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Alexandria School Superintendent Unexpectedly Resigns
Taxpayers to fork over almost $300,000 to buy out embattled superintendent.
With days left to go before the first day of school, leaders in Alexandria are searching for a new superintendent.
House Rejects Amendment Requiring Consent for Ultrasound Procedures
Effort was reaction to bill requiring women seeking abortions to undergo transvaginal ultrasound.
The effort to require women seeking abortions to undergo an ultrasound has also sparked some of the most heated debate in Richmond this year.
Funding Plan Emerges for Streetcar Project
County Board forgoes federal funds to expedite Columbia Pike project.
When federal officials denied Arlington County's request for a Small Starts grant, advocates for the streetcar project went back to the drawing board. Now the three Arlington County Board members who support the $300 million project say they will forgo federal funds altogether, using state money set aside for transportation.
Opposition Candidates Falter
Voters reject candidates who said City Hall lacks integrity.
Democratic primaries are usually about biography and personalities, focusing on professional resumes and personal connections.
Unpaid Taxes Written Off
City often forgives delinquent taxpayers rather than going after them.
In the last decade, Alexandria has written off more than $100,000 in uncollected tax balances. The annual write-off happens every November, just as City Council members are appearing with a giant turkey at City Hall to celebrate Thanksgiving.
Eleven Candidate In Epic Democratic Primary to Replace Moran
Successful candidate could emerge with 10,000 votes.
The Democratic primary is shaping up to be the most competitive election in recent memory, one with an unprecedented number of candidates.
Arlington Superintendent Suggests Raising Class Sizes to Balance Budget
$493.8 million spending plan represents a 4 percent increase over last year’s budget.
With Arlington’s classrooms bursting at the seams, school officials say there’s no end in sight.
Moderate Mutiny
Former governor wants to impose Virginia “talent economy” on Washington; increase bipartisanship.
With the sluggish economy at the forefront of voters’ minds this year, former Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine hopes to put fiscal issues at the top of his campaign to fill the seat vacated by Democratic U.S. Sen. Jim Webb.
Uncertainty Haunts Jefferson-Houston Groundbreaking
Questions linger as officials prepare ceremonial shovels.
City leaders and school officials are about to break out the ceremonial shovels and turn the earth at Jefferson-Houston School, the long-troubled facility near the King Street Metro station.
Even in Closed Cases, Police Maintain Culture of Secrecy
Public must rely on information police agencies choose to share, even if it's wrong.
In December of 2008, the Fairfax Police Department chased 19-year-old Hailu Brook across the county line into Arlington and shot him dead.
Automated Justice?
Lawmakers to consider automatic expungements for misdemeanors.
Virginia is one of 10 states that offers almost no way for people convicted of misdemeanors to expunge their records, creating roadblocks for people trying to get a job or rent an apartment. Even when a jury finds defendants in Virginia not guilty or when prosecutors dropped charges, allegations remain on records as a stain that can cause problems for years to come. That’s why lawmakers are about to consider a proposal from the Virginia Crime Commission on automatic expungement, which is expected to be released early next week.
Civil War Looms Large at Cemetery
The first burial took place in June 1861: Corporal Allen Greely, from Bravo Company of the Vermont Infantry.
In Session: Virginia General Assembly Briefs
Ghost of Carter Glass
Meet state Sen. Carter Glass of Lynchburg.
Metro Improvements Six Years in the Making
$50 million project was delayed by global financial crisis.
The high-speed elevators and new mezzanine at the Rosslyn Metro station were six years in the planning, a process that was delayed when developer JBG Properties was unable to move forward with a development that was supposed to be constructed concurrently. But when the global financial crisis dried up funding for the development, Arlington leaders decided to press forward anyway. Now commuters at one of Virginia's highest ridership stations in the system have three new high-speed, high-capacity elevators, a new fare mezzanine, a separate set of gates, a separate manned kiosk and a new emergency stairwell. "This project has a huge life-safety benefit, not only for the 36,000 people who use the station today everyone on the Orange Line and Blue Line and future Silver Line in that it enables us to get emergency response teams down into the station," said Dennis Leach, deputy director of Transportation and Development. "It also allows for an orderly evacuation in the event of an emergency either in the station itself or in the tunnel under the river."
Arlington Voters to Determine Fate of Capital-Improvement Projects This November
From a new aquatics center to paving roads, bond initiatives tend to be popular.
It’s been more than 20 years since a bond referendum failed in Arlington, an indication of how popular the spending items are with voters in the county.
Moderate Mutiny
With the sluggish economy at the forefront of voters’ minds this year, former Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine hopes to put fiscal issues at the top of his campaign to fill the seat vacated by Democratic U.S. Sen. Jim Webb. In an interview on Thursday, Jan. 19, Kaine said he hopes to promote a "talent economy" in Washington. It’s a reality the former governor says has become evident in the last few decades, when Virginia moved from being one of the lowest median income states to being one of the wealthiest.
Protecting Paychecks
Restaurants, lawyers and consultants in Alexandria receive millions in forgivable loans.
Restaurants in Alexandria received the biggest chunk of federal cash from the Paycheck Protection Program, landing more than 200 forgivable loans and saving about 4,000 jobs, according to new data released from the Small Business Administration. Lawyers, consultants and home health care workers also scored big, landing hundreds of loans and saving thousands of jobs. Ultimately, businesses in Alexandria received more than 3,000 loans and preserved more than 35,000 jobs.
Limiting Neck Restraints
Lawmakers negotiate behind closed doors on how to curb police use of chokeholds.
When lawmakers began their special session on criminal justice reform in August, hopes were high that the General Assembly would send the governor a bill that banned police from using chokeholds. But now that the protesters have gone home and the lawmakers have moved behind closed doors to negotiate in a secret closed-door conference committee, advocates for criminal-justice reform are worried about what will emerge in the conference report that will be presented to the House and Senate.
Drawing the Line
How much should cities and counties be divided among lawmakers?
For Mason Cook of the Middleridge neighborhood in Fairfax County, the problem of gerrymandering can be understood in an afternoon commute. During a public hearing of the Virginia Redistricting Commission this week, he explained that if he were to drive from his house to his grocery store and then drop off a package at his post office, he would have gone through three different House of Delegates districts. "We hear a lot of talk about voter suppression. These kinds of congressional districts are all about voter suppression, and they make the congressional elections totally meaningless." — Bill Millhouser of Fairfax County