(Editor’s note: As the year draws to a close, the Free Press is looking back at some of our most important stories of 2025. This series continues with five reports selected by reporter Jonathan Hunley.)
Since I was 16 years old, I’ve had only a couple of jobs that weren’t in journalism. And I wasn’t happy when I was away from the field. So I continue to be grateful that the Free Press allows me to do the work that I love and the work that I feel is important.
Here is a list of my Top 5 stories from 2025:
- We’ve spent a lot of time this year examining how decisions made in Washington have affected life in the Fredericksburg area, and perhaps the greatest impact has been on federal jobs. This is a story about what happened when one of those federal workers was let go from her position. Later, she was able to return to work.
2. It’s not just federal workers who commute to jobs in Washington, or head there or to Northern Virginia as their work demands. This is a story about local emergency-service providers who responded in January when an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines passenger jet above Reagan National Airport.
Local first responders detail ‘overwhelming’ Reagan airport scene
3. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine came to Fredericksburg in March for a business meeting, but when it was over, I told him I wanted to ask him an additional question solely because I wanted to be able to tell my son that I did: What was it like to be on “Saturday Night Live”?
4. My son is older now — 19 — than I was when I wrote my first newspaper story, as I mentioned above. But his main job now is to be a college freshman. This was a column that I wrote after my first visit to his school, Cornell University.
COLUMN: A waffling stance on continental breakfast, but not progeny’s academic appetite
5. The biggest issue in the Fredericksburg region is the development of data centers. Sentiment is divided about whether these are gift cash cows for localities because of the tax revenue they generate, or whether they’re not worth their price in terms of impacts on residents and the environment. This was my best story about them.
A home run for data center critics? Stafford supervisors adopt 750-foot setback
Honorable mentions
COLUMN: Courtland grad is among new crop of agricultural advocates
Bobby Orrock, defeated in November, doesn’t rule out a return to public service
‘Most important part of politics’: Pete Buttigieg rallies local Democrats in Fredericksburg
Edwards’ lesson plans earn high marks from Gov. Youngkin in speech
