Local (to the DMV) News and Events

[PleaseBlitz]

Not far from where I grew up. 

 

 

[ixcuincle]

 

 

 

[ixcuincle]

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/yxwwjj8JNQddYR53/?mibextid=oFDknk

 

 

Investigators on Monday continue to investigate Friday night’s deadly house explosion in Sterling, and efforts are underway to help those affected.

 

The explosion that occurred as firefighters were investigating a gas leak at a home in the 300 block of Silver Ridge Drive killed Trevor Brown, 45, a volunteer firefighter with the Sterling Volunteer Fire Company and father of three who had been with the fire company since 2016. Another 12 people — 10 first responders and two civilians — sustained injuries. As of Sunday, several people remained hospitalized.

[China]

Justice Alito is mad that George W. Bush was too woke

 

The Supreme Court announced on Tuesday that it will not hear Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board, a lawsuit attacking a school admissions program that was considered a cutting-edge conservative idea a quarter century ago — and whose most prominent champion was Republican former President George W. Bush.

 

Two justices dissented, with Justice Samuel Alito writing an angry opinion attacking a school admissions policy that closely mirrors Bush’s signature racial justice program.

 

In the late 1990s, when Bush was governor of Texas, he signed legislation creating that state’s “top 10 percent” law for university admissions. As the name implies, Bush’s law guaranteed that Texas high school students who graduated in the top 10 percent of their class would be admitted to state-run universities. The program is still in effect, although the state’s flagship school, the University of Texas at Austin, only accepts the top 6 percent or so of students due to increased applications.

 

Bush proudly touted this program as a way to racially diversify Texas universities and as alternative to race-conscious admissions programs that Republicans have long disdained (programs that were recently declared illegal by the Supreme Court’s GOP-appointed majority). As Bush said in 2000 while campaigning for the presidency, top 10 percent-style programs “affect the pool of applicants of minority students available for higher ed in a positive way.”

 

What sets Bush’s program apart from the Harvard and University of North Carolina affirmative action programs that were recently invalidated by the Court is that it does not consider the race of applicants. Under Harvard’s system, race could be used as a kind of tiebreaker to determine which of several exceptionally qualified applicants should be offered one of the very limited slots in Harvard’s freshman class. Under Bush’s program, by contrast, students are mechanically admitted based on their class ranking.

 

Nevertheless, as Bush made perfectly clear many times, the purpose of this program was to achieve some degree of racial diversity in Texas’s public universities. It did so by leveraging the fact that many American communities remain racially segregated, which causes Black and Latino students to cluster in certain public high schools.

 

The Coalition for TJ case involved the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (“TJ”), a public magnet school in northern Virginia known for outstanding STEM instruction.

 

Until a few years ago, TJ used standardized tests to identify “semifinalists” for admissions, and admitted students were selected from these semifinalists based on their test scores, teacher recommendations, GPAs, and writing assignments applicants were required to complete.

 

In late 2020, however, TJ changed its admission process to use a program similar to Bush’s system. Under TJ’s new system, the top 1.5 percent of students from middle schools eligible to send students to TJ are automatically admitted. The school then admits an additional 100 students based on other factors, such as GPA and whether the student comes from a middle school that has historically sent few students to TJ.

 

Notably, only Justice Clarence Thomas joined Alito’s Coalition for TJ opinion. Justice Neil Gorsuch, who often forms a three-justice MAGA coalition with Thomas and Alito, did not.

 

In any event, the Court’s decision not to hear the case is evidence that a majority of the justices may tolerate top 10 percent-style programs, but it does not guarantee that they will. The Court could still agree to hear a similar case in the future — and it could potentially strike down Bush’s program when that happens.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Renegade7]

Ted Leonsis is a dumbass for getting in bed with Sweatervest...

[China]

Reagan National Airport Received Almost 7,000 Noise Complaints In One Year From A Single Household

 

Living near an airport can be everything from dangerous to downright disruptive. People who usually live near these airports and their busy areas of traffic often try to get things at the airport changed, but it’s usually unsuccessful. One household in Washington D.C., though, took things to a whole new level by issuing over 7,000 complaints against Reagan National Airport in a single year.

 

We first spotted this wild statistic in a tweet from @AlecStapp that contained a screenshot of a page from a 2017 study conducted by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University — and the results were a shocking display of NIMBYism. NIMBY is an acronym that stands for ‘Not In My Back Yard,’ and it usually refers to homeowners or residents that oppose any kind of development in their area. It can involve something as simple as homeowners being furious about a local foot race closing down their streets — or it could involve folks living near an airport issuing thousands of noise complaints.

 

From 2014 to 2015, nine of the busiest airports in the country — Reagan, Denver, Dulles, Las Vegas, LAX, Portland, Phoenix, Seattle, and San Francisco— all received thousands of noise complaints. However, the most notable finding is that the bulk of the complaints often came from a very small group of people.

 

For example, Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport received 3,814 complaints from just 13 households in a single zip code. The study says that works out to 293 calls per household. Or, there was a single person at a house in Monterey Park, California who made 489 complaints against LAX just in June of 2015; that one person made up over 50 percent of the complaints that month. But this D.C. household really takes it up a notch.

 

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington D.C. received 8,760 noise complaints in 2015. A whopping 78 percent of those complaints (6,852) were made from just two individuals in a single household in the Foxhall neighborhood of D.C. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

I went to school at Hardy middle school (in the Foxhall neighborhood in DC) in the '70s and the planes used to fly overhead all day.  I don't recall it being an issue.

 

Also, the airport was there before they moved in, buyer beware.

[PleaseBlitz]

Yea seriously. Do people think they can move into a house and convince an airport to make less noise?

[EmirOfShmo]

 

[PleaseBlitz]

Glad i worked from home today then. My commute takes me around Lincoln Circle. 

[China]

PHOTOS: Prince William firefighters battle 39 brush fires amid dry, gusty conditions

 

Prince William County firefighters battled 39 brush fires Wednesday afternoon amid gusty winds and dry conditions. The fires caused no injuries or damage to property but shut down some key roads just in time for the evening commute.

 

As of about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 20, part of U.S. 1 between Quantico and Dumfries was closed due to one of the larger brush fires.

 

Firefighters were still actively knocking down that fire, located in the 4700 block of Locust Shade Drive, as of about 6 p.m. The incident closed northbound down U.S. 1 near Russell Road, according to Prince William County Assistant Fire Chief Matt Smolsky.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article 

 

 

[Renegade7]

[ixcuincle]

L&L Hawaiian Barbecue opening in Annandale. Well it's already been open a few days but the official grand opening is Friday 

 

https://annandaletoday.com/new-dining-options-to-open-in-annandale/

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Cooked Crack]

Spicy language 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[China]

Maryland high school student arrested after authorities discovered a 129-page document detailing school shooting plan, police say

 

A Maryland high school student was arrested and charged with threat of mass violence Wednesday after police say they discovered evidence revealing the teen had plans to commit a school shooting.

 

Authorities discovered a 129-page document they say was written by 18-year-old Alex Ye, the Montgomery County Department of Police said in a news release Thursday.

 

Authorities learned of the writings following an exchange Ye had via Instagram messaging with an unidentified person who felt a school shooting was “imminent,” according to the teenager’s arrest warrant. The unidentified person knew Ye from an inpatient treatment at a local psychiatric facility, the warrant says.

 

Ye referred to the writings as “his memoir,” which begins with a disclaimer that it is a work of fiction, the arrest warrant says.

 

“In the document, Ye writes about committing a school shooting, and strategizes how to carry out the act. Ye also contemplates targeting an elementary school and says that he wants to be famous,” police said in the news release. A search warrant obtained by investigators “led to internet searches, drawings and documents related to threats of mass violence.”

 

The police department said it was notified by the FBI about Ye’s alleged writings, which prompted a joint investigation by the two agencies.

 

Ye is being held at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit, where he is being held without bond until his scheduled June 3 trial. Mass violence is a misdemeanor carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said during a Friday news conference.

 

Click on the link for the full article