News

Scooter Rider Struck in Ballston — From Dave Statter: “Person on e-scooter hit in front of mall garage entrance on N. Glebe at Carlyn Spring. Person conscious. Traffic reopened. @ArlingtonVaFD & @ArlingtonVaPD handling.” [Twitter, Twitter]

More on Columbia Pike FBI Raid — “Meek resigned from the network via email on April 27 — the same day as the raid — citing ‘personal reasons’ and told friends it was to ‘save colleagues and the company any embarrassment,’ according to two people familiar with the situation… ABC News sources similarly poured cold water on the idea that Meek was being probed for his journalism… ‘We would’ve defended him; ABC’s lawyers would be right there,’ another network insider said.” [The Daily Beast]

I-66 Tolls on the Rise — “Looks like the pandemic is over and nature is healing… These prices are from the East Falls Church entrance.” [Twitter]

Candidates Consider Career Center — “School Board candidates are in agreement that the Arlington Career Center building needs to be replaced, but waffled to a degree when asked if it is worth moving forward with the costlier option a majority of current board members seem to prefer.” [Sun Gazette]

Dulles Metro Opening Nears — Updated at 10 a.m. — “Phase II of the Silver Line is still on track for opening by Thanksgiving, according to a Metro spokesperson. The news comes after a key hang-up for the opening of nearly 11-mile extension — the need for more trains — was resolved today (Tuesday) after the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission announced its approval of Metro’s plan to bring back more its 7000-series trains.” [FFXnow]

It’s Wednesday — A foggy or misty morning, then mostly cloudy throughout the  day. High of 67 and low of 58. Sunrise at 7:31 am and sunset at 6:17 pm. [Weather.gov]

The rate of reported Covid cases in Arlington has not changed much in the past two weeks, while there are new worries about kids getting sick with other diseases.

Across the country childhood respiratory illnesses are surging, putting a strain on hospitals.

Here in Arlington, Virginia Hospital Center is seeing RSV and flu cases among kids, in addition to Covid, according to emergency department chief Mike Silverman.

From Silverman’s weekly public Facebook post on Friday.

During my last shift, I had kids infected with COVID, influenza, and RSV. By far, the sickest of the three was the one with RSV. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a fairly common virus that causes something called bronchiolitis. This is a respiratory tract infection that can cause coughing, shortness of breath, and a low oxygen level. It impacts kids less than 2 much harder than the kids who are older. It is also possible to get as an adult though we typically stop testing for long before a child is a teenager. We’re seeing a lot more cases of RSV then we typically see this time of year. While only a fraction of kids who have RSV require hospitalization, we are already seeing pediatric intensive care units (PICU) in the area reach critical occupancy levels.

Unfortunately, this means that some kids who would normally be placed in a PICU may spend additional time in the emergency department waiting for a bed to become available. Additionally, there may be additional time a patient spends in another hospital’s ER waiting to be transferred to one of the handful of hospitals in the DMV that have PICU beds, from whichever emergency department the patient was initially seen in. It also means that some patients who are borderline and might often get a PICU bed versus a hospital floor bed, may not get the PICU bed because beds are prioritized to sicker patients. (We saw all of this with COVID during our big surges, just in the adult population). […]

Of course, there is a trickle-down effect to this as well. Anytime we have patients boarding in the emergency department, (boarders are broadly defined as patients who require hospitalization but the hospital doesn’t have space for them at the moment so they stay in the ER and get their care), we then have beds that are not available to be used for the new patients that are arriving to the emergency department.

Covid and flu are continuing to infect kids and adults in Arlington, though not at surge-level rates.

The county is seeing a seven-day moving average of about 32 reported Covid cases per day, according to the Virginia Dept. of Health, a figure that hasn’t fluctuated much over the past couple of weeks.

VDH this week stopped reporting Covid test positivity rates, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website puts Arlington’s current positivity rate at 7.5% and falling. Arlington is still well within the CDC’s “low” Covid level guidelines, with fewer than 100 weekly cases per 100,000 in population (the “medium” level threshold is 200 weekly cases per 100,000 people).

Arlington County’s health department last week announced that the new, bivalent Covid booster shots are now available from the county for kids ages 5 and up.

(more…)

A group of 5-6 suspects, three of whom were armed, robbed a teen of his bag Thursday afternoon.

The incident happened just before 5 p.m. on the 1100 block of S. Hayes Street, the same block as the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City mall.

“Upon arrival, it was determined a group of approximately 5-6 suspects allegedly approached juvenile Victim One, demanded his bag and displayed a firearm,” Arlington County police said in a crime report. “The victim refused and left the scene on foot. A short time later, the suspects reapproached and stole the bag. Juvenile Victim Two, who was part of the same group as Victim One, then attempted to confront the suspects, during which three of the suspects displayed firearms.”

“The victim was able to safely leave the area and no injuries were reported,” the crime report continues. “Responding officers searched the area, located the adult male suspect and the juvenile male suspect and took them into custody without incident. During the course of the investigation, the juvenile suspect provided false identifying information, however officers were subsequently able to properly identify him.”

The adult suspect, an 18-year-old Maryland resident, was charged with “Robbery, Attempted Robbery, Conspiracy to Commit a Felony (x2), and Trespassing,” according to ACPD.

“The investigation into the identities of the additional suspects is ongoing,” the police department said.

Also in the crime report late last week was an alleged assault of a girl by two other girls. That incident happened around 1 p.m. on Wednesday, near Wakefield High School.

From ACPD:

ASSAULT BY MOB (Late), 2022-10200086, 1300 block of S. Dinwiddie Street. At approximately 10:30 a.m. on October 20, police were dispatched to the late report of an assault. Upon arrival, it was determined at approximately 1:00 p.m. on October 19, the female juvenile victim was walking in the area with another individual when she observed the two known juvenile female suspects. The two suspects allegedly struck the victim multiple times and made threatening statements before fleeing the scene. The victim sustained minor injuries and declined the treatment of medics. The investigation is ongoing.

Clement Hoping for Anti-MM Boost — “In what is shaping up potentially to be her most successful run for elected office over many, many tries, Audrey Clement is attempting to cast this year’s Arlington County Board race as a simple up-or-down vote on the county government’s proposed Missing Middle housing-cum-zoning changes. ‘Sources I’ve heard within the Democratic Party are concerned about Democrat Matt de Ferranti’s chances of re-election, because of a groundswell of opposition to Missing Middle,” Clement said in a recent statement.” [Sun Gazette]

Drug Takeback Day Approaches — “The Drug Enforcement Administration’s fall National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day will be held on Saturday, October 29. The Arlington County Police Department is encouraging community members to take this opportunity to clear their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs and safely dispose of them in one of Arlington’s four permanent drug take-back boxes. This disposal service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.” [Arlington County]

Graphic Novel Workshop This Week — “For this 4-part workshop series, we invite local artists to share their knowledge on the creative process when creating comics. The first session will be hosted by Evan Keeling who will discuss his comic work and provide a hands on workshop for participants who want to write and storyboard their own sequential stories. This workshop is part of a 4-part graphic novel series. Each event builds on the previous events but can be attended as a stand-alone event as well.” [Arlington Public Library]

Local Man Pleads to Election Crime — “Two right-wing conspiracy theorists who placed thousands of robocalls with false information to largely minority and Democratic voters in Cleveland in the months before the November 2020 election pleaded guilty on Monday to a felony charge. Jacob Wohl, 24, of Irvine, California, and Jack Burkman, 56, of Arlington, Virginia, face a maximum of a year in prison after they pleaded guilty to a fifth-degree felony charge of telecommunications fraud.” [Cleveland.com]