News

Secretary of the Interior to Help Clean Up Roaches Run Thursday

By Ethan Rothstein

Roaches Run (photo via Google Maps)U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will lead an effort to clean up the shoreline at Roaches Run Waterfowl Sanctuary near Crystal City tomorrow (Thursday).

The Department of the Interior oversees the National Park Service, which is in the middle of a process of environmental and access enhancements to the sanctuary and to Gravelly Point Park, across the George Washington Parkway from the sanctuary. To help out with that project, Jewell and volunteers from AmeriCorps and the Student Conservation Association will plant “native wetland species,” remove invasive plants and clean up trash from the sanctuary’s shoreline.

The program will start at 11:30 a.m. and the cleanup efforts will go until 4:00 p.m. The cleanup is meant to not only help with the ecosystem of Roaches Run, but also to commemorate the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, as part of the September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance.

“The day is going to be commemorating 9/11 and recognizing the importance of giving back to the community through hands-on service work,” SCA events manager Lori Robertson told ARLnow.com. “Because it’s so close to such an urban area and really close to the parkway, [Roaches Run] has been neglected over time. [The NPS] is trying to rehab and restore its health.”

The event is also part of Jewell and Interior’s youth initiative. About a third of the Interior Department’s staff will be eligible to retire within the next five years, according to Jewell. As a result, the department is looking to recruit young people who can be the nation’s future stewards of public lands.

“I’ve had the privilege of being out on many service projects in the outdoors with young people,” Jewell says in a video about the initiative. “One thing that strikes me is, when they get their hands dirty working on the land, when they make a difference and they build a segment of trail, they never look at that place in the same way.”

Photo via Google Maps

SWAT Team Captures Barricaded Knifepoint Robbery Suspect

By ARLnow.com
1/2

(Updated on 9/12/14) A man suspected of a knifepoint robbery on Columbia Pike was taken into custody early this morning (Wednesday) after police say he evaded arrest and barricaded himself in his girlfriend’s apartment.

Rattana Mora Long, a 29-year-old Ashburn 26-year-old Sterling resident, was captured by SWAT team members and charged with assault on a police officer. Robbery charges are pending.

Arlington County Police say a man fitting Long’s description robbed a store on the 5000 block of Columbia Pike around 2:00 p.m. on Friday. Despite a search, police were not able to locate him after he fled.

“A subject brandished a knife and stole cash from a register in a store in Columbia Pike Plaza,” according to the police report. “The subject fled through a rear door.”

Last night, a plainclothes ACPD officer spotted Long near the original robbery scene. The officer called for backup, but Long resisted arrest, assaulted a police officer and fled the area, according to Arlington County Police Department spokesman Dustin Sternbeck.

Long was tracked to the 4500 block of Four Mile Run Drive, where he allegedly barricaded himself and hid in his girlfriend’s apartment. Police negotiators and the county’s SWAT team responded, closing part of Four Mile Run Drive in the process.

Witnesses tell ARLnow.com that police used a loudspeaker in an effort to get Long to answer the phone and lure him out of the apartment. When that didn’t work, shortly after 2:00 a.m., SWAT team members entered the apartment and were able to take him  into custody without further incident, Sternbeck said.

Photos courtesy @annddayy and ACPD

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

The new Tellus apartment building in Courthouse

Sen. Gillibrand Apologizes to Arlington — “Sorry, Arlington, didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D) said via Twitter last night, following ARLnow.com’s scoop that she called the county a “soulless suburb” in her new book. County Board member Walter Tejada, meanwhile, couldn’t quite understand why Gillibrand didn’t like living here. “I’m not sure what she was referring to,” he told the Washington Post. “Maybe somebody got in front of her at the supermarket or something like that.” [Washington Post]

Back to U. Va. for Sullivan Campaign Manager — Washington-Lee High School alumnus Jarrod Nagurka is heading back to the University of Virginia, having spent the summer running the successful election campaign of Delegate-elect Rip Sullivan. Nagurka, 20, also served as political director for Del. Patrick Hope’s unsuccessful bid for Congress. “I learned and matured more during that experience than I ever would have in a semester at school,” he said of the campaign. [InsideNova]

Report: Arlington Man Gave Robbery Victim Cash Back — The victim of a robbery in eastern Pennsylvania says the alleged perp — a 38-year-old man from Arlington — gave him him $5 back before running off with his wallet. The robbery occurred outside of a Wawa store near Allentown. The suspect, Timothy Smith, seemed “almost… remorseful,” the victim said. [Lehigh Valley Live]

Flickr pool photo by erkiletian

Local News Now Announces New Hires, Site Design

By ARLnow.com

Local News Now logoLocal News Now, the publisher of ARLnow.com, is announcing several key strategic hires today as it continues to build a sustainable future for local online news.

LNN has hired Andrea Swalec, previously a reporter and editor at the local news website DNAinfo New York, to be the company’s new editorial director. Andrea will help support and oversee LNN’s three current sites — ARLnow.com, BethesdaNow.com and RestonNow.com — and will take the lead in launching the company’s new Capitol Hill site, HillNow.com. A tentative launch date of Oct. 20 has been set for Hill Now.

Andrea previously worked at NBC Local Integrated Media and contributed to The Current Newspapers — including Voice of the Hill, formerly a weekly newspaper covering Capitol Hill — and the New York Times blog The Local.

The addition of Andrea to the LNN team will help the company continue to grow while maintaining high editorial standards and our hyper-focus on local communities. LNN now employs five full-time journalists, in addition to a growing roster of freelance contributors.

On the sales side, over the past month LNN has signed agreements with two advertising sales contractors in Reston and Bethesda. The contractors will work with LNN’s full-time sales director to boost sales while providing advertising clients with friendly, highly-personalized, locally-based service.

“There are no better sales advocates for our local news websites than those who live and work in the communities that we cover,” said LNN founder Scott Brodbeck.

Meanwhile, work is wrapping up on a significant site redesign for the LNN network. Initially launched at the end of August, the redesign is intended to improve the user experience across LNN sites, boost readability on mobile devices, and add additional revenue-generating opportunities. The site was designed by D.C.-based design firm Brave UX and coded by 10up, a premier WordPress development firm that counts FiveThirtyEight, TechCrunch and Entertainment Weekly among its credits.

“These moves represent a significant investment in the future of the company and a vote of confidence for the profitability of well-run local, independent online news operations,” said Brodbeck. “As we continue to experience sales growth, we are reinvesting that revenue in journalism, human capital and technology. We look forward to continuing to find ways to better serve our existing local communities while looking for opportunities to serve other communities with our unique brand of interesting, relevant and timely local news coverage.”

After the launch of HillNow.com, LNN has a fifth D.C. area site launch in the pipeline, tentatively targeted for mid-2015. The exact location of that site is yet to be announced.

Founded in 2010, Local News Now is based in the Rosslyn area of Arlington, Va. The company has six full-time employees in Virginia and Maryland, in addition to two sales contractors and several part-time, freelance reporters.

Accessible Cab Company Hopes to Launch In Arlington

By Ethan Rothstein

Ford Transit Connect (photo via Ford)(Updated at 3:35 p.m.) A new taxi company that hopes to have a fleet of wheelchair-accessible vehicles is applying for taxi licenses in Arlington, but it may have an uphill climb.

All Access Taxi has submitted applications for 60 taxi licenses with Arlington County, which allows companies to request additional taxi licenses for two months every other year, according to county Dept. of Environmental Services spokeswoman Shannon Whalen McDaniel.

All Access Taxi COO Rick Vogel told ARLnow.com that his company would be the first in the region to offer 100 percent of its fleet as wheelchair accessible. The former Envirocab executive claimed that the standard wait for a wheelchair-accessible cab in the D.C. area is about three hours.

“There really isn’t anything for spontaneous service,” Vogel said. “Reagan lies within our boundaries, yet there’s no accessible service there. About once a week, someone gets stuck there with no way around. There are just no taxis.”

“I think Arlington has always been a leader in disabled issues,” Vogel continued. “All our buildings are accessible, everything is, except our cabs. At first I thought of it as a business idea, but now it’s becoming a cause. It upsets me because they can’t get around town.”

Vogel said he plans for the company to be headquartered in South Arlington and to train drivers in assisting people with disabilities. He plans on purchasing vehicles like the Ford Transit Connect (pictured), the Dodge Caravan, the Honda Odyssey and others. Each cab will be equipped with a wheelchair ramp in the back, a fire extinguisher and a first aid kit.

To operate as a taxi service in Arlington, however, a company needs to own a county taxicab certificate. There are 787 certificates in the county right now, only 37 of which are wheelchair accessible. County Manager Barbara Donnellan, however, recommended in a July 1 memorandum that no new taxicab certificates be issued until 2016, specifically including accessible taxis in her recommendation.

“Based on staff’s quantitative analysis,” Donnellan wrote, “there are sufficient bases to justify maintaining the existing number of taxicabs (750 vehicles and 37 wheelchair vehicles) authorized to operate in the county.”

Donnellan and her staff will make her final recommendations by Oct. 15, the Transportation Commission will make its alternative recommendation on Nov. 15 and the County Board will decide whether to approve new certificates, if any, at its December meeting. The county issued 22 new licenses in 2012, and didn’t issue any in 2010.

According to Donnellan’s memorandum, the county’s population has increased by 3,300 since 2012, but the workforce has shrunk by 6,900 jobs. While there are roughly the same amount of cabs per person now than before the new certificates were issued, there are now 3.47 taxicabs per 1,000 employees, as opposed to 3.36 in 2012. The overall number of cabs dispatched has increased 1.1 percent over the course of the last two years.

Donnellan wrote in the memorandum, however, that a new application for a certificate might be considered if the applicant provides adequate reason or innovation. Vogel believes his company deserves to be awarded certificates to serve a chronically underserved populace.

“I think this idea’s time has come,” he said. “These people have money to spend, but they can’t get to where they want to go. I think at the end of the day, we can make people’s lives better.”

Photo via Ford

Police: Naked Man Goes Bonkers in Bluemont

By ARLnow.com

A naked man caused a scare for a driver and a bystander in the Bluemont neighborhood early Saturday morning.

The incident happened around 12:55 a.m., on the 5000 and 5100 blocks of Wilson Blvd. Police say a man, who was “under the influence of narcotics” and not wearing clothing, jumped in front of a car traveling eastbound in the area of 7-Eleven and Pupatella restaurant.

The driver slammed on the brakes and the man “threw himself onto the front end of her vehicle,” said Arlington County Police Department spokesman Dustin Sternbeck.

After jumping on and off the hood of the car, the suspect ran up to a bystander on the sidewalk and tried to pick a fight, Sternbeck said. The suspect then ran off, but was quickly taken into custody by police. While being questioned, he got up and struck several officers, according to Sternbeck.

The suspect, 18-year-old Arlington resident Kevin [Redacted], was charged with disorderly conduct and two counts of assault on a police officer.

Photo courtesy ACPD

McAuliffe Plan to Boost Health Coverage Gets Mixed Reactions

By Ethan Rothstein

Terry McAuliffe campaigns at Washington-Lee High SchoolGov. Terry McAuliffe (D) plans to help more than 200,000 Virginians without health insurance secure coverage, he announced yesterday in a move that follows the defeat of Medicaid expansion in the Republican-controlled General Assembly.

McAuliffe unveiled a 10-point plan through which the majority of the newly covered — about 160,000 — will get assistance signing up for via the federal Affordable Care Act. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has approved $4.3 million for outreach to help eligible individuals sign up, McAuliffe announced.

The plan includes measures to provide more and better care to those with mental illnesses, give dental care to pregnant women on Medicaid and FAMIS and launch a website “to inform Virginians of their coverage options and help them enroll,” among other platforms.

“As governor, there is no greater responsibility than ensuring the health and safety of the citizens you serve,” McAuliffe said in a statement. “Through my plan, I am taking action by authorizing four emergency regulations and issuing one executive order that will address urgent health needs and put us on a pathway toward Building a New Virginia Economy. However, these steps are just the beginning, and we must continue to press forward together to achieve better health for all of our citizens.”

Republican Party of Virginia spokesman Garrett Shipley told The Washington Post that McAuliffe’s plan is insufficient.

“The emperor has no clothes,” Shipley said. “Once again, Terry McAuliffe has far over-promised, and mightily under-delivered.”

Rep. Jim Moran applauded McAuliffe’s actions, saying 400,000 Virginians were “left out in the cold” when the General Assembly rejected the option to expand Medicaid.

“Governor McAuliffe’s initiative, A Healthy Virginia, will help to right that wrong and secure quality healthcare for those Virginians most in need,” Moran said in a press release. “Unfortunately, the Republicans running the Commonwealth’s legislature are committed to their partisan agenda and continue to block healthcare for the 400,000 Virginians who need it most. Thankfully, from mental healthcare for the underprivileged to accelerated access to treatment for our veterans, this plan goes a long way to reaching the goals of the Affordable Care Act.”

However, Delegate-elect Rip Sullivan (D-48), while praising McAuliffe’s efforts, said they don’t go far enough.

“While the Governor’s plan is a welcome and creative step in the right direction, it is not the solution, nor the remedy for Virginia’s ailing coverage gap issue,” Sullivan’s campaign said in an email.

“Gov. McAuliffe’s announcement today will enable many more Virginians to access quality, affordable healthcare,” Sen. Barbara Favola said in a statement. “But as the governor said, there are no substitutes for closing the coverage gap. We’re still missing an opportunity to save lives, save money and help keep endangered hospitals open for business. That means Republicans still need to come to the table.”

Del. Patrick Hope thanked McAuliffe on Twitter. “This is what real leadership looks like,” he wrote.

File photo

Senator: Arlington Is a ‘Soulless Suburb’

By ARLnow.com

Kirsten Gillibrand book(Updated at 9:50 a.m.) New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D) is no fan of living in Arlington, apparently.

In her new book, “Off The Sidelines,” which is due out today, Gillibrand recounts her move from New York to the D.C. area — to Arlington, specifically — when she was first elected to the House of Representatives. It was a move Gillibrand would come to regret.

From the book:

Our move to Washington was hard — on me and my marriage. I had a new job; [my husband] Jonathan didn’t; and we were trying to find our legs with a toddler in a new city. We started having the same argument over and over. I’d say, “What’s wrong?”

Jonathan would say, “I have no job and I hate D.C.”

I appreciated Jonathan’s viewpoint. We lived in a soulless suburb. It wasn’t the right place for us, and we needed a change. I could see that, but it took me at least a year to figure out that racing 100 miles an hour to do my job well was leaving no time for us… Eventually we moved from Arlington, Virginia, to Capitol Hill, and Jonathan found a job he liked.

Gillibrand’s book also discusses sexism on Capitol Hill and inappropriate comments congressmen made about Gillibrand’s weight.

Update at 6:00 p.m. — In a tweet, Gillibrand says she’s sorry.

Dryer Causes Fire in Ballston Townhouse

By Ethan Rothstein
1/5

A dryer caught fire early this evening in a townhouse on the 1100 block of N. Taylor Street in Ballston, igniting the laundry room in the basement of a home.

The Arlington County Fire Department arrived on the narrow street at 5:00 p.m., according to ACFD Battalion Chief Dan Fitch. The home’s occupant found the fire, left the building and called 9-1-1, Fitch said No one else was inside and no injuries were reported.

The fire was knocked down at 5:08 p.m., before it could spread to other rooms or to any neighboring units, Fitch said. The street smelled slightly of smoke in the minutes following the small blaze, but no trace of fire damage could be seen from the exterior of the house.

Parkmobile Now Available In Clarendon, Ballston

By Ethan Rothstein
1/3

Arlington has accelerated its Parkmobile rollout, installing the smartphone app service in Clarendon, Ballston and Virginia Square over the weekend.

The mobile app allows users to enter their parking “zone” number and pay from their phone with pre-saved credit card and vehicle information. It has been in use in D.C. since 2011, and it was first introduced in Crystal City and Shirlington in July, and Pentagon City soon after. Clarendon and Ballston were expected to have the service available “by winter,” county officials said at the time, but the timeline has been pushed up.

“Due to the success of the app, we’re accelerating our rollout schedule,” county Dept. of Environmental Services spokeswoman Jessica Baxter said. “We’re anticipating that the service will be available at all the remaining sectors — Courthouse, Rosslyn and Columbia Pike — by the end of the year.”

Baxter said that, to date, the app has already processed more than 18,200 transactions in Arlington.

The county has 5,329 metered spots, all of which are now expected to be Parkmobile-eligible by 2015. According to Parkmobile CEO Cherie Fuzzell, the app is responsible for 56 percent of D.C.’s parking revenue.

In 2013, when ARLnow.com first reported the county was planning on implementing smartphone payment for parking meters, then-Treasurer Francis O’Leary said there’s a chance revenue could increase from mobile payments, since they wouldn’t pose the convenience or time issues some have with the kiosks currently installed.

Hat tip to Bill Colton

Arlington Sending Out Jury Duty Questionnaires

By Ethan Rothstein

Gavel (Flickr photo by Joe Gratz)Arlington is sending out its annual questionnaires to randomly selected residents to find jurors for next year.

The questionnaires will be sent to about 11,000 residents of Arlington and Falls Church, which is also in the Arlington Circuit Court’s jurisdiction, this month, the county announced Friday. The pool of residents receiving questionnaires was selected from voter rolls provided by the state Board of Elections.

Those who receive the questionnaires have 10 days to fill them out and send them in, either via standard mail or online. The court wants to remind residents that the questionnaire is not a summons to appear, and, according to the press release, “please do not call the Clerk’s Office asking for an excuse from jury duty. Excuses or postponements to serve at another time during the year can be considered if you are actually summoned to serve as a juror.”

Jury terms are typically no longer than four days, Monday through Thursday, but the average trial is one to two days, the county said. Jurors receive $30 per day as reimbursement. The 2015 court year goes from the third week of January 2015 to January 2016.

Not responding to the juror questionnaire within 10 days is a violation of state law.

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