News

Former Delaware U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell joined the Northern Virginia Tea Party organization for a small rally at Fort C.F. Smith’s Hendry House in Arlington this afternoon.

O’Donnell, promoting her new book “Trouble Maker,” told the audience that the Tea Party movement should not “take the bait and respond respond in anger” to attacks by the “not-so-nice liberal media.” If they can “rise above it,” O’Donnell said, the Tea Party can bolster its image as “a middle class movement” instead of “the angry extremists that they’re accusing us of.”


Events

On Saturday, the Smithsonian Latino Center and Arlington County’s Tell Arlington’s Story initiative are sponsoring a “family afternoon” at the Walter Reed Community Center (2909 16th Street S.).

The afternoon will feature “hands-on activities inspired by Central American ceramis, Mayan dance presentations, live music, storytelling and talks by archeologist Favio Amador about Central America’s indigenous civilization.” The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place between 1:00 and 5:00 p.m.


News

A man was seriously injured after a car on which he was working fell on top of him in the Douglas Park neighborhood of South Arlington.

The man reportedly had the car propped up on a small jack when something when wrong and the vehicle fell on him. Police, firefighters and paramedics responded and managed to remove him from underneath the vehicle, a Toyota Camry sedan.


Events

Crystal City will be holding six wine events during the month of September, including its popular annual ‘Vintage Crystal’ wine and jazz festival on Sunday, Sept. 18.

The wine-filled month will start on Sept. 2, with the first of five ‘Wine in the Waterpark’ events. The Washington Wine Academy will pour $5 glasses of wine and $4 beers in the Crystal City Water Park (across from 1750 Crystal Drive) while Crystal City’s Jaleo restaurant serves up free snacks and while DJ Adrian Loving spins “mood-setting, ambient music.”


News

Hope introduced a bill earlier this year to ban the practice. The bill was defeated but supporters were able to pressure the department to change its internal policies without the need for legislation.

Here’s the press release from Hope’s office announcing the planned change in policy.


News

At least, that’s the role Rivera played Tuesday, when he helped to chase down a man who tried to rob a woman at an ATM machine in Courthouse Plaza.

Rivera, an employee in the county’s Commissioner of Revenue office, had just picked up sushi across the street from his office when he saw a man running and someone yelling “thief!” Dressed in a shirt and tie and still holding his to-go box of sushi, Rivera gave chase. Soon, he was joined by two other men, one of whom was calling police on his cell phone. The suspect, a tall, physically imposing man in his mid-20s, tried to flee into a nearby residential neighborhood.


News

In this week’s Arlington County crime report, the serial groper who targets Eastern European lifeguards strikes again.

 SEXUAL BATTERY, 08/12/11, 3400 block of S. Utah Street. On August 12 at 9:20 am, an unknown man approached a female lifeguard from behind while she was unlocking the pool gate and touched her breasts. The suspect was a white male between 25 and 35 years of age, 5’10” with a medium, muscular build. He was wearing a light blue t-shirt, khaki knee length shorts, a dark blue baseball cap and large black sunglasses.


News

A Squirrel Did It — Last night’s widespread N. Arlington power outage was caused when “a squirrel tripped a number of circuit breakers at a substation.” [WUSA9]

Artisphere Supervisor Heads to N.J. — Norma Kaplan, the director of Arlington County’s Cultural Affairs division, is heading to New Brunswick, N.J. after 25 years in her current position. Kaplan, who oversaw the creation of Rosslyn’s struggling Artisphere cultural center, will serve as executive director of the New Brunswick Cultural Center. [Washington City Paper]