Claire Marshall Watkins, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Fredericksburg Free Press
Suspect dead, deputy wounded after Spotsylvania officer-involved shooting
By FPP Staff 10/18/2026
A suspect died Sunday afternoon during an officer-involved shooting in the 11000 block of Hickory Creek Drive in Spotsylvania County. The suspect shot and injured a deputy who responded to the scene, according to authorities. There is no word on the deputy’s condition.
The Free Lance-Star
State grants give opportunities for downtown improvements (paywalled)
By Pilar Davis 10/19/2026
Governor Abigail Spanberger announced $615,000 in grants for 22 projects that will help spur business development and infrastructure improvements, bolstering historic downtown areas across the state — and Downtown Fredericksburg stands to benefit.
Fredericksburg received $17,000 in grant funding to improve Market Square Alley. Chris Allen, the Executive Director of Fredericksburg Main Street, said he is excited to have the opportunity to add some personal touches to Market Square Alley that will make it feel more connected to downtown.
Work set to start on new Stafford County fire station (paywalled)
By Scott Shenk 10/18/2026
The county announced this week that a Saturday groundbreaking event will mark the start of work on the new Rockhill Fire station. The event starts at 10 a.m. at the work site near Willowmere Park along Mountain View Road.
The $21-million project will result in a 17,000-square-foot, three-bay station housing paid and volunteer fire and rescue crews.
ADVANCE READS
Steve Watkins, Phil Huber, Drew Gallagher
Follow-Up Questions to ‘Confidential MWHC Admin Emails Discuss Clinics’ Failure to Properly Sanitize.’
Steve Watkins, ADVANCE EDITOR
In Friday’s Advance, we posted a widely-read story “Confidential MWHC Admin Emails Discuss Clinics’ Failure to Properly Sanitize Gynecological Instruments for Past Two Years—Maybe Longer,” with the subhead “Discovery Made Over the Summer, But Hospital Corporation Says It Hasn’t Informed Patients or the Virginia Department of Health.”
You can read or revisit the story HERE, after which you may have a number of follow-up questions. Here are ours, some of which were included in the original article, but so far not answered by MWHC, and some of which are prompted by the limited Mary Washington response:
Trump Hero Syndrome
Phil Huber, ADVANCE COLUMNIST
As a child, I read comic books and watched cartoon characters perform amazing feats. In my play, I became those heroes. I could defeat villains, escape danger, and save the day.
Then I grew out of it.
Fantasy was not reality. Becoming a young man, and eventually a contributing adult, meant developing judgment, responsibility, and concern for my family and community. Real strength meant accepting obligations, not imagining myself above ordinary limits.
That distinction matters when the person playing superhero is president of the United States.
Bar Tricks
Drew Gallagher, ADVANCE COLUMNIST
As an insurance claims adjuster, I have met and worked with a number of attorneys, not all of whom sucked as human beings. On numerous occasions, I was required to participate in stressful mediations that featured a phalanx of finely-tailored lawyers, a retired judge whose car service was picking them up at 4:30, and me having to wear long pants.
The attorney who handled many of these mediations with me and on behalf of our insureds referred to me as “the eye candy,” and even I knew that I was mere fluff in these proceedings—a lesser being because I didn’t practice law, which I naively thought would have required extra schooling and passing a bar exam that consisted of more than downing as many pints as possible at J. Brian’s happy hour.
Oh, how wrong I was, as President Trump’s blink-of-an-eye press secretary, Katherine Zacharia, recently demonstrated.
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