Claire Marshall Watkins, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Free Lance-Star
Project details: Falmouth Bridge rehabilitation plans (paywalled)
By Scott Shenk 10/25/2026
Inspections in November 2024 found “rapid deterioration of elements of the structural steel that support the bridge deck in several areas near the northbound right lane,” the Virginia Department of Transportation said at the time.
That section of the bridge was repaired, but the issue still led to a new maximum weight limit for vehicles crossing the span.
Funds at risk for Falmouth Bridge rehabilitation project (paywalled)
By Scott Shenk 10/25/2026
[In 2022] The state eventually approved $86.2 million in its State of Good Repair program and $73.8 million through Virginia’s Priority Transportation Fund to help pay for the $160-million project.
Part of that bridge rehab funding is now at risk as the state wrestles with a massive transportation budget shortfall.
Ex-Moss Clinic patients find affordable healthcare scarce (paywalled)
By Patrick Neustatter 10/25/2026
I take this opportunity, right before the crucial midterms, to share the increasingly dismal prospect for the medically indigent, in the hope I can urge you to elect politicians who will enact policies that make healthcare more universal and affordable – rather than the opposite.
Recent changes and policies have really hindered the ability of this low-income, mostly uninsured section of society to ever be able to get healthcare, which I hear from Moss Clinic “ex-alumni” is extremely difficult since the clinic closed.
Potomac Local News
By PLN News 10/25/2026
The Marine Corps Heritage Foundation is raising money to restore the Iwo Jima monument outside Marine Corps Base Quantico after vandalism on Oct. 21 left one figure without a head and caused other significant damage.
Prince William County police estimate the damage in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
ADVANCE READS
Steve Watkins, John Leahy, Drew Gallagher, Phil Huber
Happy Pythagorean Theorem Day. Celebrate While You Can. There Won’t Be Another for 79 More Years.
Steve Watkins, ADVANCE EDITOR
The University of Mary Washington Math Department got a jump on everybody Friday by celebrating Pythagorean Theorem Day a day early—too excited to wait, and worried that if they missed it, they’d all most likely be dead before the next one comes around.
Here’s how it broke down, according to Lisa Marvashti with UMW’s office of Media and Public Relations:
UMW students Joana Diaz, a biology major taking a course in calculus, and Luciana Amaya, a biomedical major, try some triangular-shaped slices of pizza at the UMW Department of Math’s celebration of Pythagorean Theorem Day. The day takes place this year on Oct. 24, 2026 (10² + 24² = 100 + 576 = 676 = 26²). The next Pythagorean Theorem Day will not occur until March 4, 2305.
‘All These Lines Across My Face Tell You the Story of Who I Am’
John Leahy, SPECIAL TO THE ADVANCE
Almost 20 years after first hearing [The Story by Brandi Carlile], it resonated with an older me. We carry lines, scars, both physical and emotional, that we earn doing the work of living. They might define us. We may carry them as badges of honor. We could try to hide them. And they say something about who we are.
But like a tree falling in the forest, it signifies nothing if no one is there to hear it, to see it, to bear witness, to listen.
One of Ceili’s superpowers was her ability and willingness to listen, to affirm, and to make you feel understood and valued. There’s a line later in the song: “Even when I was flat broke you made me feel like a million bucks.” That was Ceili, able to make you feel worthy despite whatever you think you lack.
Shake It Off, Todd
Drew Gallagher, ADVANCE COLUMNIST
There is a feud developing between Taylor Swift and the musician and producer Todd Rundgren. For me, this is the equivalent of a fight between my beloved parents if Mom was the most popular musician in the world and Dad was the tortured artist that very few people have heard of.
As most readers know, Taylor Swift and I were born in the same hospital in Reading, PA., so she is now and forever my homegirl. Slag on Tay Tay and you will feel my wrath in column form or in a strongly worded Facebook post. My relationship with Todd Rundgren is more complicated because we were not born in the same hospital, so I am not as tight with him, but I do have a nearly 50-year history with Rundgren.
The Analyst’s Question: Is There Fire Behind the Smoke?
Phil Huber, ADVANCE COLUMNIST
In the late 1980s, I served for four years as an intelligence officer in Heidelberg, Germany, with a reserve Military Intelligence Detachment operating above corps level. I participated in numerous NATO exercises.
I bring that background—not access to today’s classified intelligence—to events surrounding Ukraine and the sudden disruption of satellite data critically important to the country’s defense against Russian drone and missile attacks.
An analyst notices a pattern, tests competing explanations, and asks what evidence would distinguish them. He does not turn suspicion into proof. Neither does he ignore a pattern because the explanation is incomplete.
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.”