Virginia Tech senior offensive analyst Warren Ruggiero looks on during a spring practice on April 14 in Blacksburg.
Virginia Tech senior offensive analyst Warren Ruggiero looks on during a spring practice on April 14 in Blacksburg.
Education
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FRANKLIN COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL
Former assistant principal takes lead role at Franklin County High School
A familiar face has returned to Franklin County High School. Former assistant principal Amy Johnson has stepped into the leadership role at the school after a brief time away.
Johnson took over as principal after Reyhan Deskins announced he would be exiting the position earlier this year. Her first day was July 1, but she admits to quickly hitting the ground running after learning she would be taking the role last month.
"I was able to get all my things moved in last week and work through planning for our agenda so we can get some stuff done this summer," Johnson said last week.
Amy Johnson took over as principal of Franklin County High School on July 1. She had previously served as the school's assistant principal before taking a position at the school district's central office three years ago.
She is returning after spending the past three years in the county's central office as the director of secondary education. Before that, she was the high school's assistant principal for 13 years.
Coming back to the high school, Johnson said many of the same staff remained and have helped her get up to speed for the upcoming school year.
"They were very welcoming and appreciate that I was coming back, so that made me feel good," Johnson said of the announcement last month she would be taking the role. "But the thought of what needed to be done had already started. I think I am at an advantage because I've been here before."
Before taking the assistant principal position, Johnson was a teacher at Henry Elementary School. All 25 years of her career in education have been spent in Franklin County.Â
Johnson was also born and raised in Franklin County and continues to live in the Glade Hill area where she has raised three children. One is currently in college while the other two will be part of the nearly 1,800 students she will oversee next month when the fall semester starts.
Amy Johnson took over as principal of Franklin County High School on July 1. She had previously served as the school's assistant principal before taking a position at the school district's central office three years ago.
Coming into the new school year, Johnson said she has high expectations. She wants the best for her students.Â
"I know Franklin County High School is the best and continue to be the best," Johnson said. "So I'm expecting students, parents, whomever, whatever it is that we do it 100%."
Johnson admits success for students is changing. Students will soon have access to more career opportunities as work on a new career and technical education center has finally started after years of discussion. It will provide students with access to more opportunities beyond college.Â
The high school's current courses for technical education are limited due to space, Johnson said, but she said students are still attending competitions and beating out schools with top-of-the-line equipment.Â
"Our teachers have done a phenomenal job with what we have, but I think our kids deserve better, they deserve more," Johnson said.
While expecting great things from her students, Johnson also wants to let them know she is there for them. She wants to help them find solutions to any problems they may be having.
"I'm a good listener," Johnson said. "I will work to be more of a partner with them figuring out a solution to any issue that we might have."
In recent years, people have found an outlet in social media to vent their frustrations on a wide variety of issues. Johnson said she wants to provide the opportunity for people to come to her to share their concerns first before going online.
"I think what we've gotten away from is a lot of people jumping to conclusions or they jump to social media before contacting anyone here," Johnson said. "I want folks to know that I'm going to listen. My admin team, we are going to listen. Call us first."
Growing up in Franklin County, Johnson said Franklin County High School was always seen as the center of the community. While she said that hasn't completely changed, she would like to reaffirm that as principal.
"My ultimate goal, in the very beginning, is to just make this the community school that it is again," Johnson said.
Jason Dunovant (540) 981-3324
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Amy Johnson stepped into the role of Franklin County High School principal July 1. She discusses her goals for the future.
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SMITH MTN. LAKE
High heat, low lake levels made for a quiet Fourth at Smith Mountain Lake
The low water levels at Smith Mountain Lake have left some docks without enough water to get their boats out.
Extreme heat and low lake levels resulted in fewer boaters and fewer incidents on Smith Mountain Lake over the Fourth of July weekend.Â
What is usually one of the busiest weekends of the summer for the Department of Wildlife Resources was ultimately uneventful, said 1st Sgt. Kenneth Williams. He said no boating incidents were reported over the weekend or in the days leading up to the Fourth of July.Â
"No accidents and no injuries. I call that a good weekend," Williams said.Â
While there were no boating incidents, Williams said there was one arrest on Thursday for operating under the influence.Â
Smith Mountain Lake is currently down more than five feet, which has left many residents unable to get their boats in the water. That has resulted in conservation officers seeing much less traffic on the water.Â
With the reduced traffic, Williams said there is less potential for collisions or other incidents on the water.Â
The extreme heat also had an impact on traffic, Williams said. Officers noticed many of the boaters were out in the mornings and left during the hottest part of the day. Boaters would then return in the evenings for fireworks shows.Â
Williams expects boating traffic on the lake to continue to be lighter this summer due to the low lake level. That will likely result in it being a safer year with fewer boating incidents, he said.Â
Jason Dunovant (540) 981-3324
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Tyler Routon, senior officer with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, urges people heading out on Smith Mountain Lake to be extra c…
Government-politics
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ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN
Judges refuse to combine Virginia assault weapons ban lawsuits
The Virginia Supreme Court's specially appointed three-judge panel refused Monday to consolidate four separate lawsuits challenging Virginia's new assault weapons ban, handing opponents a procedural victory that permits additional legal battles across the commonwealth at the same time the Trump administration's Justice Department pursues its own suit at the federal level.
"We won," lawyer Bill Stanley told The Daily Progress. "The Attorney General's Office once again failed to meet its burden in these cases and therefore lost again."
A Republican state senator from Franklin County representing plaintiffs in one of the cases, Stanley previously secured an injunction against the ban in Washington County and was one of four attorneys arguing against the ban during Monday's hearing in Charlottesville.
Stanley
Meeting in the main courtroom of the Charlottesville Courthouse, Circuit Court Judges William Watson Jr., Helivi Holland and Cheryl Higgins unanimously ruled that the Attorney General's Office failed to show the cases should be combined into a single proceeding. After Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed the legislation last month, the four lawsuits were filed in Washington, Lancaster, Spotsylvania and Fauquier counties.
"They are simply not the same," said Higgins.
Higgins said the panel found legal differences among the cases and also rejected the state's practical arguments concerning convenience, staffing, scheduling and the possibility of duplicate rulings.
"The commonwealth has not met the burden to transfer," Higgins said.
The hearing represented the latest development in one of Virginia's highest-profile legal disputes, stemming from a law passed by the Democrat-controlled General Assembly and signed by Spanberger prohibiting the sale, manufacture, purchase and transfer of many semiautomatic firearms and magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds.
The measure immediately drew multiple lawsuits from Second Amendment advocacy groups, firearms businesses and individual gun owners.
Representing the commonwealth in the Charlottesville hearing were Senior Assistant Attorney General Jacqueline Hedblom and Deputy Solicitor General Ethan Fallon. They referred requests for comment to Attorney General Jay Jones' office.
In a statement emailed to The Daily Progress, that office's spokeswoman Rae Pickett said the administration remains confident the law ultimately will survive constitutional scrutiny.
"While consolidation would have provided a single, uniform path for resolving these important legal questions, the Commonwealth remains steadfast in the constitutionality of these laws and optimistic they will be upheld upon final adjudication of the several cases," Pickett wrote.
One of the lawyers fighting the new law in the Charlottesville courtroom was a past leader of the office defending it, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
Cuccinelli
"It was a very thorough ruling by the judges, and we were pleased to prevail on every factor," he told The Daily Progress. "And now we will proceed on the constitutionality of the so-called assault weapons ban and magazine ban."
The state's former top law enforcer blasted the widespread depiction of the new law as an assault weapons ban.
"They banned features of guns," Cuccinelli said.
Such parsing won no endorsement in the current Attorney General's Office.
"These commonsense laws were passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Spanberger to prevent gun violence, protect families, and help every Virginian feel safe in their community," Pickett said. "This Office will continue to vigorously defend Virginia's gun laws, support law enforcement, and stand up for safer communities across the Commonwealth."
The ruling means each of the four existing legal challenges can continue independently rather than be coordinated before one circuit court. Already, opponents of the new law have obtained preliminary injunctions from judges in Lancaster and Washington counties while failing to secure a separate injunction request in Spotsylvania.
The Attorney General's Office has appealed the injunctions and maintains that the statute, despite enforcement limitations created by those court orders, took effect July 1, as crafted. Jones' position has been disputed by Stanley and other challengers.
Southern Police Equipment owner and president Karen Ballengee, seen at her store in Chesterfield County on May 28.
The fight against the Virginia law has also expanded beyond state courts. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear challenges to assault weapons bans in Connecticut and in the Chicago area, cases that could ultimately provide nationwide guidance on whether such laws violate the Second Amendment. Arguments are expected this fall.
Virginia's new law does not appear to affect the weaponry used in the 2007 massacre that claimed 32 lives at Virginia Tech, which was perpetrated with handguns. However, it would end civilian access to the AR-15 category of rifle, which was used to kill 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.
Meanwhile, the Virginia law also faces a federal lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
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Government-politics
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Virginia gun buyers set all-time record on background checks
As Virginians raced to buy firearms before the state's "assault weapons" ban took effect last week, they drove firearm background checks to the highest monthly number ever recorded in the commonwealth. The FBI logged 124,319 background checks in June — an all-time record since the agency began publishing state-by-state data in 2001.
June's total background checks represent more than three times the total recorded during the same month in each of the previous three years and more than double any monthly total the state had recorded.
The new data comes one day after Virginia's ban on the sale and purchase of many semiautomatic rifles, pistols and high-capacity magazines took effect. The law prohibits the future sale, purchase and manufacture of semiautomatic centerfire rifles and pistols capable of accepting magazines holding more than 15 rounds, as well as certain firearms with threaded barrels, designed to attach accessories like suppressors. Virginians who legally owned firearms before July 1 may continue to possess them.
The FBI data measures firearm background checks, not gun sales. One background check can cover multiple firearm purchases, and not every background check results in a completed sale.
Gun retailers spent the final weeks before the July 1 deadline seeing unprecedented demand as customers hurried to buy firearms that would soon be unavailable for legal purchase in the commonwealth.
The state recorded 36,466 background checks in June 2025, 35,464 in June 2024 and 38,842 in June 2023. Even the busiest months during those years — traditionally December, when hunting season and holiday shopping boost demand — never exceeded about 60,000 background checks. June 2026 more than doubled those previous June highs.
Anna Bryson (804) 649-6922
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Southern Police Equipment owner and president Karen Ballengee talks about gun sales under VA's new laws
