Advance Morning News
It's Sunday, December 28: Day 3 of our year-end look back at 2025's defining stories. Today, the categories are local government & data centers. Also, humor from Drew Gallagher, & this week's obits.
Editor’s Note: The Advance is announcing the ten biggest stories of the year, with the top story announced on January 1, 2026. The Advance is only publishing the morning edition today through January 1.
NO. 6: BEST OF 2025 - Local Government
By Adele Uphaus
Our selections for the best stories in this category, the meat and potatoes of local news.
Read the full story
No. 5: BEST OF 2025 - Data Centers
By Adele Uphaus
There was so much data center coverage this year that these developments get their own category. But what was our very top data center story this year?
Read the full story
HUMOR: A Mischief of Rats
By Drew Gallagher
A public health alert from the Health Department of Seattle and King County has Drew worried about rats and the safety of Seattle Mariners’ catcher Cal Raleigh’s rear end.
Read the full story
Obituaries
Read the local obituaries for the week of December 20-25.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
The FXBG Advance cuts through the talking points to deliver both incisive and informative news about the issues, people, and organizations that daily affect your life. And we do it in a multi-partisan format that has no equal in this region. Over the past year, our reporting was:
First to break the story of Stafford Board of Supervisors dismissing a citizen library board member for “misconduct,” without informing the citizen or explaining what the person allegedly did wrong.
First to explain falling water levels in the Rappahannock Canal.
First to detail controversial traffic numbers submitted by Stafford staff on the Buc-ee’s project
Our media group also offers the most-extensive election coverage in the region and regular columnists like:
And our newsroom is led by the most-experienced and most-awarded journalists in the region — Adele Uphaus (Managing Editor and multiple VPA award-winner) and Martin Davis (Editor-in-Chief, 2022 Opinion Writer of the Year in Virginia and more than 25 years reporting from around the country and the world).
For just $8 a month, you can help support top-flight journalism that puts people over policies.
Your contributions 100% support our journalists.
Help us as we continue to grow!
This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”