Local (to the DMV) News and Events

[China]

Oh the drama: Police apprehend stray llama in Fairfax Co. (video)

 

Authorities caught a stray llama after a frenetic foot chase Sunday in Fairfax County, Virginia.

 

It took a few officers, including animal protection police, to catch the much-larger, much-stronger and much-faster llama.

 

The county’s Police Department posted the video on social media.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Attorney general announces Thomas Jefferson high school investigations

 

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced two investigations into Thomas Jefferson High School and Technology Wednesday, one into the withholding of National Merit commendations from students and another into whether changes to the school’s admissions policy violated state law.

 

Miyares said there was possibly reason to believe that the withholding of the commendations was based on race or ethnicity, though he declined to share any evidence for that claim.

“To the extent that withholding any of these awards at Thomas Jefferson High School was based on race, national origin or any other protected status under the Virginia Human Rights Act, that is unlawful,” Miyares said in a press conference at the Korean Community Center in Annandale, less than a mile from the elite public high school. “That is why I’m announcing today that my Office of Civil Rights is opening an investigation into this very issue. If the law was broken, my office will protect and vindicate the civil rights of Thomas Jeffersson students and their families.”

 

Miyares went on to say that changes to the school’s admissions policy may have violated Virginia law when they resulted in a decline in the number of Asian students admitted to the school. The governor’s school admits students from Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties, as well as the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church.

 

In 2020, as concerns over the lack of racial diversity in the school’s student body rose, the Fairfax County School Board adopted a new policy that granted admissions to top-achieving students in every middle school in Thomas Jefferson’s feeder area. It also eliminated standardized tests from the admissions process and capped the number of students that could come from each school. In the following years, the percentage of Asian students at the school has decreased while the number of Black and Hispanic students has risen.

 

In September, a U.S Appeals Court heard arguments in a lawsuit from parents challenging that the admissions standards violate the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment equal protection clause. The policy was initially stopped in district court before the appeals court reversed the decision and allowed it to proceed while deciding the case. Parents appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, but their petition for an emergency ruling was denied. Miyares said that while the federal courts have yet to find that the policy violated federal law, his office will investigate whether it violates state law.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Virginia reviewing potential of two-way I–95 express lanes

 

s calls to reduce traffic congestion grow, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration is reviewing the potential of converting the Interstate 95 Express Lanes to operate in both directions instead of switching direction along with traffic.

 

On Dec. 20, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeffrey McKay and Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chair Ann Wheeler sent a letter to Youngkin and top state transportation officials expressing their support for bidirectional travel on the express lanes.

 

“Our constituents in Fairfax and Prince William Counties, and those who must continually travel along I–95, experience significant congestion in both directions during peak periods,” McKay and Wheeler wrote. “A bi-directional facility could provide additional options for residents commuting along the corridor, offering much needed relief. While this will not completely solve congestion on I–95, it will certainly help mitigate it, allowing people to spend less time in traffic and more time with their families.”

 

The Youngkin administration and the expressway operator, Transurban, have been considering the conversion of the three-lane 31-mile corridor for the past two months, according to Secretary of Transportation W. Sheppard Miller III.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Girl, nine, finds megalodon shark tooth on Maryland beach

 

Amateur fossil hunters dream of finding the ancient and the rare. One little girl spoke it into existence.

 

Molly Sampson, nine, was on a Christmas Day visit to Calvert Beach in Maryland, and told her mother she was "looking for a Meg".

 

Wading in knee-deep waters, that's exactly what she found: a tooth belonging to the now-extinct Otodus megalodon shark species.

 

A local marine museum's curator called it a "once-in-a-lifetime kind of find".

 

The megalodon - ancient Greek for "big tooth" - lived in seas worldwide until it died out at least 3.5 million years ago.

 

Growing to more than 66ft (20m) long, the species was not only the biggest shark in the world, but one of the largest fish ever to exist.

 

The tooth Molly found was 5in long, as big as her hand, according to her mother Alicia Sampson, who shared news of the find on Facebook.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[PleaseBlitz]

My daughter will be SO JEALOUS if she hears of this.  She always comes back with broken ass little half-teeth and triangle shaped rocks. 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

D.C. Mayor to Biden: Your Teleworking Employees Are Killing My City

 

t the swearing-in this month for her third term as the District of Columbia’s mayor, Muriel Bowser delivered a surprising inaugural-address ultimatum of sorts to the federal government: Get your employees back to in-person work — or else vacate your lifeless downtown office buildings so we can fill the city with people again.

 

It was a somewhat daring political gesture, albeit couched in polite terms. For one thing, the federal government is led by Joe Biden, the guy Bowser will be urgently counting on to wield his veto when the newly Republican House of Representatives tries to interfere with her not-quite-sovereign city. There’s a reason D.C. mayors don’t typically call out Democratic presidents.

 

For another thing, Bowser’s demand amounted to telling the boss of a lot of her constituents — a good chunk of whom appear to like remote work — to force staff back to the office.

 

In the process, the Democratic mayor has landed on the same page as some of the most conservative members of the House GOP majority, who last week cosponsored the SHOW UP bill, which would mandate that federal agencies return to their pre-Covid office arrangements within 30 days. House Oversight Committee chair James Comer also signaled plans to turn the panel’s investigatory energy toward alleged telework failures.

 

Being a person who residents blame when they have to start commuting again — let alone being a blue-city Democrat who makes strange bedfellows with GOP ultras — is the sort of thing usually avoided by a pol skilled enough to win a landslide third term as mayor, as Bowser just did.

 

But the way the local government sees it, something has to give or else the city is in deep trouble.

 

There are days when downtowns in other American towns can almost look like they did before 2020. In the 9-to-5 core of Washington, though, there’s no mistaking the 2023 reality with the pre-Covid world. Streets are noticeably emptier and businesses scarcer. Crime has ticked up. The city’s remarkable quarter-century run of population growth and economic dynamism and robust tax revenues seems in danger.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[PleaseBlitz]

Well that is an interesting conversation, although Politico seems to be making it into something more tense than it really is.  Here is what Mayor B said:

 

Quote

We will reach for new heights – not just with our buildings but with a renewed commitment and resources to attract great employers and good paying jobs.

 

Tools like our Vitality Fund, which attracts employers to our downtown, are just the start. 

 

Efforts like the Penn West Equity Initiative and Innovation District are a glimpse of what must happen. 

 

And, of course, converting office space into housing is the key to unlocking the potential of a reimagined, more vibrant downtown. 

 

Right now, 25,000 people call downtown home. Here’s our goal: we will add 15,000 residents over the next five years, and 87,000 more before it’s all said and done. So, that’s right, we have a new 100,000 resident goal.

 

That’s a bold goal, but the fact is, no matter what we do, it won’t be fast enough without the help of the White House. The federal government represents one quarter of DC’s pre-pandemic jobs and owns or leases one third of DC’s office space. 

 

We need decisive action by the White House to either get most federal workers back to the office most of the time or to realign their vast property holdings for use by the local government, by non-profits, by businesses and by any user willing to revitalize it. 

 

America wins when the place where people come to join and change the world is buzzing. Buzzing with new graduates and interns, with the startup that has the big idea to meet with federal partners or the business travelers who are coming to Washington to get work done. And of course, with lobbyist on Capitol Hill. 

 

We’ve partnered with this White House successfully many times, I know we can do it again for what matters most. 

 

I think she's right that, if telework is here to stay for government workers (and it is), the federal government SHOULD reallocate its space.  Most private business have done that or are in the process of doing it.  It's obviously a much bigger lift for the federal government in DC, but it makes a ton of sense for all concerned. 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[PleaseBlitz]

Reinvigorating downtown D.C. with a monumentally modest adjustment

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/30/reinvigorating-downtown-dc-by-adjusting-height-limit/

 

Quote

D.C.’s low-slung downtown is a distinct feature of our skyline. Local lore is that our skyline is short because no building could be taller than the Capitol or Washington Monument. That’s just a myth. The real reason for the height limit is much more practical. It’s a feature of 19th-century health and safety standards, including how high a fire ladder could reach at that time.

 

We have learned a lot since the late 1800s, including how to fight fires in buildings taller than 12 stories. And while every other American and global city moved on with time, D.C. has kept its height limit at 130 feet (about 12 stories) in most parts of downtown, though buildings of up to 160 feet are allowed along the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue between the Capitol and White House. The Height of Buildings Act became law when the city was under congressional authority, and it was protected under federal law after the District gained home rule.

 

Over this time, a downtown that had three- to eight-story buildings (some of which you can still see on the 900 block of F Street NW) became an expansive area of massive low-slung office buildings built to the federal limit. This single-use commercial core has provided significant property and sales taxes, buttressing D.C.’s fiscal stability and its ability to fund numerous social programs over the past few decades. Yet, given the realities of today’s remote workplaces, it has quickly become a fiscal liability for the District and an even more desolate place.

 

In her third inaugural address, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) made downtown revitalization, including the addition of 15,000 residents, a critical goal. She followed up with details in D.C.’s Comeback Plan, which includes proposals aimed at helping address the future of a central business district that suffered significantly in the coronavirus pandemic and had been struggling with vacancy for years.

 

More housing downtown would help improve the vibrancy and economy of the area, address the ailing office market and provide much-needed housing for the District and the surrounding region. It would help meet the mayor’s broader housing goals and regional housing goals. And because D.C. is the center of the region and rich in transit options, it is also the greenest way to support needed growth given the comparatively lower carbon footprint of dense urban living.

 

Yet the economics and logistics of converting office into housing mean that, without policy intervention, it is only happening in select, unique circumstances. That is why the mayor’s Comeback Plan recognizes that a significant impediment to creating more housing is that the core of the city is built out with office buildings to the maximum density achievable under the federal limits. It recommends “increased density allowances, via modifications to zoning and federal statute, to enable buildings in targeted areas to be as tall as existing buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue, to encourage conversion or residential construction and development of vibrant residential nodes.”

 

The Height of Buildings Act has long recognized that a small amount of additional height along the iconic Pennsylvania Avenue highlights that corridor as monumental. So carefully applying this idea of additional height to other major corridors and urban parks would improve the urban design of the city without impeding existing views or significantly altering the skyline. (People cannot easily discern the two or three more stories that would be possible with 30 additional feet.) As important, it would support more residents living downtown, improving the city where we experience it most: on the ground level.

 

This is a well-written and thoughtful article that suggests a solution to a major major problem that would cause minimal upset.  That said, IMO, the solution is not "change the maximum height cap from 130 feet to 160 feet in certain major corridors."  The solution is get ****ing rid of the height cap entirely.  It is a vestige of 19th century concerns and is only in place now because the Republicans in Congress have to performatively hate our city.  

 

If they removed the height limit entirely, it's not like dozens of skyscrapers would go up immediately.  The economics do not support high-rise office towers, especially now that remote work has hallowed out most offices downtown.  Adding just a few high rise residential towers, preferably near transit hubs and inside or nearby existing employment centers so people can mostly walk or take metro places, would make a big dent in DC's sky high housing costs and rents.  The author's big concern with allowing 30-story building as opposed to 15 story buildings is "impeding views" or "altering the skyline."  Guess what, every other city in the world has those issues and they deal with them fine (and nearly all of our iconic buildings are set away from the rest of the city in the middle of or surrounding a gigantic park). 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

 

[China]

Motor Maids celebrate 25 years of parked motorcycle syndrome

 

Parked Motorcycle Syndrome (PMS) celebrates the women who have had their share of mileage on the road. The celebration means capturing a legacy created in Virginia that has impacted generations.

 

Motor Maids is the longest-running motorcycle club for women. Current members with parked motorcycle syndrome and stories to tell have high hopes for the next generation riding into this sisterhood.

 

“I hope that they have the same feeling for each other like we have. We’re very tight, every one of us knows what it means to be a motor maid together, so it will go on for many, many years,” 97-Year-Old Motor Maid Gloria Struck said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

MD Senate delays consideration of bill decriminalizing oral sex between adults

 

ARepublican senator concerned about a bill’s impact on minors delayed full Senate consideration Wednesday of a proposal that would repeal the criminalization of oral sex among consenting adults.

 

The bill “Criminal Law – Unnatural or Perverted Sexual Practice- Repeal,” also known as SB 054, came to the Senate floor Wednesday for second reading after the Judicial Proceedings Committee gave it a favorable report.

 

Sen. Justin Ready, R-Carroll and Frederick, asked for the bill to be delayed – called a special order – until Thursday. Ready said he wants to ensure that the bill will not affect prosecution of sex crimes involving children.

 

Under current Maryland law, a person may not “take the sexual organ of another or of an animal in the person’s mouth, place the person’s sexual organ in the mouth of another or of an animal, or commit another unnatural or perverted sexual practice with another or an animal.” The offense is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $1,000, imprisonment not exceeding 10 years, or both.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

[China]

He went to inspect his new home. Police handcuffed him for trespassing.

 

Months later, hoping to move into the home with his family, he went to meet with contractors to assess the water damage. But soon, Prince George’s County police arrived. Officers placed him in handcuffs and arrested him as neighbors watched, Tubo said.

 

The former owner of the property, claiming to still be the owner, had called the police on Tubo for trespassing.

 

Proof of Tubo’s property ownership was publicly accessible on a Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT) government website. His Maryland driver’s license listed the address as his. Nonetheless, police detained him and told him to leave his property, according to court filings.

 

The officers were “verbally abusive,” and one, who is African American, told him that he should “go back to wherever he came from,” said Tubo, a 60-year-old federal government security contractor who is originally from Nigeria.

 

“They treated me as if I was nothing on that day,” Tubo said in an interview.

 

More than two years later, a Maryland jury awarded Tubo compensatory damages of $300,000 after he sued the county and won, according to online court records.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Simmsy]

21 hours ago, China said:

He went to inspect his new home. Police handcuffed him for trespassing.

 

Months later, hoping to move into the home with his family, he went to meet with contractors to assess the water damage. But soon, Prince George’s County police arrived. Officers placed him in handcuffs and arrested him as neighbors watched, Tubo said.

 

The former owner of the property, claiming to still be the owner, had called the police on Tubo for trespassing.

 

Proof of Tubo’s property ownership was publicly accessible on a Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT) government website. His Maryland driver’s license listed the address as his. Nonetheless, police detained him and told him to leave his property, according to court filings.

 

The officers were “verbally abusive,” and one, who is African American, told him that he should “go back to wherever he came from,” said Tubo, a 60-year-old federal government security contractor who is originally from Nigeria.

 

“They treated me as if I was nothing on that day,” Tubo said in an interview.

 

More than two years later, a Maryland jury awarded Tubo compensatory damages of $300,000 after he sued the county and won, according to online court records.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Any lawsuits against police should be taken from their budget and pension funds, I bet we would see them behave themselves then.

[China]

Loudoun County sheriff hit with $5M penalty for 'maliciously charging' teacher with sex abuse

 

A fired Loudoun County teacher has been vindicated.

 

Kimberly Winters was accused in 2018 of having sex with one of her underage students. But those charges were eventually dropped for lack of evidence.

 

Now, a Loudoun County jury has awarded her a $5 million verdict against the sheriff’s deputy who investigated her.

 

It took a jury at the Leesburg courthouse just two hours to rule in favor of the former Loudoun County Public Schools teacher. Jurors found Sheriff’s Deputy Peter Roque maliciously prosecuted Winters, that he wrongly charged her with taking indecent liberties with a child in her care at Park View High School, and that he accused her with malice and without probable cause.

 

“She never had sex with any student, let alone this child,” Winter's lawyer, Thomas Plofchan Jr, said. 

 

The Commonwealth’s Attorney dropped the charges in 2019, but Winters told jurors the allegation destroyed her life. She lost her job and her career. It took her years to find a new employment, at much less than she earned as a teacher. She spent thousands of dollars on therapy, and had to sell her home and move out of the county out of public humiliation.

 

Plofchan says despite the verdict, his client will l never be able to fully recover her reputation, saying "you can’t erase the internet."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Cooked Crack]

On 4/23/2022 at 9:59 PM, China said:

County Grants Approval for Amazon's Helix-Shaped HQ Tower

 

The Arlington County Board gave unanimous approval Saturday to Amazon's plans to build a unique, helix-shaped tower as the centerpiece of its emerging second headquarters in northern Virginia.

 

Amazon announced the plans in February 2021 for the eye-catching, 350-foot tower to anchor the second phase of its redevelopment plans. The new office towers will support a second headquarters for Amazon that is expected to welcome more than 25,000 workers when it's complete.

 

 

The helix is one of several office towers granted approval, but the helix stands out. The spiral design features a walkable ramp wrapping around the building with trees and greenery planted to resemble a mountain hike.

 

Amazon has said the building is designed to help people connect to nature, and the outdoor mountain climb will be open to the public on weekends.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Quote

The delay affects a larger phase across the street. It calls for three, 22-story office towers and the 350-foot-tall (107-meter) Helix, a corporate conference center and indoor garden designed to echo the Spheres, plant-filled orbs at the heart of the company’s Seattle headquarters. Arlington officials granted the 2.8-million-square-foot project, called PenPlace, its most important approval in April.

 

Amazon and its developers had at one point considered starting to dig the foundations and underground parking garage of that block immediately following the vote, according to a person familiar with the plans, who requested anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations. The company says it had targeted the first months of 2023 for a formal groundbreaking. That is now paused, and Schoettler didn’t specify a new start date.

 

[Barry.Randolphe]

AOC was right again.

 

Thankfully, Amazon hasn't been able to qualify for tax benefits since they haven't hit their requirements yet. Nicely done by Arlington County laying out the benchmarks needed.

[China]

Filler-Corn, first woman as Va. House speaker, joins wave of departures

 

Del. Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax), the first woman and first person of Jewish faith to serve as speaker of Virginia’s House of Delegates, said she will not seek reelection this fall, adding to a historic loss of senior lawmakers ahead of next year’s legislative session.

 

Filler-Corn said she plans to work to get other Democrats elected and is eyeing a run for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2025.

 

Others who have announced retirements include Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax), the longest-serving member of that chamber; Senate Minority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City); Sen. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax), the co-chair of the powerful Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee; and Del. Kenneth R. Plum (D-Fairfax), the second-longest-serving delegate in the history of the House.

 

The rush to the exits was prompted in part by last year’s redistricting, which was supervised by the Supreme Court of Virginia without regard for protecting incumbents. Large numbers of lawmakers wound up with boundaries that overlapped with those of one or even two of their colleagues. While some moved their homes to run in a new district, others are simply stepping aside in a year when all 140 seats in the legislature are on the ballot.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Former Prince George's County school librarian faces child porn charges

 

A Takoma Park man previously charged for vandalizing two Prince George's County libraries is now charged with possessing child pornography. Charles Sutherland faces at least seven charges of possessing child pornography, according to a charging document.

 

Sutherland was arrested back in June for spray painting the word "Groomer" on the front door of the Greenbelt library and the New Carrolton library during Capitol Pride Week. He faced vandalism and hate crime charges after he was arrested. Sutherland worked as a school librarian at Northview Elementary School in Bowie at the time. He has been on administrative leave since his arrest in June.

 

At the time, Sutherland reportedly admitted to the vandalism and allowed a search of his home, according to charging documents. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Ball Security]

On 3/8/2023 at 2:12 AM, China said:

Filler-Corn, first woman as Va. House speaker, joins wave of departures

 

Del. Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax), the first woman and first person of Jewish faith to serve as speaker of Virginia’s House of Delegates, said she will not seek reelection this fall, adding to a historic loss of senior lawmakers ahead of next year’s legislative session.

 

Filler-Corn said she plans to work to get other Democrats elected and is eyeing a run for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2025.

 

Others who have announced retirements include Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax), the longest-serving member of that chamber; Senate Minority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City); Sen. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax), the co-chair of the powerful Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee; and Del. Kenneth R. Plum (D-Fairfax), the second-longest-serving delegate in the history of the House.

 

The rush to the exits was prompted in part by last year’s redistricting, which was supervised by the Supreme Court of Virginia without regard for protecting incumbents. Large numbers of lawmakers wound up with boundaries that overlapped with those of one or even two of their colleagues. While some moved their homes to run in a new district, others are simply stepping aside in a year when all 140 seats in the legislature are on the ballot.

 

Click on the link for the full article

She’s going to run for Governor. Bet.

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[PleaseBlitz]