BEST OF 2025: Local Government
It's the meat and potatoes of local news.
Reporting on local government—your city councils, boards of supervisors, planning commissions, and school boards—is the backbone of local news. Decisions about the use of public funds and about roads, schools, and other infrastructure that affect all of us take place during evening meetings that often last for hours, and the Advance was there to provide news and analysis of many of them.
Notable local government stories this year included our coverage of Fredericksburg City Council’s process for filling a vacant seat; a Stafford supervisor defending himself against insinuations of misuse of time; Spotsylvania’s crack-down on garbage disposal; Stafford taking legal action against a developer for violating proffers related to clear-cutting; a King George supervisor telling another supervisor to “go to hell;” and King George professional firefighters defending themselves against threats of disciplinary action for their advocacy.
Our selection for top local government story looked at what can happen when a state legislator also plays a role in local government, and raised questions about whether property owner’s rights can trump open space easements established to protect natural resources. It’s the story of State Senator Richard Stuart’s quest to develop a solar farm on his property in King George County, where he also serves as County Attorney.
In 2024 Letter, Richard Stuart Raises Prospect of Legal Action Against State Conservation Department
By Adele Uphaus
Stuart argues that he has the right to build a solar farm on his property, despite an easement that some federal and state officials say does not allow such development.
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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).
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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.”