(VIRGINIA MERCURY) – “We needed this rain,” farmer and entrepreneur Graham Redfern said from his front porch in Caroline County Wednesday as U.S. Rep. Eugene Vindman, who represents Virginia’s 7th District in Congress, approached.

The lawmaker was there to learn about the crops and products at Redfern Hemp Co., one of the state’s small businesses whose future hangs in the balance between soon-to-start federal restrictions on hemp THC products and Virginia’s not-yet-finalized retail cannabis market.

The rain was one certainty for Redfern, and a welcome one at the start of his planting season. But another, he said, is that most of his products will become illegal later this year, when the federal hemp crackdown kicks in.

“It’s scary,” Redfern said of thinking six months forward. He added that some of his staff members are thinking about looking for other jobs.

Redfern’s company, which employs 14 full-time staff and 5 part-time staff, makes body creams, dog treats, chocolates and gummies from hemp. His products offer calming and pain management effects for customers, while other parts of the hemp plant help create oils, birdseed and fibers.

Tamra Herndon, a longtime customer of Redfern, said the products have been helpful for her mental and physical health.

As an amputee, she experiences “phantom pain” where her left leg used to be, along with joint pain from walking on her prosthetic leg. The combination of THC and CBD in Redfern’s products helps both ease aches and calm anxiety.

Read more on virginiamercury.com

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) – The West Virginia Governor’s Highway Safety Program will conduct its annual “Click It or Ticket” high-visibility enforcement campaign during the Memorial Day travel period.

National enforcement runs from May 18 through May 31. West Virginia’s state-specific enforcement begins May 11 and ends May 25.

Travelers will see increased patrols by state and local law enforcement during this time. Officers will ensure every driver and passenger is buckled up correctly.

This year’s campaign focuses on nighttime enforcement. Data shows that a higher number of unrestrained fatalities occur during nighttime hours.

It hasn’t even been a year since the blockbuster Micah Parsons trade, but the Dallas Cowboys have officially and completely moved on.

Although in many ways, the 2025 season feels like it was wasted with how good the Cowboys’ offense was, the decision to trade Parsons to the Green Bay Packers was pretty simple in principle: Dallas did not believe one great player was worth four or five good players. And that is a sentiment that has been repeated to an almost political degree from the Cowboys’ brain trust.

Cowboys EVP and CEO Stephen Jones recently reiterated the Dallas’ internal pleasure over how the Parsons trade has played out, and he essentially said what everyone in the NFL refuses to say: The Cowboys might have actually made the right call.

Stephen Jones likes how Dallas Cowboys have reloaded the defense after Micah Parsons trade

Here’s what Jones had to say (via NFL.com) regarding his thoughts on the trade now that the pieces are pretty much all in place:

“We feel really good about it. Obviously, much respect for Micah and what he stands for and how he plays and the caliber of player he is, but at the same time we feel good about what we’ve added via that trade.

You look at a guy like Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark, they’re alpha players who not only are great players on the field, but they’re leaders in the meeting room. How they go about their business in the offseason, [they] just bring great leadership to this team. As we mentioned, we add a guy like Caleb Downs, who is obviously the same type of character…

I just feel very optimistic that we have the right pieces in place to go out there. Ultimately, the decision we made was that one player was not worth four or five good ones.”

There is really a lot going on with what Jones says right here that will perk up a lot of ears and eyebrows.

Of course, the general sentiment seems to be that the Cowboys are pleased with the way they’ve utilized the assets they got in that trade from the Packers. The acquisition of defensive lineman Quinnen Williams gives Dallas an absolute stud in the middle, but having Kenny Clark next to him is a really underrated piece as well.

The trade back in the first round of this year’s draft with Green Bay’s selection landed the Cowboys Malachi Lawrence, Devin Moore, and LT Overton. There’s still the matter of which pick will go to the Jets next year from the Williams trade, but it will be whichever of Dallas’ and Green Bay’s pick is higher.

You can also tell that the personal makeup of the players they’ve added was important for Dallas in this process, and while Jones stops short of taking a dig at Parsons in that regard, you can hear what he’s saying pretty loud and clear when he talks about guys being “alpha” players on the field as well as leaders in the meeting room. Message sent.

The thing nobody in the NFL really wants to admit is that the Cowboys did the right thing by trading Parsons when and how they did. And while you can debate whether they truly got great value, it’s hard to argue with the idea that one player is worth four or five, especially when that one player would be taking up the same slice of the pie as most quarterbacks around the NFL.

It’s not that you can’t make it work, but in Dallas’ context, they felt like that investment in Parsons was a signal that they were “one player away”, and it’s hard to argue with their self-awareness that they simply weren’t in that position a year ago.

Although the cost was moving on from a true superstar off the edge like Micah Parsons, it’s a trade that has helped Dallas reload a huge portion of their starting defense, including adding three quality players on the defensive front, maybe more.

Most people hated the Parsons trade just on principle. How can you trade a defensive superstar still with his prime years ahead of him? Doesn’t it send a bad message to other players who earn big-money contracts? Ultimately, the Cowboys drew a proverbial line in the sand, and that’s part of the business of the NFL.

They still have to hope that all of the new additions work out, but on paper, it’s hard to argue with what the Cowboys were able to assemble rather quickly because of this trade.