, advocates, and a federal judge expressing concerns about due process and family separation. These critiques introduce a more balanced view, leading to a center-right bias rather than a strictly right-wing stance.

News from the South - Virginia News Feed

Some thunderstorms expected in the afternoon this week

Published

2 days ago

April 28, 2025

Staff Editor

www.youtube.com – 13News Now – 2025-04-28 15:08:55

SUMMARY: Temperatures in Hampton Roads will remain mild, with a sunny Monday afternoon reaching the low 70s. A cold front approaching from the Midwest will bring a shift in winds, warming temperatures on Tuesday. Severe thunderstorms are expected in parts of the Midwest, with tornadoes, large hail, and strong winds possible. By Wednesday, the cold front will bring a chance of thunderstorms in Hampton Roads, though severe weather is unlikely. Temperatures will climb to 87°F on Wednesday and drop to the low 80s after the front passes. Another cold front will arrive on Friday, bringing potential thunderstorms and cooler temperatures by the weekend.