hyperbole

09/07/2026

Fredericksburg stands with Israel.

Congressman Eugene Vindman was one of 33 Dmocratic lawmakers to vote in support of a Republican-backed measure to strip colleges and universities of federal funding should they engage in a boycotts or divestment of Israel.

Dubbed the “Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act of 2026,” H.R.4795 seeks to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to prohibit the “nonexpressive commercial boycott of a major strategic partner of the United States.

The bill defines “major strategic partner” with the same language as the United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2014, a seven page document that outlines the strategic relationship between the two countries as it relates to defense, intelligence, cybersecurity, technology, energy and more.

Israel is the only country named in the text of the bill.

H.R.4795 also ensures students are not “unreasonably obstructed” from participating academic programs in Israel. That includes teaching and cultural exchanges, joint research, study abroad programs and other opportunities, according to the bill’s text.

Colleges and universities would be required to obtain “institutional certifications” in the form of annual eligibility reviews. Each institution would have to submit certifications annually by July 31st to ensure that they are in compliance.

If found ineligible, institutions could lose federal funding in the first fiscal year thereafter, including any grants or assistance that was awarded in previous years.

How H.R.4795 would impact existing students’ access to financial aid should a university fail to obtain certification remains unclear.

“This legislation has true teeth and completely severs any possibility of taxpayer support of these concrete campaigns of antisemitism in the form of BDS and academic boycotts of Israel,” wrote Virginia Foxx, who sponsored the bill.

“The Senate should take it up immediately!”

Congressman Vindman did not respond to questions or requests for comment.

Vindman joined all but two Republicans in supporting H.R.4795, while Thomas Massie (Kentucky) and Warren Davidson (Ohio) both opposed the measure. It passed the House 237-169 last Thursday.

When it comes to constituents on local campuses, students won’t have the opportunity to ask Congressman Vindman about his own opinions, as he will be skipping a candidate debate held at the University of Mary Washington next Tuesday.

“He was invited to participate, but he declined,” a university spokeswoman told hyperbole.

American nonprofit Open Secrets currently lists Vindman’s pro-Israel donations at $60,000.

He is up for reelection on November 3rd.

08/30/2026

Fredericksburg Police Department (540) 373-3122

08/20/2026

Live at the Sierra Club Rappahannock Group’s community panel on data centers in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Panelists include Delegate Joshua Cole, Elena Schlossberg and Tim Cywinski.

08/20/2026

Fredericksburg Police Department (540) 373-3122

UPDATE, 11:10 p.m. - Ian has been safely located. Thank you all for your help!
________________________

🚨 𝗠𝗜𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗢𝗡 – 𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗘 🚨

Ian Jenkins was last seen on August 19, 2026 at approximately 9:30 p.m. on the Canal path behind James Monroe High School near Emancipation Highway. Ian is approximately 6’0” tall and 200 lbs. Ian was last seen wearing a long sleeve shirt or red polo shirt, dark glasses, a hat, and black pants. Ian is autistic and considered at risk.

Please help us find Ian. If you have any information, no matter how small, please contact the Fredericksburg Police Department at 540-373-3122. To remain anonymous, text “FPDtip” and your tip to 847-411 or download the free FPD Tip app from your App Store.

Report #: 2026-004024

Please share this post to help spread the word. Every share increases the chance of bringing them home safely.

08/17/2026

First responders continue to battle a 100+ vehicle fire at a scrap yard in the 9000 block of Patriot Highway that started early Monday morning, according to Spotsylvania County Fire, Rescue and Emergency Management.

More than 30 Fire and Rescue personnel are on the scene. 

There are no reported injuries thus far. The cause of the fire is unknown.

08/17/2026

Live at a fire in Spotsylvania, Virginia…

08/10/2026

“SchatzGPT?” Spanberger Sister Prompts Fredericksburg's First AI-Generated Policy

Serve and stay or copy and paste?

The outline for the City of Fredericksburg’s newest employee recruitment and retention program appears to be entirely AI-generated.

That’s according to results from Pangram, a leading software provider that helps businesses, organizations and academic institutions detects both machine-authored text and plagiarism.

That company’s software analyzed the Economic Development Authority's Serve and Stay - Fredericksburg Fund’s outline as it was published on the city's website. The 1,033 word document was deemed 100% AI-generated with “high confidence” by Pangram's software (images attached below).

Pangram analyzes “structural, stylistic, and semantic patterns” and compares its findings to large data sets of both human and AI writing. The company says it can detect output from the latest LLMs and boasts the lowest false positive rates in the industry at 1 in 10,000, according to its website.

It also wasn’t the only software provider to detect AI writing within the program's guidelines. A number of other AI-detector software providers also identified varying amounts of machine-generated text within the Serve and Stay - Fredericksburg Fund guidelines.

According to Pangram, a positive result is a time to start a conversation, not launch into accusations.

hyperbole reached out to the EDA to ask why software might flag the Serve and Stay outline as being generated with AI.

After several attempts, Economic Development Manager Amy Peregoy provided a response.

“The Stay & Serve Program is an EDA initiative developed under the leadership of the EDA Chair,” Peregoy wrote in an email.

“It is not a program created by City staff.”

The Fredericksburg EDA Chair is Meredith Schatz. Schatz is Governor Abigail Spanberger’s sister.

A hyperbole FOIA request would reveal the ChatGPT prompt used by Schatz to generate the Serve and Stay outline (images attached below).

The Serve & Stay - Fredericksburg Fund is intended to improve the recruitment and retention of city employees through one-time housing assistance.

In exchange for 12 months of employment, Fredericksburg's Serve and Stay would make an employee of the city eligible to for up to $6,500 in home purchase assistance in the form of a mortgage rate buy-down or up to $4,500 towards a security deposit and first month’s rent.

"Priority eligibility" would be given to teachers and first responders. Funds would be paid directly to area banks and local landlords, according to the program’s outline.

A pair of EDA members on the recently-formed Serve and Stay committee will be tasked with reviewing and responding to applications within approximately two weeks.

Schatz initially proposed the idea as the “Charlottesville model” after a similar program undertaken by the nonprofit Charlottesville Police Foundation.

Earlier this year, that organization's Executive Director Eleanor Mower told hyperbole that the group had previously abandoned the home purchase assistance portion of its fund after managing the program became overwhelming.

For the Serve and Stay initiative, the EDA is partnering with Fredericksburg’s Community Foundation to administer its home purchase and rental assistance funds. Portions of the AI-generated outline were also attached to the Community Foundation’s guidelines for the program, which is also published on the EDA website.

That document was signed by both Chair Schatz and EDA Vice Chair Anita Crossfield.

Neither Crossfield or the Community Foundation would respond to hyperbole’s questions or multiple requests for comment.

hyperbole’s FOIA request included "previous responses produced by the LLM that generated the Serve and Stay program.” The EDA provided a ChatGPT prompt and response that included sections of the AI-detected text, but that did not account for the entirety of the Serve and Stay document.

Schatz provided no other records related to hyperbole’s FOIA request. Peregoy says all relevant materials related to the request have been provided.

No other EDA members would take credit as author of the body's Serve and Stay outline.

Who (or what) wrote the remaining portions of the program’s outline remains unclear.

The Serve and Stay - Fredericksburg Fund was seeded with $30,000 in EDA funds as well as an additional $10,000 from Greenchip Recycling.

It will launch in the fall, according to the outline.

Images 1 - 3: Pangram AI analysis
Images 4 - 7: The ChatGPT prompt provided via FOIA

08/09/2026

Celebrating 15 years of basketball, back-to-school giveaways and violence prevention at WL Harris Playground for Saturday’s Peace In Da paint…

08/06/2026

Tuesday evening’s in Bragg Hill…