Van Metre Homes Receives National Awards
Van Metre Homes, based in Fairfax, are the recipients of a number of National Sales and Marketing Awards for 2014.
Fundraiser To Benefit Wounded Warrior Project
Southwestern Youth Association (SYA) and Chantilly Youth Association (CYA) are joining forces to host the first "LAX for a Cause: Purple vs. Red" marathon.
Braunstein Retiring from CSB
He led agency through transformation, advocated for mental health services.
George Braunstein said he entered the field of mental health services almost accidentally. “My first college degree was in history and education. I was going to be a high school history teacher,” Braunstein said.
Lake Braddock Boys' Basketball Falls to Colonial Forge in 6A State Semifinals
Bruins struggle with Eagles' strength, athleticism at VCU's Siegel Center in Richmond.
The Lake Braddock boys' basketball team finished the season with a 23-5 record.
Arctic Snowy Owl at Springfield Mall
"Snowy Owl at Springfield Mall," the subject line read on the Virginia Society of Ornithology’s birding hotline, on Feb. 4. The winter of 2013-2014 had seen an unprecedented irruption of Arctic Snowy Owls into the mid-Atlantic states. Dozens, or hundreds were being seen from Maine to the Carolinas, and even one in Florida. Mostly they showed up on Atlantic barrier islands, or at airports (two were seen at Washington National Airport) which look like their native tundra.
Be Dazzled
The now and the future of dance comes to Mason.
The dancers are coming! The dancers are coming! The Winter Olympics isn't the only venue to see agility, power, speed, strength and beauty. And you won't need to know the difference between a double Lutz and a triple axel. Soon Fairfax County will be welcoming five hundred of another type of athletes: 500 dancers from dozens of colleges and universities showcasing and competing with dreams of appearing at the Kennedy Center this May. It is the American College Dance Festival with a grand opening by the famed Joffrey Ballet. "We are very excited to be hosting this year’s mid-Atlantic festival and opening our beautiful facilities to our talented guests," said Susan Shields, professor, Mason School of Dance. "At Mason, the arts are highly valued throughout the campus and the curriculum."
‘I Have to Protect Society from You’
Requejo sentenced to five years in prison.
Even if Eduardo Requejo was sexually molested himself, as a child, that didn’t give him the right to do it to anyone else. That was the message Judge Brett Kassabian gave him last Friday in Fairfax County Circuit Court. He then sentenced Requejo, 23, of Fairfax, to five years in prison for sexually molesting an 8-year-old girl.
Work Beginning on Ashby Pond Trail
It’s full speed ahead for the construction of the Ashby Pond Park Trail. Work was set to begin Monday, March 3, with construction expected to last approximately 90 days, until May 31. The park will be closed during construction and, weather permitting, should be open again in June.
Fairfax City Budget Proposal Unveiled
Includes no increase in property-tax rate.
The City of Fairfax is on firm financial footing and the real-estate tax rate is not proposed to increase in the coming fiscal year. That was the message City Manager Bob Sisson brought to the City Council last Tuesday, Feb. 25, when he unveiled his proposed FY 2015 budget.
Message To Teenagers: Things Do Get Better
Catie Warren is a 2009 Woodson High grad and her brother is a freshman there. Now a writer, after last week’s tragedies she wrote the following about high-school life in general on TotalSororityMove.com: Yesterday, a student from my former high school died tragically. He was 15. Just a baby in the grand scheme of things; a young boy with his whole life ahead of him. A life filled with graduations and relationships and jobs and little ones. A life filled with happiness and joy and precious moments, laughter that makes your belly roar, silliness that makes your cheeks hurt, and love that makes your heart skip beats. He had his whole life waiting for him. Instead, he chose to end it. His death marked the fifth suicide at this school in four years. And. It. Has. Got. To. Stop.
Trying to Stay Strong Through the Grief
Woodson High community mourns two students.
Tears, sad faces, hugs, stunned silences, churning emotions and unanswered questions – all are part of the reaction of the Woodson High students in the wake of last week’s tragedies: Two of their classmates have died.
Editorial: Take the Money
No downside to gaining health care for 200,000 or more; 30,000 jobs and millions of dollars for hospitals from expansion of Medicaid.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe is right to make expansion of health coverage part of the budget process.
Tour Of Silver Line Reston Station
Despite delay work at Reston station continues.
In February, Metro authorities with the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA) released a statement that key criteria had not been met by Dulles Transit Partners (DTP), who submitted their notice of "substantial completion" to MWAA on Feb. 7.
Local Author Turning Book Into Screen Play
Great Falls Writers Group: Evening with the Authors.
A local author is planning to put the story of her life on the silver screen. Sixty-one-year-old Mindy Mitchell of Reston is writing a screenplay based on her book, "Lube of Life: A Tribute to Sex, Love and the Pursuit of Happiness in the Boomer Age," which she released last year along with her co-author, 63-year-old Edward Land of Hampton, Va. "The content [and] energy contained in our book, ‘Lube of Life,’ would adapt easily to film: a comedic yet poignant tale of late-in-life love," said Mitchell. "A ‘When Harry Met Sally’ all grown up."
Q&A with David Harris, Reston Association’s New Chief Financial Officer
Reston Association has hired longtime Northern Virginia resident and public accounting professional David Harris as their new chief financial officer. Harris took a few minutes on Friday afternoon to discuss his background and what his plans are for managing RA’s finances and information technology department as he settles into his new role.
Project BEST Brings Fun Science to Middle Schools
The nonprofit started last year by five Thomas Jefferson High School students brings its youth conference to Langston Hughes Middle School.
Thomas Jefferson High School senior Robert Young peered over a table of middle-schoolers gathered in a cafeteria on Saturday morning to observe their progress dissecting a brain made of Jell-O. The students’ mission in this activity was to simulate a precise act of brain surgery, using only tweezers and the steadiness of their hands.
Marriage Equality Moves Forward
As one who has worked on human rights issues for many decades, I am excited about the positive changes that are occurring at such a rapid pace in laws and in peoples’ attitudes about sexual orientation, especially same-sex marriage. Most of the people I talk to under age 30 don’t understand why this is even an issue. Unfortunately because of some of my colleagues in the legislature, action by federal courts will be necessary to bring about changes in the law. As time passes there will continue to be residual harsh and discriminatory feelings on the part of a minority who cling to the past as there has been with every advance in civil rights, but most will look back in bewilderment over what people were thinking in refusing to grant the same rights to all people.
Teachers Undervalued, Dominion Owns Legislature
Fairfax County is preparing to stick it to our public school teachers again, as they have done for several years. New Superintendent Karen Garza has submitted a 2015 budget to the nominally Democratic Board of Supervisors, a budget including serious cuts (though not so much in fat central admin) and a modest 2 percent pay boost for teachers who’ve not had one in last three years, counting the year they got a nominal salary raise more than offset by an increase in their retirement contribution. But, the Supes promptly pleaded dire poverty in this county with incomes averaging over $105,000/year. The Supes say they will cut the budget.
Greater Washington Dance Center Brings a Fresh Perspective to Reston
Gretchen Vogelzang, founder and owner of the Greater Washington Dance Center (GWDC) in Reston will be the first to tell you that if you are looking for a studio where your child will be prepped to participate in elaborate performances for every season, then her place is probably not the one for you and yours.
Be a Hero!
A Purim message.
Close your eyes and imagine the Jewish nation in Persian times (519–465 BC), unwanted guests of an frosty host. An exiled nation still licking its wounds following Nebuchadnezzar - King of Babylons sacking of Jerusalem, and the destruction of Solomon's Temple a mere fifty years prior. As though matters were not bleak enough, Haman, a powerful man in the Persian Empire, and a sworn enemy of the Jewish People, seeks to destroy them.