Column: Northern Virginia by the Numbers
Most people know the biggest and best numbers about Northern Virginia. We live in a remarkable region of the country. Some of our jurisdictions have among the highest incomes in the country. The educational attainment of adults is among the highest in the country.
New Laws, Assault on Freedom?
Voting restrictions, abortion restrictions, DUI restrictions, fewer gun restrictions, more go into effect July 1.
A plethora of new laws will go into effect in the Commonwealth on July 1, including restrictive new procedures for voting, and the loosening of multiple gun regulations.
Reflections on Graduating Class of 2012
I’ve been at a lot of graduations over the years–my own high school and college graduations, of course, as well as those of family, and friends.
Letter: Deepening the Crisis
If you think the local economy is looking anemic now, just wait until we get Sequestration (the legal inevitable result of our legislators reaching no agreement about our national budget).
Letter: Checking the History Commission
I am writing to ask that your paper look into the question of who checks the work of the History Commission.
Letter: Getting the Full Picture
This week’s mail delivered the most recent Comstock Connection, the newsletter our Delegate, Barbara Comstock, uses to keep her constituents informed of her activities down in Richmond.
Column: A GAP In My Thinking
Recently, due to circumstances beyond my control, I was forced to buy a new car (in this instance, “new” means different, not a current model year). Estimated repairs at 137,000 miles that could have escalated into the unknown – and unaffordable – thousands compelled me to fish so I wouldn’t have my bait cut (and I don’t even like to fish).
Letter: National Priorities ‘Completely Skewed’
It doesn't seem possible that our national priorities--the relative importance of how we spend our tax dollars--could be so completely skewed.
Column: Couple of Bad Weeks for Virginia
The Commonwealth that has been reeling all year from a spate of bad publicity from the legislative session found itself in the national spotlight again as the president of its nationally premiere university was forced out in a behind-the-scenes maneuver by a couple of members of the Board of Visitors without a formal vote.
Column: High Density Without Infrastructure Not a Problem
I was reminded recently that here in Reston we still have citizens with the courage to speak up for the community to government that seems unresponsive, incompetent or worse. The context was a key meeting of Fairfax Supervisor Hudgins’ Reston Master Plan Special Study Task Force (affectionately, the RMPSSTF). The name alone suggests they have something to hide.
Editorial: Case Closed. Why the Secrecy?
No reason for police to exercise "blanket" approach, shielding every document in every case.
Connection readers know that we respect and appreciate our public safety professionals.
Principal Jagels: Words of Advice
At the start of Mountain View High’s graduation ceremony, last Friday, June 15, Assistant Principal Gary Morris told the seniors, “Do not follow where the path may lead. Instead, go where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Letter: In Support of Job Creation
My name is Alison Neary and I am a rising sophomore at Virginia Tech. Growing up in a Navy family, we moved multiple times in Virginia, so I have experienced living in various parts of this great state, from Northern Virginia, to Stafford, to Virginia Beach, and now Blacksburg.
Betsy Ross and Free Speech
It's important to honor and revere Old Glory and not just on the day set aside as Flag Day. The official observance was yesterday, June 14. It didn't have to be a federal holiday, a day off, to be a proud flag waver.
Column: New Fee is a Bad Idea
The building of the Dulles Toll Road in the 1980s was viewed as a way to provide traffic congestion relief to western Fairfax County at a time when Routes 7 and 50 or a series of secondary roads were the only ways to get from Reston to Tysons Corner and beyond.