The FBI seized more than 150 homemade explosives from a Virginia man’s home, ABC News reported on Wednesday. 

Federal investigators made this discovery in December while searching the home of Norfolk, Virginia, resident Brad Spafford.

According to court documents, it is believed to be “the largest seizure by number of finished explosive devices in FBI history,” ABC News reported.

The court documents added that most of the bombs, material for building explosives, and tools were found in a garage next to Spafford’s home. 

“Several additional apparent pipe bombs were found in a backpack in the home’s bedroom, completely unsecured,” said prosecutors.

‘Never planned anything violent’

Spafford’s defense attorneys argued in a motion Tuesday that he never planned anything violent.

“There is not a shred of evidence in the record that Mr. Spafford ever threatened anyone, and the contention that someone might be in danger because of their political views and comments is nonsensical,” his lawyers said.

The prosecution responded, “While he is not known to have engaged in any apparent violence, he has certainly expressed interest in the same, through his manufacture of pope bombs marked ‘lethal,’ his possession of riot gear and a vest loaded with pipe bombs, his support for political assassinations and use of the pictures of the President for target practice,” ABC News reported.

According to the court documents, “this investigation began in early 2023 when the defendant’s neighbor and friend reported that the defendant disfigured his hand in 2021 while working with a homemade explosive device and was stockpiling weapons and homemade ammunition.”

With Matt Moore signing up to be the next offensive line coach at Virginia Tech and with the Hokies already snagging commitments from a couple of his former West Virginia players, I thought I would dedicate this week’s transfer portal article to offensive line recruiting.

There are hardly any teams in the country that couldn’t do better on the offensive line. There just aren’t that many big people who can move their feet in this world. Thus, the price of offensive linemen in the transfer portal gets driven up, and it’s up to each program to decide who it wants to conquer that challenge.

With the transfers of Xaver Chaplin and Braelin Moore – two starters with two years of eligibility remaining – Brent Pry didn’t just need a quality offensive line coach. He also needed an offensive line coach who could do more effective work in the transfer market than his predecessor Ron Crook. He found such a guy in Moore, who appears to be in the process of raiding his former school of players. It was certainly important that the Hokies get better, but if they could get better while hurting a border rival (even if the schools don’t play), then all the better.

Offensive guard Tomas Rimac followed Moore to Blacksburg. He was the highest-grading offensive guard in the Big 12 last season and his PFF grade was higher than any Virginia Tech offensive lineman. That’s a great start to this portal period.

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KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) – ”Nothing has changed since I was a kid. The roads are worse,” Tina Martin, a traveler on the West Virginia Turnpike, said.

Martin grew up using the West Virginia Turnpike and paying tolls, but she was surprised to hear the price was raising by a quarter at each toll plaza starting New Year’s Day.

“Matter of fact, I forgot when we were coming back down about the tolls until I saw, you know. I said ‘oh my God, they’re still, still doing this now.’ I didn’t know it was going up to $4.50.”

Martin lives in Roanoke, Virginia, now and said her grandchildren asked her why they charged people to go through the turnpike.

“Well, honey, let me tell you a story about that. When I was a little girl, they built this turnpike and I said the tolls that they took were supposedly to pay for the road,” Martin said.

She said her grandchildren questioning the tolls has her doing the same after all these years.

“If a child understands that every time we come through here and she says every single car is getting $4.25, that’s a lot of money.”

State officials said they’d like to add credit card readers at toll plazas in 2025 and Martin said it was an option she almost needed on New Year’s Eve.

“We were just lucky that I had a few you know had some dollars coming down the road because usually I just have cards. I forgot about the tolls so I think that’s a good idea.”

Unlike Martin, some travelers didn’t seem bothered by the increase because they use an E-Z pass to travel through multiple states, but you’ll need an extra quarter for each toll if you’re traveling next year.

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