Well, since they aren't teaching geography, I guess you are correct.  Nothing says that teachers should be accurate about what they teach.  So "nearly" means 761 miles more than 4,000?  The topic was Charlottesville, so the context was the east coast, not the west coast.  Context would lead a reasonable person to believe that the 3,000 miles, in an article about Charlottsville, not California, is referring to the topic:  Charlottesville.  I came up with a calculation of 5,139.8 miles from Hawaii to Charlotesville.