The Free Press wishes you a happy Easter Sunday. May it give you renewed vigor in accordance with the spring season. Now, on to our regular business …
The week’s top stories
-Teenagers who spoke at a community conversation last week said pressures from social media and a disconnection with spirituality are two reasons they see their peers struggling with behavioral issues. The event was held six days after a mass shooting in Spotsylvania County left three teenagers dead and three others wounded. Taft Coghill Jr. has the details.
-Fredericksburg officials continue to discuss the city’s budget for the next fiscal year, but the talk isn’t all positive. Appropriation strategies include hiring slowdowns, pay increase reductions and other measures intended to reduce expenditures, Joey LoMonaco reports.
-Comedian Adam Sandler got lots of laughs for singing a derisive song in the 1990s about school food, but one local former school cook is breaking the stereotype of the “lunch lady.” That’s Erika Acosta, proprietor of Tapa Rio in Fredericksburg. Caitie Finlayson chronicles a culinary life.
-Stafford supervisors increased the county real-estate tax rate by 3 cents last week, but the hike could have been worse. The county administrator proposed a 5-cent increase last month.
-The Fredericksburg-area housing market performed well last month, with median prices rising and more homes hitting the market, according to a report from the Fredericksburg Area Association of Realtors. Biz Beat’s has the numbers.
Go figures (Numbers that made the news)
–6th, the Rappahannock River’s spot on American Rivers’ list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2025. Declining groundwater levels and a lack of comprehensive water supply planning landed the river on the list.
What they’re saying
“My friend’s kid is in a casket.”–Sarah Alley, a speaker at a Spotsylvania School Board meeting last week. She accused board members April Gillespie and Lisa Phelps of smirking during discussion of two recent gun incidents in the county, one of which cost the lives of three teenagers.
Pressing on (a look at news in the week ahead)
-What’s the deal with those goats in Old Mill Park? Free Press managing editor Joey LoMonaco gets to the bottom of this local phenomenon.
Special Sunday package
-Photojournalist Jeff Kearney caught up with Washington, D.C., native-turned-Fredericksburg-resident Emily Woodhull recently for an interview and photo session. Topics included Woodhull’s first single, “Virginia, I’m Home,” and quitting her day job to become a full-time performer. Listen to the audio and take a look at the pictures. You won’t be disappointed.
