Author: ARLnow.com

Launched in January 2010, ARLnow.com is the place for the latest news, views and things to do around Arlington, Virginia. Started by a Pentagon City resident who has spent the past several years working in local TV news, ARLnow.com seeks to distinguish itself with original, enterprising, up-to-the-minute local coverage.

ACPD: After breaking into car, would-be thief opens home’s garage door

By ARLnow.com
File photo

A would-be thief or thieves used the electronic opener inside a car they rummaged through to open a home’s garage door, according to police.

The incident happened early Tuesday morning on the 2500 block of Military Road, near Cherrydale.

More from an Arlington County Police Department crime report, below.

BURGLARY, 2023-06270025, 2500 block of Military Road. At approximately 2:28 a.m. on June 27, police were dispatched to the report of a burglary in progress. Upon arrival, it was determined the unknown suspect(s) gained entry into two of the victim’s vehicles, rummaged through the interiors and utilized a garage door opener to open the garage. No items were reported damaged or stolen from the garage or vehicles. Officers canvassed the area for the suspects yielding negative results. There is no suspect description(s). The investigation is ongoing.

In June 2021, Arlington police warned that they were seeing a rise in home and vehicle thefts that occur overnight when suspects find garage door openers in unlocked cars. The department said at the time that it assigned additional officers to north Arlington neighborhoods, where the crimes were taking place, adding that they arrested a group of suspects on the first night of deployment.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com
Haze from Canadian wildfires as seen over the Lincoln Memorial and Memorial Bridge (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Flyover Planned Today — From D.C.’s alert system: “The U.S. Naval Air Force will conduct a military flyover over the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday, June 29, 2023, at 1:10PM.”

Wine Award for Arlington Eatery — “In Virginia, 61 restaurants earned recognition. Since 1981, the Restaurant Awards have had three distinct levels: The ‘Award of Excellence,’ the ‘Best of Award of Excellence’ and the ‘Grand Award.’ Arlington’s only winner of Wine Spectator’s ‘2023 Restaurant Awards’ won the Award of Excellence. The winning restaurant is: SER Restaurant, 1110 N. Glebe Road.” [Patch]

Rosslyn’s Raytheon Rebrands — “As part of their push at this week’s Paris Air Show, Raytheon Technologies has rebranded itself as RTX, with the Raytheon brand name sliding down to become one of three major business units inside the parent company. Think of it along the same lines as Facebook becoming a subsidiary of Meta, or Google suddenly being just a part of a company called Alphabet.” [Breaking Defense]

More on Firefighter Agreement — “The first collective bargaining agreement to be reached in 48 years between Arlington County and more than 300 firefighters and paramedics transitions those employees to a new pay-scale system that rewards seniority, a union leader said Tuesday.” [Washington Post]

Campaign Sign Reminder — “Just as a reminder, by county ordinance, all signs were required to have been removed by June 25. Residents can contact the Arlington County Democratic Party at (703) 528-8588 or [email protected], to get signs in their neighborhood removed.” [Gazette Leader]

Another Police Phone Scam — “The City of Falls Church Police wants community members to be aware of an active phone scam in the area. Officers have received reports stating that callers contact them claiming to be members of the police department.” [City of Falls Church]

Eden Center Plan Passed — “On Monday, June 26, Falls Church City Council unanimously voted to approve the East End Small Area Plan, which proposes reinvestment into a series of commercial properties — including the historic Eden Center (6751-6799 Wilson Blvd) — between Wilson Blvd, East Broad Street and Hillwood Avenue.” [FFXnow]

It’s Thursday — Widespread haze. Areas of smoke. Sunny, with a high near 88. Light and variable wind becoming west around 6 mph in the afternoon. At night: Mostly clear, with a low around 68. Southeast wind around 6 mph. [Weather.gov]

ARLnow Daily Debrief for Jun 28, 2023

By ARLnow.com

Good Wednesday evening, Arlington. Today we published articles that were read a total of 10835 times… so far.

📈 Top stories

The following are the most-read articles for today — Jun 28, 2023.

  1. More than a dozen mirrors stolen from cars parked in S. Arlington
  2. Arlington pulled prosecutors from traffic court. A driver who struck a girl on a bike escaped charges on an error.
  3. Morning Notes
  4. Parents call on APS to address slow academic growth, teacher turnover at Oakridge Elementary

📅 Upcoming events

Here is what’s going on Thursday in Arlington, from our event calendar.

☀️ Thursday’s forecast

Widespread haze. Areas of smoke. Sunny, with a high near 88. Light and variable wind becoming west around 6 mph in the afternoon. At night: Mostly clear, with a low around 68. Southeast wind around 6 mph. See more from Weather.gov.

💡 Quote of the Day

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
– Socrates

🌅 Tonight’s sunset

Thanks for reading! Feel free to discuss the day’s happenings in the comments.

NEW: Code Red air quality alert issued for Thursday

By ARLnow.com
Haze from Canadian wildfires earlier this month as seen over DCA (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

The concentration of Canadian wildfire smoke in Arlington and the D.C. area is expected to get worse tomorrow.

A Code Red air quality alert has been issued for the region on Thursday. That means that those with certain health issues should avoid outdoor activities and even healthy individuals should limit their time outside.

It comes after a hazy day today, with air quality readings in the lower Code Orange level. The current air quality index reading for Arlington is 137, just below the Code Red threshold of 150, according to AirNow.gov.

With hundreds of wildfires blazing in Canada, particularly Quebec and British Columbia, the area’s air quality will likely continue to fluctuate “over the next several days,” according to Fairfax County, as reported by our sister site FFXnow.

According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, three new fires started today, and there are 476 active blazes, about half of which remain out of control. The agency has recorded 2,988 fires in 2023 so far that have burned through 8 million acres of land.

More on the air quality forecast below, from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) has forecast a Code Red air day for the metropolitan Washington region tomorrow: Thursday, June 29. Code Red levels mean the air is unhealthy for everyone. Smoke coming from wildfires in Canada is contributing to the increased levels of fine particle pollution.

COG advises the following health precautions:

  • Sensitive groups like people with heart or lung disease like asthma or emphysema, older adults, and children should avoid long or intense outdoor activities. Consider rescheduling or moving activities indoors.
  • Healthy individuals should limit long or intense outdoor activities.

Residents can check current air quality conditions on COG’s website or the Clean Air Partners website.

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency also recommends the following during wildfire events:

  • Take it easier during smoky times. If you can see or smell smoke, avoid strenuous activities such as mowing the lawn or going for a run.
  • Reschedule outdoor work tasks and activities to a time when air quality improves. If outdoor tasks and activities cannot be rescheduled and must be conducted when air quality is poor, it is recommended that individuals reduce smoke inhalation by:
    • Limiting the time spent outdoors by only performing essential activities.
    • Taking frequent breaks indoors in places where the air is clean, especially during periods with high outdoor levels of wildfire smoke.
    • If you must work outdoors, choosing a mask that will protect you like an N95 respirator mask. Cloth masks will not protect you from wildfire smoke.
    • Using a portable air cleaner in one or more rooms. If you have a central air system in your home, use it to filter the air.

On unhealthy air days, COG advises the following actions to improve the air:

  • Avoid lawn mowing or use an electric mower.
  • Use gas or electric grills instead of charcoal.
  • Fill your vehicles’ gas tank after sunset.
  • Take transit, carpool, or work from home.
  • Turn off lights and electronics when not in use and follow tips from your electric utility about how to use less electricity to cool your home.

COG provides air quality forecasts and current air quality conditions for metropolitan Washington. It also educates the public about voluntary actions people can take to reduce pollution and the health risks of bad air quality through its Clean Air Partners program, which is co-sponsored by the Baltimore Metropolitan Council.

Arlington Pet of the Week: Alfie and Eve

By ARLnow.com
1/5

Meet Alfie and Eve, the newest Arlington Pet of the Week duo!

This Boston Terrier and ginger cat duo are living their best lives in Arlington.

Their owner had this to say about them:

Meet the cutest brother and sister pair since Luke and Leia.

Alfie enjoys snuggling with anyone with a blanket, especially his mom, barking at the vacuum cleaner for fear it will vacuum him, and chasing Eve at random times, especially when she gets close to the person with the blanket.

He treats dog parks like human parks, happily running up to and jumping on unsuspecting people, particularly those wearing light-colored pants. Since his best friend, Floof the Bernadoodle, moved away, he hasn’t bonded with another dog, but he seems to like those who he can pretend to dominate the most, whether they are okay with this approach or not.

I keep talking to him about consent, but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

Eve enjoys waking her parents up at the crack of dawn by throwing herself against their bedroom door until they can no longer ignore her. Once in said room, she likes to step on her parents’ alarm clock until she turns on the radio or sets an alarm for 3 am to scare the bejeezus out of them.

If there’s a crawl space to be discovered, she suddenly becomes Marco Polo, ensuring that every inch is explored and that her parents yell her name, looking for her for hours until she acknowledges that she is alive. Her age is unknown because although the Fancy Cats and Dogs Rescue Team said she was a kitten, the cat dental surgeon who had to pull four of her teeth because of severe gum disease said her teeth put her age at roughly 5-7.

The cost of having to get all of her teeth pulled eventually will be like putting a child through private college, but she makes it all worth it by… well, we haven’t figured that out yet, but hopefully, she’ll give us motivation beyond scratching at our couch and giving us occasional purrs when we pet her.

The two of them have a love/torture/tolerate relationship, but I think they’d be pretty lonely without each other.

Want your pet to be considered for the Arlington Pet of the Week? Email [email protected] with 2-3 paragraphs about your pet and at least 3-4 horizontally-oriented photos.

More than a dozen mirrors stolen from cars parked in S. Arlington

By ARLnow.com
Arlington police car (file photo)

Residents of several south Arlington neighborhoods woke up Monday morning to find mirrors stolen from their parked cars.

The thefts happened at some point Sunday or Monday, in the Barcroft and Douglas Park neighborhoods, as well as the Shirlington area. An unknown thief or thieves stole the glass from side view mirrors of 14 vehicles, and damaged the mirrors of another three.

More, below, from an Arlington County Police Department crime report.

LARCENY FROM AUTO/VEHICLE TAMPERING (Series) (Late), 2023-06260040/2023-06260075/2023-06260135/2023-06260177, 4400 block of 4th Street S./ 2500 block of S. Arlington Mill Drive/2100 block of S. Quebec Street/2800 block of S. Wakefield Street. At approximately 7:34 a.m. on June 26, police were dispatched to the late report of destruction of property. Upon arrival, it was determined between 12:00 p.m. on June 25 and 1:00 p.m. on June 26, the unknown suspect(s) stole the glass from the sideview mirrors of 14 vehicles and damaged the glass of the sideview mirrors of three vehicles in the area. No other items were reported damaged or stolen. There is no suspect description(s). The investigation is ongoing.

This is not the first such theft in the county. Last month four vehicles in north Arlington had side view mirror glass stolen in a theft spree, while a fifth vehicle was damaged.

Many modern side view mirrors house sensors and other electronics that could be worth more than a thousand dollars, making them attractive to thieves.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com
Crow on a wire, in Westover (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

‘State of the County’ Address — “Following his address, [Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey] answered questions about how the county is addressing affordable housing, the high office vacancy rate, and the County’s customer service response. On customer service, Dorsey noted that he ultimately “wants to make sure that when people go to the County, even when they don’t get the answer that they wanted, that they still feel heard.” [Press Release]

Fundraiser for Murder Victim — “The family of Shontae Crawford, who was stabbed to death in her Arlington apartment on June 19, is holding an online fundraising campaign to cover the costs of her funeral and memorial services. Any excess money raised from the online campaign will go to her son Donovon Dimauri, according to the GoFundMe site.” [Patch, GoFundMe]

Tree Group Peeved by Proposal — “If the Arlington government can’t sufficiently care for trees on its own property, why is it trying to gain authority over trees on private property? That’s the view of the Arlington Tree Action Group (ATAG), which is asking its supporters to contact County Board members in opposition to proposed changes to a county ordinance. The change would, first, require private-property owners to remove trees or portions of trees when county officials determine there is a hazard.” [Gazette Leader]

Local Teens Battle Mysterious Disease — “Doctors prescribed a fleet of medications to regulate Noah’s sleep, blood pressure, nausea and presumed mental health issues, but his symptoms persisted. He missed school. He couldn’t participate in sports or social activities. His parents dragged him from one specialist to the next, until finally an anesthesiologist at an endoscopy appointment asked: ‘Have you ever heard of POTS?'” [Arlington Magazine]

AFAC Celebrating Anniversary — “The Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC), a non-profit organization dedicated to alleviating long term food insecurity in Arlington County, proudly announces its 35th Anniversary of serving the community on June 30, 2023. Since its inception in 1988, AFAC has been at the forefront of providing vital food resources to individuals and families in need in Arlington and Northern Virginia.” [Press Release]

Measuring Local Household Bills — “Residents of Arlington spend nearly $11,000 per year more than the national average when it comes to household bills, but are not in the uppermost tier of Virginia among overall spending. In fact, Arlington ranks just 28th among Old Dominion jurisdictions in the new survey from Doxo, with the typical county household spending $2,941 per month on routine bills – about 28 percent of average total monthly household income.” [Gazette Leader]

It’s Wednesday — Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. Northwest wind around 10 mph. At night: Mostly clear, with a low around 64. Northwest wind 3 to 6 mph. [Weather.gov]

ARLnow Daily Debrief for Jun 27, 2023

By ARLnow.com

Good Tuesday evening, Arlington. Today we published articles that were read a total of 12981 times… so far.

📈 Top stories

The following are the most-read articles for today — Jun 27, 2023.

  1. Arlington to consider hunting and sterilizing deer, or fencing parks, to cull herds
  2. Morning Notes
  3. Three hurt in serious Route 50 crash
  4. JUST IN: Severe Thunderstorm Warning issued for Arlington

📅 Upcoming events

Here is what’s going on Wednesday in Arlington, from our event calendar.

☀️ Wednesday’s forecast

Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. Northwest wind around 10 mph. At night: Mostly clear, with a low around 64. Northwest wind 3 to 6 mph. See more from Weather.gov.

💡 Quote of the Day

“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.”
– Mother Teresa

🌅 Tonight’s sunset

Thanks for reading! Feel free to discuss the day’s happenings in the comments.

Canadian wildfire smoke returns, leading to another air quality alert

By ARLnow.com
Haze from Canadian wildfires as seen over Pentagon City earlier this month (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

The bulk of today’s storms are moving out — and more Canadian wildfire smoke is about to move in.

The smoke that enveloped Chicago and much of the Midwest today is set to push east toward our region. That has prompted a Code Orange air quality alert for the D.C. area tomorrow (Wednesday).

Code Orange indicates that time spent outdoors could be unhealthy for sensitive groups, but it’s not as bad as earlier this month when the air quality measurement for Arlington hit Code Maroon, the worst and most hazardous level.

More from a Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments press release, below.

The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) has forecast a Code Orange air day for the metropolitan Washington region tomorrow: Wednesday, June 28. Smoke coming from wildfires in Canada will contribute to the increased levels of fine particle pollution. The Code Orange levels mean the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups, including older adults, children, and people with heart or lung disease.

On unhealthy air days, COG advises the following health precautions:

  • Children and older adults should reduce outdoor activities.
  • Individuals with respiratory and heart ailments, emphysema, asthma, or chronic bronchitis should limit their activity level. If breathing becomes difficult, move indoors.
  • Healthy individuals should limit strenuous work or exercise, especially outdoors.

Residents can check current air quality conditions on COG’s website or by downloading a free air quality app from Clean Air Partners.

COG provides air quality forecasts and current air quality conditions for metropolitan Washington. It also educates the public about voluntary actions people can take to reduce pollution and the health risks of bad air quality through its Clean Air Partners program, which is co-sponsored by the Baltimore Metropolitan Council.

Three hurt in serious Route 50 crash

By ARLnow.com
Crash on Route 50 (image courtesy Dave Statter)

Three people were hurt, two seriously, after a two-vehicle crash along Route 50 this morning.

The crash happened around 11:45 a.m. in the westbound lanes of Route 50 at N. Jackson Street, near the pedestrian bridge, prompting numerous calls to 911. A tipster described it to ARLnow as a “terrible accident.”

The circumstances surrounding the crash are unclear, but one vehicle ended up mangled, with a row of seats exposed, on the grass in front of the Lutheran church.

Two people suffered potentially serious injuries and another suffered minor injuries, according to initial reports. One of the seriously injured people was rushed to the trauma center at GW Hospital, while the other was brought to Virginia Hospital Center.

All lanes of Route 50 were blocked for a period of time. Later, just the westbound lanes were closed. The closures lasted for nearly two hours while crews worked to clean up the crash.

https://twitter.com/ds_757/status/1673747868220268554

JUST IN: Severe Thunderstorm Warning issued for Arlington

By ARLnow.com
Storm at 2:15 p.m. on 6/27/23

Update at 3:10 p.m. — So far, only 86 Dominion customers are reported to be without power in Arlington, compared with nearly 2,800 in Fairfax County and the City of Fairfax.

Update at 2:45 p.m. — A particularly intense portion of the storm is over Rosslyn, according to the National Weather Service. Additionally, a tree has been reported down on power lines on the 600 block of N. Kenmore Street in Ashton Heights.

At 240 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over American University, or over Rosslyn, moving east at 25 mph.
HAZARD…60 mph wind gusts and nickel size hail.
SOURCE…Broadcast media. At 2:25pm a downed tree was reported in Tysons.
IMPACT…Damaging winds will cause some trees and large branches to fall. This could injure those outdoors, as well as damage homes and vehicles. Roadways may become blocked by downed trees. Localized power outages are possible. Unsecured light objects may become projectiles.

Earlier: All of Arlington County is under a Severe Thunderstorm Warning.

A strong storm is currently approaching from the west, packing damaging winds and hail. Most of D.C. is included in the warning, which is in effect until 3 p.m.

More from the National Weather Service:

The National Weather Service in Sterling Virginia has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning…

* Until 300 PM EDT.

* At 209 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over Oakton, or over Vienna, moving east at 25 mph.

HAZARD…60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.
SOURCE…Radar indicated.
IMPACT…Damaging winds will cause some trees and large branches to fall. This could injure those outdoors, as well as damage homes and vehicles. Roadways may become blocked by downed trees. Localized power outages are possible. Unsecured light objects may become projectiles.

* Locations impacted include…

Arlington, Alexandria, Centreville, Rockville, Bethesda, Reston, Annandale, Clinton, Springfield, Fort Washington, Herndon, Fairfax, Langley Park, Fort Hunt, Vienna, Groveton, Falls Church, Huntington, Mantua and Fort Belvoir.

HAIL THREAT…RADAR INDICATED
MAX HAIL SIZE…1.00 IN
WIND THREAT…RADAR INDICATED
MAX WIND GUST…60 MPH

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