Virginia
Meet Virginia: Madeleine Bolton
Madeleine Bolton’s fingerprints are all over Colonial Williamsburg. Her footprints, too.
That’s because 26-year-old Bolton, three years into a six-year brickmaking and masonry trades apprenticeship, has a hand in making some of the tens of thousands of clay bricks used to restore, repair, and build structures on the 300-acre historic site.
“The amount of clay is the pressure, you know, and stuff like that. I really enjoy molding. I like trying to get it exactly right, trying to slot it in there perfectly, I think that’s kind of fun to do. Like, if they want to see how I do it, I have to mentally think, ‘I need to go slower.’ My want is to go really fast, because it’s kind of fun to be like, ‘Oooh, yeah. Slap it in there, squish it down,’ which is also what I think about when I’m talking: ‘Slower. Don’t talk so fast,’” she says with a laugh.
But, if she does go fast, Bolton can fashion about 180 bricks an hour: patty-caking a 10-pound wad of wet clay into a ball before rolling it in fine sand and slapping it into a wooden form. From there, the still-soft shapes are emptied onto a flat sand patch, covered in canvas, and left to sun dry.
Come fall, Bolton will help build and stoke a massive brick kiln, and over four or five days and nights, fire the summer lot of bricks at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit to a purpley-brown crisp.
It’s satisfying, hot, monotonous work. Bolton makes the occasional foot and handprint, like a secret, collective brickmakers’ prank. Look closely at original buildings in Williamsburg, and you can see Bolton’s 17th and 18th century counterparts: some free, but many enslaved.
“For us, like I said, we work an 8-hour day, like, we can leave when the day is done,” she notes. “We go home, and we think about people that came before, the enslaved laborer, making all these bricks historically. They’re making them because the next day’s not going to be any different. Talk about like how much labor and suffering came from this. Because, of course, today, all of us in the brickyard, we’re working for a wage. And they wouldn’t have been. The bricklayer historically could maybe work their way up to kind of a merchant level class. But the brickmaker, they work until they can’t anymore. And people all on that site, the enslaved labor, making all those bricks, that’s all they might know.”
Bolton’s original plan, to be an epidemiologist, was scrapped when COVID-19 struck her senior year at James Madison University.
“I’d always been somewhat obsessed with that, even as like a middle schooler, which is kind of creepy in retrospect,” she says. “I was so into it and excited about learning about disease pathways and disease response, and about how we tackle these global issues. And then seeing it falter, and seeing exactly how fraught it became, it made me less and less enthused to run into that brick wall. I was thinking about other ways to make myself helpful.”
After graduating, and casting about for some months, she landed the gig in Williamsburg in 2021. She’s one of about 30 apprentices there.
“It’s probably not something young Madeleine ever thought she would be doing, but I definitely enjoy it now. I’m very much a details person, like, to a fault,” Bolton admits. “So it works out as I’ve always liked figuring stuff out in some degree. And this offers quite a multitude of ways to do that.”
Case in point is the brickmakers’ forthcoming pug mill, a room-sized clay mixer that has a vertical shaft that, when the wheelwright finishes it, will connect to a horse whose circles will stir it. The pug mill also means Bolton won’t have to spend as much time in the pit, cutting clay with her bare feet, as the 17th and 18th century brickmakers did before her.
Plus, you know, the horse.
“We’ve already named the horse. I’m super excited. Buckwheat. That’s a brickyard classic right there,” she says with a laugh.
Our partner station WVTF has shared the stories of people across Virginia—teachers, immigrants, business owners, and others all year in a special series “Meet Virginia.”
Copyright 2024 RADIO IQ
BRISTOL, Va. (WCYB) — Crews put out a house fire in Bristol, Virginia, on Wednesday morning, according to officials.
The Bristol, Virginia Fire Department was dispatched at 3:09 a.m. for the fire in the 900 block of Vermont Avenue. The house was unoccupied at the time fire crews arrived on the scene.
Firefighters encountered heavy smoke and flames in the front of the house. They were able to quickly extinguish the fire under challenging conditions. The fire scene remains active and an investigation is underway. No injuries have been reported.
Powerball, Mega Millions jackpots: What to know in case you win
Here’s what to know in case you win the Powerball or Mega Millions jackpot.
Just the FAQs, USA TODAY
The Virginia Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at June 2, 2026, results for each game:
Mega Millions
Mega Millions drawings take place every week on Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m.
15-26-43-48-60, Mega Ball: 12
Check Mega Millions payouts and previous drawings here.
Pick 3
DAY drawing at 1:59 p.m. NIGHT drawing at 11 p.m. each day.
Night: 4-5-7, FB: 9
Day: 8-7-6, FB: 5
Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Pick 4
DAY drawing at 1:59 p.m. NIGHT drawing at 11 p.m. each day.
Night: 7-0-6-5, FB: 8
Day: 1-1-9-0, FB: 1
Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Pick 5
DAY drawing at 1:59 p.m. NIGHT drawing at 11 p.m. each day.
Night: 2-9-1-0-4, FB: 0
Day: 5-9-4-1-7, FB: 0
Check Pick 5 payouts and previous drawings here.
Cash Pop
Drawing times: Coffee Break 9 a.m.; Lunch Break 12 p.m.; Rush Hour 5 p.m.; Prime Time 9 p.m.; After Hours 11:59 p.m.
Coffee Break: 10
After Hours: 14
Prime Time: 04
Rush Hour: 13
Lunch Break: 06
Check Cash Pop payouts and previous drawings here.
Millionaire for Life
Drawing everyday at 11:15 p.m.
16-33-41-50-52, Bonus: 01
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Center for Community Journalism (CCJ) editor. You can send feedback using this form.
Virginia
First boat to Bermuda wins — Virginia man prepares for 753-mile voyage from Annapolis – WTOP News
Kevin Sherwood’s boat is one of 21 in this year’s Annapolis to Bermuda Oceans Race, or A2B, which dates back to 1979.
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DC-area man hopes to race from Annapolis to Bermuda by boat
The boat that Kevin Sherwood of Springfield, Virginia, bought is still in dry dock as he makes final repairs and preparations ahead of the whole reason he bought the “Bay Retriever” in the first place.
If all goes as planned, he’ll get it in the water Wednesday, and starting at noon on Friday, he’ll be heading south down the Chesapeake Bay on a 753-mile voyage to Bermuda.
Sherwood’s boat is one of 21 in this year’s Annapolis to Bermuda Oceans Race, or A2B, which dates back to 1979. He’ll be joined by a crew of four others in a race he said is among the most challenging on the East Coast.
“I bought this boat in 2022 specifically for the Bermuda race,” Sherwood said. “Since I bought this, everything we’ve done has been prepping for it.
“Plenty of sailors never leave the Chesapeake. It’s very different when we’re dealing with ocean waves, ocean weather, all kinds of different conditions. So, the boat really needs to be set up for it.”
The bay, being both relatively shallow and surrounded by land, can make for ideal sailing; if something still goes wrong, help isn’t far away.
Heading out in the blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean to an island more than 600 miles off the coast can present more difficult circumstances. Yet, if you go on the race’s website, you’ll see a long list of people hoping to get picked up by a boat to help take part.
“We’re out of rescue range for a portion of the trip. They’ll ask a passing freighter to come help you if you have a problem,” Sherwood said. “We are on our own out there.”
Some boats will have full galleys available to help cook meals for the crew. But Sherwood’s vessel, being smaller, has been stocking up on food and water from the grocery store.
He and the crew will take turns sailing and resting in the cabin down below. A “leak loss” — imagine a hammock, more or less — will catch anyone if the boat leans one way while they’re sleeping, lest they fall to the floor.
Of course, that assumes they’ll have strong winds and waves. Sherwood, who has done this race twice before, said that’s not always the case.
“My first Bermuda race, we had plenty of nothing going on,” he said. For two days, the winds were so calm Sherwood’s team was “barely making two knots.”
Two years ago, he saw more clouds than stars and sun, and waves were running 12-15 feet high.
“The last couple of races we haven’t seen many sunsets because of clouds, fog, rain, that sort of thing,” Sherwood said. “But when you are out there all alone and just the stars, it’s incredibly detached. There’s really nowhere left in the country to get this isolated.”
Of course, having access to Starlink means there is some connection out on the water — though, if you’re on duty, you’re too focused to care. If you’re not, you’re probably resting.
“There’s definitely parts I’m going to hate,” he said. “There’s parts I’m going to be asking myself, ‘Why am I doing this? Why am I here?’ But it’s just such an awesome team sport. When I go off watch, I’m trusting the other guys to keep sailing, keep racing, to keep us safe, to keep the boat moving fast. We get to detach from the world.”
(WTOP/John Domen)
WTOP/John Domen
(WTOP/John Domen)
WTOP/John Domen
For how long is anyone’s guess. Weather and winds will determine the time it takes to get there.
“If conditions are amazing, we’ll get in on Tuesday,” he said. “If conditions are great, Wednesday. If they’re average, Thursday, and if they’re terrible, Friday.”
Those following from home can track Sherwood and everyone else in the race online. Whenever he arrives, he said workers on the docks will have a “Dark n’ Stormy” — one of Bermuda’s national drinks — waiting for them.
He’ll also be hoping to be handed a trophy he can sail back with, but that’s not the most important thing right now.
“There’s a point of pride just for completing this; 753 miles of ocean sailing is a big deal,” he said.
“So, yeah, I mean, I want to do well, but my first goal is just to make it back here safely in two and a half weeks. My next goal is to make it to Bermuda safely. Then my third goal is to finish well and get a podium finish again.”
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