Further Investigations Continue on 7000-series Railcars — Metro’s general manager and chief executive officer says he does not plan on bringing 7000-series trains into service until an engineering and mechanical analysis on technology solutions occurs. [Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority]
Herndon M&T Bank to Be Revamped — M&T Bank in Herndon will be revamped so that it expands financial access to ethnically, racially, and diverse communities. The branch is among 23 multicultural centers operated by the bank. [M&T]
Reston Association Releases Camps Schedule — The association has released its camps schedule and activities guide. [RA]
Schools Superintendent Gets Another Role — Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Braband has been named the new executive director of the Virginia Association of Schools Superintendents. [VASS]
Photo by vantagehill/Flickr
Developers may need to add more affordable houses to address Loudoun County’s concerns over a 103-acre mixed-use project by the future Innovation Center Metro station.
The developers of the Rivana at Innovation Station have tried to justify how they’re meeting affordability needs, but Loudoun County officials have raised issues over how the project’s concessions will play out if only 170 units of a project will be affordable. The development could have up to 2,719 units.
Envisioning a 9 million square-foot, “walkable urban center that is directly connected to the Innovation Center Metro station,” developers wanted to start construction in the first quarter of this year. They previously shared plans involving a performing arts venue and two public parks as part of the project that would drastically redefine the area.
Antonio Calabrese, a partner with the multinational law firm DLA Piper, has countered that the developers’ project would include 6.25% of Unmet Housing Needs Units, which the county defines as units serving households that are at or below the area media income.
In a Dec. 6 letter to the county’s Department of Planning and Zoning, Calabrese also stated the developers’ percentage of affordable units is consistent with multiple rezoning requests of projects near Metro stations.
But in early September, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors adopted a strategic plan that calls for a 20% affordability goal.
“This Application does not adequately address affordability in the current proposal,” Brian Reagan, the county’s housing programs manager, said in an Oct. 12 memo about the project’s second submission.
Loudoun County’s chair, Phyllis Randall, told Reston Now that the developers’ 6.25% rate of affordability is too low but questioned whether 20% was attainable there, citing high property values along the Metro line.
She said the county’s affordability goal is a guideline that helps navigate discussions with developers, noting it’s a place where conversation begins but doesn’t end.
“We don’t want to see brakes on the project,” Randall said. “We’d like to see it come to fruition.”
She also noted that the county for the first time is setting aside half a penny of property taxes to add to its housing trust fund, which could generate nearly $6 million per year, part of the county’s efforts to address equity.
Other affordability concerns raised
The Rivana application, and a subsequent updated proffers list dated Dec. 6, also called for the affordable units as being reserved for those making at or below 40%, 60% or 80% of the area median income.
But Loudoun County’s housing program manager has questioned that approach, too, saying that the breakdown should mirror existing housing programs there, which involve households making at or below 30%, 50%, 70% and 100% of the area median income.
Calabrese, the attorney, stated that the developers couldn’t determine the likely breakdown of rental apartment buildings and residential condominium buildings at that time and restated the developers’ ratios.
“The Applicant’s proposed development involves a long-term, multi-phased project consisting of substantial office, hotel, residential, and commercial uses,” Calabrese also wrote.
Reagan has also questioned whether the project will even have residential units for sale, noting that the first phase of the project is devoted to rental units.
The developers’ lawyer countered that it will “depend on the rental market and the condominium market” at that future time.
According to the Loudoun County Economic Development Authority, Novais Partners is the master developer of the property, which involves a partnership between Origami Capital Partners, Timberline Real Estate Partners, Open Realty Advisors and Rebees. Novais is a codeveloper of Rivana with the Hanover Co.
The application’s developers are DWC Holdings and Origami RE Growth GP, both linked to Chicago-based investment firm Origami Capital Partners.
(Updated on 1/14/2022 at 4:45 p.m.) The Fairfax County School Board has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a former student’s sexual assault lawsuit, a move that could reshape how the federal law against sexual violence in schools is interpreted.
A petition filed by the school board on Dec. 30 argues that public school systems can’t be held liable for sexual harassment and assault unless officials knew an assault took place and could have prevented it.
The lawsuit was initiated in May 2018 by a former Oakton High School student, identified as Jane Doe, who says Fairfax County Public Schools mishandled her report of being sexually assaulted by another student on a school band trip in 2017.
The school board is now seeking to reverse an appeals court’s order of a new trial in the case.
“Funding recipients are rightly held liable when their own conduct intentionally causes harassment,” the petition says. “But Title IX liability rightfully does not, under this Court’s precedents, extend to situations where a recipient does not actually know of harassment or when its actions cause no harassment.”
Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in public education programs and activities. Doe’s lawsuit argues that FCPS violated the law by ignoring reports of her assault, discouraging her from taking legal action, and failing to ensure her safety.
A U.S. District Court jury found in August 2019 that a sexual assault took place and harmed Doe’s educational experience, but the school board couldn’t be held liable under Title IX, because officials didn’t have “actual knowledge” that the assault had occurred.
Jury members’ reported confusion over the term “actual knowledge” — whether school officials need direct evidence of an assault or just a report of one — led Public Justice, the nonprofit representing Jane Doe, to appeal the case to the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
A three-judge panel ruled in June that a sexual assault report meets the legal standard and ordered a retrial.
However, FCPS asked the appeals court to stay its order for a new trial in September, signaling that it planned to petition the Supreme Court.
In a statement to FFXnow, FCPS maintained that the school board “could not have foreseen the assault, did not cause it, and could not have prevented it”:
Fairfax County Public Schools is committed to upholding Title IX and firmly believes that every student deserves an education free from harassment or discrimination. The decision to pursue this legal avenue has nothing to do with challenging this critical civil rights law.
The question in this case is only about whether Congress intended America’s public schools, and the teachers that work in them, to be held financially responsible for student-on-student misconduct that they had no way to foresee and did not cause. We believe the law should be applied the same way nationwide, and only the Supreme Court has the power to restore that uniformity.
To fail to challenge the Fourth Circuit’s ruling would be to let down public school educators the length and breadth of the U.S., and especially in Virginia, during a time when they need support more than ever. In addition, to roll over in the face of costly and unfair lawsuits would be an irresponsible use of taxpayer dollars and would set a worrying precedent for school divisions facing similar lawsuits now and in the future.
However, Public Justice says the school board’s position is at odds with its claims to support students’ safety and civil rights, essentially suggesting that schools can only be held liable for sexual violence if it reoccurs.
“[FCPS] has now asked the Supreme Court to gut crucial protections for Jane Doe, for Fairfax students, and for young survivors across the country, pushing a misinterpretation of Title IX that the U.S. Department of Justice has called ‘absurd,'” Public Justice staff attorney Alexandra Brodsky said by email. “We are confident, though, that the Court will deny the cert petition and Jane will have the chance to be heard by a jury.”
Brodsky added that Doe isn’t seeking to hold FCPS responsible for the assault itself, but rather, for how it responded to her report.
Public Justice has not filed a response to the school board’s petition yet. The Supreme Court docket shows that a motion to extend the deadline for a response to April 8 was granted on Tuesday (Jan. 11).
Shatter the Silence Fairfax County Public Schools, a nonprofit that says it was founded by survivors, parents, and FCPS students, has launched a petition demanding that the school board drop its appeal.
“We the citizens demand that FCPS withdraw the baseless appeal in Doe v. Fairfax County School Board and appropriately respond to sexual assault in school,” the petition says. “Since FCPS continues its culture of cover-up and indifference, we ask the Virginia Attorney General and the Department of Justice to open a civil rights investigation into FCPS and bring accountability once and for all.”
Photo via Geoff Livingston/Flickr
This is an opinion column by Del. Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.
The General Assembly convenes at noon today, January 12, for its annual legislative session. There has been much speculation since the November election as to the direction the Commonwealth might be heading with the change in partisan control of the three statewide offices and the House of Delegates. The newly-elected lieutenant governor and attorney general were known quantities in state politics having served in the House of Delegates. The newly-elected governor who will take the oath of office at noon on Saturday, January 15, does not have any elective office experience and after having run a campaign of having to thread a needle among the various factions of his party has remained somewhat a mystery as to the direction he might pursue. That was especially true until he had to start taking action to organize his new government.
He set off a firestorm of opposition last week when he announced his pick to be the next Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources. Making up for any lack of experience that he may have in the environmental area, Governor-elect Youngkin announced that he would name former Trump Administration head of the Environmental Protection Agency Andrew Wheeler as Virginia’s chief protector of its rich natural heritage. The reaction from those who have worked in natural resource protection in Virginia was immediate. The Virginia League of Conservation Voters issued a press release stating that Wheeler had “presided over an unprecedented rollback of environmental safeguards intended to protect clean air and water across our country–damage that the agency is still working to repair.” The leader of the organization went further and described the Wheeler nomination as “hands down the most extreme nomination for an environmental post in Virginia’s history and the absolute worst pick the Governor-elect could make.
I share the concerns expressed by the League of Conservation Voters with one exception. I believe the nomination of Becky Norton Dunlop to be the Secretary of Natural Resources in Virginia in 1993 by Governor George Allen to be the worst nomination to ever have been made to a Virginia cabinet post. Dunlop gained her experience in dismantling environmental protection agencies in President Ronald Reagan’s administration, and she wreaked havoc on the environmental protection agencies in the state. It was as many at the time expressed “like having a fox in the chicken coop.”
Emerging evidence indicates that Wheeler will compete with or even exceed the damage done to environmental protection by Dunlop. In July 2019 the Union of Concerned Scientists issued a list in its blog of “10 Ways Andrew Wheeler Has Decimated EPA Protections in Just One Year.” (https://blog.ucsusa.org/elliott-negin/andrew-wheeler-decimated-epa/) Among the concerns was Wheeler’s gutting of the Obama-era coal ash rule after Wheeler had worked as a coal industry lobbyist. He rolled back Clean Water Act protections even as concerns have been raised about the quality of water in this country.
Environmentalists and activists are hard at work bringing the Wheeler record to the attention of the members of the General Assembly who must confirm his nomination. I oppose the nomination, but the history in Virginia is that the governor gets to pick the people in his administration even if it may mean another fox in the chicken coop!
The county is working on plans to improve pedestrian connectivity to Innovation Center Metro Station, which is expected to open sometime this year.
A new shared-use path is planned from the station to adjacent neighborhoods. A virtual community meeting is set for Wednesday, Jan. 19 at 7 p.m. to discuss the project.
A 10-foot-wide and 2,000-foot shared use path will connect the station’s kiss and ride parking lot to the residential community at Farougi Court and the townhome community at Apgar Place. Two bridges for pedestrians and cyclists are also planned.
The Fairfax County Department of Transportation kicked off the project in 2017 with a feasibility study.
The station is tentatively expected to open in May this year, although the opening date is contingent on several factors.
Phase two of the Silver Line will provide an 11.5-mile extension into Loudoun County.
Creative Ways to Fill Substitute Shortage — WTOP chronicles how the son of an elementary school principal wound up filling in as a long-term substitute. [WTOP]
Reston Firms Buys Student Financial Aid Firm — Reston-based education technology firm Ellucian has acquired CampusLogic, a Minnesota-based company. [WTOP]
First Fire Marshal and Fire Administrator Dies — The county’s first Chief Fire Marshal, Willis Bill Burton Jr.. passed away on Jan. 9. He began his firefighting career as a volunteer with the Herndon Volunteer Fire Department. [Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department]
Northern Virginia Cyber and IT Virtual Career Fair Later This Month — Microsoft, Amazon, Leidos, General Dynamics and other companies will take part in a Jan. 27 career fair organized by the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. [FCEDA]
Photo by Terry Baranski
A pilot program that will give monthly cash assistance to select low-income residents is in development in Fairfax County.
While eligibility criteria, payment amounts, and other details are still being determined, the county has allocated $1.5 million to the effort from its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, as noted in a stimulus update to the Board of Supervisors’ budget policy committee yesterday (Tuesday).
First proposed at a health and human services committee meeting on June 29, the pilot will help people improve their financial situation by providing an additional, flexible source of income, county staff say.
“At its core, it’s an economic mobility initiative, but it’s also an anti-poverty initiative, and it’s certainly innovative,” Deputy County Executive Chris Leonard told the board last summer.
If it implements the pilot, Fairfax County will join a nationwide experiment with basic income programs that has also drawn in Arlington County and Alexandria. Research from around the world suggests the initiatives boost people’s happiness, health, and economic stability without limiting employment.
Fairfax County plans to model its pilot on the nonprofit UpTogether, which gives underserved individuals and families access to cash investments through an online platform that doubles as a social network.
UpTogether’s emphasis on trusting recipients to make their own decisions and building community deviates from traditional social services, which deliver vital resources like food or housing but often come with conditions, such as work requirements.
It’s the difference between helping people survive poverty and giving them the tools to escape it, Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay explained, suggesting families, particularly those with young children, as a possible target population for the pilot.
“Part of what I think our obligation to do is to stop this generational poverty that seems to happen everywhere in the country,” McKay said. “If you’re going to break the trends of generational poverty, you somehow have to get to the youth.”
Between 2015 and 2019, Fairfax County’s poverty rate consistently hovered around 6.9%, even though the median household income climbed from $113,208 to $128,374 during the same time frame, according to the most recent demographic report.
As of 2019, 8.3% of county residents younger than 18 lived in poverty.
In a statement to FFXnow, McKay said the worsening of existing wealth gaps and racial disparities during the coronavirus pandemic illustrates the need for a new approach to addressing poverty.
“Fairfax County is currently engaging with nonprofits, philanthropy, and residents with a lived experience of poverty to explore how a model of direct cash assistance could be included as a complement to our other investments in basic needs to demonstrate the value of investing in the initiative and self-determination of our residents, and where access to resources is determined by strengths,” he said by email.
The $1.5 million in ARPA funding covers the pilot design process, which is expected to take about a year and includes data compilation, participant recruitment, and work with community members.
Additional funds could come from philanthropic partners and seed money allocated to the county’s Human Services Council, an advisory group of board-appointed citizens that has helped develop the pilot, according to county staff.
The county is working with the Virginia Department of Social Services and Department of Medical Assistance to ensure the cash assistance won’t count as income when deciding eligibility for Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and other services.
The goal is to avoid pushing participants over the “benefits cliff,” where people move out of the income threshold to qualify for certain services but still don’t earn enough to cover the loss of benefits.
“This allowance provides Fairfax with the opportunity to fully consider the needs of the most needy people in our community as we consider the target population for this project,” Fairfax County Department of Family Services Director Michael Becketts said.
More information about the basic income pilot will be available later this month, McKay’s office says.
Photo via Sharon McCutcheon/Unsplash
Fairfax County could designate different times and days for when tennis and pickleball players can use its shared courts.
That is one of the changes under consideration by the Fairfax County Park Authority after its board approved a pickleball study report in December that highlighted concerns about the two sports competing for limited court space.
“This information would be posted onsite and is aimed at reduced conflicts between players of both popular sports,” Park Authority spokesperson Judy Pedersen said by email.
Intended to gauge demand for new facilities and illuminate existing issues in the county, the pickleball study kicked off with an online survey in December 2020.
The survey ultimately drew over 1,800 responses, around 600 of which mentioned locations where people experienced conflict between pickleball use and another recreational activities, particularly tennis.
Respondents reported encountering often crowded courts, and one person recalled being told by a tennis player at Kemper Park in Oakton that the courts were for “tennis only,” even though the pickleball group had eight players.
In response to the sport’s growing popularity, Fairfax County has added 19 pickleball courts to existing tennis courts over the last 18 months. In November, two pickleball-only courts opened at Wakefield Park in Annandale.
With those additions, the FCPA now has 52 outdoor courts outfitted for pickleball, on top of six indoor courts in its recreation centers — a total similar to other similarly sized jurisdictions, according to the report.
However, the report also noted that the park authority has fewer facilities with six or more dedicated pickleball courts compared to other providers.
It recommended that the county create at least two pickleball-only facilities with at least six courts for large group drop-in play and tournaments, either by repurposing underutilized facilities or building new ones.
The FCPA is already looking at Lewinsville Park in McLean as a possible site for adding pickleball courts or converting the existing tennis courts into shared-use facilities.
Site constraints, the proximity of other facilities, and accessibility for populous areas in the county are among the factors that the county is taking into account when deciding potential court locations, according to Pedersen.
“Although we may potentially use park bond dollars in the future for the design and construction of pickleball-only facilities that could be used by larger groups, these projects would compete with the many other Park Authority projects, initiatives and capital needs of the entire park system,” Pedersen said.
Banana Republic is planning to close its location at Reston Town Center by the end of the month.
A store representative tells Reston Now that the retailer, which sells women’s and men’s business casual clothing, is expected to close by Jan. 24.
No word yet on what will replace the store at 11905 Democracy Drive.
Banana Republic has other locations in Dulles Town Center, Tysons Corner Center, and Montgomery, Md.
County permits do not indicate what will take up the space, once it is vacated.
The parent company, Gap Inc., plans to close 350 Gap and Banana Republic stores by the end of next year. The closures are part of the company’s plans to move out of malls and other areas where foot traffic is low.
The company did not return several requests for comment.
Boston Properties has indicated that seven new businesses are expected to open this year.
Compass Real Estate, for example, is in the permitting process to open at 11943 Democracy Drive.
Crunch Fitness closed on Dec. 20.
Image via Google Maps
Palchik Takes Position at Northern Virginia Transportation Commission — Dalia Palchik, the Providence District Supervisor, was recently sworn in as the vice chair of the commission. [NVTC]
Families of Four Eligible for COVID-19 Tests –Families of four in Virginia will be eligible for free at-home COVID-19 tests under a new Biden administration rule that requires insurance companies to cover the cost of tests. [Reston Patch]
Search for Schools Superintendent Underway — Virtual town halls are coming up to gather public feedback on the search for the new superintendent of the Fairfax County Public Schools system. [Reston Patch]
Person of Interest Sought in Falls Church Unlawful Filming Incident — Local police are seeking the public’s help to identify a person of interest in the unlawful filming of a minor in a restroom at the Surf N Suds in the Falls Church of Fairfax County. [FCPD]
Local Tennis Courts Reopen — The Hook Road tennis courts have been reopened and are ready to play. [Reston Association]
Input on Sign Regulation Sought — The county is seeking input on sign regulations during virtual meetings on Jan. 18 and Jan. 27. Changes will involve signs for for-sale properties, subdivision signs, and the comprehensive sign plan process. [Fairfax County Government]
Photo via vantagehill/Flickr
As COVID-19 cases surge nationwide and staffing shortages cut through multiple industries, Reston Hospital Center says it has no immediate plans to institute a vaccine mandate for staff.
HCA Healthcare Inc., the Nashville-based hospital system that owns RHC, StoneSprings Hospital Center in Ashburn and Dominion Hospital in Falls Church, says the vaccine mandate was paused after a federal court in November ruled that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services could not require health care workers to get vaccinated.
“While a majority of our staff are vaccinated, we continue to strongly encourage our colleagues to be vaccinated as a critical step to protect individuals from the virus,” HCA Healthcare’s communications director Suzanne Kelly told Reston Now.
Kelly declined to release Reston Hospital Center’s vaccination rates and specific statistics about staff shortages at the Reston location.
A majority of health systems in the region do require staff to get vaccinations, especially as COVID-19 variant Omicron sweeps through the area. The Washington Business Journal recently rounded up how area hospitals are handling the issue. According to that analysis, most hospital systems are leaning toward vaccine mandates. That’s despite an increasing number of staff shortages and less manpower, partly due to COVID-19 infection rates and other industry-related factors.
Other area hospitals require mandates as a condition of employment. Inova, for example, has preserved its vaccine mandate, which it sees as a tool to promote recruitment and retention.
Reston Hospital Center offered the following statement in response to questions about how staffing shortages are being handled and the extent of the staffing shortage:
We are investing in our colleagues by continually reviewing the nursing market and making strategic pay adjustments, implementing additional incentive and recognition programs, and by providing a stable workplace by not laying off our medical staff during the pandemic as did some of our competitors. To support immediate staffing shortages, we are also recruiting nurses from other states and even other countries to come to Virginia to support our nurses and help ensure we are providing top quality care to our patients during this unprecedented time. We are attracting new nurses to work at our facilities through aggressive recruitment efforts including sign-on bonuses and referral bonuses in strategic areas and specialties. We also continue to partner with bricks-and-mortar colleges and universities, and online programs, to attract more people to choose careers in healthcare. This will build a future pipeline to fill long-term healthcare staffing needs.
While there is no simple solution to the complex staffing challenges facing our nation and the healthcare industry, we believe through this combination of tools, and the unique opportunities we can provide our nurses and colleagues as of the largest healthcare companies in the nation, we will be able to attract and retain a world-class workforce to meet the needs of the communities we serve now and in the future.
Currently, the hospital system’s most critical vacancies are for nurses and imaging colleagues in its new standalone emergency room, Tyson’s Emergency, which is opening soon.
The county and Fairfax County Public Schools require vaccines for staff.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services can institute a vaccine mandate after the agency filed an appeal. The appeal comes after a federal court granted 10 states’ requests to preclude the centers from enforcing their vaccine mandate in late November.
Photo courtesy of Reston Hospital Center
Fairfax County Public Library has received a new shipment of rapid COVID-19 testing kits, but supplies are extremely limited, even compared to previous rounds of distribution.
Exactly 300 kits each will be available tomorrow (Wednesday) at the county’s Reston, George Mason, Chantilly, and Sherwood regional branches, FCPL announced this morning (Tuesday).
Because of the limited availability, each household will only be allowed to take up to four kits.
FYI #Fairfax: a limited supply of COVID-19 test kits will be available at Reston, George Mason, Chantilly & Sherwood regional libraries when they open Wed. at 10 a.m. Only 300 tests available at each so only 4 per household while supplies last. More info: https://t.co/fmCINLMzDl pic.twitter.com/ekg6F331iy
— Fairfax Library (@fairfaxlibrary) January 11, 2022
This is the first testing kit shipment of the year for Fairfax County as part of the Virginia Department of Health’s ongoing Supporting Testing Access through Community Collaboration pilot program.
FCPL has now gotten 35,862 kits since it joined the program on Dec. 1.
Shipments had stalled over the winter holidays due to government closures and supply-chain issues that have made rapid tests hard to obtain nationwide.
FCPL doesn’t have a timeline right now for its next shipment, advising community members to check its website and call their local branch for up-to-date information on testing availability.
“All we can do is make requests, and VDH fulfills them as they are able,” spokesperson Erin Julius said. “At this time we don’t know when the next will arrive or how many test kits it will contain.”
Demand for Covid testing remains high in Fairfax County, which is currently averaging 2,275 new cases a day. Details about a state-run community testing center coming to the county are expected to be announced this week.
County officials could allocate $300,000 in funding in order to develop a long-term vision and revitalization plan for the aging Lake Anne Village Center.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors budget committee will discuss the matter at a meeting today (Tuesday). Funding would require adjusting the fiscal year 2022 budget, according to Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn.
In a Jan. 10 letter to Lake Anne residents, Alcorn said the funding would be used for economic envisioning and master planning in order to “support the long-term sustainable development planning for Lake Anne.”
In recent months, the village center has been the focus of renewed community focus due to the plaza’s deteriorating infrastructure and highly visible stagnation.
A little over a year ago, several condominium units in the plaza were without hot water for months.
The county’s Architectural Review Board is seeking a supplemental report to fill gaps of a cursory review of the plaza that flagged nearly $37 million in repairs for the aging area.
The review was conducted by the county’s Department of Public Works and Environmental Services and Samaha Associates, an architectural firm, but the ARB said it failed to account for Lake Anne’s status as a historic district, among other concerns.
The supplemental report would expand on the previous report, which was issued in September.
The Board of Supervisors is expected to discuss the newly proposed funding at a meeting on Jan. 25.
Photo via vantagehill/Flickr
FFXnow will officially launch next month as a new Fairfax County-wide news source and home to hyperlocal coverage of the Tysons and Reston areas.
Our Reston Now and Tysons Reporter sites will be folded into FFXnow, though each will maintain its brand identity as separate social media accounts and daily email newsletters focused on their respective coverage areas. The archives of those sites will also remain, for now, on their current domains.
Three full-time journalists will helm FFXnow’s coverage, which we eventually plan to expand to additional hyperlocal reporting areas within the county. Reston Now and Tysons Reporter readers can expect the same local coverage on which they’ve come to depend over the years, but with more coverage of county government and other countywide issues.
FFXnow will provide local government, development, business and breaking news, like our sister sites ARLnow and ALXnow do in Arlington and Alexandria, respectively. All three sites are publications of Northern Virginia-based Local News Now, which also today announced additional business partnerships and a key editorial leadership hire.
Readers can sign up for the FFXnow daily newsletter ahead of the official launch.
Park Authority Meetings Go Virtual — The Fairfax County Park Authority’s board meetings have returned to virtual format due to current social distancing recommendations and safety concerns related to the surge of COVID-19 cases. [Fairfax County Government]
County Awards $16 Million in Funds to Local Businesses — The county dispersed $16 million in grant funds to 1,016 county businesses that were adversely impacted by the pandemic. Grants ranged between $1,500 and $207,000. The program is called PIVOT and is run through the Fairfax County Department of Economic Initiatives. [Fairfax County Government]
Man Charged After Two Shooting Incidents — One man is dead and another seriously injured after two separate shootings on Jan. 8. Jordan Eugene Chochran, 20, of Alexandria, was charged in connection with the incidents, which happened in Hybla Valley. [Fairfax County Police Department]
Photo via vantagehill/Flickr
