(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 managing editor Joey LoMonaco.)
A common question in the field of journalism is “why?” As in, why do you do what you do, and why do you pursue certain stories over others?
But, for me, it’s always been about the “who.” Since I wrote my first pieces as a stringer (that’s a freelancer in journo-speak) more than 15 years ago, I’ve been driven to tell stories about people, to offer the reader a “slice of life.” My nearly two-year tenure at the Fredericksburg Free Press has been no different.
Without further ado, meet some of my top stories from 2025.
- What started with an email turned into the history project of a career for me. It’s been more than a year since I started working on a podcast about Stafford’s Patawomeck Indian Tribe and their two dogged detractors, Rick and Jerrilynn MacGregor. I’d assumed the answers would be easy to find. And, at times, they were. But they invariably led to more questions, about Indigenous identity and how Virginia’s insidious past has helped to shape it. The series, which is still ongoing, was nominated for the INN Award for Explanatory Journalism. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
2. I first met Karen Smith in an elevator at what had to be one of the worst moments of her life. The elevator was inside the Fredericksburg Courthouse, where Smith was attending the trial for the two men accused of murdering her son. I’m not going to lie, that first encounter was tense — who would want to meet a journalist making a story out of your tragedy? But, in the months that followed, we kept in touch, and gradually trust was formed. That’s why, when I reached out to Karen this past January, I was eager to share her role in shaping the city schools’ cell phone-free policy, which involves Yondr pouches to store the devices during the school day.
‘I need to tell y’all a story’: How a grieving mother helped FCPS go cellphone free
3. My daughter attends city schools, and I’ve always known that some of her classmates have had a much different path to early education than hers. That’s why I was so excited to shine some light on the work being done by the three folks hired by FCPS through a grant from the state Office of New Americans. Since March, Turyalai Rahmani, Morsal Azizi and Raz Ebrat have worked as family liaisons and student advisors for the school division’s significant Afghan population. The grant expires next year, but officials are considering funding at least two of the positions in next year’s budget.
To connect with Afghan students and families, FCPS chose ‘people over programs’
4. I’ll never forget the time I spent with Gunnar Burns, and his mother, Leslie. Gunnar was a junior on James Monroe High School’s lacrosse team in the spring of 2024 when he suffered a serious spinal injury during a playoff game in Mechanicsville. Life is different these days, but Gunnar, who graduated from JM in May, hasn’t lost his zeal for life — or his one-liners.
A year after spinal injury, JM’s Gunnar Burns ‘is still the same person’
5. You gotta respect the… courage of Randy Marcus. Marcus, CSX’s Director of State Relations is the lucky person whom the railroad company sends to rooms like the one at the Mayfield Community Center, where residents grilled him last spring about the risks of a railyard adjacent to the historically Black neighborhood. After publication, someone told me I captured the tenor of the meeting perfectly — especially the residents’ concerns and perspectives. To me, there’s no higher compliment.
In Mayfield, residents worry that CSX’s priorities don’t track with their reality
Honorable mentions
As Congress fails to produce results, Food Bank holds pop-up for furloughed federal workers
Can you hear him now? Bach answers big-league call with Washington Nationals
Battening down the Hatch: Fredericksburg Dems pull endorsements of two federal employees
Brittany Flowers has heard foster care horror stories. Now she works to make fairy-tale endings.
City, Stafford farm pursue a GOATed solution to unwanted vegetation
EXPLAINER: Creating a Technology Overlay District in the City of Fredericksburg
