Lake Anne Brew House to Attend Festival This Weekend — The local nanobrewery is already gaining attention ahead of the Virginia Craft Brewers Festival this weekend in Charlottesville, with an event manager describing why its award-winning New Year’s Golden Ale is a top pick for him. [Richmond Times-Dispatch]
Farmers Market Success Celebrated — During a National Farmers Market Week commemoration this past Saturday at the Reston Farmers Market, its many successes were praised. [Connection Newspapers]
Pedestrian Bridges at Herndon Station Going in Next Week — The Herndon-Monroe Park & Ride will be closed overnight twice next week as the work is done. [Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project]
Residents Can Give Input in County Executive Search — Fairfax County Executive Edward Long will retire next month. The county is asking citizens to give their input to assist in the recruiting process for his replacement. [Survey Monkey]
Did You Get a Jury Questionnaire? — The county is sending out 50,000 jury questionnaires, and it wants to make sure recipients know it is just the beginning of the jury duty screening process. [Fairfax County]
Be Wary of Charlottesville Charity Scams — Attorney General Mark Herring says anyone interested in assisting victims of last weekend’s violence should vet the organization, campaign or page organizer before they donate. He says people who need help figuring out whether a charity is legitimate can contact the attorney general’s Consumer Protection Section. [WTOP]
File image courtesy Jennifer Heffner Photography
Reston Rider Tackling Country by Bike — Len Forkas talks about the perils of riding cross-country on a bicycle in 11 days, and about why he’s doing it again: to help raise $1 million for a children’s charity during the annual Race Across America event. [Bicycling]
Reminder: Community Center Pool Closed — The Terry L. Smith Aquatics Center is closed through Friday as soil testing is conducted around the pool. [Reston Community Center]
SLHS Team Finishes Fifth in State — Freshman Hannah Waller finished third in the 100 meters and fourth in both the 200 meters and 4×400 meter relay in leading the South Lakes High School girls team to a fifth place finish at the state track and field championship June 2-3. [Press Release]
Virginia Leaders Continue Climate-Change Fight — In reaction to President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, both Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Attorney General Mark Herring on Monday said Virginia is joining coalitions that remain committed to the agreement. [Richmond Times-Dispatch]
Herndon Man Dies in Route 7 Crash — Rush Hone Elmore, 69, died Friday after his vehicle was rear-ended near Leesburg. The impact of the crash forced his car off the roadway, where it overturned. He died at Reston Hospital Center. [Leesburg Police Department]
Units Respond to Kitchen Fire in Reston — Firefighters attacked a blaze Sunday afternoon at a home in the 12300 block of Brown Fox Way. [Fairfax County Fire and Rescue/Twitter]
Plum Campaign Event Set for April 30 — Del. Ken Plum (D-Fairfax) will kick off his campaign for re-election to the state House of Delegates with a fundraiser at The Lake House (11450 Baron Cameron Ave.). Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring is scheduled to be in attendance to show his support. [Del. Ken Plum]
Reston Students Profiled in ‘KidsPost’ — Katie Damon’s second-grade class at Terraset Elementary School voted on their favorite author, singer, sport and more for a profile in this weekend’s Washington Post. The kids also reported what they want to be when they grow up and what superpower they’d like to have. [Washington Post]
Bridge Title Claimed by Herndon Woman — Li Yiting was part of the team that won the Machlin Women’s Swiss Teams event at the Spring North American Bridge Championships last month in Kansas City. This is her third championship win. [Fairfax Times]
The dangers of heroin use — a growing problem in Virginia and nationwide — are the topic of a talk by Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring Thursday at Herndon Middle School (901 Locust St, Herndon) at 6:30 p.m.
There will be a special free screening of “Heroin: The Hardest Hit,” a documentary that explores the heroin and prescription drug epidemic and its effects on Virginians.
Herring will be joined by Town of Herndon’s Vice Mayor Jennifer Baker and Chief of Police Maggie DeBoard.
Heroin overdose fatalities in Virginia have more than doubled from 100 deaths in 2011 to 239 deaths in 2014, while an additional 547 Virginians died from prescription drug overdose in 2014, the movie materials say.
Between 2011 and 2013, every region of the state experienced an increase in heroin overdose fatalities. More Virginians were killed in 2014 by heroin and prescription opioid drug overdose than car crashes.
“There is not one corner of the Commonwealth untouched by heroin’s influence and destruction,” Herring said.
In response to this growing public health and public safety problem, Herring has launched a plan to combat heroin and prescription opiate abuse by creating and implementing partnerships and creative solutions for a complex problem.
This film is one example of the preventive and educational measures the Herring’s office is pursuing to make all Virginians — from teenagers to adults — more aware of the growing crisis involving heroin and prescription and the risks associated with dangerous drugs.
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring filed a brief in federal court in Norfolk on Thursday that told the court Virginia has changed its position in Bostic v. Rainey, which challenges the commonwealth’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
Herring (D) filed the brief with the support of Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), and the challenge to the law marks a drastic change from Virginia’s position of just a few years ago. Virginians voted to amend its constitution in 2006 to ban gay marriage.
“I believe the freedom to marry is a fundamental right and I intend to insure that Virginia is on the right side of history and the right side of the law,” Herring said at a press conference in Richmond.
Herring, then a state senator from Loudoun, voted for the same-sex marriage ban in 2006, along with 57 percent of Virginia voters. He now says his views have changed since then.
“The Attorney General has concluded that Virginia’s laws denying the right to marry to same-sex couples violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the brief reads.
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia now recognize same sex marriage. Is it time for Virginia to do the same?
Updated, Wednesday 4:11 p.m. — Virginia Attorney General candidate Mark Obenshain, a Republican state senator from the Harrisonburg area, conceded the race Wednesday on the third day of a statewide recount after he trailing was Democrat Mark Herring by 866 votes.
“It’s been a long and vigorous campaign but it’s over,” Obenshain said at a news conference in Richmond.
Herring’s victory gives the Democrats a sweep of major Virginia elected offices for the first time since 1989.
The recount was necessary after the Nov. 5 election was within 165 votes.
Original story: Fairfax County has finished its recount in the Virginia Attorney General’s race.
The count showed 185,538 votes for Mark Herring (D), and 117,722 votes for Mark Obenshain (R), with 13 challenged ballots, voting officials said. This represents an increase of 575 votes for Herring, an increase of 297 votes for Obenshain with the 13 challenged ballots. More than 300,000 Fairfax County ballots were recounted.
On Nov. 5, Herring earned just 165 more votes (out of more than 2 million cast) than Obenshain. That led the to statewide recount. Fairfax, along with the cities of Alexandria and Chesapeake, began counting Monday, a day ahead of the rest of Virginia due to balloting differences and a large number of votes to count.
The rest of the state should finish counting later on Wednesday.
But the finish may come sooner than that. The Washington Post reports that Obenshain will concede the race Wednesday afternoon in Richmond.
Fairfax County officials say these numbers are final, but must be certified by the Recount Court in Richmond. The results will be sent there today, they said.
These results are the final results reported from Fairfax County, but will not be official until they are certified by the Recount Court in Richmond.
“This has been a gargantuan undertaking that we put together in a very short amount of time,” Fairfax County Electoral Board Secretary Brian Schoeneman said in a statement. “The fact that we were able to do this a full day earlier than we expected, I think say a lot about the quality and hard work and dedication of folks in Fairfax County.
